Review: Superman’s Reign #11

It just got really weird

You know what has really been missing in DC Comics since the end of 52?  A whole slew of mutliverse stories.  Sure, there’s that whole cluster bomb that is Final Crisis and Superman Beyond 3D that touches on a multiverse, and there has been an ongoing tale featuring Superman from Earth-22 in JSA, but that story took place on New Earth.  It could be argued Trinity is a multiverse story, in that it features the Riddler from the Antimatter universe, but the series has turned more into an alternate timeline story than one that takes place in the multiverse.

Where are tales taking place on Earth-10, Earth-47, and Earth-17?  The only real Multi-Earth spanning tale readers have seen in the last two years has been Tangent: Superman’s Reign.  And lately, that’s not necessarily a good thing.

When Countdown was going on and the trio of Kyle, Donna, and Jason were jumping from one Earth to another, the cover would feature a small Earth logo with a number in it  indicating what universe the story took place in.  I was really hoping we would have seen stories from all of the Earths, but in an attempt to Final Crisis, it seems many of those ideas were shelved.

Tangent: Superman’s Reign #11 continues the traditional crossover event that began with the annual JSA/JLA team-ups.  As Superman (a.k.a. Harvey Dent of Earth-9) continues his plans to rid New Earth of its heroes and villains thus setting himself up as the great potentate. Fortunately, the remaining heroes of Earth-9, made up of the Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Harvey’s ex-wife Lola Dent, and others team with New Earth’s greatest (if Guy Gardner is considered one of the greats) as they fight their way through the likes of the Joker, Icicle, Mr. Freeze and a string of other villains as they attempt to find Harvey.

This is where it gets really weird.  Until this issue, the dialogue and action sequences have been fairly thought out and planned in a way that makes sense.  As the good guys and bad guys fight, the layout and dialogue transforms into something reminiscent of a really bad cartoon from the 1920s.  Having Black Canary blurt out “I cannot stand Merlyn” while kicking him in the face is the same thing as me writing about the period about to come up at the end of this sentence.  Those who know all the characters in the DC Universe backwards and forward are going to know who this character is.  For those that have a life, it isn’t that big of a deal as readers understand this is a bad guy.  If anything, Dan Jurgens should have used the same labeling tag to identify the villains as was used in the two page splash featuring the heroes from New Earth and Earth-9.

I’m just amazed that a series that has been moving along so well, suddenly stumbles in this major fight sequence to something I would expect from a first time writer.

Through the forced dialogue, readers come to learn that Harvey Dent Superman has an ace up his sleeve in the form of the Ultra-Humanite of Earth-9.  We’ve seen multiverse characters switch gender and race, but nothing prepared me for a giant Japanese robot that had been hidden away for a rainy day.  Giant samurai robots always make me roll my eyes, so I don’t have high hopes for the final chapter of this series.

If you are really pondering the fate of Harvey Dent Superman, check out the backup story in this issue, as it seems someone is ready to fill in the position should Earth-9’s ruler meet his end.

I was really digging this series up until things got far fetched and silly in this issue. Sure, the idea of a multiverse is pretty out there, and the idea of men and women flying around in spandex is pretty silly, but throw in the cheesy dialogue and weird panel layouts, and you have an issue I just can’t get behind.  Tangent: Superman’s Reign #11 earns a really ‘meh’ 2 out of 5 Stars.

07/07