An Introduction To Hypertime "The Kingdom" starts off with a good story premise -- a boy whom the "Kingdom Come" era Superman rescues from the nuclear devastation that befell Kansas during that previous story grows up to be a "disciple" of Superman who thinks the superhero is a god made flesh above equal and above reproach, only to find out from Superman himself that his own fallibility led to that particular devastation, casting the young man's faith into doubt until the Phantom Stranger gives him a seven-sealed scroll (shades of the book Revelation from the Bible), which transforms him into the warrior named Gog and now makes him believe that Superman is actually the devil in disguise and starts a campaign of destruction against his former idol which leads him to a few years after "Kingdom Come" takes place, kidnapping Superman and Wonder Woman's newborn child and taking him back to the present time of 1998 not to stop the Kansas destruction from happening, but to actually cause it to happen earlier.
The rest of the story, however, deals with four of the future-era heroes who are called into this mess to stop Gog's plan of destruction -- Batman's son Ibn al-Xuffasch (the Son of the Bat), Dick Grayson and Starfire's daughter Nightstar, Plastic Man's son Offspring, and the Wally West Flash's daughter Kid Flash -- plus a young girl in the present time working for Booster Gold's Planet Krypton restaurant who starts seeing "ghosts" of various heroes walking around the place at night. By the time the story reaches its final installment, the defeat of Gog takes a back seat to the introduction of a new plot device called Hypertime, which was supposed to be the new form of the vanished "multiverse" that existed before Crisis.
Admittedly the individual stories that make up the whole are interesting, but it basically doesn't excuse the fact that the story doesn't end with what it started with -- Gog's relentless lust to destroy Superman, and what happened to him when all was said and done. The artwork from each of the different artists also fits well with each of the characters being worked with, though things get really messy in a Jackson Guice sort of way by the time we reach the final chapter.
Judge for yourself While I did indeed love "Kingdom Come" I actually think "The Kingdom" is a much better comic. But let's explain a few things (without spoilers).
"The Kingdom" was a graphic novel done in one piece. It's style is very photorealistic and, indeed, I'm almost positive much of the art was created by tracing photo images (the artist himself admits he worked extensively from hundreds of photos). I'm not a big fan of this approach and based on the artwork alone I'd rate it pretty low. However, it's a terrific story.
"Kingdom Come" was a collection of stories from various comics that attempted to tread some of the same ground while offering some new insights and, yes, be a sequel of sorts. As a collection it used both many different artists as well as encompassed different casts (because the individual comics that tell the tale were from the lines that were concerned mainly with those characters). The artwork is definitely comic artwork, and is very different from chapter to chapter as it is collected from so many different sources. Overall, however, I much prefer it as representative of "comic" art.
If you enjoy the characters of "Kingdom Come" you will most likely enjoy "The Kingdom" -- they are very true to those characterizations. But this is something you need to see for yourself.
Just like nearly every other powerful tale in the DC universe, it will inspire vastly dramatic (and differing) opinions. But if you avoid this due to someone trying to tell you it's awful then you will be missing out on potentially one of your favorite books (it's one of mine). Make up your own mind and you might be very pleasantly surprised.
Graphic SF Reader A little of a story about Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and a child. Gog and Magog, and all that sort of thing. A lot of sidetracking to use some other characters and points of view. This is also partly a continuity fudging, apologist and essay about self contained stories versus the soap opera aspect of comics. He throws in the whole Hyper-Time thing to talk about this.
A Great Superman Tale I thought this was a great tale. For anyone who's interested in physics and comics this will make you think. Time travel is a major part of this story. As you read Kingdom keep this question in the back of your mind, "If you went back in time and killed your own father or grandfather would you cease to exist?"
The figure of Gog and a religion based on Superman is a fascinating idea. In some ways I was remind of the worship of Marilyn Monroe in the rock opera "Tommy".
Kingdom was slow in parts, but generally speaking a good read.
So disappointing I'm a lapsed comic book fan. I've slowly been re-acquainting myself with several serials, and I found Waid's Kingdom Come to be really mesmerizing. Intelligent, emotional, and with a solid beginning and ending. So even though I read negative reviews about Kingdom, I figured I should still give it a shot. It can't be THAT bad, can it?
It can!
I'm not sure who the Mark Waid is who wrote this series of books, but it has none of the flair or drama that the first series had in spades. You can't even fault Alex Ross not being involved... much of book's failing are in the dialogue; wooden, forced, and yes... CAMPY! It takes at least a modicum of care to write comic book dialogue that *carefully* dodges the 'camp' bullet, and unfortunately this one convenienly lines itself right up for a headshot. The fact that the last 10 pages set us up for the supposed 'secret to end all secrets' of the DC Universe... when it's revealed as a pastiche of lame sci-fi time-travel gobbledy-[...] and Marvel Universe storyline conventions... blah! I literally dropped the book to the floor and never touched it again. Waid's writing is usually much much better, so my (unconfirmed) belief is that he was forced to write this by the corporate masters at DC to piggyback on the hype and sales that Kingdom Come generated.
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
Megaton Man
Trevor
