DCU Comic Book Reviews

TANGENT COMICS:  SUPERMAN'S REIGN #7

Chapter Seven

November 2008

Written by Dan Jurgens

Pencils by Wes Craig

Inks by Dan Davis

Cover by Andie Tong

Synopsis

The Batman of New Earth leads the heroes of Tangent on an assault on the headquarters of the Tangent Superman.  However, the Tangent Superman, along with Tangent Power Girl, is on New Earth, thanks to the power of the Green Lantern ring.  When he finds homeless and hungry people walking the streets, he vows to fix New Earth.  Meanwhile, Batman and the team are able to defeat the robots guarding the headquarters and locate the captured heroes.  But they realize that Tangent Superman is on New Earth, where he encounters the New Earth Superman. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I know I have mentioned this before in previous reviews of this particular story, but I think it bears repeating again:  the story and the plot seem slight and thin and each time I finish I get the feeling that not much as happened.  I don’t know whether this is a function of the shorter main story (and thus less pages each month) or the fact that at 12 issues the series is taken a real time or probably a combination of both.  In this issue, we get Batman and the other heroes battling robots while Superman walks around Metropolis.  It seems to me that the battle into Superman’s compound did not need to take so long and didn’t really serve much other than to add the obligatory action sequence (although I like the moment when Batman learns Lori’s hero name and the brefi interchange with the other Batman, but that was about it) and add pages to get us to the cliffhanger.  Hopefully this will lead to something happening that impacts the story more than this issue.  Something needs to happen. 

HISTORY LESSON:  Chapter Seven

Written by Ron Marz

Pencils by Andie Tong

Inks by Mark McKenna

Synopsis

Guy Gardner (aka Detective Chimp) tells the history of the Secret Six and the Tangent Flash, the one who somehow ended up on New Earth and brought the heroes to the Tangent Earth.  When he finishes, he is told that he is needed to help overthrow Superman. 

Review

When these history lessons first appeared, I thought it was a great idea to provide exposition and backstory for the universe without trying to shoehorn it into the main story.  And I still feel that way.  I am just wondering if these things have gone on far too long.  There really wasn’t that much information about the Flash that adds to the main story and we’ve known for several issues now that Guy is being asked to take down Superman.  Why it took this long to get to it, is beyond me.  I suppose, much like the main story, I want something to happen to take this book into high gear before it ends.