A Dumb Story - With an Important Legacy
Superman's Return to Krypton! is a mini-novel, a three part story in Superman #141. Right off the bat, I have to say this is among the dumber Superman stories I've read. Really only the middle chapter, Superman's Kryptonian Romance!, is worth reading - boosting the rating by a full star.
At 26 pages, it's hard to list out all the corny things that happen here, suffice to say that just about every plot point - from how Superman gets to Krypton's past, to how he gets home (especially how he gets home) - is silly and contrived. Which just goes to show that while Jerry Siegel co-created the Man of Steel, he could be as guilty as anyone else when it came to writing himself into a corner.
But there's an important aspect to this issue - it's one of the first attempts to create one cohesive story in three chapters, rather than three separate, simpler tales. This trend would eventually lead to the single-issue comic story of today.
At 26 pages, it's hard to list out all the corny things that happen here, suffice to say that just about every plot point - from how Superman gets to Krypton's past, to how he gets home (especially how he gets home) - is silly and contrived. Which just goes to show that while Jerry Siegel co-created the Man of Steel, he could be as guilty as anyone else when it came to writing himself into a corner.
But there's an important aspect to this issue - it's one of the first attempts to create one cohesive story in three chapters, rather than three separate, simpler tales. This trend would eventually lead to the single-issue comic story of today.