Review by Frank Plowright

Divorced from regular continuity, in years to come readers are likely to wonder where Kal-El, Superman to most, is returning from. He’s just spent months deposing a tyrant on Warworld, as seen in Warworld Revolution, and has transported the mobile planet to Earth’s vicinity. An early sequence here concerns loss of trust in Superman at home regarding a planet inhabited by people abducted from their worlds and brutalised, surviving by any means possible. Lex Luthor certainly sees possibilities for causing trouble, and makes an early visit. Superman has also in effect adopted two children from Warworld, Osul-Ra and Otho-Ra.

This is somewhat the hodge-podge collection, fusing Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s continuity of the original Superman with Tom Taylor’s stories about what Superman’s son, also Superman, has been up to, and then adding shorts by others. At least it’s sympathetically paginated, Johnson’s stories preceding Taylor’s, which run before the assortment of shorts.

Superman’s win on Warworld reverberates in Johnson’s material, with complications attracting the attention of the New Gods, as seen on Mike Perkins’ powerful sample art, and setting up what follows in The Rise of Metallo. Both that and a short story following up on Thao-La generate the necessary excitement, but David Lapham’s art on the latter isn’t as well suited to superhero battles as it is to his usual crime drama.

There’s a lighter tone to Taylor’s first couple of stories about Jon Kent as Superman. He presents a character revelling in what he can do, yet accompanied by a caring nature, and that’s followed by a creatively conceived threat of someone able to negate Superman’s powers. Cian Tormey (sample art) and Ruairí Coleman share the art, but their styles merge very well while reflecting the positive mood, being open and accentuating space.

Johnson and Taylor then collaborate with Joshua Williamson on a forty-pager beginning with a ridiculous supporting character saving their finest performance for the end. It’s a slam-bang, full-on battle with Luthor, the likes of which we’ve not seen for years, and it’s excellent, a real catharsis. A smartly conceived re-setting also changes Superman’s world, setting up Williamson’s version of Superman in Supercorp and Taylor’s Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent.

The short stories are a tour of Superman’s friends following his return to Earth and the weakest section, all nicely drawn if you can accept Fico Ossio’s exaggerations, but in very different styles. However, it’s only Mark Waid’s reunion with Batman that really rises above ordinary for featuring an unpredictable villain and a neat solution with tidy art by Clayton Henry.

Kal-El Returns certainly supplies variety, and shows Superman as adaptable to numerous artistic interpretations. Readers only concerned with continuity and on a limited budget will probably find they can leap directly to the highlighted graphic novels without feeling they’ve missed out.