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"Mighty Rivers": In 1998, Superman sees on TV reports of a nuclear blast in Kansas, and so travels there to find Captain Atom being attacked by Gog, who then turns his attention on Superman, expecting his arrival. Unable to stop Gog, Superman sees that his future counterpart as well as that of B

The Kingdom #2 is an issue of the series The Kingdom (Volume 1) with a cover date of February, 1999.

Synopsis for "Mighty Rivers"

In 1998, Superman sees on TV reports of a nuclear blast in Kansas, and so travels there to find Captain Atom being attacked by Gog, who then turns his attention on Superman, expecting his arrival. Unable to stop Gog, Superman sees that his future counterpart as well as that of Batman and Wonder Woman have appeared on the scene. After Superman of the present summons his counterparts of Batman and Wonder Woman, the future team tries to let the present-day team know why they're here, and so offer their help to at least rescue Superman's child from Gog. But as the future era Superman and Wonder Woman see their child apparently "disappear" into "nonexistence", the latter of the two now seeks vengeance against Gog. Hunter appears and transports the heroes into Booster Gold's Planet Krypton restaurant in the present, where Hunter's other allies from the future era await to help. Hunter transports the entire restaurant into Hypertime, but Gog soon joins the heroes in battle, in which they engage him using all sorts of weapons found in the restaurant collected from all sorts of realities. Gog blasts the present-day Superman through a wall before he finally falls, causing the heroes to be sucked out into Hypertime, which they realize is the secret Hunter's been trying to hide: a multitude of alternate realities, which the future era heroes realize they are a part of. A figure resembling the Phantom Stranger, who turns out to be the older version of Superman and Wonder Woman's child, gives his infant self back to his parents, safe and sound. As the Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman of the present time are sent back to their own reality, the remaining heroes take Gog to the Quintessence in order to have them deal with their agent.

Meanwhile, the Superman seen pounding at some barrier over the sky of his Metropolis realizes that even though the barrier is still there he now knows there is a door. He can use the "door" to fly to whatever is past the barrier. He gives a wink to the reader, suggesting that someday he will.

Appearing in "Mighty Rivers"

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Notes

  • This story is reprinted in The Kingdom collected edition.

Trivia

  • This is first Post-Crisis story where Superman is shown to be able to transform coal into diamond by friction, as his Pre-Crisis counterpart. (On a previous 'xmas story he describes himself being unable of this feat).
  • The weapons in the Planet Krypton restaurant that were used against Gog include the Earth-One Phantom Zone projector, the power ring from Power Ring of Earth-Three, the Golden Age Sandman's gas gun, Jonah Hex's pistols, Atomic Knight's shield and sword, Green Arrow's bow and arrows, the Blue Devil's trident, and Orion's astro harness.
  • The Golden Age Superman is seen at the end of the story leaving the still intact barrier around his city as he has realized there is a door he can use at anytime. It is uncertain if this is the Superman who entered the paradise dimension at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 or a Hypertime variant.
  • Other figures seen in Hypertime include characters from the Tangent universe (like the Joker, the Flash, and Power Girl) as well as from various Elseworld stories. The figure of Black Zero would appear in the Superboy "Hyper-Tension" storyline ((Superboy (Volume 4) #60 #64) as the main villain who is out to destroy Superboy in the various alternate realities.
  • Jonah Hex can be seen as a lifelike dummy inside Planet Krypton. This is a reference to the last Jonah Hex story, where circus owner L.B. Farnham steals his corpse and has him taxidermied to be put on display. That's no dummy, it's his actual corpse.[1]
  • Red Son Superman makes a cameo in Hypertime prior to his full appearance in Superman: Red Son.


See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References

Kingdom Come Trade paperback
Kingdom Come Continuity Storyline/Crossover
DC Bullet 2024

Kingdom Come was a four-issue limited series published in 1996 under DC's Elseworlds imprint. Like all Elseworlds, this series was set in an alternate reality outside that of the mainstream DC Universe (in this case, Earth-96/Earth-22/Earth 22). However, several elements and characters were later introduced in the mainstream universe.
This template will categorize articles that include it into the Kingdom Come category.

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