5. Kingdom Come
Alex Ross covers really do go a long way.... Based on the infamously cribbed notes of the great Alan Moore, Kingdom Come is Mark Waid's take on the twilight of DC's superheroes. As Marvels reinvented the Marvel U's beginning, Kingdom Come attempted to tell the swan song of the DCU. And what a swan song it was. The characterizations in this book are spot on, which is difficult with a cast of this size and the additional challenge presented by the passage of time. Waid has to figure out what Wonder Woman, Flash, Captain Marvel and the rest are like 20, 30 years into the future and he nails it. Even though it happens outside of regular continuity, this story was still being referenced up until The New 52 wiped the DCU slate clean. *sigh*