James Gunn has now made some extreme insinuations about the Kingdom Come plot and the blueprints of his new ward being somehow interlinked. Part of the Elseworlds issue, the 1996 miniseries featured one of the most chaotic, grim, hopeless, and expansive storylines among all its counterparts.
While some Elseworlds comics were known to go a bit over the top in their free rein to explore stories outside the DC Canon, none were as boldly visionary as the Kingdom Come narrative. Now, however, James Gunn — the master storyteller — looks to be the harbinger of the chaos in his run as DC Studios’ new creative and executive head.
The Kingdom Come Arc Sets Up an Ambitious DCU Storyline
The unimaginable had happened during the manifestation of the darkest possible alternate reality in DCU’s non-canonical run in the Elseworlds issue, Kingdom Come. Superman leaves Earth after the death of Lois Lane at the hands of the Joker. Magog rises as the new superhero in a time of morally compromised reality where people no longer deify the righteous, and so too, Magog’s actions represent the lack of an idealistic savior complex that usually guides the heroes who had occupied the world before him.
After a destructive course of events that nearly wipes out the Midwest in a nuclear disaster, Superman returns and bands together the Justice League with newer members in tow to put an end to the reigning madness.
Also read: 5 Reasons Why DC’s Elseworlds Curbstomps Marvel’s What If…?
The series was then put back on board with a 1999 sequel-cum-prequel issue, titled The Kingdom which focused on the continuation of the Kingdom Come narrative and its further extension. During the storyline taking place 20 years into the future, a ‘Kansas Holocaust’ takes shape which witnesses a survivor, later known as Gog, driven to madness by his powers, killing Superman and traveling back in time to do it all over again.
As the loop continues, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman are forewarned by a mysterious figure and are recruited to travel back to the Kingdom Come timeline. There they meet their younger selves and together fight to stop Gog. The younger Superman, upon learning about the future Superman’s fate and reality, eventually defeats and kills Gog, thus securing the future of his universe from succumbing to the fate of The Kingdom arc.
The Elseworlds Supermen Coming to DCU Hints James Gunn
While “Hypertime” may have explained the existence, overlap, and confusion of all the multi-realities in the Elseworld canon, the concept is yet to be introduced into the mainstream DCU. James Gunn‘s vision, however, happens to match perfectly with a cinematic Elseworlds storyline since the alternate realities would allow him to explore narrative arcs with free reign without impacting the original DCU canon. On the other hand, Gunn can tangentially separate the new DC universe from the existing DCEU by marking the latter within a Hypertime reality.
If such a thing were to occur, the co-existence of multiverses may soon allow a Kingdom Come storyline in DCU that could possibly bring together both Supermen from the future as well as the present timeline, giving the fans an explosive visionary delight of witnessing another impossible event — Henry Cavill and Brandon Routh fighting together against a common enemy.
Fans Demand a Multiverse With Henry Cavill, Brandon Routh
James Gunn’s persistent teasers on Twitter and Hive Social have sent fans on a multiverse-induced craze demanding a film that can sanction a clash of realities. The Kingdom Come arc puts forward the best narrative that can allow the DCU multiverse to occur and any and all confusion and overlap can be chalked up to the Hypertime, thus removing the problematic issue of every event being canon to the mainstream DCU timeline.
The cons of putting forward an Elseworlds cinematic adaptation could be the eradication of all existing timelines and like Flashpoint, put to rest all narratives that otherwise do not match the vision of David Zaslav and the DC executives’ 10-year plans. Although Kingdom Come presents more possibilities than erasing them, in the hands of James Gunn, DCU could practically explore a one-off arc, tag it within a Hypertime reality, and put an end to multiversal arcs.
Gunn’s recent indications about a limited number of DCAU shows being canonical to the cinematic DCU also hold the potential of an Elseworlds arc staying in continuity despite its removal from the cinematic universe.
Source: Twitter | James Gunn
