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Mild Mannered Reviews - Specials

Tangent: Superman's Reign #9

Tangent: Superman's Reign #9

Scheduled to arrive in stores: November 19, 2008

Cover date: January 2009

"Superman's Reign - Chapter Nine"

Writer: Dan Jurgens
Penciller: Carlos Magno
Inker: Julio Ferreira

Back-Up Story: "History Lesson: Chapter Nine"
Write: Ron Marz
Penciller: Andie Tong
Inker: Mark McKenna

Neal Bailey Reviewed by: Neal Bailey

Click to enlarge



Batman and company storm the Tangent Superman's complex and seek an address in the computer. Batman indicates it's the key to bringing Tangent Superman down.

On Earth, all of the major capitals have been attacked. Superman, Power Girl, and Guy Gardner lament that they haven't been able to stop the chaos.

From the deck of a massive aircraft carrier, Tangent Superman issues a demand to all of the world leaders to accede to his leadership. They refuse, and he tells them to think it offer, threatening to drop them all into the ocean.

Vixen locates the missing carriers in the ocean. Superman, Guy, and Power Girl follow. The Tangent Superman launches planes at them and hides a nuke in one. Guy inadvertently sets it off, seemingly destroying the trio.

Batman and company burst into their target, the house of Dent's ex-wife, Lola Dent. She tells them they have seconds before she has them killed to explain why they are there.

Back-Up Story: "History Lesson: Chapter Nine"
Write: Ron Marz
Penciller: Andie Tong
Inker: Mark McKenna

Guy Gardner continues his story, telling the tale of Manhunter. He is initially hesitant to work against Superman, then decides to. They notice Guy's more muscular than he seems to be on the surface, as a geek.

5Story - 5: Nuclear weapons hurled by god-men. The capitols of all the world in peril. Batman doing what Batman does best. A strange world made comprehensible quickly and with a strong sense of character. You'd think this is what Trinity could have been, honestly, and in nine issues it's done ten times what Trinity has done in 25.

Awesome work.

This is tension. This is ratcheting things up. You don't allude to France being destroyed and then show two villains talking. Here we see two heroes actually annihilated by a nuclear missile, and the villain, whose motives are complex, acting in a wise fashion.

It's a shame this isn't a flagship book right now, it's that good.

3Art - 3: While the art did certain action scenes gloriously, many of the scenes suffered by odd paneling and character work. There are some weird angles in the "talking" scenes. The action scenes, though, were really great.

3Back-up Story - 3: Nothing wrong here, but the origin of this character's actually pretty plane jane and boring. It's essentially the same as the current Manhunter, except she's hunting war criminals as opposed to bad guys. It works, but it's not amazine.

5Back-up Art - 5: Great, for what it's doing. Nothing too complex here.

5Cover Art - 5: Bold, incredible pose. You almost feel they're going to jump out and bite you. Hands-down the best of them all so far.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2009

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

January 2009

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