Superman: Red Son
 

I thought of making a thread for this a while ago, but never did. I think it belongs more in the General section than in the comics section just because it will garner more serious discourse.

I Stumble Upon'ed (or is it just regular stumbled upon?) this Superman 'universe' by sheer luck. And I'm so glad I did.

Red Son is a serious commentary on human nature, and it's pulled off with the perfect amount of stinging sardonicisms and anti-bias (i just mean bias from the opposite side of the spectrum).

Think of the Superman you know: champion of "justice," upholder of "The American Way," fighting for truth and honor and to uphold the system America is founded on.

Red Son reverses that: the idea spawned when the author read an old Superman, Superman #300, where Superman's capsule landed in neutral waters, and there was a race between the Soviets and the US to capture the capsule at all costs. What if, when superman's capsule reached the Earth, the Soviets got him?

Well, Red Son makes it that his capsule lands in a farming collective in the Ukraine--and from there begins his life. He is in every way like his 'counterpart' American superman--he is fighting for what he was raised to believe. He believes wholeheartedly in true communism--and as the article says, "Just as our own Superman isn't tarnished by the Americans dropping bombs in Vietnam or Iraq, this Soviet Superman isn't responsible for the Gulags or the mass-killings. This Superman represents The Dream as much as the traditional Superman does, but watching him reluctantly take control of the USSR when the people beg him to and make communism an international success is quite fascinating. "

He even internally opposes the leaders who just want power, always saying, "this is going against everything we've been raised to believe," but in the end his "obedient" side wins out and he just continues on in the same way.

It's only a 3 issue, 115-page total story, but it's absolutely fantastic, in my opinion.

The art also has a very 'red' feel to it, making you want to see red for a while. The shades and the attitude of the drawings are very appealing.

Oh, and it also incorporates some other superheroes, cleverly.

If anyone wants it, I downloaded the .cbr. You'll need CDisplay, most likely.

http://theages.superman.ws/History/redson/rescue.gif

Ahh, I remember reading about this a while ago. A very interesting concept indeed (especially since I'm already a fan of 'alternate history' novels - why not 'alternate fantasy' as well?).

Of course, the Soviet Union already had a superhero, "Man of Steel," and I like how the comic actually shows them interacting a bit...

http://theages.superman.ws/History/redson/comrade.gif

Considering that it's only 12 dollars on Amazon.com, I'll probably end up buying it sometime.

... and yes... StumbleUpon totally rocks.

Also... LENINADE!

It's about a comic, it's goin' in Comics, sorry. I think the people who post in there are generally going to be more inclined to be able to talk intelligently about non-webcomics than elsewhere, anyway.

Incidentally, if you liked the comic that well, you ought to think about buying it. It's not expensive, and if nothing else, the color is richer and deeper in print.

Yeah, as I was re-reading the article I wa thining about how there really is no reason fro me not to buy the comic.

Sorry about the loc. I was imagining a kind of quasi-discussion on bias and communism, too.

But anyway, what are everyone's opinions on this? I really like how Superman is shown to be genuinely benevolent, and the American propaganda paints him as evil.

My friend lent this to me a few weeks ago, and oh man was it crazy good. The ending was a little wierd, but acceptable. I especialy liked the Russian anarchist Batman, and the American Green Lantern Marine Corps.

I was a little disappointed with Red Son. I was led to believe that the concept was more like "What if Superman had landed in Russia?" rather than an entire alternate universe story. Once I got over that though, I thought it was pretty good. Except the ending. It felt like something the writer slapped together because he didn't know how to give it a good ending.

SPOILERS:

Batmankoff was awesome. When Stalin's son shot those two parents, I KNEW that kid was going to become Batman.

I liked how it starts off being about communism, but ends up both being much, much more, and at the same time a traditional Superman/Braniac/Lex story.

The ending kinda tweaked me out. Millar said somewhere that he stole it off of Alan Moore, which sounds about right.

In Soviet Russia, Super-man.....

I usually shy away from DC but this one has interested me enough that I think I'll go ahead and buy it. I'm actually suprised no one has made any Yakov Schmeernof jokes yet. Maybe I am too juvenile.

This, I would argue, is better than Dark Knight Returns.