Review by Frank Plowright

Although continuing from events trailed toward the end of Rise of Metallo, To Hell and Back is more a chocolate box collection offering a selection of background material before the main event kicks off in Revenge of the Demon. For a long time so little seems to be connected to previous events in Superman’s continuity.

Such is the variety that Superman in any incarnation only features in passing over the opening tale of Martian Manhunter and Supergirl battling to keep Doomsday trapped in Hell. That and the following Bloodwynd story are both the work of Dan Watters, and while efficiently establishing a potential threat and scenario, neither greatly inspire.

To begin with it seems as if Gene Luen Yang is treading the same path, but his villain is deliberately ridiculous, his revelations about Kong Keenan as the Chinese Superman are captivating, and then topped by very good use of a plot device introduced in Kal-El Returns. We’re then back to disappointment with Magdalena Visaggio and Matthew Clark’s version of Connor Kent differing completely from the version seen in earlier stories. It’s a new direction to set up a new series, but completely out of place and so filler.

Only a slight improvement is ‘Panic at the Parade’ in which twins Osul-Ra and Otho-Ra misunderstand Earth culture and cause problems. Greg Hahn aims for cutneness, but someone at DC really needs to nail down whether the characters are meant to be five, ten or fifteen, as since their introduction they’ve seemed all three at different times. Hahn’s version is approximately seven.

Marguerite Sauvage’s imaginative delicacy provides the collection’s artistic highlight with the twins now looking around ten in Dan Parent’s story of Jon Kent attempting to complete a date. There’s some minor superheroics, but the focus here is romantic drama, and it works as such.

Phillip Kennedy Johnson writes the final two chapters, crossing over with Knight Terrors. Perhaps investigating the nightmares of superheroes works as a concept when applied widely, but individually it so often transmits as an easy way of filling pages. Dreams don’t require any logic, so the story can ramble and is dependent on the artist delivering suitably frightening images. In this case the neat reality drawn by Mico Suayan with Fico Ossio’s nightmare (sample art) provides a viable contrast, but the visuals are the highlights.

So little here impacts on what’s to come, and so little here really gets the blood rushing, so all things considered, you’re better off skipping to Revenge of the Demon.