History Comicbook / TheKingdomDC

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_kingdom_1153.jpg]]

''The Kingdom'' is a partial sequel to ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', where heroes from that story cross over into the canonical New Earth universe to help stop a threat from destroying all reality. It served as an introduction to the concept of [[ReplacementArtifact Hypertime]].

The issues that covered this mini-series include
* ''New Year's Evil: Gog'' #1
* ''The Kingdom'' #1
* ''The Kingdom: Son of the Bat'' #1
* ''The Kingdom: Nightstar'' #1
* ''The Kingdom: Offspring'' #1
* ''The Kingdom: Kid Flash'' #1
* ''The Kingdom: Planet Krypton'' #1
* ''The Kingdom'' #2
-----
!!This comic book series provides examples of:
* AlmostKiss: Ibn al Xu'ffasch and Nightstar were about to kiss when they both overhear mention about their world ceasing to exist if Superman went back in time to try saving his son from Gog.
* AlternateTimeline: The introduction of Hypertime, "the vast, interconnected web of parallel timelines which comprise all reality", at the end of ''The Kingdom'' #2. [[spoiler:It is revealed that the future world of ''Kingdom Come'' is one of those timelines.]]
-->'''Hunter:''' How does 'Hypertime' work? Off the Central Timeline we just left. Events of importance often cause divergent 'tributaries' to branch off the main timestream. ...On occasion, those tributaries return -- sometimes feeding back into the Central Timeline, other times overlapping it briefly before charting an entirely new course.
* AndIMustScream: Superman, in one of his many deaths at the hands of Gog, when he recreates the destruction of Krypton with a special bomb that causes Superman to slowly be transformed into Kryptonite.
* TheAntiChrist: Superman, in the eyes of Gog.
* ArcWelding: The Phantom Stranger's identity has been the subject of speculation for decades. Here, he's [[spoiler: suggested to be Jonathan Kent.]]
* AsideGlance: The Superman seen at the beginning of ''The Kingdom'' #1 gives a wink to the reader at the end of #2 when the sky barrier is removed.
* AssholeVictim: Mister Mxyzptlk, at the hands of Gog. Also Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and Ra's al Ghul, at the hands of Ibn al Xu'ffasch.
* BadGuyBar: Again, the Titans Tower, being more of a NinetiesAntiHero bar.
* BigNo: ''Kingdom Come'' Wonder Woman, when Gog disappears from her time period with her child, and then later when her child Jonathan vanishes from the timeline, or so she thinks.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Soon after ''Kingdom Come'' Superman and Wonder Woman's child is born, Gog comes and kills a bunch of Amazons on Themyscira so he could kidnap the child.
* {{Blackmail}}: How Ibn al Xu'ffasch gets Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and Ra's al Ghul to work together to find a way to keep their reality from being erased, though ultimately they prove to betray him. Ibn doesn't take any chances and has prepared beforehand how to deal with them.
* BlasphemousPraise: William the prophet believes that Superman is a divine being, even to the point where he builds a church and offers up prayers to him.
-->'''William:''' ...[[Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman and he changes the course of mighty rivers...and bends steel in his bare hands.]] His kingdom come...his will be done...for his is the truth, and the justice, and the...
* BookEnds: Ignoring ''New Year's Evil: Gog'', the story starts with what's presumably the Golden Age/Earth-2 Superman flying over his version of Metropolis banging on a sky barrier, and ends with the same character realizing that the barrier is gone. Whether that was actually the same Golden Age Superman as the one who went into the paradise dimension with his wife Lois Lane, Alexander Luthor, Jr. from Earth-3, and Superboy of Earth-Prime near the end of ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' was left ambiguous at the time.
* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Booster Gold's Planet Krypton restaurant in the present-day world (of 1998) is purposely stocked with items from various timelines by the four Titans from the future. Present-day Batman realizes this when he and his colleagues, plus their ''Kingdom Come'' counterparts, are transported to Planet Krypton by Hunter to fight Gog with the various items collected, with Batman saying something like "this isn't a restaurant... it's an arsenal". Where they become museum pieces of a sort is that these items have appeared during the Silver and Bronze Age period DC Universe.
* BrokenPedestal: Superman in the mind of William the prophet, who upheld the hero as a paragon and who claimed that Superman purposely allowed the destruction of Kansas as a test to weed out "false prophets", meaning superheroes that had a rather nihilistic approach to fighting criminals and other threats. After Superman revealed that the destruction of Kansas was more his fault than his purpose, William burned down his temple to worship Superman, thus leading him to his role of being Superman's oppressor Gog.
* CallForward: Gog teases us with one, telling ''Kingdom Come'' Superman's child, "As I am Gog, so shall you be my Magog".
* CallingTheOldManOut: What Gog thinks he's doing as he kills Superman again and again throughout future history, calling him Satan.
* ChivalrousPervert: Plastic Man, in ''The Kingdom: Offspring'' story.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: Superman, in one of his many deaths at the hands of Gog.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Comically attempted and failed by Offspring when he tries to take down Mr. Scarlet at the Titans Tower nightclub by posing as a cash register, which is one of his attempts to be taken seriously as a superhero compared to his father Plastic Man.
* DeadGuyJunior: ''Kingdom Come'' Superman and Wonder Woman's son Jonathan, named after Superman's foster father Jonathan Kent.
* DevilInDisguise: What Gog believes Superman actually is.
* DiesWideOpen: Gog.
* EyeBeams: Gog has them, saying that he gained this ability from Amazo.
* FaceHeelTurn[=/=]FaithHeelTurn: William, after he becomes Gog.
* {{Faceship}}: Brainiac's ship, which Mr. Scarlet and his gang use trying to escape the end of the world.
* FollowInMyFootsteps: Wally West's son Barry has superspeed, and absolutely no interest in using it for anything in particular, much to Wally's despair. His concern with getting Barry to live up to his potential is one of the reasons Barry's sister, Iris "Kid Flash" West, feels unappreciated.
* FountainOfYouth: Ibn al Xu'ffasch temporarily turns Lex Luthor into an infant in order to get his help.
* GoingCritical: Gog attempts to do this with Captain Atom of the present era, but is stopped before it happens. He still causes enough damage to Kansas to get Superman's attention, though.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Gog burns an S-shield scar onto ''Kingdom Come'' Superman's chest when he arrives at the time of the birth of Superman and Wonder Woman's child. Later on, present-day Batman scars up Gog's left hand in his attempt to use the Phantom Zone projector on him.
* GoOutWithASmile: Gog dies with a smile, thinking that he has finally destroyed Superman. Or so he thinks.
* GreenLanternRing: Some variants of the ring (including Power Ring's from the Earth-3 universe) were used in the final battle with Gog.
* GreenRocks: Kryptonite, which Gog uses to put ''Kingdom Come'' Superman's son Jonathan inside...only it turns out that it doesn't affect him.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Nightstar who is Half Tamaranean from her mother.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: ''Kingdom Come'' Wonder Woman impales Gog with the Sword of Hephaestus... not that it affects him. Also, Superman in one of his many deaths at the hands of Gog is impaled with a piece of metal from his birthing matrix.
* InSpiteOfANail: Rose D'Angelo sees a "ghost" of herself that had accepted the engagement ring, but would still end up as a waitress at the Planet Krypton restaurant, informing her that her decision to refuse the engagement was a good one.
* InTheHood: One of the Supermen in the afterlife... particularly the one who was [[ManOnFire burned to death]] by Gog.
* KissingCousins: Dick Grayson thinks that his daughter Nightstar's relationship to Bruce Wayne's son Ibn al Xu'ffasch is akin to this and tries to forbid her from seeing him in a romantic fashion.
* KryptoniteFactor: Averted with ''Kingdom Come'' Superman and his son Jonathan, as the case of the latter being encased in Kryptonite did nothing to him. Present-day Superman still tries to avoid it, though.
* LargeHam: Gog, particularly in the final battle.
* LivingStatue: A Superman statue that Mister Mxyzptlk caused to come to life, which Superman had to deal with before Gog arrived to kill him.
* MamaBear[=/=]PapaWolf: ''Kingdom Come'' Wonder Woman and Superman, respectively.
* ManOnFire: Superman, in one of his many deaths at the hands of Gog. Also William during his "baptism of fire" that transforms him into Gog.
* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Gog subjects the ''Kingdom Come'' Superman to multiple forms of death as he goes back in time, although in reality [[spoiler:it's the many alternate versions of ''Kingdom Come'' Superman that are killed]].
* MarryForLove: The reason Rose D'Angelo refused the engagement, with her family pressuring her to marry the guy for his money.
* MessianicArchetype: Superman, in the eyes of William before his disillusionment and FaithHeelTurn.
* MissingMom: Starfire, Nightstar's mother.
* MortonsFork: When Gog abducts the newborn Jonathan and goes back in time to 1998, Waverider tells the heroes of the future that they can't go back because they would certainly erase their timeline from history even if they stopped Gog's intentions to trigger the Kansas cataclysm, but the heroes conclude that, since people will die either way, they'd prefer to act like heroes and try to stop Gog killing anyone.
* MsFanservice: Nightstar.
* MyFutureSelfAndMe: Superman of the present-day (1998) as well as Batman and Wonder Woman meet up with their ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' counterparts, believing them to be their future selves...until it is revealed that [[spoiler:they are actually future selves from an alternate timeline]].
* MyGreatestFailure: Superman in the time period that William becomes a minister regrets not being there to stop the Kansas disaster in ''Kingdom Come'' from taking place.
* MythologyGag: Batman says, "How bizarre", when examining a piece of Blue Kryptonite at the Planet Krypton restaurant, with Blue Kryptonite being the type that affects Bizarro Superman.
** Part of William's prayer to Superman includes words from ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'' TV series intro.
** Offspring mutters Batman's line about criminals being "a superstitious, cowardly lot" from his origin story.
* NinetiesAntiHero: Again, the "heroes" we have seen in ''Kingdom Come'' also show up here.
* NoEndorHolocaust: Superman's present-day Kansas gets nuked with Gog using Captain Atom to unleash a massive explosion, yet surprisingly Smallville manages to survive it relatively intact.
* NotBloodSiblings: Dick Grayson is Bruce Wayne's adopted son while Ibn al Xu'ffasch is his biological son who wasn't raised by him. Ibn al Xu'ffasch and Dick's daughter, Mar'i Grayson/Nightstar, fall in love even though they're technically uncle and niece. This is part of why Dick isn't especially happy with their relationship.
* OverlordJr: What Ra's al Ghul is hoping his grandson Ibn al Xu'ffasch would become.
* [[EarthShatteringKaboom Planet-Shattering Kaboom]]: Gog's recreation of the destruction of Krypton with a specially made bomb that would [[AndIMustScream turn Superman's body into Kryptonite]] in one of his many deaths.
* PowerTrio: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, in both their present-day and ''Kingdom Come'' incarnations.
* ProngsOfPoseidon: Blue Devil's trident (a Type 3 example) shows up as one of the artifacts in the Planet Krypton restaurant that was used against Gog in the final battle.
* PutOnABus: Norman [=McCay=], ''Kingdom Come's'' protagonist, is nowhere to be seen.
* RealityBreakingParadox: Brought up when a recently-killed Superman meets future incarnations of him in the afterlife, learning from them that Gog is traveling backwards in time, one day at a time, killing off Superman in each of those days. As this Superman points out, the dead spirits of the Supermen for each day Gog has passed shouldn't be meeting each other like this, that "the space-time continuum ought to be hemorrhaging chaos” from this. [[spoiler:Subverted that it turns out that each Superman is from a different timeline.]]
* RiddleForTheAges: In ''The Kingdom: Planet Krypton'', Batman comes face to face with the Hypertime ghost of the Silver Age Batwoman. After glaring at her for a moment, his face slowly softens and he says "Kathy?". Readers left wondering if Batman merely recognizes Kathy Kane in the costume[[note]]at the time, Kathy Kane still existed in Post-Crisis/pre-Infinite Crisis continuity, but was never Batwoman[[/note]] or if he somehow recall her past exploits as Batwoman. Though later, Batman says there is no possible way he could know her.
* TheRunaway: Rose D'Angelo in ''The Kingdom: Planet Krypton'', who ran away from home to escape an engagement to a guy that she doesn't even love, becoming a waitress at the Planet Krypton restaurant.
* ShoutOut: William opens a [[Literature/BookOfRevelation seven-sealed scroll]] which leads to his becoming Gog.
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The Phantom Stranger tells William, who had been transformed into Gog, that he now has the power to change events and avert tragedy, but as the other members of the Quintessence reveal, not only does Gog not prevent the Kansas disaster from ever happening, he also intends to make it happen much sooner to implicate Superman as its cause... which is what the Quintessence actually wants to happen for their own purposes.
* SigilSpam: Gog purposely marks the location of Superman's deaths throughout future history (and even Superman himself) with his ''Kingdom Come''-era S-symbol. In present-day Kansas, Gog marks it with the S-symbol used at that time.
* SpinOffspring: The mini-series introduces Plastic Man's son Offspring.
* StealthHiBye: Batman pulls this on Rose D'Angelo near the end of ''The Kingdom: Planet Krypton''.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Nightstar looks like a blend of both her parents.
* StrongerWithAge: Not only is ''Kingdom Come'' Superman invulnerable to Kryptonite, but so also is his son Jonathan.
* SwordFight: Ibn al Xu'ffasch and Ra's al Ghul near the end of ''The Kingdom: Son of the Bat''. Ra's loses to Ibn in the duel.
* TakenForGranite: One of Superman's multiple deaths was to be slowly transformed into Kryptonite.
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: The "heroes" of the ''Kingdom Come'' era are faced with the end of the world coming with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman going back in time with Hunter to stop Gog from changing history. Four of its heroes -- Ibn al Xu'ffasch, Nightstar, Offspring, and Kid Flash -- team up with Hunter to gather items from various timelines in Hypertime to stop Gog's plan. Waverider thinks that ''any'' interference from the future would change their history so drastically that it would be the end of the world. As we find out, though, their future still exists because [[spoiler:it is part of Hypertime]].
* ThisIsntHeaven: The Superman seen at the beginning of ''The Kingdom'' #1 is banging on an invisible "wall" in the sky, with the captions reading "He deserved heaven, not prison".
* TimeCrash: The Linear Men fears this is what's happening with Gog going back in time each day in the past to slay Superman over and over, yet their instruments don't show any sign of an anomaly in the timeline. Of course, Hunter knows the truth of why there's no anomaly, and so he goes out to protect the truth from his fellow Linear Men.
* TimePolice: The Linear Men, with Hunter this time going renegade as he must protect a timeline secret that no one must know about: [[spoiler:Hypertime]].
* TorsoWithAView: Gog gives Mr. Mxyzptlk one with his power staff in one of the timelines that he kills Superman in.
* TrainingFromHell: Ibn al Xu'ffasch's childhood was spent undergoing brutal training from his grandfather and the League of Assassins.
* TurnOutLikeHisFather: Offspring's girlfriend Micheline worries that he would turn out to be just like his father Plastic Man: a superhero that nobody would take seriously.
* TheUnfavorite: Iris West II, the ''Kingdom Come'' era Kid Flash, thinks of herself being this to her father Wally West, particularly when he wants his son Barry to carry on the tradition of being the Flash. Wally at the end of ''The Kingdom: Kid Flash'' contradicts this thinking, telling his son Barry not to call his sister a "fruit fly", and that her name is Kid Flash.
* WeaksauceWeakness: The Green, an orbiting arboreal satellite, is powered by Alan Scott's power ring energy, which is vulnerable to wood. In ''The Kingdom: Nightstar'', Manotaur takes advantage of this to go on a rampage to destroy the central power station of The Green with a wooden sword.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Gog.
* WhatIf: Played with in-universe during ''The Kingdom: Planet Krypton'' issue, where said restaurant is being "haunted" by shades of characters erased from continuity or from different worlds/timelines/universes/dimensions. This is also the driving force of the main character's story. Waitress Rose D'Angelo is haunted by regret that she turned down a man's marriage proposal even though he was rich as her family guilt-tripped her over it because the guy could've provided for them. [[spoiler: Eventually, it turns out the shades only manifest because Nightstar and the others crossing over into that world, and Rose finally moves on when she sees a shade of herself that accepted the suitor's ring and still ended up a waitress.]]
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: When the heroes of the future are faced with what they believe will be their final day before Gog's actions erase their world one way or the other, some characters try to help out while others continue their usual schemes; Barry West considers himself the only "honest" member of his family as he's just doing whatever he wants while his father Wally is basically dealing with everyone else's problems and Barry's sister Iris is just trying to earn their father's approval.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: William after he becomes Gog.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Invoked and played with in-universe during ''The Kingdom: Planet Krypton'' issue, where said restaurant is being "haunted" by shades of characters erased from continuity or from different worlds/timelines/universes/dimensions. This is also the driving force of the main character's story. Waitress Rose D'Angelo is haunted by regret that she turned down a man's marriage proposal even though he was rich as her family guilt-tripped her over it because the guy could've provided for them. [[spoiler: Eventually, it turns out the shades only manifest because Nightstar and the others crossing over into that world, and Rose finally moves on when she sees a shade of herself that accepted the suitor's ring and still ended up a waitress.]]

* RiddleForTheAges: In ''The Kingdom: Planet Krypton'', Batman comes face to face with the Hypertime ghost of the Silver Age Batwoman. After glaring at her for a moment, his face slowly softens and he says "Kathy?". Readers left wondering if Batman recognizes Kathy Kane in the costume[[note]]at the time, Kathy Kane still existed in Post-Crisis/pre-Infinite Crisis continuity, but was never Batwoman[[/note]] or if he suddenly recall her past exploits as Batwoman. Though later, Batman says there is no possible way he could know her.