Kingdom Come by Alex Ross, Mark Waid, Todd Klein (1998, Illustrated, Package)

I used to read a lot of comic books and have only just recently started reading them again. Right away, I heard about Kingdom Come as a great graphic novel, so of course I picked it up -- and was definitely blown away. The basic story revolves around the retirement of the older generation of superheroes and the rise of a new generation that doesn't have the same moral compass. Superman has retired to a farm after he becomes disillusioned with humans' supporting the flashier but less ethical metahumans, and now Wonder Woman has come to ask him to get involved again and help tame the ne'er-do-wells. At the same time, Batman and Superman renew an old animosity, and many many superheroes make appearances, especially in the climactic battle between the good guys and the bad. The story is very good, but it's Alex Ross's artwork that is the star here. His rendering of the older superheroes is brilliant (Superman looks awesome), and the color is bright and bold. (Personally, I don't like comics that are so dark that you can barely see what's going on -- I like the mood but I want to see the details too.) The font is clean and the panel configurations are creative. I liked the introduction by Elliot Maggin, who was writing the novelization of Kingdom Come at the time, and I especially enjoyed the follow-up material: sketches of major characters; id's of 105 (!) superheroes depicted in the novel; 2 pages about the development of a sequence, with facsimiles of the script, a photo reference, rough thumbnail sketches, pencil artwork and the finished art; and original artwork created for a t-shirt, comic covers, collection cards, books and posters. Alex Ross even identified a number of his friends and relatives who inspired various character