A random kid from Gotham is abducted by an alien and taken away - up in the sky. Superman to the rescue! But the universe is a big place - how will he find her?
I’m such a big fan of Tom King’s Batman, I really wanted his Superman to be equally as brilliant - and it’s alright but also unfortunately not.
Like Batman, King’s interest in Superman lies in the psychological. Namely, the kids who end up imitating Superman and wind up hurt or worse and what that does to Superman. It’s a really unexpectedly dark approach to take!
True to character though, Superman doggedly pursues the kidnapping, despite the odds being immensely stacked against him, turning to the Rannians for their supercomputer - that builds stars! - to use on him so he can see the trail of zeta beams left behind by the girl’s kidnapper.
It’s a very Superman-y setup and I loved it, especially given that the machine is likely to turn Superman mad and then kill him. Which throws a question mark over the rest of the story: is Superman coo coo bananas and is what we’re seeing an insane hallucination or is it real?
As usual, Superman effortlessly overcomes every obstacle in his way, so I wouldn’t say it was gripping reading, but King’s put in enough interesting elements to stop it from being a rote Superman comic. And I liked Andy Kubert’s dynamic, eye-catching visuals - the dude’s an expert artist.
Superman: Up in the Sky #1 isn’t the impressive comic I’d hoped it’d be from Tom King but it’s a decent one, which is pretty darn hard to do for the Man of Steel!
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