What does Holla Forums think of Superman: Red Son?

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He grew up in the Stalin era and was pretty high up in Stalin's inner circle, so I think it might be reasonable to assume he would continue Tankie policies and excesses.

iirc a bunch of states seceded by the end though. Also, in this universe Liberalism might actually work since the material conditions and possibly the course of history on the geological level (we don't have a Paradise Island IRL) are different (they have superheroes, people smarter than the smartest in our world, superscience that violates our laws of physics and so on and so on). Kinda like how a totalitarian system is a little more reasonable in Warhammer 40k when you realize that Thoughtcrime and other things that IRL are harmless, can potentially have actual material consequences in and of itself.

Well, strictly speaking it isn't. Prime Universe (or whatever they call it) Luthor is a bundle of neuroses obsessed with one-upping Superman to the point that he's spooked about it (IE, acting against his material interests since he could just invent something useful and get rich instead of a Kryptonite-powered killer robot), whereas Red Son Luthor probably interacted with Supes/Clark Kent less and in different contexts and probably more distantly and less aware that everyithing going tits-up with his plans was because of Superman. Over the course of the 50 years or so the comic is set, this could potentially add up to a smarter Luthor.

Sauce?

I thought the lobotomizing was Brainiac's idea all along? You know, since acquiring Brainiac's technology greatly helped Superman expand the Soviet Union to a global point, and Brainiac was manipulating Superman throughout that timespan?

Besides, that was just within the regime to maintain order. When the US is the only nation left in the world that hasn't conformed to the Soviet Union, Brainiac suggests to Superman that they just go ahead and conquer the US because they're clearly superior, and Superman is like, "Nah fam, they need to join us willingly," and he waits until the last minute when Luthor becomes president, fixes the country, and wages war against Superman and his Soviet Union.

Surely, you all remember the miraculous benefits Superman's Soviet Union had within it, at the cost of just a few dissenters being lobotomized, right? I can't be the only one here who remembers how fucking awesome Superman-communism was in Red Son.

On Kryptonians being xenophobic and expansionistic? I know at least two sources that point to that.

It's impossible for me to find it online, but I'm positive that in one of the Greatest Stories Ever Told archive volumes, there's an AU story where Krypton doesn't perish, the Kryptonians come to Earth, and systematically conquer Earth starting with cultural assimilation. Superman, in that instance, is never born from Jor-El and Lara, but exists only as an ideal of hope and rebellion against the oppressing forces that be.

Also, the Kryptonians' history in the film Man of Steel points to attempts of colonial planetary expansion that eventually failed and were abandoned, focusing more on the concerns of Krypton itself, which led to all its resources being exhausted to the point of the planet's demise.

Word of momuth but since these are capecomics there must be comcs that portrait the kryptonians differently.

How so? Surprised this would be said of an American comic.

After reading a bit of it online, I can't say I really agree. Stalin doesn't do all that much except hold simple conversations. How do you expect him to be morally questionable? By randomly shouting at people and being a dick to his confidants? Multiple sources note he could be quite friendly in personal conversation. Stalin's actions and policies were the problem with the guy, not the way he conducted himself personally.

spoilerI interpreted the ending to be lex looking through supermans notebook saw the potential of communism and takes the authoritarian model that superman followed and adjusting it to be a councilcom type thing that turns into full on space communism in the form of krypton.spoiler Then again they don't go into the semantics of this new world government but a boy can hope.

See II:
rhizzone.net/article/2016/04/20/superman-v-capitalism/

People consider it Stalin apologetic when he isn't portrayed eating a baby at least once

Thoughts on that, fellow proles?

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Superman describes him as "anarchy in black" not necessarily meaning he is an anarchist but that he is the embodiment of disorder, plus batman has an american flag in his batcave which I think is to imply that he is the agent of democracy and against superman totalitarian regime. Plus in a comic that literally put the hammer and sickle on superman's chest there is no anarchist iconography linked to batman which also leads me to believe they didn't intend him to be an anarchist, however creators can unintentionally portray characters in a way they never intended so maybe he is an anarchist, regardless he's dope as fuck.

Yeah, he is pretty fucking dope… He even used red sun radiation generators to weaken Superman instead of kryptonite. Now THAT's creative.

Though now that you mention Batman not necessarily being an anarchist because of the story's context, I could argue that Superman's rule of the USSR isn't necessarily totalitarian, aside from lobotomizing dissenters, which was all Brainiac's idea anyway. Superman did provide a great deal of benefit to all nations within the expanded USSR, eliminating disease, poverty, etc, and allowed them to join willingly instead of going out to conquer them. If anything, Superman's approach to communism is one of the most unique out of all others I've seen personally.

Its been a long time since i read it but i thought he was basically supporting capitalism, especially since normal batman is capitalism incarnate.

That's how I feel! I described superman as totalitarian here solely because I think that's how the comic wants you to feel about him. That's also why I think this comic is more subversive than one would think, I think most people will see superman's USSR as the greater alternative to lex's america and that lex see's what superman had done and creates fully automated space communism, like I said here>>1352702

I used to love this comic, but looking back it's really, really, dumb. There wasn't any real effort put into it to research the USSR and write a proper AU it's just another "what if superman was ebul!?" storyline painted red.
About 2/3rds into the comic superman has already taken over most of the planet but he makes no effort to transition into communism, even though by that point there was no capitalist opposition left to stand up to him.
The ending with Luthor was nice but the implication is supposed to be that his techno-utopia can only exist because capitalism, while Superman's USSR is meant to be a terrible place to live where people only agree with socialism if they're brainwashed into it.