Customer Reviews
Possibly the best - By: Tim Healey, 20 Apr 2008 
This is how to tell a story & tell it extrememly well.
This is how alll comics should be like, a perfect marriage of art & story.
After you get passed the "Oohh, pretty pictures" stage you find a story that make you want to read. The possible future of the DC Universe reflected how comics were turning at the time. All the older & original characters being over looked for action & violence.
A Change had to happen.
And what a change.
Another title that brought people back to comics.
I can't think of another graphic novel that welcomes you in & gives you a story worth reading & one that you are more than happy to read again & again.
The story starts with a man seing vision of the end of the world & follows this seemingly insignifacant character as he is witness to what happens. You feel for each of the characters, no long two dimensional, you empithise with them & find yourself getting involved in the story, thanks in part to the narrator.
Alex Ross' art is as perfect as you can get, with each character looking different to the rest. Every face is unique, each is very human, instead of reproductions of the same face that sometimes happens in comics.
While Knowledge of the DC universe would be helpfull the way that somethings are explained as you go you feel like you don't reallly need to know as you learn as the narrator does.
I'm not sure if this review makes much sense but this is a must have for comic fans anywhere. .
Beautiful and cliched nonsense - By: Richard Webb, 24 Nov 2007 
This book gets great reviews from most, but I found it remarkably dull. Like Ross's "Earth X" the story employs an observer to narrate the future. Perhaps this is necessary in order to make sense of what's going on (what indeed?), but it acts as a handbrake on the action, creating a feeling of passivity & inevitability. In this respect the book is the exact opposite of Miller's Dark Knight Returns, which is an alll out direct assault on a possible future for Batman & Superman, upon which Ross has drawn directly & unsuccessfully.
Kingdom Come sounds great on paper & looks great on paper but is ultimately hot air. Lots of polemics, no real reason why anything in the possible future has occurred. Unless I've missed something & this is a postmodern treatise on the nature of chaos, this book isn't worth your time - especiallly not if you're looking for a good old-fashioned superhero asskicking.
The Zenith of Graphic Novels - By: Mr. S. W. Steel, 07 Feb 2007 Simply put, this is by far & away the best graphic novel you will ever read!
And it earns the full five stars for the following reasons;
1/The plot is superb & is genuinely original.It is fast paced & has reallly good ideas that constantly challlenge you.There is a real sense of the authors 'loving' the characters & knowing their inner-most thoughts, strengths & weaknesses & this reallly shines through.
2/ The artwork is the best you will ever see!When you see Alex Ross on form like this you are just blown away.It is fair to say that nearly alll of the artwork could be on posters & t-shirts ; it is THAT good.
3/ It has alll the best DC universe characters in it.Your favourites & some that you will maybe not have met before.The standouts are Superman,Batman & Wonderwoman.
This graphic novel stands head & shoulders above every other.It is superior in every way imaginable.My copy is bent & battered by the number of times i have read this !!I ended up buying the Absolute Edition (also available from Amazon) as a 'best' copy.
THIS IS MY DESERT ISLAND GRAPHIC NOVEL
Best Graphic Novel I've Read In A Ten-Year History Of Doing So... - By: Nom de Plume, 19 Jul 2006 I started reading comics in 1996. Fortunately, for me, this was the year that 'Kingdom Come' was published.
Any self respecting comic-book fan should be ashamed if they do not appreciate Alex Ross' incomparable, airbrushed artwork. Similarly, Mark Waid's writing leaves you hanging on. So much so that, to this day, a full ten years after reading the story, I still class it as one of my top ten books (the rest, obviously, being regular, prose ones).
Put simply, I've always been fussy about the condition my possessions are kept in - usuallly this would lead to me only reading books at home, where nothing could happen to them (as opposed to damage possible in travel, etc.)...
..Honestly, however, I couldn't do this with 'Kingdom Come': I even remember sitting at my sister's school parents' evening with my nose in it; the damage done to the book (from carrying it with me everywhere) was worth it - my copy of 'Kingdom Come' has since been joined by two newer editions! I think this is evidence enough that the book is worth a read, isn't it? A book alll comic-book fans (at least those who read comics in the era of the book's publication) should (have) read.
spectacular armageddon! - By: Mr. N. Shaikh, 23 Apr 2003 Don't know where to begin! This is an incredible four part story, & Ross's art is simply beautiful, not whatyou would expect in a graphic novel. a classy piece of work!
Set in the future, Superman has failed to keep up with the times; he isn't brutal or violent enough. After a terrible personal tragedy, he leaves, becoming a hermit. As he began the modern heroic age, so he ends it. With Superman gone, many of the other great heroes fade away from the world stage; Wonder woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Batman.
A new generation of younger super powered beings begins to rampage, fighting for no reason, slowly tearing cities apart, making lesser mortals fear them.But alll is not well. A Golden Age hero (Sandman) begins to have visions of an apocalyptic future, visions he passes on to a priest. The priest fears Superman & his alllies, who return to help bring about order & peace, will in fact set off events as written in the book of revelation. With Batman conspiring with Lex Luthor to defeat the heores of the past, & the Spectre himself coming to bring justice, how can disaster & destruction be avoided?
This is a cool story, with strong mythic & apocalyptic undertones. You don't have to know much about the DC heroes to enjoy it. The art is brilliant, the story chugs along, the dialogue isn't corny, & the ending isn'y schmaltzy. What more could you want? The graphic novel has an advantage over the original comic release in that it has a delightful little epilogue which i won't spoil for you, a meeting between superman & batman, who have ever seemed at odds with each other despite having the same objectives of defeating evil & protecting the innocent. Batman does come across as a little too smug at times, though Superman is too idealistic & naive, while wonder woman has become cold & martial.
Cannot recommend this enough!
