Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Welcome to another edition of Animation Bang. It feels like it’s been an eternity since I’ve done one of these and today we’re taking a look at Superman. The poster child of comics and a god among men trying to be human. At his core Superman is a good person who tries to do what’s best for the world but sometimes what you think is best isn’t always right. As much as I love and praise the Dark Knight himself and his stories, the Man of Steel has also had some pretty great and memorable stories as well. Such as today’s story, the Red Son. Talk about a comic that really shocked the world. Released in 2003 and written by Mark Millar, the premise of this short 3 issue series asked what would happen if Superman landed in the Soviet Union instead of Kansas. That’s right, this alternate reality comic re-imagines Superman as a soldier serving under the Soviet Union, has a strong belief on communism, and Lex Luthor as president of the United States. When I first heard about this comic and the premise behind it my mind exploded, I had so many questions, and rushed to pick it up at my local bookstore. Not surprisingly the story was good albeit a very weird but good ending. In 2019 it was announced that they were working on an animated film of the comic and just this past month we got to see it. Now this film is a standalone meaning it in no way ties into the animated DC universe they have going on which is for the best because I really don’t know how they would have tied this into the main series. In Soviet Russia, Superman rules you. This is the Red Son.
So the film opens with Superman now going by the human name Somishka (*laughs* I’m sorry but that name just cracks me up) running from some bullies in 1949 Soviet Union. He gets saved by his childhood friend and sweetheart Svetlana who punches one of his bullies (in Soviet Russia, girl beat you) and they retreat. Once the bullies are gone, Svetlana tells Somishka (*chuckles*) that he should stand and fight (and rip their hearts out). Somishka (*chuckles*) says he ran away not because he was afraid but because he was afraid of hurting them. He reveals his superhuman strength and flying abilities to Svetlana (which I’m pretty sure turned her on. Hey, girls mature faster than boys so it wouldn’t surprise me) where she encourages to give these powers to the state and protect the people (scene here: https://youtu.be/UXaF-AUc3-o). Fast forward a few years later in the middle of the Eisenhower years and we see Superman has become the Soviet Union’s ultimate weapon causing fears in the west and Luthor (oh God, I forgot he was a natural ginger) is dating Lois Lane (figures. Only in a world where Superman is evil and born in another country could Lois and Luthor get together). Luthor sets his plan in motion to get Superman to fall by hacking into a Russian satellite and dropping it on Metropolis (even in an alternate reality A is A, B is B, and Luthor is still Luthor). Superman of course comes in to steer the satellite away from the city and land in the ocean not causing harm (scene here: https://youtu.be/x9wx37z4m7I). This opens up the door for Lois to talk to Superman where they talk about their political systems with Superman pointing out how faulty ours is (the gap between the American dream and the American reality grows further apart each day) which Lois agrees with, but she also points out that his political system is faulty as well. She exposes the labor camps and executions of insurgents within the Soviet Union that Superman knew nothing about (scene here: https://youtu.be/mhFO8eok8kQ?t=53). He flies off to this concentration camp and is shocked by what he sees (people being forced into hard labor, living underground, a boy losing his parents at a young age. Oh, hi Batman. Scene here: https://youtu.be/NmZ332Ur3QE?t=120. I actually do like how they animate the facial expressions of Superman through this scene. We see the shock, sadness and fear all over his face. The fact that his people were suffering, and he knew nothing about it. This is the most I’ve ever seen him express emotions). He even gets reunited with Svetlana who was thrown into the encampment just because she knew who he really was (really!? You imprisoned her for that! Because she knew him as a child and wanted to see his man of steel!? Okay, I know the Soviet Union was paranoid and crazy but this is beyond ridiculous). Superman liberates the people and allows Svetlana to see the sun again before she dies in his arms. Superman goes to confront Stalin about the atrocities he saw today where Stalin validates his decision saying it was a necessity for the greater good (https://youtu.be/N_q2wBzT6uU). Superman kills Stalin with his laser vision (scenes here: https://youtu.be/sojDhCYeXXY and https://youtu.be/chK-Mpp-ozE. In the comics he was actually poisoned but let’s be honest, death via laser vision is a more painful way to go out and given Stalin’s history he deserved this death).
With the death of Stalin, Superman becomes the new leader of the Soviet Union without much resistance (huh? Well you guys switch sides faster than a republican front runner’s stance on global warming). He quickly takes over Korea and reunites the north and the south (for the love of God please say you killed you know who) under one banner and promises to unite the world under the same banner all in the name of peace. Meanwhile, back in the US, Luthor has created a clone of Superman called Superiorman a freedom shouting maniac (scenes here: https://youtu.be/Rgu-zhn4B14 and https://youtu.be/BQ2KpCCvZlA geez, it’s like what would happen if they took away Captain America’s charm and personality). Back in Russia, Superman forms a friendship with Wonder Woman who is representing Themyscira in the hopes of forming ties with Russia and seems to have a little crush on Superman (well next to Lois she is the best companion for Superman. I just hope she doesn’t come across as desperate like she did in Injustice. Scene here: https://youtu.be/GliUll3NYy8. Nevermind she’s lesbian. Well given where she’s from it makes sense). Superiorman arrives and fights Superman where at first he does a good job, but once Superman gets over the shock and surprise of feeling pain he manages to gain the upper hand. Even when Luthor gives Superiorman a power boost, he’s still no match for Superman and eventually dies from being overloaded with power (scene here: https://youtu.be/6_uusVJns_A, man this was a sad death. In the comics their fight accidently causes the launch of a nuclear missile in Great Britain. Superiorman sacrificed himself to stop the missile and this led to Luthor finding LuthorCorp and vowing to destroy Superman). Some years go by and we see Superman continue to unite all of Western Europe under his banner. He actually manages to defeat Braniac, reprograms him, and uses him to advance the living conditions of his people and anyone who goes against him gets lobotomized (damn, between this and Stalin forcing people into concentration camps I don’t know which is worse). The only real thorn in his side is Soviet Batman (or Comrade Batman) who has become a terrorist and leads a resistance group that speaks out against Superman. After blowing up a museum (this seems like something the Joker would do. Shame he doesn’t appear in this comic. Scene here: https://youtu.be/lHAIyEi0wVY) he manages to escape being captured and we see Wonder Woman has been lending aid to Superman’s endeavors but has some concerns about the way he’s doing things (Superman: It’s the lobotomization isn’t it? It’s really not that bad when you’ve done it a hundred times or so). Brainiac also makes the suggestion that Superman invade America and force them to bow to his wills, but he says no believing that in time they’ll fall apart. Back in America, we now enter the JFK era (*JFK impression* I er have high hopes for you Mr. Kennedy. I expect you to do great things and have a er affair with one Marilyn Monroe if there’s time) where during his era they discover a Lantern Corps ship and a dead Green Lantern inside. Luthor and JFK bring in Hal Jordan and want him to lead their version of the Lantern Corps (scene here: https://youtu.be/aeXYHfqYF50).
Returning to Russia, Batman somehow caught Wonder Woman, captured her in her lasso of truth, and uses her as bait to lure out Superman. Superman takes the bait and falls into Batman’s trap which is sunlight that mimics the red sun on Krypton (in other words, Superman is powerless). With no powers we see that Superman is just a man with no combat training whatsoever and Batman manhandles him. Despite having the perfect opportunity to kill him and get revenge he leaves Superman alive (a lot of fans have speculated that this was under Luthor’s order). After locking Superman in a basement, Wonder Woman manages to break free from the lasso of truth severely injuring herself and uses her remaining strength to destroy the generator of the lights. With this, Superman’s powers return and Batman kills himself off instead of becoming a slave to Superman (he would have done the same in any other timeline). Wonder Woman severs her ties with Superman as well as he showed little to no concern over her injured condition (scenes here: https://youtu.be/HnguYIcYAU4 and https://youtu.be/d221JDMfbe0. Yeah I watched this scene and it confused me the first time as well. The reason that is because this whole scenario has a lot of context missing. You see the film left out one major character, Pyotr the illegitimate son of Stalin who was pushed to the side because of Superman. Pyotr vowed revenge and plotted to destroy Superman from within the organization and was even the guy who shot and killed Batman’s parents. Pyotr was the one who helped Batman capture Wonder Woman and after Batman kills himself, Superman lobotomizes Pyotr, and this leads to Wonder Woman leaving him because he had no concern for her injured condition). After the JFK assassination, Luthor becomes president (and yet despite this, I still find him a better president than our current one) and was able to turn around America’s economy and unrest which sent ripples through the Soviet Union as an uprising is slowly coming. Once again Brainiac insists on invading America, but Superman once again says no. Brainiac picks up the signal of the Green Lantern Corps and Superman goes to fight them. We see Wonder Woman come in and try to play peacemaker but that doesn’t work and Superman even takes a swing at her (Superman, what the hell?). With this act, Wonder Woman leaves the world of men swearing to never meddle into their affairs (scene here: https://youtu.be/pc6BFLxPbV8). Superman soon takes out the Green Lantern Corps and decides to go along with Brainiac’s plan (now I know you’ve gone off the deep end). Superman and Brainiac reach the White House where they’re greeted by Lois who puts Superman’s ideals into perspective in the form of a city in a glass bottle. This finally makes Superman realize all the mistakes he’s made and agrees to stop but Brainiac has other plans. Turns out the bastard was never reprogrammed and was just buying his time to turn on Superman and rule the world in his place. So we get our climax between Superman and Brainiac with Luthor (now bald) helping him out. Superman is able to defeat Brainiac but his ship is set to explode and will take out the whole planet. Superman flies the ship to outer space where it explodes and kills Superman with it (scenes here: https://youtu.be/_aQ3BtxvcqI and https://youtu.be/jqDf1vhnOBc, I can’t help but think Luthor planned all of this to happen). As the film draws to a close Luthor steps down as president and Superman is still alive donning his Clark Kent disguise and deciding to live among humanity as a normal human and not rule over them (scenes here: https://youtu.be/WVjaNsLxmhY and https://youtu.be/Ojc-80Q_pv8).
Final Thoughts
So that was the Red Son film. Just like the comics the idea was very compelling and intriguing. Seeing Superman become a dictator with good intentions, but ultimately make choices and use methods that are wrong is sad as you can tell he really wants to help but at the same time his process involves taking away a person’s freedom and without freedom how is anyone expected to have real peace? While Superman’s methods are wrong, the film also shows how everyone else’s methods are wrong as well. If Superman is too right than Batman and Wonder Woman are too left. Their intentions are good but their methods are wrong just like Superman. The only one who seems to fit somewhere down middle is Luthor as he wants to stop Superman but at the same time not kill him and get him to see the errors of his ways. The major downside of this film is that it isn’t as fleshed out as the comics. There’s a lot of storylines and plot elements the film leaves out which leaves some scenes making no sense and coming across as random. There are also a few changes here and there that were done better in the comic as opposed to the film.
The animation is alright. It’s done in the same animation style as Batman Gaslight so take that for what it is. The action scenes are pretty basic and follow the Superman formula. The political commentary can be a bit preachy at times but at the same time interesting as it shows how wrong the communistic ideals are even with Superman’s fine tuning. It also shows how our political system isn’t perfect either. In the end both political systems try to do good, but the people in charge of the systems abuse and twist it for their own selfish desires.
Final Score
The final score for The Red Son is a 6.5/10. It’s a decent adaptation of the comic. I think the comic is the far better version, but this is a good watch as well given its short runtime. It’s a good what-if story that shows a new side to our beloved DC characters and makes us feel sorry for them. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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