Hot Shot of the Week Companion Feature
Ten Questions With Dan Jurgens About Tangent: Superman's Reign #1
Russell Burlingame reporting for Comic Related
Dan Jurgens is the creator of the Tangent Universe--a world contained in the DC Comics Multiverse in which the presence of superhumans since the 1950s has dramatically altered the society around them in a way that it really never did the DC and Marvel Universes--normal people in Tangent will have access to teleportation science, where it's really just limited to the JLA in the DC Universe, for example. First visited in a pair of fifth-week events in the 1990s, the Tangent Universe has aged ten years since its last appearance--and the first issue of the new maxiseries Tangent: Superman's Reign, which Jurgens is writing (with help on backup stories by Ron Marz), came out this week and revealed a Tangent Universe that seems to have taken a dramatic turn, with a superhero having crossed the line into Sinestro-like dictatorship.
Jurgens, also the creator of Booster Gold and the subject of one of last week's Hot Shot interviews, is probably best known for the death and return of Superman stories he co-wrote in the 1990s, the latter of which was called The Reign of the Supermen. Both it and Tangent: Superman's Reign are titular acknowledgements of Jerry Siegel's 1930s science fiction fan-mag story, Reign of the Superman, which detailed a Superman more like Jurgens's Tangent version--bald, bad and a little deranged--than like the one that ultimately made Siegel a comic book legend.
Comic Related: How did Tangent-Flash know where she was going when she bolted out ahead of Wally? I picture the full sequence as being, "You'll be the one who has to keep up!...Wait a second, where the hell's the guy in red? And where was I even going? What's a 'Big Belly Burger'? I hate this planet!"
Dan Jurgens: She's been on earth for awhile now (since JLA #13) and knows her way around a bit.
CR: Was there something particular that happened to take Hal Jordan off the board for the Tangent: Superman's Reign series? What occurred between the time when you drew the teaser poster over the summer [which depicted the DC Universe's Superman, Flash and Hal Jordan as Green Lantern with their Tangent counterparts] and now, that John Stewart is the representative of "New Earth?"
DJ: Hal shows up in issue #3. We have Green Lanterns everywhere!
CR: On a related note--"The Earth 9"/"Earth 1" thing in the captions? Is this DC's subtle way of confirming that New Earth is supposed to be Earth One? Obviously the Tangent characters were used to quietly re-introduce the Multiverse during the Ion: Guardian of the Universe mini...!
DJ: Not necessarily.
CR: Between Tangent: Superman's Reign and Countdown, I can't help but notice that guys called The Atom are often intrinsic to saving the universe, without necessarily knowing it. Is there a connection here or is that just serendipity? Obviously The Atom was always kind of the #1 hero in Tangent...!
DJ: Chalk this one up to serendipity. The Tangent Atom was chosen specificially because of his power level and overall meaning to the world.
CR: I don't remember Booster Gold playing much of a role in Tangent before, but I do remember thinking that whatever I heard about him, he didn't strike me as a standard superhero. He appears for a panel in the Marz backup alongside Dr. Mid-Nite (I think). What's his deal, and did I miss it in the old issues?
DJ: Booster Gold was first mentioned years ago in one of the Tangent: Green Lantern stories. We used a lot of names that, in some cases, didn't register long term because they didn't have their own titles.
CR: Is this new Mirror Master from the Tangent Universe or isn't that relevant?
DJ: Yes, he's from the Tanent Universe.
CR: So, what about Tangent stuck in your craw that makes it a better "alternate earth" to re-explore than, say, Byrne's Pocket Universe or one of the worlds from the '90s Elseworlds Annuals?
DJ: I think it's a bit more intriguing because we're saying that the presence of extraordinary individuals with tremendous power has influenced the Tangent world a great deal. Because of them, science, technology, economics, politics and more are totally different.
CR: Will we see a lot of new Tangent characters introduced for this story, or will it be mostly catching up with the old faces for now?
DJ: It's going to be a little of both with a greater emphasis on the older characters. Between them and the JLA it's hard to have enough "screen time" to get new characters in.
CR: What is the Tangent Green Lantern's deal? She appears to be "connected" enough to her lantern that she can still tell bits of the future, even if she can't raise the dead anymore.
DJ: I like to somewhat evasive about Tangent GL, though I think we've been quite consistent. More of her story will play out in the second issue. But it isn't as easy as saying she has total control of the lantern and its power--or the opposite of that.
CR: Is it hard to lose page count to accomodate the backups, or is it a nice break to have 17 pages a month due, rather than 22, since you have Booster Gold still on your plate?
DJ: It's tough. With a cast this big, I could use 30 pages per issue. But we also felt it crucial to give raders a sense of the planet and the main characters through the backup stories. Far too many titles leave the readers lost these days.
Click here to visit our Hot Shot of the Week Feature
on Tangent: Superman's Reign #1
Ten Question About Tangent: Superman's Reign With Ron Marz
Page last updated on March 22, 2008