Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Tangent Superman’s Reign #1
DC Comics
Jurgens, Clark, Pasarin & Delperdang
Here is my full disclosure: I only bought the issue because of the ads that DC ran and the fact that Jurgens is the writer. You know the ads with Superman in shackles and all the other Tangent folks hanging around him. What we get is an issue that sets stuff up and gives you some background on the Tangent Universe. In fact, it’s so tame that Superman isn’t even in it. I wasn’t too entertained and I was a little lost in the beginning. This comic is a very slow start. I only hope this doesn’t mean the mini series isn’t too long.
Jurgens to me has meant “Superman” over the last two decades or so. I know he killed Superman and ruined the industry, etc. Whatever. He brought in more outsiders into this hobby than most and I cant consider that to be a terrible thing. So I bought it. I wish it grabbed me more though.
The issue begins Lori Lemaris. Lemaris is just giving some inner monologue and she has some anger with a black guy who looks like Black Lightning who is apparently the Tangent Superman.
Later, we get some of a woman in green. The woman in green isn’t doing so well. In fact, she is withering away. She is apparently missing her lantern, which is stuck in the real Earth’s Justice League’s trophy case.
Speaking of the regular Earth, we find Flash fighting a different version of Mirror Master. When pressed, the Mirror Master serves alternate Flashes. He eventually sends in the Tangent one. Lia, the Tangent Flash and Wally, the regular Flash, head over to the Justice League.
John Stewart, the Green Lantern, tries to power up the lantern. He can’t, but it affects the old woman in her Tangent world.
Finally, the issue ends with Tangent Manhunter and Spectre breaking into a facility to free the Atom. They kill some folks in the process. We also get five pages of background on the Tangent Universe.
I got to be honest here, I don’t know what this story is supposed to be telling us. On the one hand, it’s about the Tangent Flash trying to get back home with the lantern. But on the other hand, the Tangent folks are cooking up a little something in their own world. I don’t know if this thing is going to spill into the regular Earth and into other books (like Final Crisis). That would be a severe disappointment. I guess I was thinking we just get the story of the evil Superman in the Tangent world with minimal crossover of characters. However, this smells of multiple tie-ins and other books that I really don’t want to get.
As much as I liked the background story, couldn’t it have been told in the context of the main story? I really needed to read some of it first I suppose.
The artwork was a real plus to this issue. The characters, the colors all felt very fresh and clean. It was really a well polished issue.
I’m going to need more than artwork and some interesting Tangent characters to keep me in for twelve issues. I need to see a great story and this was a very slow start.
2 out of 5 geek goggles.
 Tangent Supermans Reign #1 |
