Tag Archives: Red Son

Heroes Never Rust #33: Facist God

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

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Heroes Never Rust #33 by Sean Ironman

Facist God

Superman: Red Son #3, the final issue of the miniseries, explores which is better, doing something bad for a good reason, or doing something good for a bad reason? Intensions seem just as important as the act. The ends do no justify the means.

Untitled 1 Two utopias have been created by the time the action begins this issue. The first being President Superman’s totalitarian Soviet Union, which now includes nearly the whole planet. The Batmen of last issue have been long defeated, now enslaved by Brainiac. “Every adult had a job, every child had a hobby, and the entire human population enjoyed the full eight hours’ sleep which their bodies required. Crime didn’t exist. Accidents never happened. It didn’t even rain unless Brainiac was absolutely certain that everyone was carrying an umbrella.” Superman has defeated nearly the entire world. Humans run like clockwork. But his utopia is lifeless. There seems to be no creativity. To him, emotion and creativity are things that get in the way of a proper society. It’s horrific.

The second utopia is President Luthor’s America. America had hard times before Luthor was elected. “By the middle of his first year in office, America had a vibrant economy, a happy population, and a president with an unprecedented approval rating of one hundred per cent. But he wasn’t doing this for The People. Lex Luthor couldn’t stand The People.” Luthor used his presidency as another step to take down Superman. It’s tragic that this man could have done anything he put his mind to and chose to focus on destruction instead. America was better off with him in charge, but he thought nothing of it. Just another way to show Superman doesn’t know what’s best. But does that matter? People were happy and free.

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Luthor creates an army—the Green Lantern Corps—to use against Superman, which could be used for something so much greater than just a tool to fight Superman. He brings Wonder Woman over to his side. And these things are for nothing. Just annoyances to Superman, and Luthor knows it. He doesn’t care that these people could die. He’s just looking at the end goal. He’s not free. His obsession has trapped him just like Superman and Brainaic have trapped the Batmen. Luthor’s focused on one thing and one thing only. In the end, he defeats Superman with one sentence. Superman reads a letter Luthor wrote to him as he’s invading America. “Why don’t you just put the whole world in a bottle, Superman?” It’s Superman’s one weakness here. Not Kryptonite—becoming the thing he hates, the thing he thinks he’s fought against the whole time. Superman’s not evil here. He just doesn’t understand what it means to be human. He seeks control not freedom.

Brainaic rebels, but Superman defeats him and then takes a step back from humanity, letting Luthor and everyone else believe he died. The story doesn’t end there, however. It ends centuries later. Luthor leads the world into a golden age. “Cancer was gone before too long, and AIDS consigned to the history books. Diabetes, blindness and every inherited form of illness was eradicated by a man who invented a pill which meant human beings didn’t even need to sleep anymore.” After Luthor dies, his children and grandchildren continue his legacy.

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The big twist at the end is the Jor-El, Superman’s father in the main timeline, is Jor-L here, a distant descendent of Lex Luthor. The sun has turned red after millennia and will destroy Earth. He send his only son, Kal-L, back in time to try to stop this from happening. It’s a neat concept—having Superman come from the future to the past, instead of from another planet It’s very Planet of the Apes. But it means something, instead of just being cool. Superman didn’t save the world. Lex Luthor didn’t save the world. Instead of working for the greater good, they fought amongst themselves and doomed Mankind—a comment on war itself. Superman could have travelled back in time, joined forces with Lex Luthor and humanity could have spread throughout the cosmos, or looking outward and fixed what was wrong with the sun. They were capable of anything. In the end, it seems that there’s not much difference between doing something good for bad reasons or doing something bad for good reasons. Both are wrong. Doing something good for good reasons will succeed in the long run.

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Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

Heroes Never Rust #32: Dark Knight

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

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Heroes Never Rust #32 by Sean Ironman

Dark Knight: How much can one person change the world?

This question runs throughout Superman: Red Son #2, which takes place years after the first issue. The second issue opens in media res with Superman stopping Luthor and Braniac. the two villains have shrunk the city of Stalingrad and handed it over to Superman to try to revert the city and its citizens to normal size—a task in which Superman never succeeds. The world has known about Superman for years. Luthor and the CIA ready for attach number 307. The Soviet Union is under President Superman’s control.

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Superman doesn’t kill; even landing in the Soviet Union hasn’t changed that. But in order to get control of its citizens, Superman has created a version of Braniac as a form of lobotomy. The Soviet Union under President Superman’s control has become the world’s greatest superpower, but its citizens live in fear of the demi-god. America is in ruins by focusing its energies on destroying Superman, but the American people are free.

The star of this issue is Russian Batman. Technically, introduced last issue with a flashback of Superman’s Head of Security, Pytor Roslov, who killed Batman’s parents and left the child to live. Here, though, Batman isn’t Bruce Wayne. His parents were dissidents, not Thomas and Martha Wayne from Gotham City. This Batman’s real name is unknown. It’s interesting that Superman and Wonder Woman are the same characters, but Batman’s identity can change. Who knows what happened to Bruce Wayne in this world. Unlike Superman and Wonder Woman, Batman is human. In Superman: Red Son, he represents humanity, not those like Luthor, but the everyday person on the streets. Roslov killed his parents. Superman enslaves the working man. Batman fights back.

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Batman has become a terrorist, which isn’t too far off from his normal DC counterpart. The difference is that now he fights against the government. In an effort to defeat Superman, Batman teams up with Roslov. This is a huge development. The Batman we know would never side with a criminal like Roslov, the criminal who gunned down his parents. But Batman being Batman, he’s too smart to let an opportunity pass by.

On Superman’s birthday celebration, Batman captures Wonder Woman and with Luthor’s help has created an area under heat lamps that recreate the effects of a red sun. Superman’s powers are derived from the yellow sun, so under a red one he’s powerless. For a moment, Batman actually defeats Superman, something many fans have always seen as the outcome if Superman was powerless. It isn’t until Wonder Woman breaks free and rescues Superman that Batman is defeated. Instead of letting himself get lobotomized like other dissidents, Batman sets off a bomb he had attached to his ribs.

Batman dies.

Of course, his last words to Superman are, “Oh, and by the way. It was Pyotr who betrayed you. While Superman doesn’t kill Pytor Roslov, he does lobotomize him. The issue ends with Luthor finding the Green Lantern ring and a plan to use it against Superman, who has now created his Fortress of Solitude, only here it comes off less peaceful and more as a tyrant. But one of the most interesting developments goes back to Batman. Another man has taken up the mask.  A man in a bar gives a suitcase with the bat suit to another man, possibly one we saw earlier, but it’s not made clear. Batman has become an idea, maybe always has been in this world.

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Superman says in the end, “My desire for order and perfection was matched only by their dreams of violence and chaos. I offered them utopia, but they fought for the right to live in hell.” But that’s what Superman doesn’t understand, hasn’t learned in the Soviet Union, would have learned in Smallville, Kansas, had his ship landed there. Freedom is more important than perfection. We want control of our own lives. Wars and rebellions throughout our history have been fought for freedom. We don’t want some outsider coming in and showing us how to live. What good is living in Superman’s utopia if you spend the day afraid of him, afraid of doing what you want?

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Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.