Episode 257: Kingdom Come Epilogue
Welcome to the two hundredth and fifty-seventh episode of From Crisis to Crisis: A Superman Podcast! This podcast has a simple premise; examine just about every Superman comic published between Man of Steel #1 in 1986 to Adventures of Superman #649 in 2006 in an informative and hopefully entertaining format.
Mike and Jeff conclude their coverage of Kingdom Come (finally) with an episode jam packed with all kinds of Kingdom Come extras. At the top of the episode, the boys interview writer Elliot S! Maggin. Elliot is one of the preeminent Superman writers, not only of the Bronze Age but of all time. He has written the Man of Steel in the comics and in prose and it’s the prose side of things that Mike and Jeff wanted to talk to him about because Elliot wrote the novel version of Kingdom Come. The boys ask Elliot about the process of writing the book, his thoughts about the story of Kingdom Come, his thoughts about Superman as a character, and also about his Superman work from before the mandate of this show.
After that Mike and Jeff dig into the collected editions and merchandise associated with Kingdom Come. This includes the various hardcovers, absolutes, and softcover collections, the trading card set, the action figures, and the audio drama. There are several digressions along the way comparing the merchandise from this series to the merchandise that came out with other big time comic book events. Then, after the credits, more with Elliot S! Maggin!
Below are the covers and select pages from the two main books Mike and Jeff discussed during this episode.
Here are the links to the Kingdom Come related episodes of Views From The Longbox and Dorkness to Light that Mike recorded with Professor Alan and Em Middleton back in 2016.
And here is a link to the various Elliot S! Maggin written books that you can buy. Mike particularly recommends Superman: Last Son and Superman: Miracle Monday.
Finally, here is a piece that Mike got from artist and podcaster Jarrod Alberich of the Kingdom Come Superman. Check out Jarrod’s podcasting efforts at The Longbox Crusade and his art site is his site The Yard Sale Artist.
Shows Promoted In This Episode
- Superman III Movie Minute – Hosted by Rob and Chris
- A World on Fire: An All-Star Squadron Podcast – Hosted by Billy and Herman
- Dial F For Flanger – Hosted by Paul Hix
The From Crisis to Crisis theme is by Lucian Desar.
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Next Time: Mike and Jeff kick off their coverage of the cover date September 1996 books by discussing Superman #115 and Adventures of Superman #538.
I don’t know a lot about the “From Crisis to Crisis” period of Superman, having read regularly only up until the “Death of Superman” storyline in the early 1990s, and I only read “Kingdom Come” several years after its original publication, but, when I saw that you were going to have an interview with Elliot S! Maggin, I had to listen to this episode. He is one of my favorite writers of Superman stories, both in the comics and in novels, and I thoroughly enjoyed your interview with him. Thank you for that, and for the segment at the end about the religious leanings of various different DC characters. It would have been interesting to hear Mr. Maggin’s answers about characters like the Spectre and Deadman, who both seem to have had some experience with the afterlife. (Maybe the Phantom Stranger, too.)
I smiled a bit to hear you both talking about trading cards related to Kingdom Come, and I think it was Michael who suggested that, in the ’90s, trading cards were kind of a big and slightly odd “deal”. Well, I remember 1964, when, in the wake of JFK’s assassination, Topps put out Kennedy trading cards. Even as a kid at the time, I thought that was pretty weird.
Good interview fellas. A great conclusion to the Kingdom Come coverage. Elliot was a hoot.
Looking forward to the Final Night.
So who’s reading what Super titles post Bendis?
I’m not currently reading any of the main Superman books. My plan is to wait for them to get collected and then go on sale on Comixology.
I want to read them as they pop up on the DC Inifnite service, but my iPad does not like tha app for some reason. After a few minutes of using the app it slows down to a crawl and I get frustrated.