| Welcome to the world of Tangent Comics — where you only know the names. Parallel Lines: A DC Comics Tangent Universe Podcast is a bi-weekly, issue-by-issue exploration of DC Comics’ Tangent Universe events, hosted by Shawn Engel and Michael Bradley.
“This is not what we planned.”
Batman and the Outsiders begin their assault on the Superman’s stronghold! But, they come up empty handed when they discover the Superman has gone where they least suspected and most dreaded — Earth-1’s Metropolis! Also, the backup tale gives us a refresher on Lia Nelson, a.k.a. the Flash!
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NEXT TIME: Clash of the Supermans with SUPERMAN’S REIGN #8!
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I am a mailman. Pooch scares me! I am enjoying your coverage of Superman’s Reign. Keep up the great work!
“It’s like going from George Pérez to…anyone else.” That–is the perfect tag line for the rest of the artists in this crossover. This is exactly how I felt when I read the rest of the issues, and now I guess you guys can see what I meant by some of the, uh, ‘failings’.
However, in Wes Craig’s defense, he is much better than the third artist. The third artist suffered from a lackluster inker who made his art look ODD to be polite. Wes Craig at least looks as hurried or frenzied as the story /asks/ for it (the next issue is a good indicator of this.)
Another defense is that I’ve always believed that Wes’ art looks rushed because at the same time, DC likely jumped this job on him last minute. I have some sketches of his studies of the Tangent characters from when his blog was still public and they were GOOD. They looked much better than what he gave us, and he showed a deep attempt to understand how the characters worked + linking them back to specific motifs or symbols. For example, Superman was linked back to the Samson/Moses motif I believe, while Lia’s symbol was redesigned to resemble a sun and she was linked back to the impish pixie trope. So when I see these sketches and then see his work, I just feel bad.
Also, Batman Blue and Batman Red made me laugh so hard, I scared the people in this house. Thank you.
I do wish the Batman knowing Lori was the Joker could’ve been built upon a BIT more. I really liked how they worked together, with Lori showing her conflict on using guns when she never did as the Joker. (A contrast to DCU Joker.) And also like you said, showing how she might not have been on her game after 10 years. But we got something at least.
I think the comic says it but Plastic Man’s new body /is/ because of William’s magic. It’s some iffy “comics!” thing but he crafted a spell where Plas’ body comes back and…nothing else is mentioned about it ever again. Not how or what’s behind it or how will Plas keep it up beyond this encounter. Comics!
Oookay, last bit since this got long: the cover is by Andie Tong who did some or the rest of the history back-ups in addition to this one. It’s a great cover just because it’s the two Superman and I love it for that. Now here’s an interesting fact: issue 11’s cover was drawn originally by Tong but for some reason DC didn’t go ahead with it and decided to have the same layout and idea printed…drawn by Ivan Reis instead. THE ONLY TIME REIS DRAWS FOR THIS AND IT’S A REPRODUCTION, THAT’S SAD. But the cover does look better as opposed to Tong’s art.