There's a good reason why this is an Elseworlds title. Because there is no way the heroes depicted would ever let the world end up like that and they sure wouldn't act that way.

I will admit it was an interesting idea, just not written that well.

Ponderously wordy, not too many words, just the wrong words.
A few months ago I pulled out one my old comics to see about how many words per page they used. It averaged around 200 words a page (books have around 250 words per page), but it never felt like there were too many words in the story. It was just the right amount to propel the story forward & explain what needed to be explained to the reader.
Kingdom Come on the other hand had fewer words, but they were the wrong words to propel the story forward, and very little was explained.

At the end was a guide to who some of the characters were and what there histories were, but it would have been nice if this stuff actually appeared in the story. Clearly Waid had thought a lot of interesting ideas up. Too bad he couldn't have done his job as writer better to let the readers know these relationships & backstories. As it was I didn't know any of the new characters & therefore didn't care about them. "Oh, they might die, big whoop."

Of course the old heroes were so different from the characters I knew that I didn't really care about them either. The main exception was an old 50's sci-fi hero that I didn't really know all that well. (I've read maybe 2 or 3 of his original stories & a handful of the stories he appeared in during his 70's revival.) And frankly his death didn't really make much sense. Captain Comet was a mutant, born a million years before his time, so his main powers were mental, although in the 70's it was said that his strength was about a tenth that of Superman's, and yet this underpowered hero was stationed in the Gulag trying to rehabilitate these ultra-powered thugs into being responsible super-heroes. Excuse me? There is stupidity and there is arrogance, but the word has not been invented to explain why Captain Comet would have been stationed at the Gulag.

One of the cute things about the book is spotting the in-jokes. References to past characters, adventures, comics, etc., etc.

Onto the general nits
Why was Wesley Dodds (the original Sandman) having visions of the future? Does this have something to do with Sandman's II & III?

If Gotham is being patrolled by Bruce Wayne's robots, then why did the Fat Albert gang commit a crime in the first place? Must have been out-of-towners who didn't believe the hype.

So what was the deal with the Flash? Was he a Flash we had seen before or somebody (thing?) else?

So Green Lantern is stationed in orbit waiting for extraterrestrial attack. Excuse me? Hal Jordon is the Green Lantern for a whole space sector, not one dinky little planet. He should be patrolling space, not stationed in one spot.

How did a weakened Parasite split Captain Atom? I can see him absorbing Captain Atom's powers, but splitting him? And what a groaner. Split Captain Atom and cause a nuclear explosion. This was funny when it was an old Fred Hembeck cartoon, but not in a serious story.

It took me forever to recognize Robin/Nightwing/Red Robin. The old comics that the in-jokes honored would have made sure that characters were identified, especially when they'd changed their appearance.

If Edward Nigma is so annoying, why was he allowed in the MLF meetings, besides filling in the readers on whom some of these characters were? (I guess he's just a cabbagehead. ;-)

What is the relationship between Riddler & Catwoman?

It's mentioned that away from America the Justice League doesn't do as well in their battles. Why? Are the metahumans stronger overseas?

Kryptonite is mentioned as a possible way to defeat Supes, but Luthor says that Kryptonite isn't as effective, because Superman absorbed so much solar energy during his years on Earth, so that he is at his most invulnerable. Any number of stories indicated that Kryptonite, like Superman, became dangerous under a yellow sun & powerless under a red sun. (I guess that's why it's called an Elseworlds story. Different rules.) Also it's implied that Superman has spent the last ten years hiding in his Fortress of Solitude and I didn't see a sun roof.

The Guardian of the Universe is called Ganthet here, but in the normal continuity his name is Ganthnet. Well, it is an Elseworlds story.

When Norman is pulled out of the spirit plane by the Flash, and asked to explain who he is, why didn't he mention the Spectre?

When Captain Marvel says SHAZAM the lightening bolt is supposed to strike him and change him to Billy Batson & vice versa, but here he says SHAZAM and the lightning bolt strikes what he wants it to strike.

Metahumans have been causing problems for a long time when the story begins, but it's only when the UN finds out about the Gulag that they decide to nuke them. So why haven't they tried taking out some of these metahumans before? If they have a weapon that can wipe out a lot of them, then shouldn't they also have weapons that can take out one or two at a time?

Since the Spectre has talked with God why was he seen sitting in Norman's church listening to the sermon?

At the end of the main story, they say that Batman/Bruce now wears white instead of black, but in the epilogue, One Year Later, Bruce Wayne is wearing a black suit to meet with Clark & Diana.

Superman & Wonder Woman. What is it with shippers who try to fix up characters who have zero chemistry?

In the guide at the back it is said in two places that Jade & Obsidan's mother was the Ross & Thorne. That's Rose & Thorne. But then this is an Elseworlds story. (Don't ask, don't tell.)

The guide identifies one of the characters as the Original Red Tornado, Ma Hunkel. I would say that Ma Hunkel was probably the oldest member of the Justice Society of America and I would guess that she would have to be somewhere around a hundred years old when this story takes place. (I don't believe the exact date was given in this story, although baseball ended in 2002.)

::Why was Wesley Dodds (the original Sandman) having visions of the future? Does this have something to do with Sandman's II & III? ::

In the latest incarnation of the Wesley Dodds Sandman, seen in the excellent Sandman Mystery Theatre series, Wesley is plagued/blessed with prophetic dreams- sort of ties in with his relationship to Morpheus (see the "Sandman Midnight Theatre" special), his namesake.

Better late than never:-)

I'm under the impression that the Kingdom Come Green Lantern is Alan Scott, hence the fact that wood is forbidden on his fortress. Quite what became of Kyle Rayner is anyones guess!

The sequence where Atom-Smasher punches out Super-Marv is one of my favourites, even if it did take me ages to spot it was Super-Marv!

Where was it said that wood was forbidden on his fortress?

As for my comment about Captain marvel having the lightning strike where he wanted I guess that was based on an old Gerry Conway Captain Marvel vs. Superman story, where the Captain wondered if he could call Shazam then use the speed of Mercury to move out of the way. This, of course, assumes that MAGIC lightning works the same way as regular lightning.

The forbidden nature of wood comes in 'The Kingdom', the Kingdom Come sequel, the Minotaur goes berserk and starts waving a wooden sword around. Red Robin and Nightstar have to restrain him.

'The Kingdom' is worth reading for the ending, where Superman meets...someone very important to, well, all us older readers.

Ah, Kingdom Come.......
First off, I gotta say, I've never been a massive DC comics fan. I was always more of a Marvel man I'm afraid, apart from Batman of course. But, then one fateful day, my friend decided to clean out his attic, and he found four comics that looked fairly interesting, and I got my hands on them, and man oh man...... This story blew me away. Perhaps because I was looking at it as a new reader rather than a dyed-in-the-wool fan. I knew who the major players were, Superman, Wonder Woman and most of the big characters, but I didn't really know any of the backstory, like the Superman/Magog thing, or the Kansas incident. So I've come here to ask a few questions.....
1. Was there some great significance in who the Spectre eventually turned out to be?
2. Who was the ghost who spoke to McKay while the Spectre was off with the others? Boston or something?He looked a lot like Cassius from that music video. (If Cassius had no skin of course.....)
3. What's the story with Robin? There was the one guy in the cape and mask who I thought was Robin, but then another guy shows up at the U.N. during the meeting wherer they decide to drop the bomb, wearing the same Robin symbol. And I'm fairly sure the caped Robin was elsewhere, so was it a different guy?
4. The Flash; Always one of my favs, but what's the deal with the Flash we see here? I really liked the way he was drawn in a constant motion blur but is he unable to stop moving or something?
5. Would I be right in saying that Batman wears that frame because he's crippled from the Bane fight?
6. Did I see other people in the background who had the same powers as the Green Lantern? A woman specifically...
7. What exactly were Magog's powers? Or where did he come from?

Well, that's all that springs to mind right now. Please, help a fledgling DC reader.......

KAM:

::Any number of stories indicated that Kryptonite, like Superman, became dangerous under a yellow sun & powerless under a red sun. ::

I don't recall any such stories -- can you give examples? My understanding is that kryptonite is kryptonite no matter where it goes. In fact, Kryptonian people began to experience a sickness right before the planet exploded -- they called it "the Green Death," as if it were a plague -- but we the readers were to understand that the first pieces of kryptonite were coming into existence, on Krypton, under their red sun. And killing them.

::The Guardian of the Universe is called Ganthet here, but in the normal continuity his name is Ganthnet. Well, it is an Elseworlds story. ::

A 1992 comic book, titled "Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale," written by Larry Niven and drawn by John Byrne, spelled his name "Ganthet," as have many other comics since. If you spotted a comic that spelled in "Ganthnet," then you found a typo.

::When Norman is pulled out of the spirit plane by the Flash, and asked to explain who he is, why didn't he mention the Spectre? ::

Eh. There were a lot of things that he could have said at that point. But he got tongue-tied. Simple as that.

cableface:

::1. Was there some great significance in who the Spectre eventually turned out to be? ::

The way I read it, it wasn't that he turned out to be some particular person (it was just Jim Corrigan, the same old guy who was always the Spectre) -- it was, rather, that he elected to take off the dang cloak and actually hang with real people as a real person for once. That's all that scene meant.

::4. The Flash; Always one of my favs, but what's the deal with the Flash we see here? I really liked the way he was drawn in a constant motion blur but is he unable to stop moving or something?
5. Would I be right in saying that Batman wears that frame because he's crippled from the Bane fight? ::

Both are pretty good ideas, but I don't think anything in either Kingdom Come or other DC books particular prove them. Good thinking, though.

The answer to #6: Jade, the daughter of the Green Lantern. And #2: Deadman, who has turned skeletal -- an interesting fashion choice, IMHO.

Don't know the answers to #3 or #7.

What exactly were Magog's powers? Or where did he come from?
Luigi Novi: Magog was Alex Ross' comment on the popularity of Rob Liefeld's Cable, and in general, the violent excess of the comics that guys like Liefeld were producing at that point that were very popular. Magog is made to look like Cable, and even his costume was intended to embody what Alex Ross felt was "everything that's wrong" in then-current costume fads. His powers were probably less important than what he was supposed to represent, in contrast to Superman.

cableface
#2, as dsv100 mentioned, Deadman aka Boston Brand a circus acrobat who after getting killed was given a new life by Rama Kushna. He can possess the body of another person by touching it. Started in the 1960's.

#3, the one guy with the cape & mask, apparently called Red Robin, was the original Robin, Dick Grayson. The guy at the UN (BTW I thought he was wearing Blackhawk's symbol) is thought by some readers to be Tim Drake (Robin #3), but I don't think it's ever made clear in the story.

dsv100
Pre-Crisis stories do mention this. The Green Death you mention must be a Post-Crisis invention.
Supergirl's origin mentions that Argo City was safe until it passed out of Krypton's solar system, then the inhabitants had to cover the ground with lead to survive.
An issue of DC Comics Presents teams up Superman with Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld & in that story it's mentioned that kryptonite is harmless if Superman is missing his superpowers.
I'm certain there are other examples I just can't remember them at the moment.

Guess I just read the wrong Ganthet story.

Cheers for that folks, but answers breed more questions.......
Specifically, why did Ross have a problem with Cable? And I suppose the way I should've asked the question the first time around is, was Magog a character before Kingdom Come? See, I assumed I was missing out on a lot of backstory, but now I'm wondering, given other people's comments here, whether Kingdom Come is just a stand-alone kinda thing......

Kingdom Come was an "ELswheres" story (Marvel calls them "What If..." stories.) Much of the backstory is the same as the "mainstream" DC Universe, but there are changes, especially real consequences for certain past deeds (such as Batman locked in that brace.)

I'd fallen away from my comics roots before KC came out, so I'm not 100% sure, but I got the definite impression that Magog simply stood out as the most visible example of the "classic' heroes passing the torch to a new (and less worthy) generation.

It was a stand-alone, but it did spawn a sequel called The Kingdom.

There is an annotation of this story here.

The early to mid 90s was marked by the intense popularity of artists, and of certain artistic "styles" derived from them, most notably, Todd McFarlane, Jim and Rob Liefeld. When they began to use their clout to demand writing duties, some of them, particularly McFarlane and Liefeld, came under a lot of criticism for their lack of writing talent, and in the case of Liefeld, for the excessive, ultra-violent and shallow comics they were creating. Because Rob Liefeld, who created Cable, wrote him in much the same way as Magog appears in Kingdom Come, and because Liefeld's greatest talent appeared to be in the area of costume design rather than character development, Ross modeled Magog after Cable, in part to comment on this industry fad, and in part to comment on the importance of Superman's outlook of restraint and forgiveness over Magog/Cable's outlook of revenge and unilateral authority to kill. I believe Kingdom Come was in fact Magog's first appearance.

"...Todd McFarlane, Jim and Rob Liefeld. When they began to use their clout to demand writing duties, some of them, particularly McFarlane and Liefeld, came under a l..." - Luigi

Do you mean Jim "Lee", bro? I don't remember hearing about a Jim Liefeld.

Arrgh. Yeah, Jim Lee.

KAM wrote: "Supergirl's origin mentions that Argo City was safe until it passed out of Krypton's solar system, then the inhabitants had to cover the ground with lead to survive."

Interesting. You may be citing a different book, but I've got a reprint of Action Comics 252, in which Supergirl first appears and tells her origin, and it doesn't say the Argo City soil turned to kryptonite at the solar system's border.

It says the Argoians noticed the ground glowing green "when night fell." Now, of course, this begs the question, what is night, when your city is no longer anchored to a rotating planet? Otto Binder, the writer, may or may not have thought of this when he used the word "night" in that story, but "night" should be either (1) the planetary fragment, upon separation from Krypton, began spinning subtlely, thus hiding the city from the sun periodically, or (2) they just got further and further from the sun until finally "night" fell when they were sufficiently far away from it.

Personally, (1) makes more sense to me. But (2) probably also means they were still inside the solar system when the soil turned green and radioactive.

It probably was a later version. I'll have to dig through my comics & find it.

Still haven't found the story, but I had some thoughts about the "when night fell" comment and posted them on the Supergirl board (under Superman Books) since it's off-topic here.

Oh, I have no problem taking your word for it, that there was such a story, establishing the solar-system border as the transformation point. I'll just refer to this as The Comic KAM Can't Find But I Believe It's There (TCKAMCFBIBIT) :p

I'm actually more curious if you can dig up a comic that strengthens your assertion that kryptonite is only potent under a yellow sun and inert under a red sun. I don't really count TCKAMCFBIBIT, 'cause that is a story where some rock turns INTO kryptonite for the first time. The Argo soil wasn't kryptonite to begin with, so of course it emitted no radiation until, well, until it DID begin emitting radiation.

Do you have any stories where someone took a piece of kryptonite out of our solar system, brought it to a red-sun system, and discovered it was inert? I'm quite curious about the "any number of stories" you mentioned in your original post.

Anyway, I basically don't mean to keep harping on this stuff. You have a lot of valid points on Kingdom Come, which I didn't respond to 'cause I agree with 'em. Like: "Ponderously wordy, not too many words, just the wrong words," an excellent description and I couldn't have said it better.

Well, I wasn't able to find the comic that said Argo City's soil turned to kryptonite outside Krypton's solar system.

As for the kryptonite is not fatal under a red sun argument, well I think that was based in part on the comic I can't find & the DC Comics Presents story that I mentioned above. However I don't own that issue of DCCP, don't know what number it is & can't quote the line exactly. However it seemed to me that if kryptonite couldn't harm Superman if he was powerless then it would be powerless under a red sun, where he has no powers.

Old comic fan senility strikes again.

:: However it seemed to me that if kryptonite couldn't harm Superman if he was powerless then it would be powerless under a red sun, where he has no powers. ::

Agreed, only to the extent that the rock's ability to affect the man vanishes in that circumstance. But that is because, in that circumstance, the man has been altered. The rock has not been altered.

Neither does the rock undergo any loss of its inherent radioactive qualities as a result of Superman losing his powers under Earth's yellow sun. Magic spells, for example. If the DCCP issue showed a villain casting a spell rendering Superman normal via magic, that spell surely did nothing to the collection of kryptonite playing cards in Lex Luthor's desk drawer, and the other kryptonite samples dispersed throughout the continental U.S. and the cosmos.

I believe magic was used to remove Supes power in that story.

Ignoring my assumption about kryptonite losing power, why would Superman absorbing solar energy make him more invulnerable to kryptonite? I don't remember any story stating anything to this effect. I think it would have been better to say that there was no more kryptonite on Earth.

:: why would Superman absorbing solar energy make him more invulnerable to kryptonite? ::

Well, it occurs to me that if you punch me in the stomach enough times, eventually you'll find that I'm not bothered by a punch in the stomach. Luthor may just be mentioning solar radiation in that scene 'cause he had no better, more technical, explanation to offer.

As for the Maggog question...

Kingdom Come is basically a DC attempt to tell the events of the Biblical account of Revelations if Superheroes existed in the world.

First, some background: According to Revelations, sometime in the future, the rapture will occur. All Christians worldwide will be taken up to Heaven. Satan incarnate (called the Anti-christ) will take power for 7 years. During these 7 years, of course, new Christians will inevitably start believing. They will be persecuted terribly, but at least some will survive the 7 years. At the end of that time, Christ will return, Satan will be cast into a bottomless pit, and there will be a heaven on earth, etc.
The Christians that are alive at the end of those 7 years will live normaly through this time, with ordinary (and extremely long lived) bodies, and continue, among other things, to have children.
At the end of 1000 years, a couple of demons Gog and Meggog, will stir up rebellion amoung some of the children of those origional 7 years survivors.
Somehow, even after living all their life in a heaven on earth where god is directly dwelling, they'll believe that they have a chance of overthrowing him or something. They'll rise up along with all of the remaining demons loyal to satan (Which, I guess, would be all of them).
They will be defeated, all of the believers will be taken up to heaven, Satan and his followers will be chained in a lake of fire, and everybody lives happily (or, if you picked the wrong side, sadly) ever after. Literaly. Would make one heck of a movie.

Anyway, Kingdome come sets up these basic events, and remove "God, Satan, Believers, Demons, etc." and replace them with Supoerheroes/Villans, and takes "All go up to heaven" and replace it with "A new era of peace."

So Meggog is basically based on the demon Meggog from Revalations. And no, they probably never bothered to put more thought into him than that.

Okay, you can all wake up now. I'm done.