Review: Superman: Red Son
- cepmurphywrites
- Jul 11
- 4 min read
By Matthew Kresal.
Richard Donner, director of the 1978 Christopher Reeve Superman film and a fair chunk of its immediate sequel (but that’s another topic for another time), once summed up Superman and his approach to the character as “it was Americana” alongside “apple pie and… white bread sandwiches with ham and cheese.” It’s hard to argue with Donner when, after nearly ninety years, Superman remains an American icon across different media with a new film out now.
It does beg an interesting question: What happens if you take that away from the character? Instead of Kansas, have him land with the Cold War’s other superpower? Growing up to be a figure which stands up for Stalin, Soviet communism, and the Warsaw Pact?
Writer Mark Millar brought that idea to life in 2033 with the three-issue Elseworlds series Superman: Red Son, a title which has since become become a staple of superhero comics and alternate history in collected form. Enough for this reviewer to have a figure from the comic sitting atop his desk. But is it deserving of that reputation?
Re-reading it in 2025 and nearly eleven years on from my original read, the answer by and large remains a “yes.”As an Elseworlds tale, it’s a fun read and one that from the very first page tosses readers headlong into Millar’s world. There’s a whole range of recognizable characters present from Superman himself to Lex Luthor and Lois Lane (pardon, Lois Luthor as she’s married to Lex). Even thrown into an unfamiliar setting, each of them is recognizable from Superman’s urge to do what feels right (albeit in a Soviet context under Stalin) to Lex’s conniving but brilliant plots against this Man of Steel. Re-reading this, it’s hard not to have a sense of Lois being present but not having much role in proceedings other than to be the occasional eyes and ears of a changing America in a very different Cold War, to the point one wonders why she remains married to Lex after the end of the first issue. But the characterizations, and the dynamics between the trio, remain at the heart of what makes this tale so intriguing.
Being an Elseworlds tale and one that covers a half-century, Millar also has fun with the wider DC cast of characters. Among the most notable is a unique take on Batman, surprisingly one that’s not Bruce Wayne but instead born out of the Soviet regime to become a dissident terrorist with a ushanka. It’s as every bit as striking an image as that of Superman with the hammer and sickle splashed across his chest and with a characterization quite different from what one might expect. Wonder Woman is present as an ambassador from Themyscira, and her unrequited feelings for Superman serves to highlight the gulf between his intentions for and distance from humanity. There’s also takes on familiar Superman characters including Lana Lang (reimagined as Lana Lazarenko) and Pete Ross (in what’s perhaps Millar’s most radical departure turned from a childhood friend to Stalin’s illegitimate son Pyotr Roslov, who is head of the NKVD under his father), and Perry White and Jimmy Olsen on the American side.
Along with a host of other characters, including members of the Superman rogue’s gallery, it’s fun for readers both old and new, especially seeing the characters brought to life in artwork by Dave Johnson in early issues and Kilian Plunket in the concluding issue that offer a sense of scope and blockbuster film visuals to Millar’s writing. All tied up neatly with a final twist that puts the entire tale into a new light.
Which is perhaps why it’s important to remember that Red Son is a superhero story first and foremost. Because, as Alex Wallace noted when reviewing the animated film adaptation here back in 2021, Red Son as a comic is “a Superman story with an allohistorical garnish.” From the opening set in 1953, it’s very clear that Millar isn’t particularly interested in engaging with the real history very much. Instead it’s a mash-up of the entire 1950s all in one mythic setting, with Stalin alive, Ike in the White House, the Space Race already underway with Sputnik 2 in orbit, and Regulus launching submarines already active. That’s something that’s also apparent with the comic moves into later decades, mixing often anachronistic technology with historical figures.
Millar hand-waves this slightly with a line early on from Luthor to Olsen that placated me on a first read in 2011 but one that, coming back to it in 2025 after seeing both the animated film and re-reading Wallace’s review, I’m inclined to be less forgiving. Even more after realizing that having gone to the point of re-imagining one of Superman’s childhood friends as Stalin’s illegitimate son, Millar has Pete (and Lana) vanish out of the narrative completely two-thirds of the way through it! From an alternate history perspective, the 2020 animated adaptation integrates the real-world aspects of the Cold War with its historical figures better and while condensing the timeline down from 50 to 30 years.
Which isn’t to write off Red Son in its original comic form. Just worth keeping it in mind that Millar was writing a superhero story within a mythic, if still within living memory, historical setting. Something which has made it both an early port of call for anyone getting into alternate history and a staple of the Elseworlds line alongside the likes of Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. A start, then, but by no means a finish line.
Matthew Kresal is, among other things, the author of the SLP book Our Man on the Hill and short stories in the anthologies AlloAmericana, The Emerald Isles, and The Scottish Anthology.
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