The Kingdom
Publish Date/Year
1999
Creative Teams
Mark Waid & Various Artists
Issue (s)
Various
Publisher
DC
Story
This is a sequel to the highly successful Kingdom Come story.
Here, we witness Gog’s relentless & ruthless murder of Superman (Supermen) from the various realities, beginning from the Kingdom Come reality that a possible alternate future, progressing rapidly back to the present. After having killed dozens of Supermen, we see Gog about to kill the Kingdom Come Superman. However, when he sees Superman and Wonder Woman’s son, Gog decides to take their son instead. Needless to say, Superman, WW and Batman go in pursuit of Gog to rescue the baby. There is a catch however - their reality will be wiped out regardless whether they succeed or not. This is because if they follow Gog thru time, they would disrupt the timestream and the result is their reality will be wiped out. If they do not follow Gog back in time to stop his plans, their reality will never even be possible.
Before we get to see how the heroes, with the help of Rip Hunter, stop Gog, we get to see the different heroes and the Café called Planet Krypton (in separate special issues) that will play key roles in Gog’s eventual defeat:
Offspring – Plastic Man’s son (believe it or not)
Nightstar – Nightwing & Starfire’s daughter
Son of the Bat – The name says it!
Kid Flash – Flash’s daughter
Planet Krypton – the seemingly insignificant Super-Hero themed cafe
Art
(#1) Ariel Olivetti – Very good work from Olivetti provided you are used to the rather stiff style that is more suited for pin-ups/covers.
(#2) Mike Zeck – Well, I had never quite liked his work but he used to be very big when he did the Punisher and Secret Wars. Still turned in competent stuff.
(Offspring) Frank Quitely – Altho’ I don’t quite like his style, this is still un-mistakably good art from him. Quitely fans can add this one to their collections!
(Kid Flash) Mark Pajarillo – why this guy was ever made an artist doing work for DC is a deep mystery to me. Really poor quality art that doesn’t fir in with the rest of the issues.
(Nightstar) Matt Haley – Reminiscent of Terry Dodson’s super sexy and clean lines combined with the details of Mike McKone. Great Stuff! Wish we can see more of his art these days.
(Planet Krypton) Barry Kitson – Another big name that I don’t quite like but he is a frequent collaborator of Waid’s (eg; Empire & Legion of Super-Heroes).
(Son of the Bat) Brian Apthorp – another relatively unknown (well to me at least!) but this guy does SUPERB work. Looks kind of like JG Jones work. Great stuff!
Additional Comments
In the storyline, we get to see the Linear Men of which Rip Hunter is a member. We are also introduced to Hypertime in the DC vocabulary where the multiple universes concept is revived I believe for the first time since Crisis on Infinite Earths.
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