By Dan Jurgens & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-747-1
The second volume of tales from Earth #9 of the new DC universe (see Tangent Comics: volume 1, ISBN13: 978-1-84576-670-2) collects the remaining four tales from 1997 and one from the sequel series from 1998. Tangent Comics: The Joker, Tangent Comics: Nightwing, Tangent Comics: Secret Six, Tangent Comics: Doom Patrol and Tangent Comics: The Batman all occur on an Earth where the Cuban Missile Crisis led to a nuclear exchange which changed the world and permanently entrenched the Cold War between the Soviets and the West.
The Joker is a mysterious madcap girl who seems determined to bedevil beat cop John Keel as he tries to do his job in the futuristic madhouse that is New Atlantis, built on the irradiated skeleton of Atlanta. ‘Laugh ’till it Hurts’ is written by Karl Kesel, drawn by Matt Haley and inked by Tom Simmons and provides a dark mystery to contrast the outlandish crime-busting hi-jinks.
Nightwing is the codename for a band of rogue mystics planning to expose and defeat a US government agency that uses Magic to achieve its ends – and naturally has its own agenda to fulfil. ‘The Most Dangerous Man in the World’ is by long-time creative collaborators John Ostrander and Jan Duursema.
The Secret Six is the inevitable star team-book, scripted by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Tom Grummett. ‘Bad Moon’ sees newcomers The Spectre (a teen who can phase out of reality) and the artificial shape-changer Plastic Man unite with The Atom, The Flash, Joker and Manhunter to prevent a madman from becoming all the water on Earth, whilst the Doom Patrol are four enhanced individuals who travel back from 2030 AD to prevent the end of the World. ‘Saving Time’, by Dan Jurgens, Sean Chen and Kevin Conrad, is a rather formulaic chronal escapade with the misunderstood heroes discovering that they may be the trigger for the events they have come to prevent.
The volume closes with the lacklustre ‘Covenant of Iron’ as Jurgens and Klaus Janson reinterpret The Batman as an empty suit of armour animated by the willpower of Sir William, a cursed and lovelorn knight who survived the fall of Camelot, imprisoned in the ethereal Castle of the Bat.
As the middle of a trilogy of volumes it’s perhaps unwise to judge this book on its own merits, but frankly this is a mediocre book you don’t want to pick up without first reading its predecessor, and perhaps not at all until that third book comes out.
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