Kingdom Come: A Marvel Fanfiction

A lifelong Marvel and DC Comics fan named Marcus Avery dies unexpectedly in his apartment at the age of thirty-one and is reborn — body, soul, powers, memories, and all — as Kingdom Come Superman in the mainline Marvel Comics Universe. Not the young, bright-eyed, optimistic Superman of the Silver Age. Not the modern, rebooted, cinematic Superman. The other one. The one who buried Lois Lane and never fully recovered. The one who watched the world reject him and retreated to Kansas for a decade. The one who came back — not because he was ordered to, but because the Spectre asked him to — with the quiet, immovable, battle-hardened energy of a man who has been through hell and chose to keep standing anyway. The one who tanked a nuclear detonation at ground zero and survived while heroes around him — including Billy Batson, a literal child — did not. The one who is immune to Kryptonite, who defeated the Old God Gog wielding a piece of the Anti-Life Equation, who fought and defeated the entire Justice League singlehandedly (including Alan Scott), who operates at speed feats approaching Wally West levels, and who in crossover events has fought and overcome Superboy-Prime, the Anti-Monitor, Darkseid, and a host of other multiversal-level threats. The one who still has a no-kill rule. Who still holds back. Who is still, fundamentally, Superman. But who also doesn't play games anymore. Who doesn't tolerate villainy with infinite patience the way he did in his youth. Who understands that some enemies cannot be reasoned with, some threats cannot be contained gently, and that when the line is crossed — when innocent lives are on the table and the villain has made their choice — Superman will meet them with the full, measured, terrifying weight of what he is. Not cruelty. Never cruelty. But conviction. This is the story of what happens when that Superman — the most powerful, most experienced, most grieved, most dangerous version of the Man of Steel ever committed to the page — is dropped into a universe that has never heard of Krypton, has no concept of the House of El, and has absolutely no idea what the "S" on his chest means. A universe that is about to find out.