Tangent: Superman's Reign # 10 (of 12)

By Koppy McFad
December 27, 2008 - 00:32

This is the latest issue of a miniseries featuring a crossover between the DC universe characters and their counterparts from the "Tangent" world where the characters have familiar names but are completely different. The Superman of the Tangent universe is a mind-controlling telepath (similar to the original version of Superman envisioned by Siegel and Schuster.) Batman is a magical knght, Flash, a light-powered girl and so on.

"Tangent" was mainly an exercise in creativity by DC that appeared in a series of specials some years back but the characters have lingered in the imagination of readers.

This miniseries has largely been overshadowed by other big events like FINAL CRISIS. And while the concept behind "Tangent" was clever, it had more of a cult-following than a big fan-base.

In the Tangent universe, their Superman had used his mental powers to conquer the world and is preparing to do the same with the mainstream DC Earth. In this issue, the Tangent heroes finally realise that they should be joining forces with the DC heroes against their Superman. But it may be a bit too late as their Superman has found allies of his own.

The cover of this issue is rather deceptive as we never see the two Supermans (Supermen?) duking it out. Instead, this issue has the DC and Tangent heroes reconciling and rallying their forces. It isn't a very exciting but it is rather amusing to see the various characters interacting with different versions of themselves.

Although the creative team don't really give us a recap of the previous issues, they do provide enough information to tell newcomers who is who and what the situation is. The debate over the morality of the Tangent Superman's actions are gripping enough so that we don't really miss the usual comicbook fisticuffs.

There is something a bit lacking in this series though. The art is acceptable but seems lacking in pizzazz. None of the characters look particularly eye-catching which really hurts the Tangent superheroes since very few people are familiar with them in the first place. In this issue, they seem to be just characters in the background.

The creative team also fails to make the reader care about the fate of the Tangent universe. It seems to be just another alien dimension rather than a twisted reflection of our own world. Still, the story so far does have a sense of building towards something big. Perhaps in the next issues, it will really catch fire.

Rating: 7 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12

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