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Kingdom Come Special: Magog

posted by Matt Knicl at 12:25 am.

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Oh My Gog

This single issue is a tie-in to the Kingdom series, the “sequel” to Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ masterpiece Kingdom Come, which featured a futuristic DC Universe driven mad by its heroes, beautifully rendered as lifelike paintings. Recently the series Justice Society of America, the precursor team to the Justice League, has been involved in a Kingdom Come crossover, where the Superman from that alternate reality has come to the main DC universe. In the course of uncovering his purpose and the mystery in the series, the god known as Gog has appeared to usher in a better tomorrow for the world.

courtesy DC

Branching away from Justice Society, three single issues have come out to expand and/or continue that storyline - Kingdom Come Special: Superman, Kingdom Come Special: Magog and Kingdom Come Special: The Kingdom. The Magog issue specifically focused on a new character, Lance Corporal David Reid, the great grandson of FDR who was given super powers during a mission in Iraq. As far as the character goes, he’s not the only new character. DC and JSA in particular have become saturated with new heroes with manufactured legacies that confuse and sidetrack the story and readers, and Magog is one of them.

I can respect this character as he is allegorically meant to be a hero of our time, a soldier who volunteers for the armed forces after 9/11 and fights in current, real-life conflicts. But as far as that goes the purpose of the character is pretty straightforward - he is allegorically meant to be a hero of our time, a soldier who volunteers for the armed forces after 9/11 and fights in current, real-life conflicts. The idea of respect and honor of our armed forces is there, but not really - how can it be when that very character who is meant to be a positive American role model is statically portrayed as a “conflicted” and stereotypical soldier?

That aside, the story was decent. While the whole tie-in nonsense and this ploy to get more money is evident, this specific story did have an engaging story, the only problem being it was constructed of the above flaws. While Final Crisis is dying down and all the DC crap is getting straightened out, JSA is sadly still askew. The writer who prompted this stuff, Geoff Johns, is Mr. DC right now, writing several titles, and because of this he is given what seems like total creative autonomy (unless some of the titles are ghost written). Johns is a great writer, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be kept in check. Every cool idea, like making up 3 new characters an issue, or making a sequel to a perfect title from over a decade ago, should be shot down by the water cooler.

Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.