From the creative mind of Mark Millar comes Superman: Red Son, which is arguably not just one of the best Superman stories, but Elseworlds books, ever published. It shows a very interesting alternative universe scenario where Superman is a Soviet super weapon. In this ironic take on the well-known American Super-hero Superman was raised on a farm in Russia and later becomes a member of Joseph Stalin’s inner circle. In that inner circle, he is centered as their answer to world’s problems, and is their super weapon. After Stalin’s untimely death Superman gains leadership over the Soviet Union and leads them to a nation without war, poverty, disease, crime, and unemployment. His perfect world does come with a price though, a price where no one is in control anymore. Superman uses his X-Ray vision and super hearing to his advantage to monitor his country and eventually gives citizen brain surgery that turns them into obedient robots.
Over in America, fearless president, Lex Luthor is working hard to get his country back at the forefront of being the world’s most super powered nation. As the story always goes, Lex Luthor is hard at work with all his focus on destroying Superman. Before he become president, Luthor is hired by the government to destroy Superman. His first attempt was creating Bizarro, which was just a knock off attempt to duplicate Superman.
One thing I absolutely loved about this book was the twist they put on some other well-known characters that are affiliated with Superman. Also kept the mythos to give us some nostalgic feeling moments. Lois Lane took the Luthor name in this universe as she was married to Lex. Not much was different for Lois though, she was still at the Dailey Planet where she eventually took over as head editor. However, in this universe she had to deal with her husband choosing his ego over her which was a different scenario for readers to see Lois in. Lois and Lex had a very one-sided marriage where Lex just put her aside to focus on defeating Superman and just dragged Lois along with him.
Wonder Woman plays a pretty important part in this story. At first, she is introduced as another super who could aid Superman in domination but later they became friends Later on in the story Wonder Woman would be asked by Lois Lane to join the fight against Superman and she chose to help but unfortunately her and her people were defeated. Batman has a very compelling arc in this story. The story kind of stays the same, Batman loses his parents at a young age for political differences which pushes him to grow up to be a freedom fighter. Batman’s main target is Superman and becomes a huge thorn in the side of Superman’s plans. Batman and Superman had a really awesome face off which lead to Batman telling Superman he’d rather die a martyr then become one of his robotic slaves and set off a bomb that he swallowed before facing off with Superman.
The only nitpick I have with this book is the use of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern. They Introduced Hal as a war prisoner turned Green Lantern and then lead a lantern corpse against Superman who all carried lantern rings invented by Lex Luthor. Hal didn’t really have a lot to do in this story as he was quickly taken out not long after he led his corpse to battle Superman and were defeated. The most fascinating part about this book is the way it all ends. But I don’t wanna spoil it for you. Superman: Red Son is a fantastic read that will always be regarded as one of the greatest comics ever published.
RORSCHACH RATING:
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Victims and Villains is written and produced by Josh "Captain Nostalgia" Burkey. Music by Yuriy Bespalov & Beggars. Superman: Red Son is property of DC Comics. We do not own nor claim any rights.
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