Superman: Red Son Blu-ray Review

DC Comics has a great legacy of making Elseworld stories about their popular characters. One of the most famous was Mark Millar’s Superman: Red Son which showed what would happen if Superman was brought up in the Soviet Union.

In 1955 the Soviet Union announced to the world that they have Superman, changing the balance of power in the Cold War. This leads to the American government recruiting Lex Luthor (Diedrich Bader) to come up with a way to defeat the alien being. When Superman sees Stalin’s hard methods of governing the alien resolves to run the Soviet Union as a more just nation and save the world from the evils of capitalism.

Warner Brothers have made many animated films based on DC Comics. Whenever they made an adaptation of a famous storyline like Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns and the second half of The Killing Joke, the film has stuck closely to the comic book story – even if the comic structure doesn’t work for a film. Red Son was more flexible when adapting the comic book. Scenes were added or changed to make Red Son more dramatic.

Red Son did have time jumps between issues leading to events briefly explained. The film showed some events like Brainiac’s attack on Stalingrad. The film version removed the character of Pyotr Roslov who in the comic was the head of the NKVD who entered into the power struggle with Superman.

The best changes involved the character of Lana/Svetlana. The film added a prologue when the young Superman showed off his abilities for the first time to Svetlana and there was more tragedy and emotion when Svetlana encourages Superman to take power as a benevolent strong man. The film used the Gulag scene to show the origins of Batman and not give the character the traditional origins story where his parents were gunned down. However, this raises the question, how does Superman not know about the Gulags when he grew up in Stalinist Russia?

Superman in Red Son is the mirror opposite to Doctor Manhattan in Watchmen. In Watchmen when the Americans revealed Doctor Manhattan to the world, he changed the course of the Cold War and the World. America was able to win the Vietnam War, had advanced technology and Nixon became a four-term president. Superman changed major events of the Cold War in favour of the Soviet Union – he conquered Korea and destroyed the Allied constructed Berlin Wall. It was a fun alternative history. These were scenes that were added for the film.

Another change that worked for the film involved the character of Superman 2. The film version of the character was called Superior Man, he was a parody of the worst aspects of American attitudes. He was arrogant, used the term ‘America First’ and when Superman called him a conqueror Superior Man answers ‘I am a liberator! I am truth, justice and the American way!’ As well as being a twist on Superman and his famous phrase Superior Man acted like how the rest of the world views America.

Whilst Red Son does have interesting ideas there were issues as well. The point of this what-if scenario was to show a nature versus nurture story. How much of Superman’s character would have changed if he was brought up in the Soviet Union and how much of his goodness remains. The film should have shown more of Superman going around saving people around the world, even after he becomes the Premier of the Soviet Union. There is a basic goodness to the character in most scenarios.

The other major issue was the animation. The DC Animated Universe films have a certain art style, and many were similar to Bruce Timm’s TV work. But this art style made Red Son look bland and a bit cheap. The artists working on the films could have been influenced by a Soviet Propaganda art style. Comic book characters could work in that style, especially Superman as the strong and heroic champion of the workers.

Red Son was too short. It was only 84 minutes long and it makes you want more. It shows how someone can get invested in this world, but the animated version was lacking because it only scratched the surface. If there is ever a live-action adaptation, then hopefully that version would be more fleshed out.

Red Son was a great concept for a what-if story. The animated version was a decent effort that made some wise changes but it could have been so much more.

Special Features: The Blu-ray comes with an entertaining short film The Phantom Stranger where the titular character saves a young woman from a demonic cult leader. It had a groovy ’70s look, and Peter Serafinowicz did his best Patrick Stewart impression. There is also a talking heads short about Superman and the Cold War, a six-minute motion comic based on the Mark Millar version of Superman: Red Son, and previews for some DC features. The best feature was the inclusion of the two-parter “Justice Lord” from the Justice League cartoon. In those episodes the Justice League end up getting kidnapped by a dark version of themselves.