History ComicBook / KingdomCome

* LeaveMeAlone: Uttered by the Parasite who attempts to surrender from Magog and his Justice Battalion. But as the Justice Battalion is made up of BloodKnight NinetiesAntiHeroes, his cries for mercy are ignored, which kick-starts the plot of the story as he lashes out in fear, ripping through Captain Atom's suit, nuking the American Midwest. One reporter even points out that Magog could have averted tragedy if he had just listened to Parasite.

** ComicBook/LexLuthor and his "Mankind Liberation Front" (a collection of Silver Age villains) attempted to exploit the metahuman war and TakeOverTheWorld. [[spoiler:They end up being forced to work by Franchise/{{Batman}} in his makeshift hospital for the casualties of the civil war.]]

%%* KnightTemplar: Wonder Woman crosses the line.
* LackOfEmpathy: A version applying to the heroes. [[spoiler: At the climax, Norman points out to Superman that the actions of superhumans were so intimidating that they were causing distancing from the rest of humanity, who were becoming more intimidated and scared and which drove them to send off nukes on the metahumans.]]

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler: Von Bach is killed after Wonder Woman impales him with her sword from behind.]]

%%* GoingCritical: Captain Atom.

(''a few hands went up among the four- or fivescore assembled sisters; even they went down when everyone realized what their former princess meant by "living"'')

** [[spoiler:The Blackhawk jet fighters who were to deliver the nukes. According to the {{Novelization}}, they weren't expected to survive the blasts.]]
** [[spoiler:Alloy (which was a ''literal'' amalgam of the ComicBook/MetalMen) protects Magog from dying from a nuclear blast. Magog wasn't ''completely'' protected, as he shows signs of radiation sickness.]]

* GaiasLament: After Captain Atom is torn open by Parasite, the entirety of Kanses, along with parts of Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri, are reduced to an irradiated wasteland.

* FoodEnd: The story ends with the heroes having a meal at a restaurant.

* EverybodysDeadDave: What Norman [=McCay=]'s visions tell him will happen. In the end [[spoiler:not ''quite'' everybody dies, but the final battle gets a massive nuke dropped on it. Only a few survive]].

* EverybodyHelpsOutDenouement: The fourth and final issue ends with most superheroes (as well as normal people) actively cleaning up the mess they've made during the story. Batman turns Wayne Manor into a field hospital with the helps of plenty of other superheroes, Superman works on a farm, and Wonder Woman reunites with the Amazons to help them adjust to this new world.

* {{Eagleland}}: Since the book is essentially a gigantic CrisisCrossover, there are a number of old-tyme DC heroes and their replacements or counterparts with patriotic themes representing the Type 1s, but as the second act starts, Americommando and the Minutemen start going on a violent rampage against "the wretched refuse" of immigrants... though, they are being mind-controlled at the time.

* CanonImmigrant:
** The version of Superman introduced in Kingdom Come was later incorporated into the main [=DC=] continuity and interacted with the Justice Society.
** The Kingdom Come-verse is officially Earth-22 of the post-''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' multiverse.
** Versions of a number of ComicBook/KingdomCome characters also ended up in the Main DCU's JSA, including Atom Smasher, Cyclone, and even Magog himself.
** Alloy showed up in in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''. Then again, the Metal Men combining is just too good an idea not to use...
** ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueGenerationLost'', which had a major subplot having to do with the events of ''Kingdom Come'', actually ''did'' use it. In a reversal of this, Rorschach shows up twice in the bar scene... at one point talking to the character he's an {{Expy}} of, The Question.
** The (Kid) Flash of this series later showed up in a few other stories, and was identified as Iris West II. Taken a step further, the mainstream Wally West eventually had twins, one of whom was Iris "Irey" West II, who became the second Impulse.

--->''Ibn al Xu'ffasch:'' And they're prepared to fight tooth and nail with the generation that sired them?
--->''Batman:'' Aren't all young people, son?

* CallToAgriculture: After retirement, Clark Kent is living in an artificial farm.

** Diana was so consumed with regaining her "Amazon honor" that [[spoiler:she didn't think until it's too late how normal humans would react to the League's war against the dangerous metahumans.]]
** The League didn't seem to realize that putting ''hundreds'' of angry metahumans in a gulag might not go well if containment was breached. ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} did, which is why he refused. In the {{Novelization}}, an angry US Secretary-General tells them that ''un-powered'' criminals manage to break out of high security prisons on a regular basis:

** Often, for purely narrative purposes, writings depict superheroes either [[LetsYouAndHimFight fighting each other or knowingly provoking a superhuman brawl on public ground]], causing reckless, almost wanton destruction and after everything is resolved, they simply walk (or fly) away as if nothing had happened, without any consequences, often even making light of it. Examples: A superhero, just by Rule of Cool, picks up a random car on the street and bludgeons some supervillain using the car as a melee weapon or decides to make a dramatic landing by crashing into a vehicle during landing. In this story it is shown how ridiculous, violent and selfish a person would need to be to destroy other people's belongings and risk the lives of civilians just to show off.

* DemBones: Deadman is considerably more skeletal than usual when he shows up.

** [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Killing dozens of villains for peace]] may have eliminated a good chunk of crime, but that does not mean crime is gone for good. Also, after years of HeWhoFightsMonsters battles, the “heroes” are no longer fighting villains but fighting each other; sometimes out of dislike, mostly of them out of boredom, and all of society suffers in the long run.
** [[IdealHero Having a set of uncompromisingly moral superheroes]] may look good in paper, but the very inflexibility of their moral compasses lead to a constant tug of war between good and evil, which in turn made people look up to "heroes" that would have less qualms to end things once and for all. This is most noticeable with Superman, who elected to exile himself from the world as public opinion swung in favour of Magog after he killed the Joker instead of confronting him and the possibility that his ideals might have limits.
** Often, for purely narrative purposes, writings depicted superheroes either [[LetsYouAndHimFight fighting each other or knowingly provoking a superhuman brawl on public ground]], causing almost wanton destruction and after everything was resolved, they simply walked away as if nothing had happened, without any consequences, often even making fun of it. Examples: A superhero, just by Rule of Cool, picks up a random car on the street and bludgeons some supervillain using the car as a melee weapon or decides to make a dramatic landing by crashing into a vehicle during landing. In this story it is shown how ridiculous, violent and selfish a person would need to be to destroy other people's belongings and risk the lives of civilians just to show off.

** [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Killing dozens of villains for peace]] may have eliminated a good chunk of crime, but that does not mean the crime is gone for good. Also after years of HeWhoFightsMonsters battles, the “heroes” are no longer fighting villains but fighting each other. Sometimes out of dislike, most of them out of boredom and everyone suffers in the long run.

** Superman is easily [[TheCape one of the greatest superheroes if not the greatest]]. He’s a pedestal of the superhero age, and many people look up to him. So what he happens when a great figure many look up for guidance just leaves, who do people go to ask for advice or need help go to? When the public support went to the anti-heroes everyone looked to Magog, but his actions helped little and ushered a dark age.

** When a bunch of “superheroes” with a [[NinetiesAntiHero darker and grittier attitude to crime]] than Batman starts targeting villains, they wipe out a significant amount of super villains in about 10 years. But when there is no one else to fight, they begin fighting each other and everyone nearby feels the full-effect of their battles.

* DarkAgeOfSupernames: The list of new generation of anti-heroes and/or villains include such standouts as NIL-8, Joker's Daughter, Germ-Man, Swastika and Shiva the Destroyer.

%%* DarkAgeOfSupernames: The new generation of anti-heroes-villains names.

* DarkerAndEdgier: {{Invoked|trope}} when Batman notes that black (replacing the yellow in the "S" insignia) is a new look for him. Superman replies it's "[[AndThisIsFor for Kansas]]." Batman harshly chuckles and snarks, "[[ArmorPiercingResponse Is there anything you can't justify?]]"

* CrapsackWorld: Ten years after Superman and most other famous superheroes have retired, the world has become overrun with more and more violent metahumans. Their fights are a constant source of collateral damage and put countless civilian lives in danger; many now compare hero/villain fights to gang wars. The Kansas tragedy has sterilized America's breadbasket, throwing the world's economy into near-collapse with the threat of global famine. There are also more subtle signs of how crappy this world is, like when Norman [=McCay=] is offered a signed baseball from the last world series ever played.
* CruelMercy: Superman opts to spare Magog so that the latter will live with his sins.

* CentralTheme: The loss of humanity through [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans justifying your actions]], whether it be taking a life or swinging around your power to get people in line. All the classic silver age heroes had lost their connection to the very people they swore to protect, Superman retired to his Fortress of Solitude, Wonder Woman lost her royal title because she spent more time as an ambassador of peace than as a more proactive warrior[[note]]She was told by her mother that her ambassador efforts hadn't changed Mankind one iota[[/note]], Flash existed in constant motion unable to interact with anyone, Green Lantern remained in a watchtower construct in orbit over Earth and Batman policed Gotham via drones. As such the new generation, who idolized the classic heroes, were left without guidance and fought each other as much as they fought supervillains. In the {{Novelization}}, Norman's narration [[ArcWords repeats several times]] "There is a right and a wrong in this universe. And that distinction is not hard to make."

** Lord Naga (Kobra) does this when he asks Lex what he plans to do about Superman. It's the only time Lex is completely out of control.

** Batman's "Hello, Billy" [[spoiler: to a fallen Captain Marvel]] also counts.

** The trope is in full, horrifying effect in the book's climax, when Superman himself [[spoiler: nearly murders everyone in the United Nations building]] in his wrath.
* BigNo: Wonder Woman after Captain Comet is killed by Von Bach.

** A female-shaped robot from the Gulag scene, looks a lot like the robot Maria from Fritz Lang's ''Film/{{Metropolis}}''. (This is actually a MythologyGag to a pre-existing CaptainErsatz; Mekanique originally appeared in ''All-Star Squadron'', where didn't look as much like Maria, but was created by a scientist called Rotwang.)