I just finished reading the graphic novel Superman: Red Son, and it was fantastic. I highly recommend it to anybody with even a passing interest in the DC comics universe. Author Mark Millar takes as his jumping-off point the question, "What if Superman had landed in Russia instead of America?" and from there totally reinvents the DC universe as a weird, warped reflection of the one we know. Superman quickly becomes Stalin's right hand man, then succeeds him and starts taking over the world, reprogramming any who disobey, including Brainiac. Batman in this universe is a Russian terrorist and dissident fighting against Superman's totalitarian socialist regime.
As always, however, the ultimate, most determined, and most obsessive enemy of Superman is mad genius Lex Luthor, who is not a criminal here, but head of STAR labs, creating supervillains like Bizarro at the behest of the CIA in his many attempts to kill "the alien." Ultimately he becomes president of America and saves the country from chaos and collapse, all as part of his plan to defeat Superman. Green Lantern, Wonderwoman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang, and even the Green Arrow (in a tiny cameo), among many others, all appear in new and different forms, changed in ways that make interesting references back to their stories as we know them. The book is a very smart, very funny, very sad, very thoughtful examination, not only of the DC characters themselves, but also of humanity, morality, and the politics of interference in the affairs of other nations (and other worlds). It's totally excellent.
Damn, I love comic books. |
by Fëanor
