Book of Doom:
JSA Kingdom Come Special: Superman


justice society of america kingdom come special supermanThis week, against my better judgment, I picked the Justice Society of America one-shot spin-off featuring Superman from Earth-22, better known as the Kingdom Come Superman. I say it’s against my better judgment, because I really didn’t like Kingdom Come all that much. The art is really stiff, and I’ve never found the story that particularly engaging. I know, it’s supposed to be a classic and everything, but Alex Ross has always bored the hell out of me.

Still, though, Justice Society has been incredibly entertaining lately, so I figured I’d give this a shot. Was it worth it?

In my opinion, that’s a resounding no.

We do plenty of complaining around here about high prices on comic books (with good reason, mind you), but this week proved to be an especially expensive week, with several books coming out with a $3.99 cover price. Take an issue like Nightwing, where it’s the 150th issue, the conclusion to a big story-arc, and padded with lots of extra pages, and I’m perfectly okay with it. But, then, when you juxtapose that with this crap, where we’re basically paying an extra dollar to see the human models that Alex Ross used to draw this drivel, along with his stupid notes about how he did it, and you can imagine how angry I am about plunking down that extra buck.

Kingdom Come Superman has issues, and he’s starting to see that this earth isn’t exactly like his old earth. Great. We’ve seen that in the pages of JSA for the past year. There’s nothing new here, so all we’re given is a showcase for Alex Ross’ art and writing, both of which I’ve never been thrilled by.

I’m not going to buy any more of these one-shots. I’ll wait for the next issue of Justice Society and leave it at that. I’d rather not shell out twenty some bucks for stories that have no impact on the actual story.

Take it away, Jim Doom.

Jim Doom:
Man, this stunk. Lately I seem to be reflecting on comics by imagining the thought that went into its editorial conception, and for this one, it must have been “Hey, Alex Ross is really bored … do we have any books he could work on?” and then maybe someone else was like “Not really, so if you’re going to let him do his own thing, make sure it’s completely inconsequential.” And then the first person says “Okay.”

Then a few months later, Alex Ross says “Here guys, I made Justice Society of America Kingdom Come Special Superman #1.” It’s not necessarily a bad book. I just thought that it would either be one of two things — a crucial book for those who’ve been reading JSA, or a book that tells people who haven’t been reading JSA “Man, you’ve sure been missing out!” I fall into the latter camp, and man, I sure don’t feel like I’ve been missing out.

I mean let’s look at what happens in this story: KC Superman opens by wondering how he became the bad guy. Okay, good — some intrigue! So then he goes out on a hunt for this Earth’s Norman McKay, which results in nothing. Norman’s all like “Sorry Superman, no time to help you stop the world from ending … I gotta help my wife with some boxes or something.” Then we already get moved to the story that was happening at the beginning of the issue, when he was the self-professed “bad guy,” which turns out to be nothing — he accidentally hit Superman. Not exactly some kind of profound moment worth teasing out of context and then building up to.

This guy may be graying but he’s totally emo Superman. He just walks around and mopes about how nobody understands him. And then when people try to help, he bottles up. It’s the classic teenager syndrome — the world is terrible if no one understands me, but it’s even worse if someone does!

We then get a bunch of layouts, sketches and photo references for the behind the scenes look at this book. I don’t want to marvel at the mechanics of a car that doesn’t work, so I don’t really care about the underpinnings of an issue I didn’t care for, but this is an Alex Ross book, so what is it if not a thinly veiled showcase for photo-realistic superhero art?

I was actually shocked at how he just models real people and settings and then draws what he photographed. I realize most artists, if not all, use photo references, but the degree to which Ross does actually surprised me. What happened to artists knowing things like anatomy and perspective and stuff like that, without having to cheat on every angle and expression? Jeesh.

So thanks to the additional teasers in the back, I now know I’ll continue to skip JSA as well as avoiding new books Magog and The Kingdom.

Now to Jason @ Legend Comics:
I was looking quite forward to this as the Justice Society of America is one of my favorite super-teams and is unquestionably my favorite superhero comic these days. Geoff Johns is one of the top writers in the biz and the Alex Ross/Dale Eaglesham/Jerry Ordway art is always fantastic.

So did it meet my expectations? Sort of. The art, penciled but not painted by Alex Ross is AMAZING! I am going to go out on a limb and say I like this better than his painted art! It really is that good. His photo-realistic style is unmatched in today’s comic world and the traditional penciled/inked/colored art makes that style stand out even more.

So the art was fantastic, what about the story? The problem here is that this book reads like a Cliff Notes version of Kingdom Come. If you’ve read Kingdom Come, you know this story. If you haven’t, you really should read that first. Aside from an interesting tidbit at the end regarding the Kingdom Come Superman’s mental state of mind, all this really contains is KC Superman telling three people the events that led up to him being on Earth-1, which any regular reader of JSA or anyone who has read Kingdom Come already knows. His conversation with Lois Lane is touching, as is his encounter with this Earth’s version of a very important character from KC, but doesn’t really shed any new light or bring any new details to the story.

I am still very interested in the other JSA one-shots and I will be reading them. As for this one? Mildly recommended, if only for the art. Grade: B-

Now let’s turn things over to Fin Fang Doom:
The last time DC published a set of one-shot spinoffs of a major storyline was during 2007’s Sinestro Corps War. Those books weren’t exactly what you’d call “good.” They were a bunch of character pieces that really didn’t add anything to the overall story. Well, it seems like that’s essentially what these Kingdom Come Specials are going to be. The good news is that KCS: Superman wasn’t nearly as bad as the Sinestro Corps Specials were.

I’ve never been terribly impressed by Alex Ross as a writer. The recent Justice mini-series was pretty terrible, and his current Superpowers series at Dynamite Entertainment isn’t worth seeking out. But his writing in this issue wasn’t half bad. It probably helps that this Superman is a character that Ross knows pretty well (having co-created him and all) and this is a character-driven piece, not a plot-driven one.

I’ve got to say I liked this issue. It brought some depth to a character that jumpstarted this recent year-long story arc but hasn’t really been focused on since. Even at $3.99 this thing seemed like a good value, because there were ten pages of bonus material at the end featuring sketches and breakdowns by the artist.

It’s always great to get some new artwork from Alex Ross. Posters and covers are nice and all, but I really like to see Ross doing sequential art. I came into this issue expecting 22 pages of fully-painted art, but I was pleasantly surprised that wasn’t the case. For most of the issue, Ross’ pencils are colored by Alex Sinclair, which looks almost as great as painted stuff but undoubtedly takes a lot less time. Yet when the story flashes back to Earth-22, Ross fully paints the panels.

Matching different art styles with different universes is a cool idea, and gives a great consistency to the storytelling. In this Kingdom Come sequel, everything from Earth-22 has been painted by Ross, everything from Earth-2 has been drawn by Jerry Ordway, and everything on New Earth has been done by the regular artists. It’s a nice touch, and it’s a nice way around the problem artists always seem to have these days of not being able to keep deadlines.

and now introducing Robb with Capes Comic Book Lounge:
After reading this single issue, it was easily the best thing that was on my pull list last week.

First, I do agree that the extra pages of models and pre-inked pencils is not worth an extra buck just because it’s “Legend” comic artist Alex Ross’ work. But I will point out this. Alex Ross has produced some of his best art since the original Kingdom Come series. It felt clean and bright like Alex can do with his Photo realism pencils and watercolor. To me, Alex Ross of late has become the over-priced, star power that when he is attached to a book, no matter the quality, it sells. But for once his name has backed up the guts of these pages.

Secondly, I have to comment that Alex Ross is slowly turning into a good writer. I feel like he’s really figured out who this “other” Superman is. Alex has written him to be a retired leader, a soldier from another time, who has seen too many battles and sees himself as a possible future for earth prime. The interaction with Cyclone was simple but touching. Not to mention the meeting of Lois and K.C. Superman.

Some have also voiced that this Kingdom storyline has gone on to long and why did we need this one shot that didn’t anything new to offer the reader. I really disagree. The K.C.Superman was reminded that his Lois died at the hands of the Joker, and we get to relive his heartache and see what went down in between the panels of the original story. Not only this, but I’m really starting to feel a connection to the Silver Age, and the Pre-Crisis stories where each Universe was so rich with stories to offer. We as readers know that K.C. Superman’s world isn’t gone. And I for one can’t wait to see how he gets back.

I guess the bottom line is that this will not be the last “One” shot I read. Most of the time, I’m sick and tired of a crossover just to make money. But in this case, these side project provide glue and binding to this story, when the main title issues just couldn’t cover all the bases. After finishing this book, I can’t wait to read “Magog” and “The Kingdom”. This feels like the sequel to Kingdom Come I really wanted all those years ago. I doubt that anyone would dispute this is 100% better than the “sequel” that came out by Mark Waid in 1999.