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Permission. Title: Red Son
Series: Superman: Elseworlds
Author/Artist: Mark Millar, et all
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 160
Format: Kindle digital edition
Superman lands in the Ukraine and a Communist Collective instead of in Smallville, USA.
The Man of Steel promotes communism and once Stalin dies, takes over
as President Superman. Lex Luthor, last hope of the Free World, makes it
his mission in life to bring down the Man of Steel, even at the
sacrifice of his marriage to Lois Lane. Superman is being guided by
Brainiac and can Wonder Woman, Boris Wayneski, a newly minted core of
Green Lantern US Marines and even Superman himself stop Brainiac from
completing his nefarious plans?
I enjoyed this the first I read it but I never recorded that I read it, so this is my first time rating and reviewing it.
I always enjoy the
Elseworld stories because they do what
all the phracking ridiculous and completely unnecessary reboots attempt,
and miserably fail at, doing. IE, bringing us the characters we know in
new ways with new stories and new variations. In fact, I would say that
is the main fun of these, seeing the familiar turned at a 37° angle,
just enough to skew everything but still the same enough for you to
recognize.
First off, lets get through the bad. Stalin. For all that Hitler is
vilified and made the devil incarnate, Stalin was truly worse. He was a
butcher, plain and simple. So, for Superman to admire him was a bit of a
let down. I'm not talking about Superman and communism, but Superman
and Stalin. Then there is Boris Wayneski. I don't even know if that was
his name in the book, he was simply the Russian Batman. He was almost a
caricature and I would have enjoyed the story more if it had been
someone else. However, the frenemy status between Supes and Batman goes
way back, so it makes sense why it was included.
The good stuff.
Superman looked good. He looked good in his suit and with the hammer
and sickle on his chest. I'm pretty picky about my Supes, as I liked Dan
Jurgens version from the 90's, but this was a creditable job and the
art didn't detract from my enjoyment.
Lex Luthor. He is portrayed as the smartest man alive here. While his
quest to overcome Superman takes the lead, the advances he makes in
doing so drags humanity upward, in all ways. In fact, his name becomes
so great that his descendants take on his name, as L, or eL. You can see
where that is going.
And that brings me to the ending. I loved it. I can see it pissing
people off though. Superman is NOT from Krypton. He is from Earth, sent
back in time to try to change the future created by Lex Luthor and the
House of L. Of course, the story ends with his little craft landing in
the Ukraine, hence beginning the whole cycle again.