  Among
the many interesting things Ross is doing visually in Kingdom Come,
he is deftly lacing the scenes with intertexual images from the range of
popular culture. On this two-page spread alone, his art pays homage to
the comic book, film, and television mediums.
Of course, there's a massive amount of intertextuality to comic books,
almost by necessity. In the superhero genre particularly, continuity concerns
make intertextuality a priority -- it is presumed that readers would object
to a story of Superman in September that contradicts something he did in
July. So, whenever Superman is shown, the bulk of his publishing history
looms behind him. But, Ross manages to weave in still further connections
to the medium. On the first panel of page 69, a eyepatched photojournalist
looks towards his fellow reporters; he bears a striking resemblence to
Phil Sheldon from Ross' 1994 Marvels. That series was published
by Marvel Comics, DC Comics' competitor, thus making Sheldon's appearance
that much more surprising -- perhaps his glance away from the Justice League
is not aimed at the reporters, but actually intended off the page for the
careful reader!
 Two other visual
twists are to be found on this page. First, the reader is introduced to
Secretary-General Wyrmood, a striking resemblence to FBI Assistant Director
Walter Skinner as played by Mitch Pileggi on the X-Files
television show. Both men find themselves in similar situations: they are
rational mean forced to do irrational things on behalf of government authority
due to superhuman/supernatural occurrences. Cinema had a large influence
towards Ross' redesign of the grown Boy Wonder, Robin (now Red Robin).
As Lamken notes, Ross "made sure that the former Robin reflected the more
molded, anatomical look popularized by Neal Adams and, later, Tim Burton's
Batman"
(102). The final ironic turn of the screw here is that Superman is talking
about the
New Breed being vigilantes
even as the product of a DC's first real vigilante stands next to him.
|
Many of the superheroes
hide their identities behind masks. In fact, in the 1986 landmark comic
book Watchmen, all of the costumed adventurers are called masks,
given its almost compulsory inclusion for superheroics. Of course, it also
conceals identity and could add to distrust of an individual; that is why
Batman
who preys on criminals' terror seems appropriate for having one and Superman
who relies on faith and hope does not. However, when this older, grimmer
Superman
returns, Ross has his eyes always obscured in shadow when addressing the
public. In addition, his voice is graphically shown to have greater resonance
and daunting power -- would this put normal humans at ease? It is almost
as if he is wearing his own mask...perhaps to match his new, questionable
approach?
Superman's
public address takes place outside the U.N. Yet, if one looks closely,
there is a good amount of military swarming the front area. This could
be a good indicator of just how fretful the humans have become of the 
One reporter
in the crowd has the sheer chutzpah to question 
In his book, Understanding
Comics, Scott McCloud speaks about the customary left-to-right and
top-to-bottom reading format of comic book panels. But he admits that the
process can be "so complex, in fact, that even seasoned pros will sometimes
blow it" (86). Further, sometimes the customary sequence is meant to be
violated: "some artists can be deliberately ambiguous." In fact, in her
study of eye tracking during picture viewing, Jana Holsanova notes a clearly
different method of reading a picture -- "the eye movements during picture
viewing" (1) -- than the presumed panel format explained by McCloud. All
that said, it seems fair to break from general convention and look at the
comic page in unintentional, unconventional ways. One interesting result
of that method would be the face-off between the two large Superman panels
on pages 68 & 69. The first one is done through a low point-of-view,
looking up at the proud titan, as he optimistically states, "We will make
things right again." However, the other panel shifts the point-of-view
up slightly and zooms in on a bothered 
