The "Mythbrawl" aspect of Gene Luen Yang's Superman Vol. 2: Return to Glory is a delight. Yang's Clark Kent is as affable as I've seen him, out for a night on the town with new friend and "brawl-mate" Haemosu. Rarely do we see Clark just enjoying himself with a friend, and when we do, it's with stodgy Batman or kid brother Jimmy Olsen. The camaraderie here drives that part of the story. Throughout "Mythbrawl" there are references to various Asian cultures, reflecting some of the areas of material Yang is known for, not to mention that Yang moved Superman out to Oakland, California where Yang has lived. Artist Howard Porter brings an exuberant, "hip" vibe to the California dreamin' here.

Most of the TPB is a combination of two things. We get the end of the Hordr thing, sorta, and then a very cool story with Vandal Savage, oh so much Vandal Savage (and not enough Scandal!)

We get his origin again, which is tweaked a little. They bring Krypton into the mix in what I thought was a mostly interesting way. And then we travel through time with Vandal as he tries to get Absolute Power over the entire world.

It's a convoluted plot that's probably not helped by the fact that this TPB only has some of the story in it, not all of it, but, it's also not the first time that I've had to read multiple TPBs to get an entire plot, that's just what the Big Two tend to do when they have humongous-ish stories that they tell.

There were also a couple of issues from the Final Days of Superman story line (that TPB is next on my reading list). And then there were a ton and a half of variants. Some were really, really cool. I usually only skim over the variants at the back of TPBs, but, these were very cool!

I got this ARC through Netgalley on behalf of DC Entertainment.

'Superman, Volume 2: Return to Glory' collects Superman issues 45-52 and Annual 3 and it tells quite the tale.

Events leading up to this collection have Superman's identity outed by something called Hordr_root. His Clark Kent identity as well as his job are gone. So are most of his powers. He finds himself adrift and alone. This leads him to an underground fight club in Oakland called Mythbrawl where he makes ends meet by fighting little known gods from other countries.

He is on the trail to Hordr_root, and this leads him to who is behind Hordr_root, Vandal Savage. Vandal got his powers in the comet that was supposed to wipe out Krypton. Instead the comet was diverted and headed to Earth instead, and Vandal Savage found it. Now he wants to create an army of super beings out of his descendants.

In a last ditch effort, Superman tries to get his powers back in the most extreme way possible, using kryptonite. Will that fix things or be the end of Superman?

The only problem with a major story-line like this is that it tends to spill out into other books. This means that there are times when things happen in other DC titles that are not included here. Sometimes there is a recap to catch the reader up. Sometimes there isn't. This leads to gaps in the story.

But the art is consistent good across the artists here, as is the writing. It turns into a moving story and I can't wait to see what's next.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from DC Entertainment and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.