Magog is coming to the CW/DC Arrowverse.
By way of DC comic books, that is.
DC has revealed that the supervillain introduced in 1996's seminal limited series Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross will officially join CW/DC TV canon in June's Earth-Prime #6, subtitled 'Hero's Twilight,' the finale of the three-month Earth-Prime comic book event.
Launched Tuesday, April 5 with Earth-Prime #1: Batwoman, the first five issues of Earth-Prime spotlight a current individual CW/DC TV series, with some of the show's actors, writers, and showrunners involved in each story's creation. DC previously revealed a threat "loomed in the background" of each story and that the sixth issue would feature a crossover of all the characters from the previous specials, but did not reveal the threat they unite to face.
Until now.
"Across time and universes, Magog has been amassing forces to finally free humanity from their dependency on so-called 'heroes,' reads DC's description. "In his eyes, all they do is bring about pain and destruction everywhere they go, solving no problems and bringing no peace to the world. Magog and his allies plan to change everything and help society bring the superhero community to its knees, helping society reach its true potential, once and for all."
His "allies" will be other supervillains revealed in the pages of the first five specials along with Earth-Prime #1: Batwoman - Earth-Prime #2: Superman & Lois (April 19), Earth-Prime #3: Legends of Tomorrow (May 3), Earth-Prime #4: Stargirl (May 17), and Earth-Prime #5: The Flash (June 7).
June 21's 48-page Earth-Prime #6: Hero's Twilight is co-written by The Flash writers Jeff Hersh and Thomas Pound with art by Will Robson making his DC debut and a cover by Kim Jacinto.
Magog, for you Arrowverse fans, was the catalyst for Kingdom Come, an "Elseworlds" story set in a dark, bleak alternate future for the iconic superheroes, and is regarded as one of the best DC stories of all time and the best according to Newsarama readers.
Somewhat a treatise against brutal vigilante anti-heroes like Marvel's Punisher that were popular in the mid-'90s, Kingdom Come pushed back against the style, pitting Superman's brand of traditional heroism against the harsher kind dished out by '90s heroes.
In the Kingdom Come future, Lois Lane is killed by the Joker. As opposed to the videogame franchise Injustice in which Superman becomes a tyrant in response, here a younger, new breed of superhero named Magog - something of a pastiche of Marvel Comics then newly-popular anti-hero Cable - kills the Joker in response.
Superman arrests Magog, who is tried for the murder of the Joker. But a jury finds Magog innocent and the world hails the young character as a hero. After the verdict, Superman is so disappointed in the world's acceptance of brutal justice that he retires as a superhero but later returns to lead a battle against Magog.
Check out Newsarama's retrospective on the landmark series which just celebrated its 25th-anniversary last year if you're interested in more details.
CW/DC fans might want to get acquainted with the story if you aren't already, as introducing Magog to Arrowverse canon could potentially open the door to a live-action Kingdom Come adaptation as an annual CW/DC crossover, maybe even as soon as this year.
DC isn't hinting that Magog's comic book appearance will lead to his live-action debut and/or a Kingdom Come adaptation, but the notion can't be discounted, particularly with Brandon Routh having already appeared as a version of the Kingdom Come Superman in the 2019-2020 Arrowverse crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Magog did not make Newsarama's list of the best DC supervillains, but to be fair, that's a tough list to crack.
