Gog (DC Comics)
Gog | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | New Year's Evil: Gog #1 (February 1998) |
Created by | Mark Waid Jerry Ordway |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | William Matthews |
Species | Old God |
Place of origin | Urgrund |
Team affiliations | Gog Church of Superman |
Abilities |
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Gog is the name of several fictional characters in the comics published by DC Comics. The first version first appeared in New Year's Evil: Gog #1 (February 1998), and was created by Mark Waid and Jerry Ordway.[1]
Fictional character biography
The Kingdom
The first version of Gog was known as William, the sole survivor of a nuclear disaster in Kansas that was caused by the
Using his newfound powers, Gog killed Superman. Unsatisfied by his victory, Gog traveled 24 hours back in time, found Superman, and killed him again, repeating the process over and over, going backwards one day further each time, and each time varying the means of Superman's death and absorbing portions of the slain Supermen's powers after taking Amazo's ability. When he arrived on the day that Superman and Wonder Woman's child was born, the entire Justice League tried to stop him, but they failed, and Gog took the child, deciding to go directly to the past where he intended to trigger the Kansas cataclysm almost twenty years early, burning Superman's insignia into the countryside.[1]
Gog's actions exposed the existence of Hypertime, a construct similar to the Multiverse in pre-Crisis stories.[1] Gog unknowingly passed into an alternate timeline each day he traveled back in time, effectively killing a different Superman at every turn. As a result, Hypertime's guardian (who is later revealed to be the Kingdom Come's iterations of Superman and Wonder Woman's son's future self), was forced to recruit time traveler Rip Hunter of the Linear Men, the only other person aware of Hypertime, in an attempt to preserve the secret, the other members of the Quintessence refusing to act to stop Gog for their own personal reasons.
Rip Hunter, refusing to believe the other Linear Men's claims that traveling back in time would destroy the
In the Name of Gog
A second version of Gog with a different origin appeared several years later in DC continuity. This version of Gog is a survivor of Imperiex' attack on Topeka, Kansas. He was saved by Superman, but Superman was unable to rescue the boy's parents. Desperate to fix what had gone wrong, Gog grew up researching the science of time travel in an effort to go back in time and rescue his family.
Eventually, he succeeds in his efforts at creating a time machine, but his first prototype is unable to travel far enough back. He refines the time machine for over 200 thousand years, making it more and more powerful and using the technology to give himself super-powers. He then gives his research and advanced technology to younger versions of himself, which gives him more power due to rewriting history over and over. Realizing that he could not save his parents due to a temporal paradox (the death of his parents triggered the creation of his powers) his desire grows from saving his parents to punishing Superman for their deaths.
The present day Gog attacks Superman when
Over the next 200 years, Doomsday leads an army in Superman's name against Gog. This future is erased when it is revealed that Gog didn't actually kill Superman but has instead been keeping him prisoner and surrounded by Kryptonite.
Gog offers Superman the chance to go back in time and kill him. Superman eventually shows Gog the error of his ways when Doomsday bursts in and rescues Superman. Gog then offers Doomsday the chance to go back and erase this future at the cost of returning to his villainous ways which he agrees to. In the present, the present day Gog teleports away an unconscious Doomsday for unknown reasons.[3]
Thy Kingdom Come
A third version of Gog appeared in the
This version of Gog is a priest named William Matthews who received his powers from an underground citadel in Africa and took the name Gog, which was the name of the last surviving god of the Third World. He also claims that the Superman of Earth-22 let Kansas die, and is implied several times to be a
This Gog, chronologically the first one, is an exile of the "Third World" who was unwilling to take sides in the final battle of the Old Gods and was cast off as a result. He then plunged into the Bleed and traveled through various alternate universes until he landed on New Earth. Inert, his consciousness lingered in the stone and lava. A local tribe built a staff out of his remnants, enabling a user to channel Gog's energy. The staff was later found by William Matthews, who claimed the name Gog.
Upon being revived, Gog claims that Matthews wasn't his servant and that Matthews had been driven mad from visions of the Multiverse, including having visions of events on Earth-22.
This version of Gog displays a cheerful, childlike, peaceful personality. He claims he is "happy to be alive" and compelled to "make things good again". He saves an African village near his citadel from the effects of toxic contamination from lava that contained his essence and heals
Later, Gog's intentions to move on to the Middle East and punish the warmongers there in the same fashion as the militia members causes the Justice Society to split in half, with
, he asks for a rest on the seventh day, sending some of his followers back to America to preach his will. At the same time, the rest of the JSA who did not choose to follow Gog have started to realize that Gog's wishes have various negative side-effects; Starman fears that he cannot complete his mission in the past with his sanity intact, the loss of Sandman's prophetic dreams has cost him one of his greatest edges in hunting criminals, Doctor Mid-Nite feels hindered by the loss of his unique sight after so long with it, Power Girl finds that she has been sent to a 'new' Earth-Two with an existing counterpart for herself, and while Damage cannot see it, his restored face makes him increasingly vain and arrogant, dismissing his past to the point of burning down his father's home while constantly checking out his reflection in mirrors and believing that people only want to talk to him because he's so handsome.After the last day apart, Gog collects the heroes again, asking them gleefully to kneel down and worship him while he brings in a new world.
Powers and abilities
The first version of Gog used a cosmic staff – imbued with the powers of the Quintessence[11] – as his initial weapon and later used a trick he claimed to have learned from the Amazo of 2020 to absorb the powers of several alternate Supermen that he killed. His abilities included travelling through time at will, extremely keen senses, sufficient speed to intercept the Flash, superhuman strength considerably greater than Superman's and the prodigious intelligence needed to develop an almost infinite number of highly inventive and complicated ways to kill Superman.
The second Gog's powers were based on science rather than cosmic or mystical power. This Gog also has the power to give other superhumans advanced abilities through the use of Kryptonite, such as imbuing Repo Man with enhanced strength and the ability to grow in size, in order to battle Superboy and a weakened Superman. He was also capable of flight, energy blasts, the creation (through time manipulation) of countless copies of himself and his spear, and teleportation throughout time and space.
The third version of Gog is actually a god from the Third World, Urgrund, the world that once encompassed the two halves,
In other media
Figurine
DC Direct released a cold-cast porcelain, hand-painted medium-sized statue of The Kingdom's version of Gog in 1998, based upon designs by artist Jerry Ordway. The statue was limited to 3,000 pieces and measured 7 7/8 x 5 x 5 inches, and came with an official certificate of authenticity from DC Comics.
References
- ^ OCLC 213309017
- ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
- ^ Action Comics #825
- ^ Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #16
- ^ Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #17
- ^ Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #18
- ^ Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #19
- ^ Justice Society of America (vol. 3) The Kingdom one-shot
- ^ Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #21
- ^ Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #22
- ^ The Quintessence is a group of gods and cosmic beings – Zeus, Ganthet, Shazam, Highfather and the Stranger – who embody most of the mystic power in the DC universe between them.