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Respect The Tangent Superman (Earth-9 Complete Respect Thread)

By ProfessorRespect October 12, 2021 19 Comments

It was obvious to anyone who spoke to him that he wasn't helping people because he liked to play the good Samaritan. He just liked solving problems. Every problem except one.

Introduction

Tangent Superman has a LOT of hype around the forums, especially during the older days where he'd be paired off with the likes of The Watcher, Death Seed Sentry, and whatnot. Even today you can find him being paired off as a relatively potent threat in many High Tier tourneys and whatnot, but no one really knows how strong he actually is, and the internet as a whole doesn't really either: he's only gotten a single RT in decades, and this was on KMC back in 2007. As such, I wanted to check out Dent's feats, and see if he's really worth the hype, or if he's just another inflated character getting bumped up for no reason. I'll be covering a lot of Earth-9 material, so don't get confused if I throw out names of characters that don't match to their usual self.

Tangent Superman is the Superman from Earth-9: unlike the Sups we know and love, this one was developed from horrific genetic experimentation done to minorities in the 70's in a attempt to mass produce superheroes, but his powers lay dormant until a fateful accident triggered them. Unlike regular Sups, Dent's main super power is his mind: his ability to evolve consistently has allowed him to use TP, TK, precognition, pyrokinesis, and many more. His philosophy is also vastly different to regular Superman, believing that necessary freedoms are secondary to security and safety, essentially creating his own world dictatorship when he judged the leaders of the world incompetent.

Durability

Scan 1/2- Is fine after being flung from a palm strike from Barry Flash, responding with a staff strike before he could follow it up (Convergence- The Flash #2)

Is hurt after a heat vision blast, but doesn't have any lasting damage (Tangent- Superman's Reign #8)

Scan 1/2- Is only defeated after his powers are pushed to the limit, allowing Superman to one shot him while distracted. For reference, this involved bringing in his wife, who has the same powers as he does, as well as multiple JLA and Earth-9 heroes overextending Dent in battle, as well as the fact that he was busy trying to take over Russian military tech at the same time and multitasking a lot. (Tangent- Superman's Reign #12)

Intellect

Is stated to have vast intellect (The Multiversity Guidebook)

His brain evolves at about a century per hour (Tangent Comics- The Superman)

Within a week, figures out how to eradicate crime and reads all of the books in his local library (Tangent Comics- The Superman)

Defeats multiple Earth-9 villains, including the likes of Heat-Wave and the Lightning Bolt. (Tangent Comics- The Superman)

Builds a network of cameras that can view basically anywhere. These were essential to his world-rule, which involved eradicating hunger, crime, employment, and more. (Tangent- Superman's Reign #6)

Scan 1- Creates a pill that gives his wife the same powers as he has, developed from the faulty formula originally and improved so that the side effects (I.E. death or horrific physical mutation) were removed. (Tangent Comics-The Superman)

Scan 2- Through official propaganda states that she "died" this wasn't true as she later showed up in hiding. This also had the idea that Harvey had made more of these pills in hiding, albeit they were never used. (Tangent- Superman's Reign #10)

Scan 1/2- Figures out the whole Convergence gimmick fairly easily, determining the whole plot (Convergence- The Flash #2)

Power

Beats multiple JLA and Earth-9 individuals off screen (Tangent- Superman's Reign #7)

Damages the majority of the moon after him and Ultra-Humanite brawl, with them stating that the battle would've ravaged Earth if it happened there (Tangent- Superman's Reign #4)

Scan 1/2- Defeats the Earth-9 Ultra-Humanite, which would've destroyed Earth as directly stated by Atom II. He'd later rebuild Humanite to function under his guard. (Tangent- Superman's Reign #11)

Speed

Moves away from a punch from Barry Flash after getting hit (Convergence- The Flash #2)

Uses a field of energy to prevent Flash tagging him mid blitz (Convergence- The Flash #2)

Telekinesis

Alters his physiological structure to defeat his version of Swamp Thing (Tangent Comics- The Superman)

Cleans up radiation caused by a nuke and drags a aircraft carrier away with him (Tangent- Superman's Reign #10)

Scan 1/2- Destroys the White House and the Capitol (Tangent- Superman's Reign #8)

Disables Parasite after wrecking his synapses (Tangent- Superman's Reign #12)

His shield holds up from a sucker punch from Post Crisis Sups (Tangent- Superman's Reign #8)

Holds a helicopter in place (Tangent Comics- The Superman)

Scan 1/2/3- Makes his fields so powerful that the Earth-9 Secret Six can't tag him (Tangent- Superman's Reign #2)

Overpowers Superman (Tangent- Superman's Reign #12)

Scan 1/2- Manhandles regular Superman and throws him around (Tangent- Superman's Reign #8)

Scan 1/2/3- Successfully disables Flash's synapses mid blitz, stopping him from attacking or doing anything, really. This was him trying not to hurt him that badly either (Convergence- The Flash #2)

Takes control of Guy Gardner's ring and uses him to one shot Hal Jordan and John Stewart, and then himself (Tangent- Superman's Reign #12)

Scan 1/2- Takes John Stewart's ring (Tangent- Superman's Reign #5)

Scan 1/2/3- Overpowers John Stewart and holds him in place for ages (Tangent- Superman's Reign #3)

Scan 4- When he releases John again, he's easily able to then disable his ring from working, a trick he'd do to him even later on and whatnot (Tangent- Superman's Reign #4)

Keeps disabling John Stewart's ring despite being in a different universe (Tangent- Superman's Reign #7)

Scan 1/2- Teleports himself and Joker away, taking her information and then stopping her heart (Tangent- Superman's Reign #2)

Scan 1/2- Turns The Human Target's armor on fire from nowhere, before turning it off at will and then ripping the info out of her mind about the attacks (Tangent Comics- JLA)

Wrecks a Nightwing base and ravages through all of their forces rather easily (Tangent Comics- The Superman)

Telepathy

Blocks Earth-9 Lois Clark's powers from finding his exact area (Tangent- Superman's Reign #11)

Could see the future to a limited extent, allowing him to tell where people were or how they felt (Tangent Comics- The Superman)

Decodes hard drives to steal their information, formatting a virtual web address within his mind to store them (Tangent Comics- The Superman)

Scan 1/2- Gets inside John Stewart's mind, figuring out all of Post Crisis history within a moment (Tangent- Superman's Reign #5)

Is able to read Barry Allen's thoughts just fine and describes them as a "pleasant challenge" to himself despite a speedster's mind being particularly difficult to access properly (Convergence- The Flash #2)

This is also pretty detailed as a scan of Barry Flash's mind, finding memories of the Crisis and his death, both hidden from him (Convergence- The Flash #2)

Overpowers Doctor Psycho telepathically despite being tasked physically by Black Lightning and Atom II at the same time. This TK burst is enough to not just take out Psycho, but also noticeably Black Manta. (Tangent- Superman's Reign #12

Provides a universal language for every leader on Earth at once (Tangent- Superman's Reign #9)

Senses the creation of the Ultra-Humanite in Russia from America (Tangent Comics- The Superman)

Scan 1/2- Senses activity going on around the world while in the Middle East (Tangent- Superman's Reign #2)

Conclusion

I'll definitely say Tangent Superman is strong: being able to handle high tiers with your powers is very impressive: but looking back, some of his matchups are very much hyped up for no real reason. His best feat was probably beating Humanite, and even then Humanite would later get beaten when brought back to life to assist Dent. He's certainly quite potent with his mental powers but frankly, I was expecting a bit more beyond some reasonably solid showings, especially from what I've seen of him by others.

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