DCU Comic Book Reviews

TANGENT COMICS:  SUPERMAN'S REIGN #3

Chapter Three

July 2008

Written by Dan Jurgens

Pencils by Jamal Igle

Inks by Robin Riggs

Cover by Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino

Synopsis

On New Earth, the Justice League realize that Flash and Green Lantern are no longer on Earth.  When the duo realize they are on a different Earth, the Flash wants to investigate, but the Earth-9 Flash warns against doing that.  Suddenly, the Earth-9 Green Lantern reports that an attempt is being made to free the Atom from prison.  Elsewhere, Hex questions Lori Lemaris about the arrival of Flash and Green Lantern, hoping she knows who they are.  She doesn’t.  Meanwhile, Flash and Green Lantern decide to help the others free the Atom.  The attempt is foiled by Earth-9 Superman, who manages to capture Green Lantern, but the others get away.  As Superman interrogates Green Lantern, he sense another presence, in this case Hal Jordan searching for John Stewart.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This is a 12-issue mini-series.  Plus, the main story is only 17 pages, in order to make room for the back-up stories.  So, I think it is pretty obvious that there will be points in this story in which the story will lag a little bit.  This is one of them.  The ending, in which Stewart gets captured, makes up for the fact that not much happens that we hadn’t seen in the previous issue.  Having said that, this issue is still fun and entertaining; I haven’t tired of seeing the DC heroes being re-imagined and the Tangent Superman is interesting enough that I am curious to read more about him. 

At some point I am going to assume Jurgens will make an attempt to recast Tangent Superman as a good guy, using his powers in a seemingly evil manner in order to do a lot good that no one is seeing.  Or at least that is the way I am thinking.  Otherwise, the Tangent universe is too much like the Crime Syndicate of Amerika (in which good and evil is reversed).  It may not be exact, but it just seems like that is the way it is going. 

In the earlier issues, The Flash and Green Lantern were from “Earth-1.”  Now, we get other members of the Justice League from “New Earth.”  It will be interesting to see if the earlier issues will be edited for the eventual trade paperback.  I am also curious to know how the mistake occurred in the first place and why DC felt the need to fix it.  Is there really a difference between Earth-1 and New Earth? 

I like the Tangent universe Batman; he is pretty cool looking.  Too bad he doesn’t, you know, actually appear in the damn issue. 

A little math for you:  17 x 12 is 204.  Divide that number by 22 (the usual page count for a comic book) and you get 9.27.  So, in essence, the main story is a 9-part story stretched out to 12 parts.

HISTORY LESSON:  Chapter Three

Written by Ron Marz

Pencils by Fernando Pasarin

Inks by Matt Banning

Synopsis

Guy Gardner (aka Detective Chimp) tells the history of Nightwing, a special agency designed to monitor super humans.

Review

Actually, this back-up story is much like the main feature.  We get more of the same, in this case a history of the Tangent Universe, but at this point it just seems to be running on and on without any sense of where it might be going.  Well, I suppose that is not true since the car did stop and they arrived at their destination, but that is not enough to suggest a purpose behind these little history lessons.