Violence has been taught since childhood, everywhere people go, everywhere people look, violence is surrounding us in daily life. Throughout the years violence has become a dangerous trend. People use violence everyday as a sense of protection and even because it seems like the thing to do. Violence is so widespread it has become normal, and society is slowly becoming numb to the idea that violence is making our world worse. Many innocent people are being killed and questions are not being asked as well as the right actions are not being taken for the people using violence illogically.
When reports come in saying someone was murdered there is always an excuse for a criminal’s actions. Usually the person is mentally ill, had a rough childhood, or saw things as a child that made them use violence. Whether a person is in their right mind or not, violence is not acceptable. Violence is unsafe for our world and makes society live in fear because they worry about the possibility of dying each day. Living in a world where a culture of violence is accepted as the norm will always bring fear to the world.
This violence makes us feel like the end is near, and as time goes on it will bring about an apocalypse. In the novel Kingdom Come, authors Mark Waid and Alex Ross depict a culture of violence and the Apocalypse to illustrate that loss of humanity through violence ultimately leads up to Apocalypse, which cleanses the chaos and restores mankind. Kingdom Come raises the literary theme of Apocalypse through its depiction of uncontrolled violence and the resulting of the loss of humanity.
An Apocalypse is biblically, the final annihilation of the world, at times a result of uninhabited violence. The 1999 article “Ragnarok” by Micha F. Lindemans depicts an apocalypse by describing the meaning of the term Ragnarok as the “Doom of the Gods” (Lindemans e. p. 1). Ragnarok is the name to the Norwegians around the time the cosmos came to an end. This numbness to violence ties into the violent acts that metahumans are committing in the novel Kingdom Come. Narrator Norman McCay asserts, “—dear God.
The threat of armageddon hasn’t ended. It’s just begun… (Waid and Ross 55). The superheroes have self-consciously exacerbated “armageddon”, meaning the last between good and evil will occur. By McCay pleading”—dear God. ” this shows all faith and hope is lost and the only way to regain order is with help of the human’s godly figure, Superman. A glimpse of McCay’s vision strikes the middle of the page where Superman is on his knees opened armed and surrounded by what seems to be fire (Waid and Ross 54). The bottom panel concludes with McCay’s tense face, looking up at the sky distraught and concerned.
Although we only see Superman in panel two, the bloody red flames suggests Superman’s rage, showing what the beginning of Armageddon is going to look like. Although Superman has returned to protect the world and fight alongside the rest of the superheroes, he has ignited a war soon to come. The superheroes willingness to fight for the world without focusing on keeping the rest of society safe depicts how a culture of violence leads to senselessness, which will cause a loss of humanity.
Waid and Ross make it clear that living in a world where a culture of violence is accepted can lead to an Apocalypse. A culture of violence is violence that is widespread. Violence is illogical and society has allowed it to become a source of entertainment and pleasure. Armageddon defines an Apocalypse as “the site of the final battle between God and Satan… ” (“Armageddon” e. p. 1). The superheroes and humans look up to Superman as if he is a messiah figure.
The superheroes know that Superman is the only one to bring peace back into the world, but the only way he can do it is by going to war. Superman and the other superheroes are going to war against the villains and other metahumans. One splash page shows the metahuman’s realization of Armageddon’s arrival (Waid and Ross 153). Panel two shows a representation of Heimdall sounding his horn and sons of Odin calling all superheroes to war, but instead of his horn it is Captain Marvel’s lightning strike in the sky.
Waid and Ross point out, “… y a single bolt of lightning. Armageddon has arrived” (Waid and Ross 155). Lightning represents ignorance on the justice leagues behalf resulting in Gods wrath and warning about the battle that is soon to come. As the image in panel one on page 154 shows the battle between heroes and villains occurring, when Waid and Ross imply, “Armageddon has arrived,” this allows the heroes and villains to know that the God’s judgment day has arrived, the war has officially begun and the future is for now foggy and uncertain till the war is over.
The way the superheroes stop and begin to look up at the sky suggest that violence is now starting to get out of hand and it is the cause of the world coming to an end. The metahumans’ focus on saving the world while disregarding human life depicts how the world is desensitized to the violence and by people begin to realize violence is hurting the world the time an apocalypse will be near. Waid and Ross acknowledge that although an apocalypse means the world is coming to an end, there will be a new beginning for earth.
The Bok of Revelation depicts an apocalypse and its’ outcomes by adding the seven foreseen events, “the Great Tribulation, the Campaign of Armageddon, the Second Coming of the Messiah with the restoration of peace to the world and His 1,000 year reign, the imprisonment of Satan (portrayed as a dragon) until he is ‘loosed’ for the final rebellion, God’s final judgment over Satan, the Great White throne judgment, and the ushering in of the New Heavens and New Earth” (“Book of Revelation” e. p. 1).
The great tribulation is the event in which Christ voiced what he believed would occur during the time of the apocalypse. The campaign of Armageddon and the second coming of the messiah is when Christ returns to earth for keep his promise and fulfill the prediction made about him. God’s final judgment day is the day that god has set to judge earth. The Great White throne judgement is the judgment prior to the forgotten prior to being thrown into the lake of fire. The New Heavens and New Earth occur after the apocalypse.
The New Earth is also known as heaven and the place people will spend the rest of eternity as well as the place that is pure and god like for the rest of humanity. Taking a look at the future after the apocalypse comparing it to the past after the apocalypse, Waid and Ross depict an apocalypse will cleanse chaos and restore mankind (203). Before the apocalypse very few people attended church, the colons were dull, and people had started losing hope and the world became lifeless.
After the apocalypse more people began to attend church, society looked happy, the atmosphere in the church became brighter and the worlds hope was restored. Superman brings hope to the metahumans’ by announcing, “… in the hope that your world and our world could be one world once again” (Waid and Ross 196). The world has been restored but the metahumans’ are hoping the world between humans and metahumans’ will be unified. Although the metahumans’ had once brought chaos to the world and now that peace is restored it is likely that the humans and metahumans’ are now able to be united again.
On page 198 Waid and Ross depict the world at its best in panel two as the ocean water is now clear again, the building are pieced back together, and the sun is back out again. Though we do not see earth in an entire snapshot, the piece of the city that is shown suggests that mankind is at peace and the world is once again a safe place. The metahumans’ may have not had the human life in the back of their heads but eventually after seeing the humans fearing for their lives made the metahumans’ realize a change had to be made and although culture of violence breeds an apocalypse, an apocalypse breeds a new earth.
