Customer Rating:  
Summary: Super Commissar
Comment: What if the Krypton starship landed in Soviet territory instead of the US heartland? Superman being brought up with Marxist/communist ideals? The world would certainly be a different place. For the better or the worse?
Superman: Red Son attempts to answer these questions in such an adaptation. And a heck of an adaptation it is. Superman is still the virtuous Boy Scout he's always been, but this time he's on Stalin's side. But with such an upbringing, there are plenty of people trying to bring him down. The first people from his own country, then later his confrontation with the West, instigated by none other than Lex Luthor.
This graphic nov was quite a treat to read, with grand morals to ponder as the plot thickened. The beginning of the story illustrated the constant power struggles between Party officials in the USSR that Superman eventually had to quell in the name of stability. The tale also encompasses aspects of the Cold War, but instead of a nuclear arms race, a superhero race erupts as Luthor develops an Americanized clone of Superman. Though he is American, the clone is also as moral as Superman and sacrifices himself when a nuclear warhead threatens innocent civilians.
The story progresses with an array of familiar characters that live in an unfamiliar world. Lois Lane is married to Lex Luthor, despite brief tensions with Superman. Batman leads an anarchist's campaign against Superman, but fails to destroy the man of steel. Eventually Luthor and Brainiac join forces to shrink the Soviet capital, but actually minimize Stalingrad instead. Superman captures both Brainiac and Stalingrad, but is unable to restore the city to its former size. Thus it is kept in a glass jar until he can figure out a way to save the miniature city. This becomes Superman's greatest failure as a man who strives for perfection.
Still, the world seems to fall under his command quite quickly. Instead of an American economic victory over the Soviet Union that led to communist collapse, it is the US that can no longer hold states in the Union. The world prospers under a communist rule that only Superman can lead properly. But Luthor, with his mass of capital and pure genius, takes over the US presidency and raises the American economy out of poverty. Eventually he provokes Superman into a third world war of which Superman is humbled by a few simple words, "Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?" This leads the Super Commissar to call off the invasion of the United States, which triggers a nuclear fail safe in Brainiac's ship. Superman sacrifices himself to destroy this ship and the world is left in the hands of Luthor. Eventually the entirety of mankind is transformed into beings just like Superman when the sun inflates red billions of years into the future. In fact, it turns out that Superman is the descendant of Lex Luthor. His family sends Superman not only through space but also through time to escape the dying world.
Recapping on the story, it portrays a great deal of perfectionist attitudes that never live up to the standards, much instigated by communist nations. These strives for perfection on a national scale brought only oppression to the world. It shows that chaos is not something to be perfected. Greed and envy will always exist, and no Soviet deity could stop such things. If he wanted end suffering, Superman would need to imprison the entire world into a glass jar, like that of Stalingrad. And even though war and defeat have littered the comrade of steel, Superman is still a descent being, willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of others. Sort of shows that no matter how wrong one may be there is always room for amending and healing a world gone mad. But oppression and violent persuasion is never the answer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Story, One of my favorite Batman takes
Comment: I thought that The Red Son would be this sort of cool elseworld take on Superman and I will get around to it when I feel like it. Then I read it and I wished I had picked it up sooner. It has taken a place on my self reserved for my favorites.
I really liked the use of Batman, Green Lantern, Bizarro, and Brainiac in this story as well as the lack of kryptonite. I have always considered it pretty gay that some douche always is taking Superman out with a little green rock. Not here though. I liked how differently every enemy was formed and took on Superman. Batman was my favorite enemy of the state of all time and I think a story line like with Batman like this should be written.
The ending for me is what really made this story stand alone. It was clever and something that made me shout, "AWESOME!!!" then my girlfriend elbowed me for waking her up. Just a well told story. Enjoy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Needs to made into a movie/ *spoiler alert*
Comment: Being a girl and not so much into comic books, I loved this "what if" version of Super Man. Thinking back on it I think it would be a great movie. I like the fact that Lois and Clark aren't together, I love that they had Bat Man and Wonder Woman. All in all a great read and one that can be done again.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hes watching you
Comment: I got this book because its a good "What If" (remember the old marvel series?). This really is a good book and I like the alternative takes on some of the other JLA characters. The art has an old and new style appeal and the writings good too. The ending is appropriate and well done.
Im not really the spoiler type. You can take my word for it, or some guy that has to write an essay on his thoughts. If you like Superman or JLA at all and want a good story, this is it. This is the good stuff. C'mon Superman a communist? How could you need any convincing?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Kind of Boring
Comment: Normally, when I get my hands on one of these babies and I just cannot put it down. Not the case with this one. An Elseworlds story on what if Superman landed in the USSR instead? Certainly, this would make an intriguing story. Some of the differences include a new costume, Batman as a vigilante in USSR, Jimmy as a government spy, and Lois as wife of Lex Luthor. Some of these differences are self-explanatory, but others such as Batman being in USSR and Jimmy working for CIA is not really explained. Add to also, really boring writing (took me several sittings to finish it) and not too interesting storylines and you get three snoozefest stories.
The first story on Luthor creating Bizarro to battle Superman is very uninteresting. Luthor is hired by US Govt to counteract the Superman threat and is considered a hero in this book.
The second story is somewhat more interesting as Batman teams up with Luthor in bringing down the man of steel. I really enjoy how they do this and Batman's costume is pretty nice, but again, there is no explanation to why he is here in this country.
Third story is suppose to be epic as the last and final assault launched by the US to destroy Superman. Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Lex, attack at the same time. However, the final climatic moment is very weak and quite confusing. And the epilogue is not really as brilliant as one would think, probably tiresome as this book is too long and boring.
The only saving grace is the artwork which resembles propaganda-ish cartoon art which is very popular in communist countries. The Wonder Woman in this book is one of the best and most accurate I ever seen.
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