Tangent Comics: The Superman #1 is a one-shot with a cover date of September, 1998.
Synopsis for "Future Shock"
New York Detective Harvey Dent tries to negotiate with a suicidal architect, Carter Hall, from jumping off his established Brande skyscraper, the tallest building on Earth, which Hall is personally affronted for seeing his building painted yellow. Dent quickly handcuffs Hall, but the architect jumps along with the detective. Both of them landed squarely on the roof of a car; however, only Dent miraculously survives the fall with only minor scratches.
Dent is sent to be recuperate in a hospital where he is visit by his much relieved fiancé Lola and his friend Pie-Face. In the weeks that followed, Harvey become interested in taking apart and rebuilding every electronic devices in his and Lola's apartment. Then later he reread every books in the local library within a week. By the time he has gone back to work, he devised a whole new method of policing in which his fellow officers discovered that the crime on Harvey' beat was virtually non-existent. It was around that time he stopped sleeping and finally revealing to Lola that he is developing superpowers that focus on the power of the mind, which his brain is constantly evolving. Something which everyone close to him believes to be caused from his accident. With his new-found powers, Harvey is not just using them to stopping crimes but helping social problems such as the homelessness. Harvey begins calling himself "Superman".
Soon Harvey began responding to meta-human crises and subsequent team-ups with other superheroes such as the Atom and the Flash. But despite of his goodwill intentions, the public soon began to doubt his altruism. It was the Atom, who in a Karl Ferris interview publicly declared his doubts about whether the intentions of Harvey as the Superman were as altruistic as they should be. It was obvious that Harvey did not do his deeds to play Good Samaritan, but that he liked solving problems. Also, his heroic career gradually alienated his wife who eventually had a brief sexual affair with Pie-Face in which Harvey have already known and doesn't really mind it at all.
Harvey later focus on finding out the true origins of his powers as he doesn't fully believe that his accident was responsible for accelerating his evolution. Harvey soon arrange a meeting with ex-Nightwing agent Black Orchid, who knows the origins of his powers. She gives him a map to one of Nightwing's secret facilities where his answers will be found there. Harvey travels to the facility and overcome Nightwing's Firestorm troopers and gains access to their computers.
It is reveal that in the 1970s, a Professor Joe Chill, who was among the people responsible for creating the first Atom, wanted to create more superhumans in the face against Soviet aggression. Chill chose the South Carolina town of Viceroy that was populated mostly by African-Americans, and infecting the town's water source with the Miraclo Solution created by Chill in 1973. Eighteen months later half of the town's residents died while others were heavily mutated. The only exception was one survivor, a baby Harvey Dent, who was born apparently normal. The operation was considered a failure and Chill took the blame while keeping his affiliation with Nightwing a secret despite an intense grilling by a congressional committee and a promise from President Richard Nixon that he would be personally see him behind bars for life. Naturally, Chill walked free and the Nixon administration was brought down by Nightwing just a few weeks later. Chill later disappeared in 1976, just twenty years before Harvey would triggered and gained his powers that Chill had always fantasized about. The whereabouts of Chill remains unknown even in Nightwing's database. After learning of his origins, Harvey's reactions to Nightwing over what they had done was not entirely merciful.
Harvey remained unseen for three days as Lola types her husband's story on her computer and putting an e-mail together in the hopes of reaching out to him in fixing their relationship. After sending the e-mail, Harvey suddenly appears and offers Lola the Miraclo Solution to become like her husband. Lola is very hesitant to take it given how it was responsible for wiping out Harvey's place of birth. Suddenly, an electromagnetic pulse erupts over the world which Harvey trace it to the being known as the Ultra-Humanite. Harvey resumes telling Lola that he perfected the Miraclo Solution from all its flaws and that he is giving it to her so he can still be in love with her on the same level as Harvey. After some considerations, Lola takes it.
Appearing in "Future Shock"
Featured Characters:
- Superman (Harvey Dent) (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Lola (First appearance)
- Pie-Face
- Black Orchid
Antagonists:
- Nightwing
- Doctor Polaris (Single appearance)
- Ultra-Humanite (Cameo)
Other Characters:
- Carter Hall (Single appearance; dies)
- Atom
- Flash
- Karl Ferris
- Carter Hall
- Doctor Regulus
- Joseph Chill (Flashback only)
Locations:
Items:
- Miraclo Solution
See Also
Links and References
| Tangent Comics | |
|---|---|
| Characters | Atom | Batman | Doom Patrol | Green Lantern | Joker | Metal Men | Nightwing | Sea Devils | Secret Six | Superman |
| Comics | The Atom #1 | Metal Men #1 | Flash #1 | Green Lantern #1 | Sea Devils #1 | Joker #1 | Nightwing #1 | Batman #1 | Secret Six #1 | Doom Patrol #1 | Superman #1 | Wonder Woman #1 | Joker's Wild #1 | JLA #1 | Tales of the Green Lantern #1 | Powergirl #1 | Nightwing: Night Force #1 | Trials of the Flash #1 | Superman's Reign |