Misplaced Pages

#289710

50-483: The Superman of Kingdom Come first appeared as the main character of the 1996 Elseworlds miniseries Kingdom Come written by Mark Waid and Alex Ross with art by Ross, set in the future of the DC Universe. In 1999 , The Kingdom , a sequel to Kingdom Come written by Waid but without the involvement of Ross, was published. This series again featured this version of Superman as a central character. In 52 #52,

100-643: A Stargate to the Source Wall , where he places Gog's head. Superman then asks Starman, who has a map of the Multiverse on his costume, to send him back to Earth-22, to just before the bomb that destroyed Kansas went off. Superman instead arrives at the point shortly after the detonation, which corresponds to issue #4 of the Kingdom Come miniseries. In the epilogue, Superman is shown to have survived 1000 years after his return, and as an old man, he watches

150-722: A battle with Gog. Hercules attacks and injures New Earth Superman, but is defeated by the Earth-22 Superman. After returning to JSA headquarters, Superman and the JSA are attacked by Gog, who proves to be an equal match for the entire JSA, and it is only when Amazing-Man absorbs the properties of Gog's staff that the fight turns. The fight transfers to the African Congo, where they find the true Gog has revived. The true Gog removes his powers from Williams, killing him, and reclaiming all of his own powers. Superman remains with

200-515: A final confrontation in a restaurant outside of reality, where they use various weapons gathered from across Hypertime. During the fight, the future Wonder Woman reveals to the Superman of the present why Gog is after him, and Superman vows that the timeline of Kingdom Come will never happen in his universe. He strikes back at Gog, finishing the battle once and for all. As the heroes return to their proper places in time, Rip Hunter explains that there

250-587: A later Elseworlds tale where Tarzan and Superman were switched at birth. Possible present times were shown, such as one story where Jonathan and Martha Kent , touched by pity, adopt a recently orphaned Bruce Wayne and raise him along with their own son, Clark. Thus, the present shows Superman and Batman as brothers, with Clark protecting Gotham and working for the Gotham Gazette instead of living in Metropolis , and Batman inviting his foster parents,

300-519: A red and black s-shield to remind himself that hope will always rise out of darkness. Amidst the Crisis, Earth-38 's Superman and Lois Lane as well as Earth-1 's Iris West-Allen show up to recruit him to help fight the Anti-Monitor as he is one of seven heroes capable of stopping the anti-matter being from destroying the multiverse, or Paragons. However, Lex Luthor of Earth-38 shows up and uses

350-580: A third group of heroes led by Batman and Lex Luthor 's Mankind Liberation Front—which includes a mind-controlled Captain Marvel . As conditions worsen, the United Nations Secretary General Wyrmwood authorizes the deployment of three tactical nuclear warheads , hardened against certain metahuman powers. The battling heroes manage to stop two of the bombers, but the third drops its warhead. Superman attempts to stop

400-594: A transfusion of Superman's blood; while this is explicitly a dream sequence, it has been called "a forerunner of what would be known as 'Imaginary Stories'". Craig Shutt , author of the Comics Buyer's Guide column Ask Mr. Silver Age , states that true imaginary stories differed from stories that were dreams and hoaxes. Dreams and hoaxes were "gyps" on account of "not having happened", whilst true imaginary stories were canonical at least unto themselves. Also, since they were "just" imaginary and thus had no bearing on

450-640: Is a character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics , primarily as a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes . The character has also been known as Star Boy and Starman . Kallor as Star Boy has appeared in various media outside comics, primarily those featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes. He is voiced by Bumper Robinson in Legion of Super Heroes (2006) and Elyes Gabel in Justice League vs.

500-733: Is acquitted for his act. Superman is appalled by the public embracing a killer as a hero. Already disheartened at the death of Lois, Kal-El abandons his life as Superman and spends the next decade in the Fortress of Solitude . In his absence a team of new heroes, led by Magog, attempts to capture the Parasite , which results in the irradiation of the entire state of Kansas when the Parasite kills Captain Atom . Coaxed back into action by Wonder Woman, Superman decides to return to Metropolis and re-form

550-408: Is depicted as having schizophrenia before Gog restores his sanity. It is also revealed that his suit is a map of the multiverse and was created by Brainiac 5 . In Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds , it is revealed that Starman was sent to the 21st century to resurrect Superboy and carry out R. J. Brande 's will. In The New 52 continuity reboot, Thom Kallor is killed in an attack by

SECTION 10

#1732790439290

600-621: Is existence of alternate timelines, so the Kingdom Come reality still exists, but it will no longer be the future of the DC universe. One iteration of the Kingdom Come Superman from Earth-22 (who did not participate in the events of The Kingdom ) enters New Earth through a dimensional portal created inadvertently by Starman when he opened a black hole to stop a raging mystical fire the Justice Society couldn't contain that

650-611: Is expelled from the Legion for killing his girlfriend Dream Girl 's ex-boyfriend Kenz Nuhor in self-defense. After this, he and Dream Girl join the Legion of Substitute Heroes before returning to the Legion. Following Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! , which reboots the Legion's continuity, Thom Kallor discovers that he is destined to travel back to the 21st century, assume the mantle of Starman , and die. Mark Waid 's 2005 Legion reboot depicts Star Boy as black and Cosmic Boy 's right-hand man. In Justice Society of America , Thom Kallor

700-528: Is immune to the Kryptonite of New Earth; in the original Kingdom Come mini-series, Lex Luthor explains that Superman has absorbed several more years' worth of solar energy, effectively erasing his Kryptonite vulnerability. Brandon Routh , who previously portrayed Superman in the 2006 film Superman Returns and portrayed the Atom in the CW Arrowverse series, reprises his role as Superman for

750-483: Is unraveling; Superman is dead in the 21st century, yet alive in the 853rd , and their instruments register no error. When Rip Hunter tries to stop Gog from killing Superman on the day his and Wonder Woman 's child is born, Gog manages to steal the infant (named Jonathan), whom he plans to raise and name Magog. Rip Hunter recruits Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman from the Kingdom Come era to stop Gog in 1998. The three team up with their 'past selves' and battle Gog to

800-530: The Fatal Five before being resurrected. In Doomsday Clock , Doctor Manhattan erases Kallor and the Legion from existence before eventually restoring them. Star Boy can temporarily increase the mass and density of any object or person. The version of Thom working with the Justice Society of America can travel between universes using a combination of his mass-controlling powers and his uniform,

850-575: The Imaginary Stories concept. Alan Moore 's " Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow ?" two-part story in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583 in 1986 was the last Pre- Crisis story to use the Imaginary Stories label. The first Elseworlds title was Gotham by Gaslight (1989), written by Brian Augustyn and drawn by Mike Mignola , which featured a Victorian Age version of

900-596: The Justice League . He manages to collect former heroes (including Green Lantern , the Flash , Hawkman and Dick Grayson , now known as Red Robin , among others) and some of the newer heroes who had risen during his absence. The Justice League constructs a prison and gathers up new violent heroes who followed in the example of Magog. A battle soon breaks out between the imprisoned heroes, the Justice League,

950-467: The Kingdom Come universe is shown in the DC Multiverse as becoming, for the first time, a part of the mainstream DC continuity. Starting with Justice Society of America #9, Kingdom Come Superman appears as a member of the Justice Society of America . The character also received a solo one-shot , Justice Society of America: Kingdom Come Special: Superman . Ten years prior to the start of

1000-513: The superhero Batman hunting Jack the Ripper , who had come to Gotham City . The title was not originally published as an Elseworlds comic, but its success led to the creation of the Elseworlds imprint and this title was retroactively declared the first Elseworlds story. The first book to feature the Elseworlds logo was Batman: Holy Terror in 1991. In 1994, the Elseworlds imprint

1050-399: The 1996 Kingdom Come miniseries into DC continuity as part of a series of alternate timelines known as Hypertime , which included some of the alternate worlds depicted in various Elseworlds titles. A new Multiverse was introduced at the conclusion of the 52 weekly series that includes alternate worlds that were previously seen in various Elseworlds titles. " Elseworlds " was

SECTION 20

#1732790439290

1100-605: The Arrowverse crossover event " Crisis on Infinite Earths ", with elements adapted from the Kingdom Come version of the character. This version resides on Earth-96 and dealt with a significant tragedy when a dissatisfied Gotham City inhabitant (implied to be the Joker) gassed the Daily Planet, which took the lives of Lois Lane and his fellow co-workers. Following the incident, Clark became the new editor-in-chief and took on

1150-637: The Book of Destiny to force the Supermen to fight each other until Lois knocks him out. When the heroes came under attack from an Anti-Monitor-possessed Harbinger , Pariah used his powers to send the Paragons to the Vanishing Point and keep them safe. Once there, Superman of Earth-96 disappears and Lex Luthor appears in his place as he used the Book of Destiny to replace him. After the Paragons restore

1200-532: The Fatal Five . Thom Kallor first appeared in Adventure Comics #282 and was created by Otto Binder and George Papp . Star Boy is a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, a group of young heroes living a millennium in the future. He is born to astronomer parents on a satellite orbiting the planet Xanthu, and can temporarily increase the mass of an object, up to the mass of a star. Star Boy

1250-743: The JSA, the Earth-22 Superman visits Metropolis , where he uses his listening powers to hear the various conversations around the city. This leads him to the Daily Planet , where he is overwhelmed by the sight of his old friends and Lois Lane. He is interrupted by New Earth Superman, and they talk about Gog and the danger he represents. Superman demonstrates that he is more powerful than his younger counterpart when he hears something in Gotham City that New Earth Superman cannot. Arriving in Gotham City, they both confront Hercules , who has survived

1300-712: The Kents, to live with him in Wayne Manor. In keeping with the fact that imaginary stories allowed for much grimmer stories than usual, the story ended with Lex Luthor killing the Kents and Batman trying to murder him in revenge. This Super-Wedding is REAL! The marriage is not a HOAX! The bride and groom are not ROBOTS! This romance is not a DREAM of LOIS LANE or SUPERMAN! Possible futures that "could very well happen" were explored, such as Clark Kent revealing to Lois Lane his secret identity and marrying her . Futures that "perhaps never will" happen were also examined, such as

1350-571: The New Earth JSA. He is suspicious of the revived David Reid , who has been revived as Magog , and fearful that Reid will become like the being he knew on Earth-22. The Daily Planet is attacked and flooded with a green gas. Superman arrives and has a flashback to the time the Joker attacked his world's Daily Planet . The green gas is filled with kryptonite, which has no effect on Superman other than to cause his eyes to sting. Superman captures

1400-403: The Superman (of New Earth), to determine his real identity and background. Later when dealing with Japanese metahuman assassins trying to kill the new Judomaster , he shows he had little or no problem threatening the life of his opponents, an option the present Superman would never consider as he follows a strict code of ethics that abhors the use of deadly force. Power Girl , unable to ignore

1450-511: The U.S.! So, with tongue firmly in cheek, the DC team turned out this story of what might have happened if Lois Lane had decided to see... Superman, Cartoon Hero!" The story opens with Lois determined to learn Superman's secret identity and going to the theater to see the Max Fleischer Superman short " The Mad Scientist " in hopes of seeing the animated Man of Steel reveal his secret identity. In addition to other things, when

1500-405: The bomb, but Captain Marvel frees himself from Luthor's control and sacrifices himself in Superman's place. The bomb goes off, killing many superhumans. In the aftermath of the battle, Superman helps fix the damage done to Kansas and resumes his identity as Clark Kent. He begins a romantic relationship with Wonder Woman. At the end of Kingdom Come , the two are expecting a child. Twenty years after

1550-675: The characters' regular stories, imaginary stories could show things like people dying and the victory of evil. In the optimistic and hopeful Silver Age of Comics, such stories usually would not be told; this was hinted with writers telling readers how such an Imaginary Story often reassured the readers that it did not really happen. Most of these Imaginary Stories featured alternate histories of characters, such as " The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman Blue! ". There, readers saw possible pasts that could have happened, but did not happen. One such story has Superman being raised by apes in imitation of Tarzan , an idea that would be recycled into

Superman (Kingdom Come) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1600-407: The established continuity of DC's regular comics. The "Elseworlds" name was trademarked in 1989, the same year as the first Elseworlds publication. The title page of "Superman, Cartoon Hero!" (a slightly retooled reprint of 1942's "Superman, Matinee Idol"), stated that the story was "Our first imaginary story", and continued to say: "In 1942, a series of Superman shorts started showing throughout

1650-614: The events of Kingdom Come , a survivor of the Kansas disaster is granted power by the Quintessence, who dub him Gog . The power drives him mad and he takes out his anger on Superman, killing him and carving his "S" shield on the ground. He then travels a day backward in time and kills him again and repeats the process. As Gog travels closer to the modern DC universe, the Linear Men panic when they see that their ordered index of time

1700-490: The events of Kingdom Come , the Joker floods the offices of the Daily Planet with his trademark toxin, killing all the staff except for Lois Lane , who finds a gas mask. Lois tries to attack the Joker, who fractures her skull in retaliation. Superman returns as Lois succumbs to her injuries and dies. As the Joker arrives for his trial, he is killed by a new superhero named Magog . In an instance of jury nullification , Magog

1750-465: The fly-by of the ( Legion of Super-Heroes ), future generation of superheroes. Kingdom Come Superman shares most of the powers of Superman, including vast superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, senses, intelligence, regeneration, invulnerability and longevity; super breath, heat vision, x-ray vision, and flight. Kingdom Come Superman is shown to be much more powerful than New Earth Superman. Like other extra-dimensional versions of Superman, he

1800-405: The moment that the other heroes were struck by a nuclear bomb, causing him to conclude that his entire world has been lost. He attempts to escape from JSA headquarters and exerts his impressive power levels while doing so, including defeating Starman's gravity powers, which made Superman one hundred times heavier than normal. His escape was not to run from the JSA, but rather to save a young woman who

1850-541: The multiverse and defeat the Anti-Monitor, a restored Superman of Earth-96 flies in his Earth's atmosphere, having returned to his traditional red and yellow s-shield. Elseworlds Elseworlds is the publication imprint for American comic books produced by DC Comics for stories that take place outside the DC Universe canon . Elseworlds publications are set in alternate realities that deviate from

1900-441: The opening credits roll and state that the cartoons are based on DC Comics, Lois Lane states that she has never heard of DC Comics. Clark Kent then wonders if the people there are clairvoyant. In the final panel, Clark Kent exchanges a knowing wink with the image of himself as Superman on the movie screen. In Action Comics #60 (May 1943), "Lois Lane – Superwoman!" told the story of Lois gaining superpowers from

1950-470: The permanent death of Superman. Imaginary Stories appeared often enough that some comics – such as Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #15 (February 1960), the cover of which appears to depict Superman marrying Lois Lane – had to assure readers that their contents were not "imaginary". The cover of Lois Lane #59 (August 1965), by contrast, promised that its depiction of Lois as the romantic rival of Lara , Jor-El 's girlfriend and future mother of Superman,

2000-447: The same principle. There, Wonder Woman appeared along with her younger selves, Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot . However, the majority of Imaginary Stories were published in various Superman comics under the guidance of Superman editor Mort Weisinger , the "King of Imaginary Stories". This was in part because, according to Shutt, Weisinger aimed for younger readers instead of older ones. Later editors such as Julius Schwartz rarely used

2050-461: The story of baby Kal-El reaching Earth with his mother and father and how the world handles the emergence of a superpowered family. After a 14-year absence, DC relaunched the imprint in 2024 with six titles confirmed: Although the Elseworlds imprint was created to feature stories separate from DC continuity, concepts from various Elseworlds stories were incorporated into DC continuity at various times. The Kingdom miniseries in 1999 brought

Superman (Kingdom Come) - Misplaced Pages Continue

2100-465: The story of how his wife died. Sandman , Superman, and the JSA learn that Gog is on the verge of permanently rooting himself into the Earth's core, which would result in the planet's destruction if he ever leaves. Realizing their only choice is to kill Gog and remove his head, Superman and the JSA confront Gog, and with the help of Gog's disillusioned followers achieve their goal. Superman has Starman open

2150-460: The strong resemblance between the newly arrived Superman and her dead cousin Kal-L, the Superman of Earth-2, starts to form a bond with this version of Kal-El, who in turn is reminded of his fallen cousin, Kara Zor-El of Earth-22. The Kingdom Come Superman asks if it would be all right if they think of each other as family. Power Girl accepts. After Mr. America brings word of his run in with Gog to

2200-402: The terrorists and questions them. They reveal Lex Luthor hired them. Superman is about to kill the terrorists but is stopped by New Earth's Superman. Superman lashes out and accidentally hits New Earth's Superman. He apologizes but flees at the sound of New Earth's Lois Lane. Later, Lois Lane meets Superman in JSA headquarters, and asks him what happened to Lois Lane of Earth-22. Superman tells her

2250-686: The title for the fifth crossover in the Arrowverse franchise, which aired from December 9 to 11, 2018, on The CW . The crossover was told across episodes of The Flash , Arrow and Supergirl and introduced Batwoman , Gotham City , Nora Fries , and Lois Lane to the Arrowverse. In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places—some that have existed, or might have existed, and others that can't, couldn't or shouldn't exist. The result: stories that make characters who are as familiar as yesterday seem as fresh as tomorrow. Thom Kallor Thom Kallor

2300-580: Was "real-- not imaginary!". A few Imaginary Stories appeared in other DC publications. Batman editor Jack Schiff supervised stories in which the Dark Knight starts a family or loses his identity, though these were revealed at the end of the story to be stories written by Alfred . Schiff's stories were notable for the first appearance of the original Bruce Wayne Junior . Writer/editor Robert Kanigher supervised Wonder Woman 's own series of Imaginary Stories called Impossible Tales which featured

2350-433: Was attempting suicide. He had heard her mumble about how the "world doesn't need her" from blocks away. Her depth of despair snaps him out of his own feelings of failing and loss. He responds, "Giving up never helped anyone miss, trust me on that". In saving her, he begins to save some of his own sense of self. Superman returns to the JSA headquarters and meets with the JSA, the Justice League , and his own younger counterpart,

2400-501: Was coming from the hole in the chest of the villain Goth. Starman creates a black hole and places Goth inside of it. Goth's powers harmlessly erupt in the black hole, causing a rip in the dimension which brought this Superman to New Earth. The Kingdom Come Superman was depressed, as many of the heroes he knew from his timeline had died, including many of the present members of the (JSA) like Alan Scott ; he has been drawn from his universe at

2450-603: Was released in January 2008 as the Teen Titans Lost Annual . In September 2009, Dan DiDio revealed the return of the Elseworlds imprint as a series of Prestige Format books, with the approach of taking the basic concepts and origins of DC characters and twisting them in various ways. The only Elseworlds story released under the initiative was the three-issue miniseries Superman: The Last Family of Krypton , published from August to October 2010, which told

2500-521: Was used as the theme for the annual edition comic books of that summer. DC sporadically published various Elseworlds titles from 1989 to 2003. In August 2003, editor Mike Carlin mentioned that DC had scaled back the production of Elseworlds books in order to "put the luster back on them". Several titles that were announced as Elseworlds books prior to this, such as Superman & Batman: Generations IV and The Teen Titans Swingin' Elseworlds Special , were cancelled. The planned Teen Titans tale

#289710