It's the Return of Kal-El part 3 and even though our part 2 in Superman: Son of Kal-El didn't do much for Superman returning...... or even doing much for the Lex Luthor/Metallo threat coming in this arc..... it somehow became associated with what's going on here. Previously, we saw Lex Luthor wanting to get Metallo out of prison to take care of Superman, who has brought Warworld back to Earth, but it also seems that Luthor has his own plans to take technology from Warworld so hopefully this plot thickens as we move on because I can't wait to see these two villains team up against our Man of Steel. But will we get any of that here or move on to something new? Let's jump into this issue and check it out.

So while we do get some more Luthor/Metallo stuff..... it's not really all that much. Mostly, just Metallo with a new body, a new idea that his brain is dying and Luthor being vaguely threatening to get Metallo on board with killing Superman. The real big bits of this Action Comics issue comes with the continuation of the Fire of Olgrum storyline that started during Warworld and how the New Gods have come to Earth to claim it to make sure that the ancient God Olgrum doesn't fully awaken. Now while that's a cool idea that will put our Man of Steel up against both Orion and Kalibak, I was simply left wondering about the status quo of the New Gods right now since Highfather is dead and in Justice League Incarnate, Orion became the new ruler of Apokolips. Yeah, you can see this continuity continues with Orion working with Kalibak and Desaad but I really would like to know what the New Gods as a whole are doing with this new status quo, beyond Olgrum and Superman stuff.  

For our Backup, we're continuing the Superman Family dealing with Thao-La and as we saw at the end of the previous issue's backup, the new threat of Chaytil, who wants revenge for the death of Mongol but even though we saw Chaytil teleport to Earth at the end of the last issue, this issue we have everyone on high alert about it and it just seems like we missed a story beat somewhere. Mostly it's about keeping Thao-La relevant and letting the reader know that the whole Superman-Family is involved and giving us a little background on Chaytil, while also showing what his revenge entails. I have to say this installment comes off better than the last issue even though it is a lot of exposition and catch-up, but ultimately these backups aren't doing it for me overall.

All in all, I really enjoyed the art in the main story and the backup while not as great, is still enjoyable, I just wish that the story for the backup was stronger because since aspects of our main plot are better, the backup just feels tacked on to get that extra buck out of you. Yeah, it might be fun seeing our Superman-Family coming together to take on a threat but they just seem like background characters right now that are trying to get me excited while not really doing anything. The main plot though, yeah, I want to see Metallo and Lex Luthor team up and go up against Superman, but if we have to take a side road where we stop off in New Gods-Ville, I'll gladly take that too because it's an interesting idea and it will definitely be one hell of a fight. So yeah, this is a mixed bag overall, but I'm glad that Kal is back on Earth and while I wish we could get back to other things beyond Warworld's aftermath, it's still an exciting story that shows our Man of Steel is the best.

Bits and Pieces:

Superman vs. The New Gods is not something I was expecting out of this story but I'm certainly here for it and hope that this story expands on what the new status quo of the New Gods is in our Infinite Frontier landscape. Overall though, the backup is kind of weak, but the main story more than makes up for it in both plot and art so I'm happy with the direction we're going right now.