Written by Mark Waid, illustrated by Alex Ross. I didn't want to include too many Elseworlds books on this list, but it's hard to feel too bad about including something as legendary as "Kingdom Come". Granted, the plot of Kingdom Come would hardly make sense for the Batman vs. Superman movie - Clark Kent has been retired for ten years, and only rises again as Superman to stop a younger generation of more violent super"heroes" from destroying the world with their "justice". Henry Cavill isn't exactly graying just yet, and it's doubtful there will be any major time jumps from Man of Steel to Batman vs. Superman. And yet... How will it influence Batman vs. Superman? The casting of Ben Affleck is the interesting part. Logic would dictate you cast a young guy as Bruce Wayne, having he and Henry Cavill age together with the franchise if all goes according to plan in the first team-up. But it seems the choice was deliberate to have an older Batman, and so employing some shade of the "Kingdom Come" version of the Dark Knight is a definite possibility. Rumor agrees. One viral post spoke of Batman controlling drones that patrol Gotham while he sits in the Batcave, which is direct from this book. And Kevin Smith's comments about how awesome and never-before-seen-on-screen the new Batsuit is are either typical Kevin Smith fanboy giggles or the plain truth - and nothing would be more original than to have Affleck don the metal exoskeleton suit worn by battered Bruce Wayne in "Kingdom Come".
