Gog (DC Comics)

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.

The first version of Gog was known as William, the sole survivor of a nuclear disaster in Kansas that was caused by the Parasite's shattering of Captain Atom during a battle with the Justice League, and became a believer in Superman as a savior, even creating a church dedicated to his philosophy as he tried to find meaning in the cataclysm that had taken place, believing that it was Superman's will that Earth be punished for forsaking him. One day, Superman visited him and told him that he wasn't the omnipotent, perfect being that William thought he was, stating that Kansas happened simply because he wasn't there, shattering William's world view and mentally unbalancing him. When the Quintessence (Shazam, Ganthet, Zeus, Highfather, and Phantom Stranger) invested him with a portion of their power, William, now known as Gog, went insane and blamed Superman for his misfortune, believing him to be the Anti-Christ who had allowed the Kansas disaster to take place to regain his standing in the world.

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 Justice League tried to stop him, but they failed, and Gog took the child, deciding to go to the past where he intended to trigger the Kansas cataclysm early, burning Superman's insignia into the countryside.

Gog's actions exposed the existence of Hypertime, a construct similar to the Multiverse. Gog unknowingly passed into an alternate timeline each day he traveled back in time, killing a different Superman at every turn. As a result, Hypertime's guardian (the adult son of the Kingdom Come Superman and Wonder Woman) was forced to recruit Rip Hunter to preserve the secret, the other members of the Quintessence refusing to act to stop Gog for their own personal reasons.

Hunter, refusing to believe the other Linear Men's claims that traveling back in time would destroy the Kingdom Come reality, recruited Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Kid Flash (daughter of Wally West), Offspring (son of Plastic Man), Nightstar (daughter of Nightwing and Starfire), and Ibn al Xu'ffasch (son of Batman and Talia al Ghul) from the Kingdom Come reality, along with the Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman from the present to fight Gog, luring him into Planet Krypton, a superhero-themed restaurant run by Booster Gold. With the available arsenal, the heroes wound Gog, with Batman using a Phantom Zone projector to partially send Gog into the Zone. Gog fought back, knocking the heroes down as he himself collapsed in a weakened state. Unable to move from the force of the attack, the present Superman was convinced to fight back by the future Wonder Woman, who told him of the destruction of Kansas and how it happened as a result of him abandoning his fight for truth and justice following the death of Lois Lane. Refusing to allow those events to occur in his life, Superman charged at Gog, sending both of them and everyone else in the restaurant into Hypertime, thus allowing Hunter to preserve the Kingdom Come reality. Gog is then returned to the future by Hunter and the future versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, who demand that the Quintessence restore him to the person he was.

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's 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 Doomsday returns to Earth with newfound sentience and begins discovering emotions during his rampage. Doomsday arrives to see Superman on the verge of death after being beaten by an army of Gogs. Doomsday leaps to Superman's defense just as Gog is about to kill him. Doomsday's attempt to save Superman fails as Gog successfully kills him.