In 1996, writer Mark Waid and artist Alex Ross explored a comic book world where antiheroes ran amok, common decency was passé, and the heroes of old were no long seen as fashionable in the DC Comics miniseries Kingdom Come. Now, 20 years later, in a modern world where the ethics of superheroes are in the limelight of mainstream media more than ever, Kingdom Come feels just as relevant and needed as ever.

When Kingdom Come was originally published, playing out in four issues published from May through August 1996, it came into a comics world where the extreme antiheroism of figures such as The Punisher, Cable, Wolverine, Spawn, Lobo, and more had become all the rage with readers. Their morals were loose. Their methods deadly. They reflected a more cynical and extreme approach to heroism that reflected a then-modern society that had grown tired of bright, shining beacons of hope. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the staunch, inhuman heroic perfection of the old breed of heroes felt more rigid and fake than ever. These polar opposites clashed and forced public opinion to take a side, which was brought to literal life in the pages of Kingdom Come.

Blame it on violent film heroes portrayed by Schwarzenegger and the like. Blame it on endless wars dominating mainstream news. Blame it on seminal comic books like The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, which took a more cynical and gritty approach to heroes. In any case, antiheroes were everywhere. But Waid, a veteran of the comics industry, decided to plant a flag, proclaiming the need for true, morally centered heroism in the form of Kingdom Come.

Kingdom Come was published as part of DC Comics’ “Elseworlds” line — comics that told out-of-continuity stories taking place in alternate universes. With that freedom, writers could tell all manner of wild stories without the need to preserve characters for future stories or with regard to every plot that came before. The world of Kingdom Come is set years in the future, with heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman having grown old and scarred from decades of battle. But it’s not the years that have damaged the heroes; it’s the fact that the world has turned against their old ways. The public now embraces deadly antiheroes like Magog, a wild killer whose death sentences of villains reflect a society that wants permanent answers.

And Magog (whose image Waid and Ross created to reflect everything they hated about modern heroes at the time) is not alone. As the heroes of old retired or went underground in the wake of Superman himself retiring, new heroes arose. These new heroes are without purpose or meaning. They fight one another with little regard to collateral damage or innocent life. The meaningless violence they wreak is seen as an eventual outgrowth of the focus on violence above morals. It is into this new world that Superman returns 10 years after his retirement and with him a legion of old guard heroes who seek to right a world gone terribly wrong. The tragedy is that even these old heroes are horribly wrong in their approach.

It’s all weaved through a lens of The Book of Revelations, whose language is used to underscore a coming disaster. An elderly minister named Norman McCay, who is ushered from scene to scene by the all-powerful Spectre in order to record what is to come, witnesses these events. And while Waid’s use of Revelations provides an ominous and mythic narrative device, it’s the central message of what a hero means in the world today that gives Kingdom Come its most lasting, potent meaning.

A special focus must be given to Ross’ art. Like all his works, Ross turns every panel into a masterpiece through his hyper detailed, painterly, lifelike portraits. Every character is innately realistic, full of creases and lines in both their skin and clothes that pin them to a real world. Yet Ross also imbues them with a majesty befitting the hallowed halls of DC’s superheroes. They’re a perfect match for Kingdom Come’s focus on both a mythical struggle and the very human dynamics at play within it. The timeless yet relevant tale of the miniseries and Ross’s gorgeous art help make Kingdom Come a story that shows incredibly few signs of age.

While Superman’s return to the world would seem like an immediate return to hope and goodness, Kingdom Come wisely plays in shades of grey rather than black and white. You see, Superman believes his staunch ways and almost godlike judgment of the world is the only way to make things right once again. With him are heroes like Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, who have removed themselves from humanity and no longer sympathize with the human condition. Their justice comes in the form of godlike rule, which clashes hard with the flawed and violent nature of the new breed of heroes. Their ideological battle quickly becomes a physical one, first resulting in imprisonment of those who do not act according to the old heroes’ rules and then in a massive, senseless battle whose only true outcome can be widespread death if those involved cannot embrace reason and hope.

At its core, Kingdom Come isn’t about heroic perfection or the outright villainy of antiheroism. It’s about the need for humanity and working for a brighter, better future together by accepting our flaws and loving one another in order to move forward when we stumble. By seeing each other as real people and not idealogical standpoints to conquer can loving kindness be embraced and true change be enacted in the world.

In a modern world where so many heroes are seen as either unrelatable mythical figures or edgy killers that are meant to thrill with their lack of morals, true hope and a reflection of our better selves must come in the form of human heroes. We learn from our mistakes, we believe that there is goodness that can be found despite our horrible flaws, and we relentlessly pursue a better future. In that, hope and love live on.