Written by J.M. DeMatteis
Directed by Sam Liu
Superman: " I am no hero. I am merely a servant of the state who seeks, as you do, to better the lives of our citizens."
You can bet on the DC Animated side of things if you want direct adaptations of certain comic book arc and while their takes can be very hit and miss (still not happy over the changes they made to Batman: Hush tbh), this for the most part falls into the former category.
Venturing into Elseworlds territory, this story begins in 1946 Soviet Union as a young boy flees from three would be bullies. He's defended by a young girl named Svetland and later revealed his abilities to her. Nearly a decade later, the boy has grown into Superman (Jason Isaacs), serving under the control of Joseph Stalin (William Salyers) before eventually turning on the latter and assuming control of the Soviet Union.
In the next few decades we see this Superman befriend Wonder Woman (Vanessa Marshall), interact with Daily Planet Editor Lois Lane Luthor (Amy Acker) and her husband, Lex (Diedrich Bader), fight off Superior Man/Bizarro (Travis Willingham) while also incurring the wrath of a more vindictive Batman (Roger Craig Smith) and being the victim of a long game plot with a not so subservient Brainiac (Paul Williams).
With extra time allotted to this movie, things are spread out over a rather nicely, though the fight scenes with Batman and Brainiac are some of the best that the movie dishes out. The friendship with Diana also gets some nice exploration with the romantic subplot from the original comic surprisingly eschewed when it's revealed that she's only into women in this version of events. It's a shame but not a surprise that the friendship between Superman and Wonder Woman deteriorated towards the end of the movie.
Then there's Lex and Lois. They're an interesting pairing in this movie with Lois getting some perceptive comments in about societal pressures into being attractive. This movie has a Lex that while taking some questionable actions in assembling his own army of Green Lanterns and being the cause of Bizarro, is still not actually a villain of the movie. Even in the end he retired from his presidency to step the rest of his life with Lois.
As for the main villain - it's communism or is it capitalism? It's certainly some of Superman's actions and the consequences they've had for the US and Russia. It's the more crazed version of Batman but mostly it was Brainiac playing the long game, choosing the right moment to strike before being taken out rather quickly towards the end. Either way, it all worked within the context of this story.
- Svetlana was of course a Russian version of Lana Lang. I also liked the brief inclusion of Jack Ryder in this movie. We also go from 1946 to 1983 in this movie.
- Lex handed over his presidency to Jimmy Olsen while we saw both Hal Jordan and John Stewart leading the Green Lantern Corps against Superman. Abin Sur also appeared here.
- If this movie can depict Wonder Woman as a lesbian and a previous movie had both Scandal Savage/Knockout as a couple, then it's time for a future DC animated movie to have an openly gay or bisexual male character.
- There was a sneak preview of the next movie, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War released, which will be released during the Spring.
Superman: Red Son isn't a comic book I'm generally that bothered about but this while taking some creative liberties turned to be a rather good adaptation. These type of movies are better for the animated universe than the main live action one, which at this moment really does need to get itself together on the Superman front.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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