Lex eventually dies, and Superman appears at his funeral dressed like Clark Kent, not having died as previously thought. Luthor forms a vaguely utopian Global United States with a benevolent world government. The USSR falls, and becomes a state run by ‘Batmen’. Brainiac has other plans, and in a final battle, Superman is destroyed in space. However, after being tricked into reading a note which says ‘Why don’t you just put the whole world in a bottle, Superman?’, he realises the error of his ways. Lois forms an alliance with a now vengeful Wonder Woman, Superman attacks the US which is defended by the Green Lantern and Wonder Woman’s Amazons, but are defeated. Quick breath – remember that this is all in 3 issues. The plot whizzes through many of the normal DC universe’s events, as Luthor forms LuthorCorp, Superman robots are created out of dissidents, Brainiac shrinks Stalingrad and puts it in a bottle, Batman (an orphan at the hands of Pytor) fights Superman, red sunlight is used to weaken Superman as it mimics his native sun (instead of kryptonite), Lex marries Lois Lane, becomes US president (Olsen the VP) and discovers the Phantom Zone and the Green Lantern Corp. Bizarro sacrifices himself to save millions. Bizarro and Superman fight, resulting in a nuclear accident in London.
Soon, Stalin dies from a poison attack, and Superman reluctantly takes over, after meeting with Lana Lazarenko (read Lana Lang – she’s even a red head), his childhood sweetheart who is struggling to make ends meet. Later, Superman meets Wonder Woman, and she falls for him. Luther tricks Superman into saving American citizens so that he can harvest his genetic material, which he uses to create Superman 2 – the US equivalent (equate with Bizarro). Meanwhile, Stalin’s bastard son, Pytor, is upset that Superman is the new favourite, as he was originally destined to replace the aging leader. The Cold War has taken a dramatic turn! Jim Olsen works for the CIA and recruits Lex Luthor, a genius scientist, to find a way to counter the threat. So, Kal-El was raised on a community farm in Ukraine, but we join the story in the 1950’s when the Soviet Union announces Superman’s presence to the world, which causes serious concerns in the USA. The edition reviewed here is the DC collected trade paperback. The art is by Dave Johnson and Kilian Plunkett, with inks by Andrew Robinson and Walden Wong. Interesting, he’d already quit the comics giant before it was originally published.
The idea was a great ‘what if’ alternative history idea: what if Kal-el, who would become Superman, had crashed in the former Soviet Union, instead of the USA? Shoving in Wonder Woman, Batman, the Green Lantern and other favourites, it is viewed as a bit of a love-letter to DC from Millar. At the time, Mark Millar had just become a big name by writing The Authority after Warren Ellis left the series. Red Son was released as a 3 issue ‘event’ by DC in 2003.
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