Scriptorium

I. The influx of evil Superman stories, and why Superman: Red Son is exceptional.

ome quick notes about this three-issue series; The art is quite good, combining the distinct look of Soviet propaganda with a comic-book style that suits a Superman story. Superman as a subject of propaganda is such a powerful motif that the imagery rarely fails to be striking. Superman's different outfits are always fun, other-world takes on a classic look and do a lot to visually communicate the story and His journey. Paul Mounts deserves a lot of credit for those colours. I also love the trope of putting superheroes into their correct time, looking at these characters with a historical awareness.

For me, Red Son was the original evil Superman story— in fact, it predates most of the modern interpretations of a more wicked man of steel. The evil Superman story has come full circle, from a compelling genre twist to a trope more tired than the thing that it subverts. They all play out pretty much the same way— Superman or his equivalent stand-in has decided to use his powers for evil, personal gain/conquest, and regular people must find a way to stop him.

Red Son is different from most evil Superman stories because he isn't maliciously evil. In many of the ways that count, he's still the Superman you know and love; a selfless individual who wants to use his powers to help the people. Red Son is masterfully framed with Superman himself narrating the tale from some other point in time. As an older man reflects on his youth, the narration gives an honest, but sympathetic, and retrospective look into Superman's motivations as he establishes his global Soviet union. As a character study, this is a much more honest and considered way of giving us an evil Superman- an evil Superman that we are still in a lot of ways rooting for, hardly unrecognizable from his standard characterization.

Superman wants to put an end to the evils of the world- he wants to save everyone he can. While the Superman of Injustice is filled with hatred, regret, and tragedy, the Superman of Red Son is still that pure eyed and naive farm boy.

I first read this story quite a few years ago, probably still in high school or early uni, though I can't recall. I think back then my takeaway from the story was communism = bad. While it is certainly true that a work has many interpretations, I think that I was sort of missing the point. Red Son, while it certainly wears a political skin, mostly tackles character ideas, relationships, and perspectives (which is good, because I'm not sure I want to read a Superman book on the merits of certain economic systems anyways.)

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II. Superman and Fascism

Okay, here's where I inject an unhealthy amount of copium into the equation- Red Son isn't about how communism is tyrannical and corrupts good people. It is about how Superman himself is a fascistic idea.

This next portion will contain some massive spoilers, so I would recommend reading Superman Red Son before going any further if you think you might like that sort of thing. Despite all the issues I am about to highlight, Red Son remains one of my personal favourite comic book stories, specifically because it subverts expectations for more than sheer shock value, but as a mode of analysis. ( Let's forget for a little bit that Superman decided to use Brainiac's husk to enslave his dissenters. That entire decision happens off-screen and we don't really ever get Superman's rationale for that- we'll cover that later. )

Nietzsche wrote about his conception of the ubermensch (superman), the idea of a transcendent individual whose abilities and virtues go beyond that of the average person. The super-man is not simply exceptional, but his exceptionality ascribes him value- a value over the less exceptional. This value also qualifies him or her for leadership,

If Superman is all-powerful, all-wise, and all-seeing, then from a political standpoint superman should be in charge. If Superman is a hundred times more capable and intelligent than any human, then his eternal reign would actually be justified. In that case, fascism and tyranny would be the answer. Red Son only dares to follow Superman to his logical conclusion. Of course, in the real world, the ubermensch is a mere fantasy, a deluded notion that any one man should have all that power, in the silent hope that maybe you could be that man.

If there is a god, he has decided to leave the world of man to a doom of its own designs, and eventually, Superman decides to follow suit as well. His ultimate realization is that it isn't his place to control and dictate the course of mankind— even he isn't the perfect, flawless being that everyone thought he was, and it is shown that humans would eventually reach a perfect utopia on their own.

But it is that latter context that makes the morality tale of Red Son confusing. In the end, Lex Luthor defeats Superman with a few simple words; Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?” Superman gives up on his global Soviet Union, destroys Brainiac once and for all, and silently retires under the alias of Clark Kent. He leaves humanity to have its freedom, baseball, and apple pie.

Except that isn't exactly what happens either- Instead, Lex Luthor, the genius with a superhuman intellect who had predicted the events of the last forty years with frightening accuracy, consolidates power. He implements his own one-world government, a capitalist utopia which also goes on to cure all diseases. Luthor's lineage continues to lead humanity for the next BILLION YEARS.

The world of Red Son only trades one Ubermensch for another. In the epilogue, an immortal and retired Superman remarks that he underestimated the resourcefulness of humanity- whose entire future was designed and planned by Lex Luthor. This is more morally acceptable than what Superman did because... Lex is a human? Lex isn't a communist? Lex doesn't force anyone to work for or follow him, he only manipulates everyone and everything to impose his will... (Which is actually more than Superman did, convincing the rest of the world to join him without conflict, but persuading them with the results of his system.)

Lex Luthor may not have incredible strength or speed, but he does appear to be unbelievably intelligent far beyond any normal man, or even Superman himself. Because of this, when he writes his note pointing out the absurdity of Superman's actions, it feels like a hollow dig when the rest of human history later plays out according to Luthor's design. The book, perhaps intentionally, never gives a reason why Luthor would be a better world leader than Superman, (well, minus Brainiacs's compliance implants.)

Luthor never cares about making the world a better place, only proving to everyone that he can do it better than Superman did- on his deathbed he admits, it was all about his ego. He is the quintessential capitalist; his mission is to destroy the competition by any means necessary and become worshipped by the world and the pages of history. At the end of the book, you can't help but wonder how different Luthor's world actually is from the Soviet Superman's- especially since we are hardly given a chance to examine it. From what we see, Luthor's alternative to Superman's world order is a capitalist dynasty that ends only once the solar system's resources have burned up- now that is fucking depressing.

Ultimately, the inclusion of brainiac prevents Red Son from having to commit fully to a political statement- which as a decision, certainly has its advantages. Brainiac serves as a corrupting force, whose cold and calculated determinations of what is best for humanity bring Superman to do things that are amoral at best- reconditioning and even reprogramming his dissenters seems to be the worst of it. He serves as an analog for power violating the individual. Brainiac is also an example that not all super-men have the best interests of the people at heart and exceptional abilities are often implemented towards self-centred ends.

The story ends with the final moments of Earth before being consumed by its own sun— as the infant Kal-El, Luthor's distant descendant, is transported to a Ukrainian collective in 1938. History will literally repeat itself- yet it remains ever so optimistic, (this is a Superman story, after all,) with Kal's father asking him to “Bring a little light into our lives again.” (For some reason, I remembered the ending of Red Son as Kal-El's ship landing in Kansas, setting up an alternate origin for the mainline Superman. I think my version is better.)

Again, to be clear, I love this comic, it's easily the best version of the “What-if?” type stories to be done, with gorgeous art and it clearly has fun with its alternate history. Overall I love the story and I'm just nitpicking for nitpicking's sake. I had this written for some time but I needed to make myself do the minature of superman, which is pretty much half the reason i wanted to write this at all- that image of the soviet superman is just so subversive and captivating.

~ Your friend,