Superman: Red Son
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Superman: Red Son is a comic book published by DC Comics that was released under their Elseworlds imprint in April, 2003. Author Mark Millar created the comic with the premise "what if Superman had been raised in the Soviet Union?"
The series was told across three large prestige format comic books. It mixes alternate versions of DC super-heroes with alternate-reality versions of real political figures such as Stalin and President Kennedy.
In Red Son, Superman's rocket ship lands on a Ukrainian collective farm rather than in Kansas. Instead of fighting for "... truth, justice, and the American Way," Superman is described in Soviet propaganda broadcasts "... as the Champion of the common worker who fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact."
His "secret identity" (i.e. the name his adoptive parents gave him) is a state secret.
The series is split into three parts and spans roughly 1950-2000, save for a futuristic epilogue.
Contents |
[edit] Use of DC characters
The DC universe is reinvented in "Red Son", and the work makes extensive use of existing characters.
[edit] Superman supporting cast, villains and paraphernalia
- Lex Luthor is a genius American scientist. He is married to Lois Lane.
- Jimmy Olsen is not a photographer for the Daily Planet, but instead ends up as a government agent.
- Pete Ross, here named Pyotr Roslov, is one of the illegitimate sons of Stalin and one of Superman's political rivals.
- Lana Lang is replaced by Lana Lazarenko, who grew up in the Ukraine (used here as the closest Soviet equivalent to Kansas) along with a young Superman. She becomes a tour guide in a Superman museum.
- Bizarro is - along with other villains in Superman's rogues gallery - a being created by Luthor to rival the Soviet Superman. The concept of a Superman-clone being used in a superhuman arms race bears similarities to Nuclear Man from Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.
- Captain Marvel villain, Dr. Sivana, makes a brief appearance as a scientist working for Superman and the Soviets. It is mentioned that he used to work for Lex Luthor before defecting to Russia.
- The bottled city of Kandor is replaced by a shrunken Stalingrad, which was shrunk by Brainiac in a joint plan with Lex Luthor to capture Superman. Superman's "one failure" is his inability to return Stalingrad to normal size. His guilt over this haunts him. Brainiac, meanwhile, is apparently reprogrammed into Superman's service.
- Superman retains his Fortress of Solitude which is still opened through the use of a giant key.
- At the beginning of the series Martha Kent lives in Smallville, Kansas. Jonathan Kent is dead. Neither have had any direct contact with Superman.
- Superman briefly appears in a disguise similar to Clark Kent, however, this identity is not given a name. Also, Superman's 'real name' (the equivalent of Clark Kent) is never given within the story.
- A statue of a Soviet Krypto appears in the fortress of solitude. Other characters that appear in the form of statues include the villains Darkseid and Parasite.
- Humans who have been forcibly lobotomised and given cybernetic implants as a punishment for certain crimes are known as Superman robots in reference to the genuine robots of DC continuity.
[edit] DC Heroes
- One of Superman's chief allies is Wonder Woman, who is a Soviet "Peace Ambassador" from Themyscira.
- Batman appears as the child of parents murdered by Roslov. His anarchical terrorism is a thorn in Superman's side. Batman later inspires an entire team of Batmen.
- Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) appears as a pilot and ex-prisoner of war who comes to lead a super-powered army of Luthor's devising. Some of the other members of this group seem to be named after other Green Lanterns (Scott, Rayner, Gardner and Stewart). Alien Green Lantern Abin Sur also makes a brief appearance as an unnamed alien.
- Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) works as a reporter for the Daily Planet. It is hinted that he is living out a "Clark Kent-esque" double-life (as Queen/Green Arrow) since Lois Luthor says, "...no Pulitzer Prize winning journalist could be as scatter-brained as he acts" much as the original Lois Lane would have said about Clark Kent.
- Iris West (love interest of the "Silver Age" Flash Barry Allen) also makes an appearance as a photographer at Perry White's retirement party. She makes a reference (familiar to comic book fans) about Barry "always being late" indicating that he is perhaps also active in his super-heroic identity.
- Two American scientists are named "Palmer" and "Tyler", presumably in reference to scientists/superheroes Ray Palmer (The Atom) and Rex Tyler (Hourman).
[edit] Plot
[edit] Red Son Rising
The first part starts in the 1950s, and sets up the board and the pieces. The world is nearly identical to the real one to begin with, but starts diverging rapidly as the Soviet Union unveils its newest asset, Superman, upsetting the Cold War and turning the nuclear arms race into a super-being arms race.
At this point Superman is a newcomer in Stalin's inner circle. Having grown up in Ukraine, he's kind-hearted and just but also dedicated to the cause of communism. When possible, he spends his time detecting and preventing accidents around the USSR. His opposing number is the American Lex Luthor, a legitimate scientist at the employ of S.T.A.R. Labs and a super-genius who is very well aware of his intellect and has very little regard for lesser minds. He's married to Lois Lane. At the behest of his CIA contact, Agent Olsen, he begins attempts to destroy Superman.
In order to collect genetic material for his first attempt, Luthor causes Sputnik 2 to plummet towards Metropolis. As Luthor predicted, Superman arrives in time to divert its course. In the process, he meets Lois Luthor, and though there is immediate romantic tension between them, they do not pursue their mutual attraction as Lois is married. The satellite is retrieved by the United States government and Luthor uses the traces found on it to create a Bizarro clone of Superman.
Meanwhile, Superman meets Wonder Woman at a diplomatic party and she becomes rather smitten by him, but he's forced to leave when he spots Pyotr Roslov, Chief of Police and Stalin's illegitimate son, drunk and extremely disgruntled (some 350 km away). Pyotr is angry at everything, but especially his position and Superman, whose arrival has rewritten the power structure, turned his father's attention away from him, and put a stop to his chances of advancement. Having had to shoot a dissident couple before their son's eyes for printing anti-Superman propaganda (something he didn't quite disapprove of), Pyotr snapped and arranged Stalin's poisoning, which in turn, has caused him horrible guilt (though not enough to confess). Stalin dies from cyanide poisoning, and Superman declines the leadership of the Party.
Meanwhile, the clone is finished and engages Superman. The duel is inconclusive on its own, but causes an accidental nuclear missile launch. The clone sacrifices himself to save millions. Luthor played chess with his creation before sending it off, and lost. Horrified at the implication that Superman is more intelligent than himself, Luthor leaves S.T.A.R Labs and founds Luthorcorp, and dedicates his life to destroying Superman. Lois is nigh-abandoned and longs for Superman. Superman himself tries to put this all out of his mind, but a chance meeting with Lana Lazarenko, his childhood flame, changes things entirely. Seeing the suffering of her and her children, Superman realizes that his powers could end it, and assumes leadership of the country to transform it into a utopia.
[edit] Red Son Ascendant
It is the 1970s, and the world is greatly different. Luthor has devised and executed several plans, none of which have worked. Only the United States and Chile remain independent from the Soviets, and both are on the brink of collapse. While President Kennedy is forced to grant independence to Georgia, the Superman-led Soviet Union has grown without resorting to war and virtually eliminated poverty, disease and the like, but this has started to infringe on individual liberties and Superman is fast becoming a Big Brother-like figure. A brain surgery technique that turns dissidents into obedient drones, or "Superman Robots," is in use.
Wonder Woman and Superman have now become a duo, using their superpowers to save lives in addition to their ambassadorial and governing duties, respectively. Wonder Woman has fallen for Superman, but he sees her as "one of the guys" and is cheerfully oblivious to this. Lois Luthor succeeds Perry White as the editor-in-chief of a failing Daily Planet, while her estranged husband feverishly works on his obsession.
The first of Luthor's current plans fails as Brainiac shrinks Stalingrad instead of Moscow. Superman intervenes and retrieves both Brainiac's central unit and the tiny city, putting an end to the Brainiac-Luthor co-operation. He is unable to restore Stalingrad and its inhabitants to their proper sizes, which becomes his one failure and a source of great guilt.
The second involves Batman. He is revealed as the boy Pyotr orphaned early in the story, now a grown man and the head of an anarchistic terrorist network that sees the abundance forced upon the people by Superman's system as little more than oppression. Their persistent success in avoiding capture is a thorn in Superman's side. Batman joins forces with his parents' killer, Pyotr, now head of the KGB and consumed by jealousy, and Lexcorp to attempt a coup. They capture Wonder Woman to lure Superman to Lexcorp's red sun lamps that recreate the light of his homeworld's sun, sapping him of his powers. Superman is beaten and imprisoned, but Diana breaks her own lasso that was used to imprison her and breaks Superman out, though the process seriously injures her. Batman commits suicide to avoid capture, but not before revealing Pyotr's role in the plot to Superman. Pyotr is then turned into a Superman Robot.
As the part ends, the third attempt begins when Luthor is given a mysterious green lantern found in an alien ship that crashed at Roswell. Batman becomes a martyr for his cause, Brainiac is reprogrammed into Superman's aide, and the construction of a version of the Fortress of Solitude, here located in Siberia and referred to as "the Winter Palace", begins. Things are set for the finale.
[edit] Red Son Setting
He's Watching You. It is the year 2000, and the Global Soviet Union encompasses all countries except for the United States of America, which has undergone a disastrous civil war. Within the Soviet sphere of influence there is no crime, no poverty, no unemployment, and no choice. The brain operation is a common punishment for dissent. Superman is committed to "winning the argument" with the US and repeatedly refuses Brainiac's suggestions of an invasion. His sole failure remains Stalingrad, which is ravaged by a microscopic germ.
Luthor runs for and wins the American presidency. Using his massive economic capital and dictatorial powers, he returns prosperity to the country. He remains as asocial as ever, though, and this is only a part of a larger plan to provoke Superman into invading America so he can be destroyed. He confronts Superman in the Siberian Fortress of Solitude. In a seemingly anticlimactic moment, Brainiac yanks Luthor deep into the recesses of the Fortress to be surgically turned into yet another Superman Robot. Superman agrees that his hand has been forced, and prepares to attack.
Superman takes on the East Coast, confronting and defeating the Green Lantern Marine Corps (led by Colonel Hal Jordan and featuring Privates Scott, Stewart, Rayner, and Gardner), the Amazon forces commanded by a highly disillusioned Wonder Woman, and a collection of "super-menaces" that Luthor put together over the years. Brainiac's ship cuts the U.S. Pacific fleet to pieces and the two meet at the White House, where Lois Luthor waits with the last weapon, a small note written by Lex that manages to break the Comrade of Steel's resolve. It reads, "Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"
Superman orders Brainiac to end the invasion and the robot reveals that he is not as reprogrammed as everyone thought, attacking Superman while boasting that "eventually the entire universe" will "hum to his battery". Eventually he is shut down by Luthor, who evaded surgery off-panel during the invasion, and destroyed by Superman. However, this triggers a fail-safe self-destruct (though it is lightly implied that Luthor had planned for this to happen) and as the singularities powering the ship threaten to explode, Superman rockets it into outer space, where it blows up. The Earth is saved but Superman is caught in an explosion with a 15,000,000 mile (24,000,000 km) kill radius.
The epilogue follows. The Soviet Union falls into chaos, and is lifted from there by the Batmen. Lex Luthor goes on to integrate many of Superman's ideas into the new philosophy of "Luthorism". This becomes the defining moment for mankind's future as it enters an unprecedented age of peace and stability. A benevolent world government is formed and kept that way, and Luthor presides over scientific achievements including colonizing the solar system and curing all known diseases. Lex Luthor lives for over 2 millennia, and at his funeral it is revealed that Superman survived and is apparently immortal. Now permanently retired from public view, he goes on to describe Luthor's descendants culminating in Jor-L "whose intellect exceeded that of even his beloved ancestor." It is revealed that Earth is being torn apart by tidal stresses from its sun (which is becoming a red giant). Jor-L and his wife send their infant son rocketing back into the past. The final panels of the comic book depict the landing of Kal-L's timeship in a Ukrainian collective in 1938, effectively causing a predestination paradox.
[edit] Trivia
- This series was nominated for the 2004 Eisner Award for best limited series.
- Superman's original name in Red Son, Kal-L, is the same as the Kryptonian name of the "Golden Age" Superman, who lived on Earth-Two prior to its destruction in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, as opposed to 'Kal-El', the name of both the pre-crisis Earth-One and modern versions.
- This Superman has more in common with the extremely powerful Pre-Crisis Silver Age Superman. He wields a number of super-powers including such mainstays as super-strength, -hearing, and -sight, flight, and heat vision. He is also depicted as much more intelligent than the average human and is something of a "super-scientist." With the exception of "red sun radiation," which reduces him to a "normal" (or at least vulnerable) level, he has no apparent weaknesses. Kryptonite, his most famous weakness, is never mentioned.
- Grant Morrison has given interviews and said that he gave good friend Mark Millar the idea of sending Superman back to the past, as was used in the end of Red Son[1].
- During the military ball with Princess Diana of the Amazons, Superman wore the Russian Air Force/Army rank of Major.
- The Superman from Red Son made an appearance near the end of the fifth issue of Infinite Crisis as well as towards the end of Superman/Batman #22 and the beginning of Superman/Batman #23 .
- Prior to the release of Superman: Red Son, a Soviet version of Superman appeared in a shard of time on a double-page splash in The Kingdom #2, during the revelation of Hypertime. This image was taken from a panel on page 9 of Superman: Red Son #1, lending credence to the belief that Dave Johnson was working on the Red Son project several years prior to its release, as The Kingdom #2 has a cover date of February 1999.
- The Red Son costume is an unlockable costume in the upcoming Superman Returns game.[citation needed]
- Figures based on characters from the series include Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, President Superman and Green Lantern.
- Certain images from the series are taken from famous comic book covers or panels. A splash panel from the first issue references Superman's pose on the cover of Superman #1.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Superman: Red Son (ISBN 1-4012-0191-1)
- Interview with Mark Millar on Red Son
