Superman: Red Son (Mark Millar)

[rushthatspeaks]

This brilliant little AU is based on an extremely simple premise: what if Superman's spaceship had landed twelve hours later? After his childhood on a collectivist farm in Russia, the Soviet Superhero sets out to make the world safe for Communism.

Millar never sets a foot wrong. It would have been easy to write this as a collection of stereotypes-- the plucky, individualist Americans; the mindless Soviet drones; all the propaganda of the Cold War come back into the comic book, and one side picked to be the villain depending on the writer's sympathies. Instead, both sides have their loyalists and their rebels, their people of integrity and their rogues, and Superman has the same deep and innocent belief in the stated ideals of his country that he's always had. It simply happens to be a different country, and a different set of ideals.

It's a three-issue book, but it never feels rushed or crowded, despite throwing alternate-historical details at the reader left and right. The art is clean and precise, intentionally capturing the feel of early twentieth-century Soviet propaganda posters, and the new costumes are a delight. Superman's chest-shield works astonishingly well with the hammer and sickle.

Familiarity with the canon of the D.C. universe would probably be helpful for understanding the book, but I don't think it would be entirely necessary, since the alternate-universe versions of various people serve as characters in their own right and usually have some point other than the shock of recognition. On the other hand, the resonance and depth of some of the allusions is very enjoyable, and pulls from all over both D.C. and Superman continuity, including what I can only assume is a reference to Smallville. This is also the best version of Lex Luthor EVER, and that's all there is to it.

My problems with this are extremely nit-picky-- I'd've liked to see the Russian version of Superman's parents, and there's one pre-existing condition at the start of the comic that could really have used an explanation, but this is mostly me wanting more of a very good story. Red Son is available in trade paperback, and I highly recommend it.

Totally Unrelated Note: I just bought a used copy of From Reverence to Rape, a reference book on the history of the images of women in cinema. foleyartist1, would you like me to pass it on to you when I've read it?

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I was really happy with Red Son [ modulo the mild annoyance of having been noodling a proposal for a Superman's-arrival-as-Tunguska-explosion Elseworld that would have been too similar to be worth doing ] up until about halfway through the last part, where it seemed to lose track of the level of reality it was on and slip into something more broadly satirical and less concerned about realism, to its detriment. I also thought it would have benefited from just a little bit more directness on how this Superman feels about purges and gulags and so on, it does carefully edge around actually having him talk to the perceived need for them. But other than that it was brilliant.

Have you read the Kim Newman short "Ubermensch" ?

[ckd]

There was also a short story in the Superheroes anthology...ah, here it is.

John Varley, "Truth, Justice and the Politically Correct Socialist Path".