Dear blog,

Well over a decade ago DC comics began releasing a unique line of  "alternate" reality stories under the banner of Elseworlds.  Within the stories the normal cast of the Detective Comics universe were thrust into mind boggling, and often boring,  unique set of circumstances.  In one, Bruce Wayne is never born, but Thomas and Martha Wayne happen upon the space craft containing a young child from Krypton, Kal-El.  Clark Wayne would eventually see his parents gunned down before his eyes and take up the Mantel of the Bat making him the Dark Knight of Steel.  In others, the entire male population of Earth is decimated save for Superman and Lex Luthor.  And in yet another all of the meta humans loose their powers and must learn to adapt or fall in this powerless world.  A great majority of these stories were real stinkers, much like when Batman was Phantom of the Opera.  Most just retold the superheroes origins in another time line (World War 2 or Medevial England etc) and made for some pretty tedious reading.  

But Superman would be given a very unique opportunity and writer Mark Millar would take a very sophisticated look at what would happen if Kal-El's spaceship did not land in Kansas, the heartland of the good old USA, but rather in a cold desolate field of the Soviet Union.  I give you, "Superman: Red Son".



In what could have easily been a shoddy piece of superfluous ficiton, Millar drives home the point of what much of Soviet Russia was experiencing under the thumb of Stalin and what a man like him would do with the most powerful man on Earth.  As Superman comes into his power, so does the communist theory, which spreads like a fever throughout the world.  

Across the ocean, a level twelve intelect named Lex Luthor sees the threat that Superman is to democracy and captalism.  And as the years progress plans form between the two polarizing political structures.  Economies rise and fall.  Superman's grip on the world becomes almost absolute, yet he is not simply painted as a Red devil, but a man driven by the need to provide the world with the communist propoganda and provide for its people.  He refuses to destroy Luthor or America outright, but rather waits for them to decide to give up the fight and accept his ethical totalitarian regime.  Heroes like Wonder Woman see his strength and join his crusade, but Batman sees the inherant corruption within Superman's powerbase and seeks to destroy the centralization of power.

The story is told with amazing subtelty and even grace as it moves forward and the climatic ending is perhaps the most mind blowing end to any Superman story that I have been witness to.  If you have not read it, I greatly encourage you to.  It is a feast of comic book goodness.

Tags: elseworlds, hunt stockwell, superman, superman: red son
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