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Reading Walmart's 100-Page Giant Superman #8 – Up in the Sky but Back in the Ring

The Rev Jerrod Hugenot writes for Bleeding Cool,

The news of Walmart's exclusive with the 100-Page Giants coming to an end still cannot match the issues' elusiveness at local Walmarts. With each passing issue since this marketing venture began, finding issues is a matter of multiple trips to Walmarts and in some cases, visiting three stores in my area before finding them.

Perhaps the time tossed travail of Superman in this latest chapter is meta enough for my own quest to find the next issue.  This time, "Up in the Sky!", part six, is an unexpected time travel romp, landing Clark in the midst of a tale lost from the era of Andy Kubert's father with Sgt. Rock and Easy Company.

Reading Walmart's 100-Page Giant Superman #8 – Up in the Sky but Back in the Ring

While not versed personally in the Joe Kubert war comics, I can appreciate the desire to put one of the next generation Kuberts to work on part of the characters synonymous with the Kubert name. Andy does a great job immersing us back in an earlier era, drawing battle scenes and the battle hardened soldiers that convey the action even as Superman stumbles into the wrong time period.

I expected another deep space adventure, yet this odd chapter's location in Earth's past still works with King's strategy to explore the valor of what makes Superman and others heroic.  Also, when you have a Kubert handy already, why not dive into some time with Easy Company?

In the midst of battle, Easy Company finds an unconscious Superman. They help him get to safety and all he can remember is he is from Kansas. Naming him that, the company puts "Kansas" in a spare uniform and brings him along. Rock keeps pushing the woozy Superman, now clad in fatigues and even a very familiar looking pair of glasses. Rock claims, "I've been fighting with Easy for a long time, through grit, rubble and pain.  And through it all, I've learned one thing.  No matter how far you go, you always got to go just a little farther."

Reading Walmart's 100-Page Giant Superman #8 – Up in the Sky but Back in the Ring

The battle intensifies, and "Kansas" learns something about the Easy Company soldiers, as they dig into the grim tasks at hand. Rock keeps intoning his logic of "just a little farther", even as the mission stretches across many war torn scenes.

As part of King's ongoing storyline, we see yet again Superman in need of this sort of bolstering. He has the power, yet he gains and regains purpose by experiencing others who go "just a little farther."

Reading Walmart's 100-Page Giant Superman #8 – Up in the Sky but Back in the Ring

While last month's "14 gazillion deaths of Lois" disappointed me, here it is a return to form for King. I loved his build up to Superman recovering his memory only after he's witnessed what these mere mortals can accomplish.

When he ends the comic back in uniform (his fatigues shredded by shielding the company from an explosion, it's time to go back into the future and his space travels.  He is again renewed by the bravery and conviction of others.

Reading Walmart's 100-Page Giant Superman #8 – Up in the Sky but Back in the Ring

 


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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