Superman: Red Son

[BrokenTiger 0]

Recently, I asked a friend of mine to recommend good Superman TPBs for me...and he recommend 'Superman: Red Son' as well as 'Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told'. While I find the latter to be...a bit dissappointing (some of the stories don't age well at all...for me, anyway) I'm very, very pleased with the former.

 

What I like:

- Not really a fan of Supes (although I have passing knowledge of his history) I thought Mark Millar did very well with the story. The essence of who Superman is still there.

- Dave Johnson. I always liked his style back when I read that one Image comic...Superpatriot, or something. He worked on 100 Bullets too, correct?

- The propaganda style art on the covers. Being a former History of Art student, I kinda marked out for that.

 

What I don't like:

- The ending. Sending Kal-L back in time? Bleh. Just a minor gripe of mine, actually.

- The costume design for the russian Batman. The furry Bat mask...COME ON! Green Lantern's was ok, I think. Dave Johnson's responsible for this one...dammit. Again, not really anything major.

 

All in all, a good TPB in my opinion. I usually don't like an Elseworlds/What-If type of stories, but this one works for me. So what you guys think of it? Any other good Superman TPBs or even Elseworlds ones that I should pick up?

[Guest Joshua A. Norton]

 

Yeah.

[Guest JMA]

Recently, I asked a friend of mine to recommend good Superman TPBs for me...and he recommend 'Superman: Red Son' as well as 'Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told'. While I find the latter to be...a bit dissappointing (some of the stories don't age well at all...for me, anyway) I'm very, very pleased with the former.

 

What I like:

- Not really a fan of Supes (although I have passing knowledge of his history) I thought Mark Millar did very well with the story. The essence of who Superman is still there.

- Dave Johnson. I always liked his style back when I read that one Image comic...Superpatriot, or something. He worked on 100 Bullets too, correct?

- The propaganda style art on the covers. Being a former History of Art student, I kinda marked out for that.

 

What I don't like:

- The ending. Sending Kal-L back in time? Bleh. Just a minor gripe of mine, actually.

- The costume design for the russian Batman. The furry Bat mask...COME ON! Green Lantern's was ok, I think. Dave Johnson's responsible for this one...dammit. Again, not really anything major.

 

All in all, a good TPB in my opinion. I usually don't like an Elseworlds/What-If type of stories, but this one works for me. So what you guys think of it? Any other good Superman TPBs or even Elseworlds ones that I should pick up?

I really liked Superman: Red Son (I'm a big Superman fan myself). Mark Millar is one of my favorite comic writers, and it's good to know that he's got such enthusiasm for the character.

 

As for the ending...there was kind of a continuity error with sending Superman back to 1938. He was thirty years old in 1953 (when Stalin died), so he would have had to arrive in 1923. Maybe I could get an official No-Prize for pointing this out...

 

Anyway, it was actually Grant Morrison who suggested the ending to Millar. Considering he's going to be writing Superman under the All-Star line, that's very interesting.

 

Here are some Superman (or characters similar to Superman) TPBs recommendations:

 

Kingdom Come

DC One Million

Superman For All Seasons

Across the Universe: The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore-Only has two Superman stories, but they're both very good.

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow

The Dark Knight Returns-This story is about Batman, but Superman plays a very prominent role in it.

Supreme: The Story of the Year-Superman doesn't appear in this story, but a character called Supreme, who is very much like Superman, is. The story is basically a love-letter to the character from Alan Moore. It also pokes fun at comics which go out of their way to be "dark" and "gritty."

Astro City-This Kurt Busiek story stars a character very similar to the Man of Steel, and other heroes as well. A great read.

Superman: Godfall

Crisis on Infinite Earths

 

There are obviously more, but these are my personal favorites. Also, some of the above are more team stories than just Superman ones.

[BrokenTiger 0]

Thanks for the recommendations, JMA.

 

I already have Kingdom Come and Dark Knight Returns, though. I heard a lot of good things for Astro City, Crisis on Infinite Earths...as well as Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow. Being an Alan Moore fan, I'll definitely check out the latter as well as Supreme.

 

You're wearing The Comedian's badge, I see. Hell of a classic, that one.

[Guest JMA]

You're wearing The Comedian's badge, I see. Hell of a classic, that one.

Yep. Everything Alan Moore touches is gold.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

DC Direct should be marketing those Bat-Hats.

[tbondrage99 0]

I thought that The Death Of Superman was really good as well...though Im also a fan of seeing The Blue Bettle getting beat up and..yeah he certinally gets his in this one.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

Any Supes recommendation without "The Nail" is lacking.

[Zorin Industries 0]

I was somewhat dissapointed I have to stay. I was kind of hoping for a more political story about how a Communist Superman would change the balance of power, kind of like Dr. Manhatten in Watchmen. It was a fun story, but it didn't take the direction I hoped for. I thought the ending was slightly corny as well, truth be told.