A little girl is alien-abducted and taken somewhere… Up in the Sky! Only Superman can save her. But if he leaves Earth to go rescue her, how many more will die without his protection? But he’s gotta Saving Private Ryan-it because
I’m not gonna come down too hard on this one - Superman: Up in the Sky is fine. It’s a decent Superman comic. Is it great though? Hardly.
The format sees Superman basically do his equivalent of the Labours of Hercules with each completed task taking him one step closer (to the edge - and I’m about to break!) to finding the little girl. Some of them are interesting - most aren’t.
He powers down and boxes an alien; imagines the many deaths of Lois Lane while waiting in an alien DMV; has an “adventure” with Sgt Rock (wandering around a warzone listening to Rock’s macho yammering); races The Flash (again); and, gawd help me, alien robots invade Earth - smashy smashy! They’re not compelling in themselves but throw in the fact that, no matter what, Superman always wins - Because He’s Superman - and it’s even more snores to read.
The little girl herself is more of a plot device than a character and I hated that Tom King tried to make up for that with the overly-cutesy final issue where we get annoying kid-exposition with patient adult Superman. That was so tedious.
Alright: positives. The Deal with the Devil issue where Darkseid makes Superman kill an innocent in exchange for information was clever as was the freak accident that temporarily separated Superman and Clark Kent in a Twilight Zone-type way. Andy Kubert’s art is his usual high standard and King’s writing is good too - he writes a great Superman, really nailing the character. He just doesn’t put the guy in anything approaching a gripping storyline that hasn’t been done a thousand times before.
Don’t expect anything new or brilliant with Up in the Sky - just a varied amalgam of semi-decent Superman stories. Though I suppose given how tough it is to write good Superman comics that’s something eh?
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