Set in a future where a new generation of metahumans executes criminals without trial, Kingdom Come follows an aging Pastor Norman McCay and a weary Superman. After a nuclear disaster in Kansas caused by the recklessness of these anti-heroes, Superman emerges from self-imposed exile to reform the Justice League. The story tracks the resulting ideological collision between classic heroism, the violent methods of Magog, and Batman’s underground resistance. McCay serves as an observer to a literal apocalypse, witnessing how superhuman conflict threatens to eradicate humanity during a final battle at a superhuman gulag.
Comic book enthusiasts and students of contemporary mythology read this work to examine the tension between traditional morality and the grit of the nineties anti-hero archetype. The narrative provides a framework for understanding the psychological weight of god-like power and the potential for institutional failure within superhero hierarchies. Readers walk away with a specific visual and narrative case study on how individual accountability functions when the state can no longer restrain those with extraordinary abilities.
- Published
- 1996
- Language
- EN
