Superman: Red Son Review: What If Superman Landed in the USSR?
Mark Millar's brilliant "what if Superman landed in the USSR" Elseworlds.
By Web Admin
Superman’s origin is one of the most familiar stories on Earth: a rocket streaks down from a dying world and lands in a Kansas wheat field, where a farm couple raises the last son of Krypton to embody truth, justice, and the American way. But that landing site is an accident of geography. Change it by a few hours of Earth’s rotation, and everything changes with it. That is the deceptively simple idea at the heart of Superman: Red Son — one of the finest “What If?” stories DC has ever published.
Written by Mark Millar with art by Dave Johnson and Kilian Plunkett, Red Son was released in 2003 as a three-issue Elseworlds prestige miniseries. It imagines a Superman whose ship comes down not in Kansas but on a Ukrainian collective farm in the Soviet Union — and asks what the Man of Steel becomes when he grows up believing in Stalin instead of Uncle Sam. Here’s our full review.
What is Superman: Red Son?
Red Son is an Elseworlds story — DC’s line of out-of-continuity tales that place familiar heroes in unfamiliar settings. It’s the work of Mark Millar, the Scottish writer later known for Kick-Ass, Old Man Logan, and The Ultimates, and it’s widely regarded as one of the best things he’s written. The art comes from Dave Johnson and Kilian Plunkett, with a striking Soviet-poster visual language running through the whole book.
The premise is stated up front: Superman is “raised on a collective farm in the Ukraine.” He becomes the Soviet Union’s champion, “the Champion of the common worker who fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact.” From that single altered fact, the book spins out an alternate twentieth century in which the Cold War tilts hard toward Moscow — because Moscow has a god on its side.
The story: a Cold War with a god in it
Across three issues, Red Son tracks decades of alternate history. A reluctant Superman is revealed to the world by Stalin and becomes the face of Soviet power. When Stalin dies, Superman eventually takes control of the country himself — not out of ambition but out of a genuine, terrifying conviction that he can order the world into a utopia if everyone simply does as he says. He very nearly succeeds. Under his watch, crime and poverty vanish, but so does freedom.
Opposing him is not a rival strongman but an idea — and a man. Lex Luthor, here the United States’ greatest scientist, dedicates his entire life to defeating Superman not with force but with human ingenuity. Their decades-long chess match is the spine of the book, and Millar has the nerve to let both men be partly right. It’s a story about power and its temptations, dressed up as a superhero comic, and it never once talks down to the reader.
The cast, reimagined
Part of the fun is watching the familiar DC roster refracted through this alternate lens. Millar reworks the whole ensemble with real wit.
- Superman — a well-meaning authoritarian who genuinely believes control is compassion.
- Lex Luthor — recast as humanity’s brilliant, ruthless champion; arguably the story’s real hero.
- Batman — a Soviet anarchist and terrorist in a fur-lined ushanka, fighting Superman’s police state.
- Wonder Woman — a Themysciran ambassador who allies with Superman and comes to regret it.
- Green Lantern — the centrepiece of an American super-soldier corps assembled to counter the Soviet threat.
None of these are gimmicks. Each reimagining says something about the character’s core, which is why the book lands so hard with longtime fans while remaining perfectly readable for newcomers.
The themes: is a perfect world worth the price?
What makes Red Son more than a clever gimmick is its central question: if a being of unlimited power used it to create a genuinely safe, fed, orderly world, would that be a good thing? Millar’s Superman isn’t a tyrant who enjoys cruelty. He’s a rescuer who cannot stop rescuing, until saving people from every possible harm means controlling every aspect of their lives. The book asks whether freedom to fail is worth the suffering it allows — and it’s honest enough not to hand you an easy answer.
It also functions as a sly commentary on the “American way” half of Superman’s motto. By stripping that context away and replacing it with another, Red Son quietly reveals how much of what we assume about Superman is national myth rather than character. That’s a genuinely thoughtful trick to pull inside a punchy superhero comic.
The art: propaganda-poster power
Dave Johnson and Kilian Plunkett give the book a bold, graphic look that leans into Soviet constructivist design — heavy reds, strong silhouettes, and covers that could pass for period propaganda posters. The visual identity is so strong it has become inseparable from the story; that hammer-and-sickle emblem on Superman’s chest is one of the most recognisable images in modern DC. It’s a book that looks like nothing else on the shelf.
Content notes
Red Son is a mature-leaning superhero book rather than an explicit one. There’s war, political violence, and some genuinely bleak imagery, but nothing gratuitous. It’s suitable for most teen readers and up, and it doesn’t rely on shock value to make its points.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Completely self-contained — no continuity required
- A genuinely thought-provoking central premise
- Clever, respectful reinventions of the whole DC cast
- Iconic Soviet-poster art direction
Cons
- Decades of plot compressed into three issues moves fast
- The famous ending divides readers
- Politically simplified in places for the sake of the fable
How it compares to other standalone Superman stories
If you want a single, complete Superman book you can hand to anyone, Red Son has stiff competition. Here’s how it stacks up against the other one-and-done classics.
| Book | Writer | Best for | Length | Approx. price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superman: Red Son | Mark Millar | Alternate-history “What If?” | ~160 pp | ~US$17 |
| All-Star Superman | Grant Morrison | The definitive classic Superman | ~320 pp | ~US$25 |
| Superman: Birthright | Mark Waid | A modern origin | ~304 pp | ~US$25 |
| Superman for All Seasons | Jeph Loeb | Quiet, character-driven Superman | ~208 pp | ~US$20 |
For the wider field, see our best DC graphic novels guide, and if you want the sunlit counterpart to Red Son‘s cold war, our All-Star Superman review makes the perfect double feature.
Which edition should you buy?
Because Red Son is only three issues, it lives almost entirely as a single collected book, which keeps things simple. The differences come down to format and paper quality.
| Edition | Format | Approx. price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard trade paperback | Softcover | ~US$17 | Most readers |
| Black Label / new edition | Softcover, remastered | ~US$20 | The nicest current printing |
| Deluxe hardcover | Hardcover | ~US$30 | A durable shelf copy |
The standard paperback is all most people need. If you love the art — and you will — the deluxe hardcover shows off Johnson and Plunkett’s pages at their best.
AmazonCheck price on AmazonThe animated film
Red Son was also adapted into an animated feature in 2020 as part of DC’s direct-to-video line. It’s a faithful, well-cast take that captures the premise nicely, but the comic remains the definitive version — the pacing and the poster-art design simply don’t translate fully to screen. Read the book first; watch the movie as a companion.
Where it fits in Superman reading
Because it’s an Elseworlds tale, Red Son sits entirely outside the main Superman continuity, which means you can read it at any point with zero prep. It’s one of the safest, most rewarding standalone superhero books you can buy. If you’d rather trace the “real” Man of Steel through his mainline stories, our Superman reading order maps the essentials, and the DC hub gathers all our Superman and DC coverage in one place.
The verdict
Superman: Red Son is that rare thing: a high-concept gimmick that turns out to have a real soul. It uses one changed variable to interrogate everything we assume about its hero, and it does so with wit, gorgeous design, and genuine ideas. It’s a book we recommend without hesitation to newcomers and lifelong fans alike, and it earns its place among the best standalone graphic novels ever published. If you buy one alternate-universe superhero story, make it this one.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to know Superman’s history to read Red Son?
Not at all. Red Son is a completely self-contained Elseworlds story that explains everything you need as it goes. It’s one of the best possible entry points for a reader who’s never picked up a Superman comic.
Is Red Son part of the main DC continuity?
No. It’s an Elseworlds tale, meaning it takes place in its own alternate reality outside the official DC timeline. Nothing in it “counts” toward the mainline stories, which is exactly what frees it to be so bold.
How long is Superman: Red Son?
The complete story runs across three prestige-format issues, collected into a single book of roughly 160 pages. You can comfortably read the whole thing in one or two sittings.
Is the comic better than the animated movie?
We think so. The 2020 animated film is a solid, faithful adaptation, but the comic’s pacing and its unforgettable Soviet-poster art make the original the definitive version. Read it first.
Next, pair it with the sunniest Superman ever written in our All-Star Superman review, or explore the greats in our best graphic novels of all time.
