Review by Frank Plowright

In terms of publication order Revenge of the Demon follows To Hell and Back, but as that contains very little that impacts here and quality certainly dips, it’s possible to leap straight from Rise of Metallo.

It may seem strange that the collection begins by jumping back a little to feature Batman and Superman teaming with the Authority, but it’s surprisingly relevant. After that we return to the primary Superman.

Occasionally during the time Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s been writing Superman there’s a quiet conversation where everything just hits the right tone, and there’s one here with a construction worker over three pages. There’s something at stake and every line is well chosen, yet there’s no battle, just some good advice. Better still, there’s a sequel before the end.

The Blue Earth group has been trailed over The Rise of Metallo, using the presence of the Warworld refugees to stir up bigotry, but they’ve been seen to have a broader and less benign agenda than claimed. Another good conversation occurs as Clark Kent interviews their improbably young leader.

As has happened so often during Johnson’s run, the art is all over the place, with the sample page being from Rafa Sandoval by virtue of him being the only artist to draw more than a single chapter. The combination of Trevor Hairsine and Ben Templesmith drawing two distinct worlds when Batman, Superman and the Authority head off together works well. However the remaining artists over a continued story have very different styles, and if that isn’t bad enough we once again have the problem of everyone drawing twins Osul-Ra and Otho-Ra at different ages.

Johnson uses guest stars knowing this is his final dabble in Superman’s world, but they transmit more as cameos because he wants to write them, rather than having any great significance in story terms. He doesn’t quite manage John Constantine’s English speech patterns, but compensates with sparkling dialogue for the Demon. Bloodwynd remains somewhat the enigma, a revived superhero from the 1990s but does anyone really know what he does?

This is the final volume of Johnson’s Superman, which will be remembered for the fulfilled ambition of the Warworld Saga rather than anything that followed. This has some nice character moments, but too little that’s otherwise memorable, and is dragged down by the inconsistent art. Jason Aaron follows with Superstars.