Mark Waid and Alex Ross' Kingdom Come is one of the most revered epics in all of DC lore. Chronicling an alternate future where the heroes of DC's Silver Age face Armageddon spurred by the recklessness of modern heroes, the 1996 miniseries paints the DC landscape in a startlingly different light.
One of the heroes most affected by this new interpretation is Wonder Woman. More militaristic than her primary continuity counterpart, this Diana stands apart from the mainstream iteration in more ways than just fashion sense, which includes a suit of armor that inspired Diana's new costume in the upcoming Wonder Woman 1984. Now, we’re taking a look at what made this version of Wonder Woman the way she is and what led her to armor up in the first place.
The world of Kingdom Come was quite different than DC’s prime continuity. Decades in the future, the world’s greatest heroes aged into a world that no longer tolerates their nonlethal methods. Superman’s self-imposed exile after the Joker's murder of Lois Lane and the criminal's subsequent execution at the hands of Magog reverberated throughout the hero community. As one of Clark’s closest friends, Wonder Woman was one of his most heavily affected colleagues.
At the beginning of the story, Diana drew Clark out of his exile, bearing the bad news of Magog’s actions in Kansas. Together, they reunite the Justice League to bring peace to a world gone mad, imprisoning heroes who won't fall in line. Along the way, Wonder Woman begins to cross lines with a level of force which Superman found uncomfortable. Themyscira’s Ambassador of Peace believed they were fighting a war -- and she refused to lose.
As these conflicts continue, Diana reveals that she’s been stripped of her title and role as Themysciran ambassador. The Amazons believed that Man's World had changed her and the escalating conflict demonstrated a failure on Diana’s part in her peacekeeping mission. When the security measures of the League's prison fail, Wonder Woman leads the League into battle in her Golden Eagle armor, undermining Superman’s orders of de-escalation and proving the Amazons right in the process.
When Diana kills one of the prison’s worst inmates, Batman calls her out for overcompensating to please Themyscira, questioning the Amazonian paradox of preaching peace while practicing war. Bruce’s words and the impending nuclear strike on the battle strike a chord with Diana and open her eyes to what she had become.
Thanks to Alan Scott and Jade, Wonder Woman survived the nuclear blast. Arriving at the U.N. after Superman, she joins the other heroes in petitioning for a metahuman nation in the efforts of working with Man’s World toward a brighter future for all. While Kingdom Come ends with Clark and Diana’s pregnancy and the reparation of their friendship with Bruce, Diana’s story does not end there.
In The Kingdom by Mark Waid and Ariel Olivetti, readers are first introduced to Superman and Wonder Woman’s son. While this child is kidnapped by Rip Hunter to protect it from the villain Gog, Clark and Diana are eventually reunited with their son by his future self—the Phantom Stranger. In “Thy Kingdom Come,” a storyline in Justice Society of America by Geoff Johns, Alex Ross and Dale Eaglesham, the next several decades of the lives of Clark, Diana and their five children are detailed.
During the Convergence event by Jeff King, Dan Jurgens, and many other creators, this Diana and her version of Metropolis are one of the bottled cities taken to Telos by Brainiac. Her League is forced against the Justice League International, who they defeat and spare. The League strays a bit when they work with the evil sorcerer Deimos to save their Earth, before fighting against him when he tries to destroy the Multiverse.
Kingdom Come isn’t the last story in which we see the Golden Eagle armor either. It later appears in the prime continuity, most notably in Phil Jimenez’s “Worlds at War” story in the pages of Wonder Woman and during Gail Simone and Aaron Lopresti’s run on the title.
With her Golden Eagle armor and her sword at her side, this Diana evolved past the peace-loving ambassador we traditionally see to embrace her Amazon warrior roots. While she was meant to be an agent of Peace, the Wonder Woman of Kingdom Come certainly wasn’t afraid to court war, even when it meant the end of all things.