Superman: Red Son

Released: 2003

Written by: Mark Millar

Art by: Dave Johnson, Andrew Robinson, Kilian Plunkett, Walden Wong

It can be easily assumed that the vast majority of people know the origin story for the man of steel, even individuals that would not classify themselves as DC readers or even as comic book fans. But in Mark Millar’s Superman: Red Son it acts as a re-imagining of the character as if he did not land in Smallville, Kansas but instead landed in a small farm in the Ukraine during the reign of the Soviet Union.  The miniseries studies how this change of location could change the entire course of history, as he now fights as “the champion of the common worker who fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw pact”, instead of "truth, justice and the American way".

With this slight change of events, many aspects of the world has been altered, most notably is that Jimmy Olsen now works for the government/Lex Luthor instead of working for the Daily Planet. I am still not sure how his chosen careers would have been affected by Clark Kent’s absence but is can be forgiven within the framework of a parallel universe because it plays a major part of the story as it progresses. One thing that remains constant is Luthor’s obsessive hatred for Superman, but in this reality he is commissioned by the government to create an American Superhuman to destroy the Soviet Union’s own hero which essentially boils down to a super-arms-race.

The aspect of this novel that really resonates with me is how the presence of Superman in the Soviet Union would factor into the Cold War, while he initially appears to fully believe the government’s ideology and wishes to be the will of the people and work for their best interest.  Eventually he is thrust into a position of power that changes the geo-political landscape for the entire planet, and with a person in power that can literally see and hear everything you are doing, it is difficult to resist their power.

While Superman is the principle character for the novel, several notable DC characters make their appearance like Lex Luthor, Lois lane, Hal Jordon, Wonder Women and even the Batman. While their core character traits do remain intact they properly reflect the current political environment.  Instead of Batman being a vigilante in Gotham City he acts as a freedom-fighter/terrorist against Superman’s regime and is referred to as “Anarchy in black."  It’s because of these subtle changes it makes the whole story feel well established and believable.

While I would never classify myself as a Superman fan, I grew up reading Marvel and the only DC related comics I read consisted of Watchmen and other works released by their subgroups. Out of the core DC cannon I would easily say that my favourite hero would have to be Batman and ironically a lot of Superman’s arch nemeses like Lex Luthor and Braniac. With this being said I can easily say that Red Son is my favourite Superman story, and that I enjoyed this novel so much that I have actually been recommending it to non-DC readers. Red Son is well worth a read for any Superman fan, as well as those that do not care for his overall story but are still interested in his mythos. A definite read.

SHARP OBJEX Rating: 4 out of 4