Rating:  -
I love Alex Ross' artwork. It is the reason I decided to read this book. The story is incredible, with the grand battle of ideals as well as heroes. A lot of reviews of this book say you need to be real familiar with the DC universe, but I disagree. While I had seen a few tv shows and cartoons, I never read any comics. I knew only a basic idea of the major characters and their powers, and the story was perfectly clear to me. I think what the people who say you need to know the characters well to understand this book see is that there seems to be a lot of inside details that you will appreciate if you know the DC world well, but they are mostly not crucial to appreciating the book.
Rating: -
its no surprise to most comic fans that this is a must have book. and over the years its grown into a true classic. but when it was initially released i found some problems that i couldnt get over. the book does spend a lot of time focusing on the feelings of the main characters but in the end never really shows us where they stand. the story was written as a backlash to the ultra violent comic books of the 90's and tried to show why violence never wins. its odd though since this comic has one of the most memorably violent battle sequences ever written. and in the end violence is used to solve itself. but at the story's end we're not given any clear view into the hero's mind. and its hard to figure out why they find it ok to use violence to solve the problem of violence. i guess if it was left to us to decide that would be nice but why write it if you have no definite point to make. after all the build up why leave it to the reader to contemplate. it seemed a bit odd and they kind of lost me on this point. still, the book is well written and gives our most beloved characters some real emotion and depth. truly worth reading.
Rating: -
If you are a fan of heroes then you'll like this book. The best part was the interaction between the heroes. They spoke to each other like any of us would to a lifelong friend. They seemed almost real rather than characters on a page.
Rating: -
Kingdom Come works on several levels. It is, very loosely, a piece of religious fiction, making use of the Biblical prophecies of the Apocalypse. It can also be viewed as a rebuttal to Alan Moore's scathing condemnation of the shallow cliches of the superhero genre, "Watchmen," published a decade earlier. But I think the most important way to view KC is as an indictment of the nihilistic, ultraviolent comics of the late 80's and 90's. KC depicts the noble superheroes of old having slipped out the limelight and been replaced by an amoral, bloodthirsty younger generation. The aged heroes must come out of retirement to stop the corruption and violence of their successors (and this was indeed the purpose of KC itself, to end the bloodbath that the superhero genre had become). But of course, fighting violence with violence cannot be the answer, especially when both sides are so vastly powerful. Their conflict threatens to engulf the world and turn--literally--into the Biblical Armageddon.
I recall reading once that the initial idea for KC came about as a discussion, "What if the Image Comics characters invaded the Marvel Universe?"--contrasting the amoral killers that 1990's comics held up as heroes with the more staid and virtuous characters of yesteryear. Ultimately, Kingdom Come was made with the DC characters--which, no offense to Marvel, was the right choice for this story; nobody does the "true blue, upstanding hero" bit as well as DC's old guard characters. Meanwhile, Magog is a dead ringer for the gun-toting 1990's Marvel character Cable, and most of the murderous younger generation looks as if it could have stepped out of any Image comic of the day.
The religious frame device shows that, in contrast to the nihilism of the comics of that era, life and morality really do mean something--that there is a God, and it is possible for ordinary people to do good, even in a world as far gone as this one.
The Biblical symbolism, while impressive and even inspiring, is not at all in-depth; but considering how annoyed I've become recently with works of popular fiction claiming to offer definitive interpretations of the most cryptic passages in Scripture, I think it's for the best that this story knows not to take itself too seriously in that regard (the original comic issues were published in 1996, the same year the Left Behind merchandizing machine started churning, but I doubt that LB directly influenced KC; a lot of Apocalyptic fiction was produced in the years leading up to 2000). So while this does function as a parable of sorts, absolutely don't read this expecting Pilgrim's Progress, or even the Chronicles of Narnia. KC does not purport to be a serious religious allegory.
It's hard for me to judge just how familiar a reader needs to be with DC's comic book characters to understand this story, since of course I know them very well. But at a guess, I would say: not much. Superman is among the five most widely recognized fictional characters on Earth (the others being Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Robin Hood, and Mickey Mouse), while Batman, Wonder Woman, and Lex Luthor are not far behind. Of the remaining characters, and there are a slew of them, I think most are given a clear enough introduction that the reader will know everything he needs to in order to understand the story (to be honest, many are really just there for background window dressing, anyway). One possible exception is Captain Marvel: America's most popular superhero in the 1940's, he's a bit obscure these days.
(For anybody who doesn't know: 10-year old Billy Batson was chosen by the aged Eyptian wizard Shazam as his successor to combat the evils of the world. Whenever Billy says the wizard's name, "Shazam!" he is struck by a bolt of magic lightning and transformed into fully-grown and cape-clad hero Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel's powers are pretty much the same as Superman's, which eventually led to a lawsuit between their respective publishers, relegating Billy to obscurity for years afterward. Consequently Superman and Captain Marvel are often portrayed as rivals, even though they are both good guys through and through.)
On the other hand, readers who do know these characters are in for a treat: every character's personality is pegged perfectly, and the background of virtually every panel is full of references to old stories and adventures that a reader can spend hours picking through (especially the scenes in the superhero memorabilia restaurant, the Planet Krypton).
I'll go on record saying that Alex Ross is the best comic book artist who has ever lived. KC would be worth reading for the art alone. Every page is painted, not drawn, in gorgeous watercolor. Ross uses live models for all his characters, so every face is unique, even cameos. Most amazingly, the characters look as they did in the old comics, but now solid and three-dimensional. Captain Marvel looks like C.C. Beck's drawings of Captain Marvel, complete with the rounded cheeks and distinctive thick eyebrows, but he looks like a real person now, with structure and weight and solidity. It's an incredible achievement. And then there's Ross's incomparable staging, lighting and posing. As the old movie slogan goes, "You will believe a man can fly." I have often wondered whether I would think less highly of the story if the art supporting it were not so glorious, and I have to admit I don't know. What style is to prose, artwork is to comics. One might as well ask whether Shakespeare would be less enjoyable if the same plots were written in grade school-level English.
Read this. It's good for you, and you'll enjoy it. Then read Alan Moore's "Watchmen," Neil Gaiman's "Sandman," Jason Lutes's "Berlin," and Will Eisner's graphic novels about old Jewish New York. Top it off with Kurt Busiek's "Astro City: Confession."
Oh---and as for the question that's always raised in comics about whether or not it's appropriate for kids. Um... I'd say KC is a PG rated story, maybe PG-13. Certainly not an R like Watchmen or Sandman.
Rating:  -
I chose to purchase this book because of the many high recommendations and comparisons to other great books of the genre, Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, etc., and was not disappointed.
- The art is fantastic. Gouache paint and airbrushing add up to a feast for the eyes. Character rendition was realistic and I was pulled into it visually.
- Story kept me from putting the book down. It was an interesting plot that kept me engaged.
- The writing - Just average. Why is it that bad guys are plagued by exposition? For such a wonderfully painted book, the characters were often under-developed and relied on the readers past knowledge of the characters. The story development felt rushed at times and I often had to re-read sections because I felt like I had missed something, though I hadn't; It was just choppy story telling. That would be my one complaint. The writing was not near the quality found in books by Gaiman, Miller, Morrison or Moore.
Despite my compaints about the writing I would certainly place it in my top 10. Pick it up. It's worth the $12.00
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