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What would have happened if Jor-El had aimed Kal-El's ship at England instead of Kansas? That's the question answered by none other than Kim Johnson (The First 280 Years of Monty Python) and John Cleese (Monty Python, A Fish Called Wanda, Fawlty Towers) in Superman: True Brit. As expected, this twist on the Superman mythology is all about comedy.

The book begins with a 1970's-era Jor-El soliloquizing about the doomed planet Krypton and his hopes for his son Kal-El in his new home in the British Empire. Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Clark find the crashed ship when Jonathan blandly notes, "There's a spaceship in our pasture." A device in the ship informs the Clarks that the baby is Kal-El from Krypton, and they have been charged with raising the baby. "Without pay," adds Jonathan. When the Clarks learn of Colin's powers (Jonathan was certain that Jor-El said the baby's name was "Colin"), they go to great lengths to keep him from using them. "Any time you're tempted to show off," Mrs. Clark warns him, "just say to yourself, 'W.W.T.N.T?' 'What would the neighbors think?' Our family motto for generations, the words all of England lives by." And thus the tone is set for the story and for Colin's life.

While much of the humor is obtuse and in-your-face, much is also extremely subtle and can only be noticed by scanning the art in detailed panels and not glossing over dialogue. In some cases the humor is even a tad obscure and readers might be left with the impression that Brits will understand the joke far better than those of us in the United States. But fear not, there is humor enough for all. Everything is lampooned: British propriety; tabloid journalism; sports; and of course comics and superheroes.

It's interesting to note that there is no real bad guy in this story. There's no sinister Lex Luthor to act as a foil for (and to bring about) Superman's heroism. Instead we have a character more akin to J. Jonah Jameson (there's even a nod to Spider-Man in the book) who is simply out to discredit Superman, since he can't buy or control him. Colin Clark's character is written with a certain goofiness, and at times it seems Byrne and Farmer envisioned a young Michael Palin in the role of Colin. The art team did a commendable job, managing to seamlessly switch from goofy-prone Colin to the more (but not much more) suave Superman.

The book itself is a nice hardcover with a dust jacket depicting Superman's "S" atop the Union Jack. Although the book weighs in at a healthy 95 pages, the story is not overly long or tiresome. The price is a bit high ($24.95 US, $37.95 CAN) and might put off casual browsers. Yet given the high production values and the fact that this book qualifies as a true event, the price is understandable. After all, how many other Superman comics is John Cleese likely to write?