Review: Kal-El-Fornia Summer Of Love Special

It truly is the Summer of Superman!

With a 'fifth week' in July, DC decided to not let the Superman express train slow down and released a fun little seasonal issue, DC's Kal-El-fornia Love #1. Much like other seasonal books, usually based around a holiday, this is an anthology book but this time it is focused on the Superman Family. And like many of these anthologies, I only recognize a couple of the creators. These feel like a sort of try-out sort of platform for new writers and artists. 

At first I thought given the title that this was going to be a romance sort of book. But instead, I think it is more a summer or beach book than anything else. The Kal-El-Fornia bit being more important than the love. 

There are eight stories in this book which means we see a lot of the Superman team. But I'll be concentrating on the Supergirl story for a full review. I'll touch on a couple of the other stories. And I loved this variant cover by Marcio Takara with a ponytail and sunglasses Supergirl ready to hit the beach.

Most of the stories were fun making the $9.99 price tag a little bit easier to take. 

On to the book.

We'll start with the Supergirl story which closed out the book. (I always wonder if editors think about the order of stories in these books. Is the 'last story' a special spot?) 'Something in the Water' was written by George Mann (new to me) with art by Travis Mercer (who we recently saw in the Krypto Milk Bones book.)

This story 'feels' like the Kara we are seeing in Sophie Campbell's book, young and breezy. She's heading to the beach and craving an ice cream when some monster swells in the ocean, threatening the crowd. She springs into action.

I like the use of the new logo. I like the new costume. I definitely like this action panel with her switching out of the summer gear and into the costume.

But I have to say, I just like that Supergirl was acting like a teenage girl but immediately rushed into action. Not crying and swearing. Not staying at a party when a monster attacks. Cool.

Now I am a longtime fan of John Constantine but mostly his early stuff. Yes, I am old enough to have bought Moore's Swamp Thing off the rack. I even got the first 12 years or so of Hellblazer. I never thought I'd see Supergirl teaming up with Supergirl. So the concept seemed fun. 

Remember, I thought this was a romance book! So I am glad this wasn't a Kara/Jon tryst!

It is the usual nonsense. A rich guy meddles with the occult and summons an elder god. Too strong for John to unsummon. Too strong for Kara to knock out.

Sounds like a team-up!

But could this really be the first time these two have met??

The plan is easy.

John opens the portal. Kara pushes the elder god through.

There is something about her body language here that I find endearing. She can't look at him. Like maybe she has heard about John and is trying to keep some distance but still willing to help. 

No surprise the plan works. But after all that, Supergirl isn't ready to lounge on the beach. 

There is nothing ground breaking here. It's a pretty simple story. But it was pretty cool to see Supergirl teaming up with Constantine. 

Mercer's art is clean and polished and works well with Supergirl, bringing some pizzazz. Hope we see more soon.

'See Spot Fly' was the lead story, a Superman tale by Bryan Q. Miller with art by Gerardo Sandoval.

It does lean into Superman's love for Lois, how even without powers she is a hero.

Another straightforward story of Superman saving Lois from a monster by making it regurgitate her after she was swallowed by it. But the sentiment of Lois' bravery is the big theme.

I did chuckle at the 'come out to the coast' line. Right out of Die Hard.

Miller even throws in a 'you've got me ... who's got you' line.

Not bad.

'Before Sunrise' is a Power Girl/Ice team-up written by Joshua Hale Fialkov with art by Bruno Abdias.

I don't know how well this jibes with the characters to be honest but both have been through some recent changes, 'Paige' from Leah Williams Power Girl and Ice in Tom King's Black Label Human Target. 

Both complain about being the only woman on their super-hero teams even though Ice mentions Fire and there were other females on JLE and other teams PG has been on. 

I think the big panel of PG is a riff on the classic Superman Kingdom Come page. 

Maybe?

But it gets a little weirder.

Ice seems completely reluctant to get serious with a boyfriend. Karen seems smitten with an unnamed guy. And it is Power Girl who tells Ice that she should definitely consider getting serious with someone.

It felt a little bit off. But maybe I am leaning into old versions of these characters?

Perhaps my favorite story in the book was the Lois Lane one. 

'Bite of the Apple' was written by Meghan Fitzmartin with art by Marcial Toledano Vargas. 

In a story that seems to be 'inspired by' the Gabby Petito story, Lois investigates the murder of a young girl. A vicious podcaster (Eris in disguise) is touting her approach to news over Lois' more traditional ethical journalism. 

I always love a good 'this is how you do journalism' Lois story. I like that Lucy is here asking Lois if maybe traditional news outlets are dying ... more worried about her sister than thinking it. And Lois figuring it all out (even calling in Diana for an assist) and talking up her job and why it is important is a great ending.

There are other stories here - Bizarro, Jimmy, Natasha, and Jon and Conner. Some are better than others. I still don't know if the sentiment in the PG story fits current characterization.

Is it worth $10? Maybe. The Supergirl story is pretty fun.

Overall grade: C+