Return to Krypton

Continuing our celebration of the great fiftieth anniversary of Superman.  After issue 600, however, Action Comics starts to go weekly and feature mostly other characters instead of Superman, so I won't be covering that here except for a summary at the end.

Superman #18

Continuing from Action Comics #600, Hawkman and Hawkwoman transport Superman into space to find the remains of the planet Krypton, now a mass of kryptonite particles that re-formed into a dead planet.  Superman decides to explore the remains in a lead-lined space suit, and starts to flash back to the memories his father Jor El gave him.  These memories become an alternate reality where Jor El invents a cure for kryptonite poisoning and brings the surviving Kryptonians to Earth.  In no time, the Kryptonians conquer the weaker, primitive Earthlings and Jor El comes to regret saving his people.  He becomes mankind's Superman, leading the resistance with a new, incurable kryptonite.  One last Kryptonian now stands in his way, but he discovers she has a secret weapon: her son Kal El.  But it was all a dream.  The Hawks find Superman and awaken him from kryptonite delirium, he then goes back to Earth to try to re-create the kryptonite cure from his hallucination, but fails.

Fresh off of his run on the World of Krypton mini-series, Mike Mignola takes over as guest artist for the issue.  Like World of Krypton, the title Return to Krypton was re-purposed from a famous pre-Crisis story.  As a morality tale, this issue serves mainly to justify the post-Crisis decision to make Kal El the only surviving Kryptonian.  The title Return to Krypton would later be re-cycled in a 2001 story arc that would more or less undo John Byrne's sterile version of Krypton.

Adventures of Superman #441

Mxyzptlk returns from the 5th Dimension, and without notice changes the rules of the game.  Tricking him into saying name backwards won't send him home now, this time he wants Superman to trick him into painting his face blue.   He brings a lot unlicensed imitation Saturday morning cartoons to life and turns Superman into a cartoon too.  It's a stupidly silly story and the parts that don't feature Superman are the only redeeming pages.  Lois Lane continues investigating Lex Luthor.  Braniac wakes up in the hospital, still insisting that he's being possessed by the alien Vril Drox, who seems to be taking over his mind.  In the Arctic, the newly discovered Supergirl wakes up but has no memory of how she got there.  A mysterious figure destroys a Lex Oil plant in Australia.  And near Jupiter, an unidentified spacecraft heads toward Earth.  Lastly, this issue is notable as the first appearance of the fictitious restaurant chain, Big Belly Burger.

The World of Smallville #3

At the bank in Smallville, Clark Kent foils an armed robbery by discreetly using his powers.  Clark and Lana take a walk together to catch up, where Lana tries to remember what the Manhunters did to her and the other people of Smallville.  It's hard to believe that at one time this was supposed to be an integral part of Superman's post-Crisis origin story, but writers would eventually drop it, and for the better.  The most moving part of this issue is Lana's flashback to the night Clark left Smallville, when he reveals his powers to her by taking her in his arms and flying up and away.  An older professor somewhere notices a blip on the radar like a flying man that reminds him of a golden age.  Clark drops Lana off at home and kisses her goodnight, like a brother kisses his sister, then disappears from her life.  Years later, Lana leaves Smallville herself, hoping to find Clark in the city he always dreamed of: Metropolis.  The Daily Planet headline about a mysterious Superman indicates that she has indeed found him at last.