Kingdom Come

[hammy]

Am I the only one who did not like this story? I think I must be, because everyone seems to think it's one of the best, ever. But I didn't like the pseudo - religious stuff; it came off overtly preachy and just plain lame, to me. And I have decided that while I do think Alex Ross is an amazing artist, and I especially love the way he draws faces, I think he's just too in love with himself and doesn't have a clue about moderation or tastefulness. His artwork is so over the top, it's distracting.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

agree with ross being full of himself, but kingdom come is a great story.

 

[Rorschach II]

i just recently bought/read the tpb - truly an excellent piece of art

beautiful images from ross - great symbolism (Magog is essentially a Golden Calf - false idol - made to look like what Ross considered crappy new superhero design/attitude i.e. Cable)

I love how the Gulag looks a little like the old Legion of Doom hq from Superfriends - really draws the reader's conclusion that this superhero prison is probably not a good idea

i don't think it's a coincidence that it's Captain Marvel who has been led astray and must make the ultimate choice at the end. The entire series is a statement against what Marvel Comics was doing in the 90's and that they must make an important choice in their stories/characters

Like all great art, however, Kingdom Come has as many layers to it as an onion. You just gotta peel them away, one by one.

I never really noticed the anti-Marvel-in-the-'90s sentiment. Thanks a lot for pointing it out.

 

[Assassin]

Am I the only one who did not like this story? I think I must be, because everyone seems to think it's one of the best, ever. But I didn't like the pseudo - religious stuff; it came off overtly preachy and just plain lame, to me. And I have decided that while I do think Alex Ross is an amazing artist, and I especially love the way he draws faces, I think he's just too in love with himself and doesn't have a clue about moderation or tastefulness. His artwork is so over the top, it's distracting.

Thats one of the reasons why I loved it. To me, it wasn't lame at all

 

[Mladen]

I personally really didn't like it much at all, for a lot of the same reasons Casey said.

Its main appeal is that it's really designed as a fan service to DC fans, who know and understand all of these characters intimately and enjoy the crowd scenes because they get to spot all of their favorite heroes. To anybody else, its somewhat bewildering, especially since so much of the story relies on knowing these characters beforehand. I can understand its appeal to longtime DC fans, but speaking from personal experience as a superhero outsider (though I've been reading non-superhero comics and some batman for a very long time), I didn't get a lot from it.
Also, Alex Ross' artwork looks pretty, but is MESSY in terms of storytelling since because EVERYTHING is highly detailed, the story looks more like a collage of stills from a film than a readable storypage.
Case in point.

 

[Rorschach II]

You're right about the "messiness" of the art in terms of storytelling. Sometimes it's a little hard to follow what's going on. But that's one of the few flaws of the book (another being the fact that it's too Superman-heavy...some important characters like The Green Lantern don't really have any lines).

 

[Andy C.]

I always figured the point of it was to be a Superman story, just featuring the rest of the JLA.

Anyway, I disagree with it being 'bewildering' to people who aren't intimately familiar with the characters. It was actually the first DC graphic novel I ever read, and it was what got me hooked. To this day, it's still the first comic I give to my non-fan friends to get them into it.

 

[hammy]

Alex Ross' artwork looks pretty, but is MESSY in terms of storytelling since because EVERYTHING is highly detailed, the story looks more like a collage of stills from a film than a readable storypage.

That's an excellent way of explaining it. Really, a lot of the time things don't even seem to relate to each other. It's like he just *tries* to draw something impressive, then piece-meals it all together.

But at least I know I'm not the only one who wasn't a huge fan of this one.

The real shame to me is that rather than savoring the artwork, I find myself so annoyed by it, I hurry through the story. I just don't have 30 minutes to devote to deciphering each page.

I always figured the point of it was to be a Superman story, just featuring the rest of the JLA.

Heheh .. me too.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

 

[Mladen]

I always figured the point of it was to be a Superman story, just featuring the rest of the JLA.

Anyway, I disagree with it being 'bewildering' to people who aren't intimately familiar with the characters. It was actually the first DC graphic novel I ever read, and it was what got me hooked. To this day, it's still the first comic I give to my non-fan friends to get them into it.

yeah i'd detract the term 'bewildering', as its not THAT hard to follow.... but its more like that I couldn't fully understand why a certain character would act a certain way, or why he'd introduce a character for only a small scene and then never again. the book also relies on you knowing and understanding the relationships between these heroes. For somebody who has only ever read Batman comics, I should not be expected to know that Batman and Superman and Wonderwoman are old friends etc, or who is betraying an old friend or teaming up with an old arch enemy.

Besides all of the cameos and in-jokes which are meaningless to somebody who doesn't know anything about these characters, there's that whole 'ideal heroic superhero' vs '90s marvel action hero' thing going on, which is a theme inherent to today's state of the superhero genre and is difficult to get if you're not already aware of it.

I heard somebody else mention that if you replaced all of the heroes with entirely new characters (like in Watchmen), Kingdom Come wouldn't work. You need to have an understanding of these characters and what they traditionally represent to make sense of it.

Quick question, were the non-fan friends of yours already interested in superheroes (from the movies or wiki etc) but just didn't know where to start? Or were they totally disinterested in superheroes and this book changed their mind? Just curious.

 

[hammy]

I kind of wondered that too because I didn't see this being a book that would draw people in to the SH universe.

 

[moraldeficiency]

I liked KC but didn't think it was as great as most people, I liked Justice much better and thought that spotlighted more DC characters in a better way. I also thought it was a more original plot.