Comic Title: Superman #18
Publisher: DC
Cover Date: June 1988
On Sale Date: February 16, 1988 Shipping Date February 16, 1988
Source: Direct Currents, #2

Shipping Date February 16, 1988
Source: Amazing Heroes, #136

Newsstand Date March 10, 1988
Source: Amazing Heroes, #136

Copyright Date February 16, 1988
Source: Library of Congress, Copyright Office 1988

Shipping Date February 23, 1988
Source: Direct Currents, #1
Listing dates were out of sequence

Cover Price: $0.75
Page Count: 32
Editor: Mike Carlin

Title: "Return to Krypton"
Pages: 22

Feature(s):
Superman (Post-Crisis)

Writer: John L. Byrne
Penciller: Mike Mignola
Inker: Karl Kesel
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colorist: Petra Scotese (Goldberg)

Reprinted In:
Superman:The Greatest Stories Ever Told Vol. 1 TPB (2004)
Superman:The Man of Steel Vol. 8 TPB (2014)
DC Universe by Mike Mignola HC (2017)
DC Universe by Mike Mignola TPB (2018)
Superman:The Man of Steel Vol. 4 HC (2022)

Feature Character(s)

• Superman (last appearance in Action Comics #600; next appearance in Adventures of Superman #441)

Guest Star(s)

• Hawkman (last appearance in Action Comics #600; next appearance in Justice League International #19)
• Hawkgirl (last appearance in Millennium #8; next appearance in Justice League International #19)

Supporting Character(s)

• Jor-El (dream appearance)
• Lara (dream appearance)
• Jonathan Kent (dream appearance)
• Martha Kent (dream appearance)

Other Character(s)

• Kelex (dream appearance)
• The survivors of Krypton's destruction (dream appearance)

Synopsis:
Superman, Hawkman, and Hawkwoman travel through space to reach the location where Krypton once existed. To protect the Man of Steel from Kryptonite radiation, Hawkman has coated the interior of the ship's airlock with a lead-based polymer. Superman is forced to reamin inside, but he can view the exterior via a monitor.

When the group reaches Krypton's former location, they find that gravity has caused much of the planet to reform. It is now lifeless and made of deadly Kryptonite. The planet is also surrounded by a ring of debris which will eventually be drawn down to the planet by gravity.

The ship can not approach too closely due to the dangerous debris field. However, Superman wants a closer look. He dons a space suit which has had the interior specially coated with lead and exits the ship. He then enters the debris field.

Superman begins to hallucinate. He imagines that Jor-El managed to create a cure for Kryptonite poisoning and convinced the leaders of Krypton to construct ships. Jor-El leads his people to Earth, but their newly acquired power soon sets them Kryptonians up as conquerors. Jor-El opposes them and starts a war. The humans of Earth make Jor-El their hero, just as Superman is. He creates synthetic Kryptonite and kills thousands of his own people, while others flee the planet. He is then confronted with the leader of the Kryptonians, Lara who has raised his child Kal-El.

Back in the ship Hawkman and Hawkwoman grow worried that the Man of Steel has remained in the debris too long. Hawkwoman exits the ship and brings Superman back on board. The group then returns to Earth. Superman believes that although he would like his people to be altruistic, it is likely that had they really survived they would have become conquerors as his vision showed. Back on Earth, he tries to duplicate the Kryptonite antidote from his vision, but it is a failure. He thinks that maybe he needs the threat of Kryptonite to keep him grounded.