Red son

Cool idea. An alternate "history" in which Superman crashed in the Soviet Union instead of the United States and becomes a Marxist champion of the proletariat. The great American hero Lex Luthor is tasked with countering the new Soviet menace.

I like alternate history. I dislike mainstream superhero books. I'd hoped that the former aspect of Red Son would counter the latter. It didn't. It had the same simpleness, the same absurdly emphatic dialogue, the same something-I-can't-define that makes me roll my eyes at every other DC/Marvel superhero. It was just padded in this case with a lot of winking and nudging, references and in-jokes for the character's faithful. "See what we did there?? Batman's a Russian now? The Ice Fortress is now the Frozen Palace?? Clever right?!"

Red Son almost earned a second star by trying to explore a world in which Communism is successful, looking at the costs of that success. But this attempt at thoughtfulness was so feeble it might as well not have been there at all. Bleah.

superman is awesome!