Red Son: a superb graphic novel.

Red Son is definitely a superb graphic novel. The quality of both the art and the story is pretty good. Most important of all, it avoids the typical stereotyping that characterizes so many other comics. Our hero is not necessarily evil, although he is definitely on the side of the Evil Empire. He has good intentions. He truly dreams with the possibility of building the perfect society that ends poverty and injustice, even if it is at the cost of doing away with personal freedom. In other words, his communistic ideals lead him down the path to a totalitarian society not so much because he has an evil character but rather because his ideas are wrong. His dream (like most dreams) has some awful unintended consequence. It's precisely this that makes Red Son a far more mature and realistic story than most other comics (not to talk about the superhero genre). Sooner or later, he finds out about all this and towards the end he corrects his own wrongdoings, as it corresponds to a good hero. However, we also learn that the leader of the free world (i.e., Lex Luthor in this story) is not as good as he is supposed to be either. He also is ambitious and tyrannical, too full of himself, Machiavellian in his use of others to pursue his own self-interest and, above all, as maniacal and messianic as any totalitarian leader (one of the first things he does, after the final victory of the free world, is to do away with democracy and replace it with a government of scientists, writers, artists and other members of the self-appointed elite). In conclusion, Red Son stays away from the traditional manicheism of many graphic novels, especially the ones in the superhero genre and we all benefit from that. This truly is a good story.

Superman: Red Son.

Never liked Superman much because the character seemed too flat to you? We are on the same boat. I much preferred other superheroes, like Spiderman or The Hulk, who were far more human, clear examples of the human frailty. Well, along comes Red Son, which comes to add an intriguing twist to the old story: what if Superman had landed on Earth a few hours later, therefore making it to a collective farm in the Soviet Union instead of the US? This graphic novel narrates the story of a "red" Superman who takes over the USSR after Stalin's death, bringing about the Socialist dream and embarrassing the US with its stubborn bet on the old capitalistic ways. However, what makes this other Superman fascinating is the fact that, with all his superpowers and all, well-intentioned as he is, he is still the backbone of a totalitarian regime that is morally corrupt at its core. In other words, he is imperfect, like everybody else.

Technical description:
Title: Superman: Red Son.
Author: Mark Millar.
Publisher: DC Comics.
Edition: February 2004.
Pages: 160 pages.
ISBN: 978-1401201913