Hey guys! Happy Friday! How's everyone doing today? I'm doing good. The weather kinda sucks today, but it's warm and raining instead of cold and snowing or freezing rain, so that's a plus. There are four comics published by DC Comics between 1985 and 1996 that I don't really care for but are beloved by the majority of comic book fans. I've already reviewed Batman: The Killing Joke on the blog but the other three are Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which I'll be getting to in the very near future, and Kingdom Come. Of these four though Kingdom Come has more to offer than just gratuitous violence, radical statements by it's author, and the destruction of the friendship between Batman and Superman though there are some really solid scenes between them in this book. Why do I think Kingdom Come is the best of these four books? Let's dive in and find out shall we?
Kingdom Come is a gorgeous book. Alex Ross's art is absolutely stunning. Every panel looks like it could be a painting that hangs on someone's wall. Just looking at the cover image I picked for this review is breathtaking and better suits the book than the original cover used for the trade paperback in 1997. What's interesting is that this was only Alex Ross's third job in the comic book industry, having worked on Marvels for Marvel Comics in 1994, and then co-creating Astro City at Image Comics with Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson in 1995. I do have some problems with his art in this book, but I'll get to that a little bit later.
While Watchmen was simply Alan Moore's statement that American comic books sucked, Mark Waid, who is well known for his deep dives into expanding the history of a character like he did with Superman in 2003's Superman: Birthright, asks the question, are DC's classic superheroes such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Shazam (originally named Captain Marvel), and all the others, still as relevant now as they were when they were first created in the 1930s and 40s? Personally, I think Waid does an incredible job of answering that question. At least for 1996, when this book was originally published. But he also doesn't attempt to give a definitive, timeless, answer so that this conversation can remain open for future generations to debate after reading this book. Not to mention the current generation which read this book when it first came out in the 90s.
Having said all that though I do think that Kingdom Come suffers from the same things that Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, and The Killing Joke suffer from. Overreliance on gratuitous violence, ambiguity with it's characters, and deep debates that practically force the reader to come down on one side or another. Not exactly things I find to be entertainment. But hey, comics, movies, and all the other stuff I look at on this blog don't always have to be pure entertainment. It can be thought provoking as long as it isn't too heavy handed and doesn't try to convince the audience, be it readers, listeners or viewers, to agree with what the author is stating in the piece with no room for interpretation. While I don't think that's what Kingdom Come does, it is something that Watchmen suffers from. But I'll get into that when I review it.
I was talking to Aaron last night about this, but I think Alex Ross works better as a cover artist. While his art is absolutely gorgeous, it is difficult to look at in a full length comic book. Especially when he's drawing a large number of characters in a single panel. As a result the panels often feel cluttered and busy and very difficult, at least for me, to visually follow what's going on in the story. Especially during outdoor scenes or scenes in bright locations. However, when there's only one or two characters, or when they're in a dark place, such as the Batcave, the artwork is absolutely gorgeous.
I haven't talked about the POV character in this book, Norman McCay, because he doesn't actually matter. Neither does Jim Corrigan, the Spectre. They're simply bystanders and not integral to the plot of the story. We're there to see Batman, Superman and the other DC heroes and villains.
I didn't read this book when I was a kid. I remember seeing the ad for it in Batman & Robin Adventures #5, but that's about it. Once I began learning about 90s comic books that I didn't know about when I was a kid, I was in my 20s and the internet was a thing, so I was able to look up the information online. But even still, the more I read about the book and the more I heard about it from people who actually read it, the less interested I became in it. Especially after 2015, which is when I first read Watchmen all the way through. But, I found a copy of the original trade paperback at one of the monthly comic book sales, and it was relatively cheap, especially in comparison to the more recently published hardcover and trade paperback editions that were out at the time. I had intended on reviewing it on my old blog right after I got the book about a year and a half to two years ago now, but I didn't make it through the first chapter. I just couldn't get in the mood to finish it at the time.
Overall though, Kingdom Come is a good story. It's not for everyone mind you, but if you've never read it and are into this kind of deconstruction of comic books and superheroes, then you should definitely give it a read. If you're not into that sort of thing, as I'm not, I'd probably avoid it, since it's super heavy on that kind of stuff and it can be hard to get through. If you do decide to read it though, you shouldn't have any problems finding it as DC has been continually republishing and reprinting the trade paperback and hardcover collected editions for the last 24 years (the trade and hardcover came out in 1997).
Alrighty that is going to be it for me for this week. It's a dark and rainy day here today, so I'm going to go watch this week's episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I will be back next week though and I'll be looking at Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, the VHS releases in the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection, and either Superman: Earth One Volume 2, or Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Saga. So until then have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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