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The world of ''Superman: Red Son'' is part of the new DC Multiverse as Earth-30, presenting the possibility of Soviet Superman visiting the mainstream continuity, or vice versa.[[note]] The last variety has already happened in ''Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer'', although [[YouCantFightFate it didn't change squat.]][[/note]]
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The world of ''Superman: Red Son'' is part of the new DC Multiverse as Earth-30, presenting the possibility of Soviet Superman visiting the mainstream continuity, or vice versa.[[note]] The last variety has already happened in ''Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer'', although [[YouCantFightFate it didn't change squat.]][[/note]]
]][[/note]] It was popular enough to receive a MotionComic and an AnimatedAdaptation under the ''Franchise/DCUniverseOriginalAnimatedMovies'' line, to be released in 2020.
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Anti-Ukrainian bigotry was indeed notable during the Stalin period
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* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Stalin's advisor complaining about Superman being Ukrainian does not exactly make sense in the context of contemporary Soviet politics, since the party leadership under Stalin was quite diverse, including Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians and Georgians.
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* HappyPlace: Hal Jordan was a former POW in Malaysia, eventually chosen by ComicBook/LexLuthor to wear the GreenLantern Power Ring because of the elaborate version of this he constructed as a survival mechanism while being tortured. In his, he literally imagined himself building a prison for his captors in real time. The time it would take him to dig a hole or chop down a tree or take a break was imagined in his head until finally after years of real time imagination, he had "constructed" the prison and set about killing each of his captors in what he called the most glorious night of his life.
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* HappyPlace: Hal Jordan was a former POW in Malaysia, eventually chosen by ComicBook/LexLuthor to wear the GreenLantern ComicBook/GreenLantern Power Ring because of the elaborate version of this he constructed as a survival mechanism while being tortured. In his, he literally imagined himself building a prison for his captors in real time. The time it would take him to dig a hole or chop down a tree or take a break was imagined in his head until finally after years of real time imagination, he had "constructed" the prison and set about killing each of his captors in what he called the most glorious night of his life.
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* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler:Lex Luthor explains that everything has gone exactly as planned. "One can almost be forgiven for thinking that this had all been worked out to the tenth decimal point forty years ago, eh?"]]
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* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler:Lex Lex Luthor explains that remarks lightly [[spoiler:that everything has gone exactly as planned. "One can almost be forgiven for thinking that this had all been worked out to the tenth decimal point forty years ago, eh?"]]eh?"]] As it happens, [[spoiler: he miscalculated Superman's density by a decimal point, and Superman survived (albeit FakingTheDead and ClarkKenting) - something foreshadowed by the fact that Bizarro beat Lex at chess).]]
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* GeniusBonus: The eagle motif on Wonder Woman's chestplate has two heads, not one. The double-headed eagle is one of the most important symbols of Russia, and, coincidentally, was brought in by the Greeks: fitting for an ancient Greek heroine who became a Russian citizen.
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* GeniusBonus: The eagle motif on Wonder Woman's chestplate has two heads, not one. The double-headed eagle is one of the most important symbols of Russia, and, coincidentally, as it happens, was brought in by drawn from UsefulNotes/TheByzantineEmpire (the Greek speaking and Greek/Turkey based continuation of the Greeks: Roman Empire), where it was a sign of imperial power: fitting for an ancient Greek heroine who became a Russian citizen.
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* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: Batman asks why he should kill Superman to have Pyotr in his place, as Pyotr will undoubtedly be a worse dictator. Pyotr points out that at least he's human and will die some day. For all they know, Superman is immortal and his reign could last forever.
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* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: Batman asks why he should kill Superman to have Pyotr in his place, as Pyotr will undoubtedly be a worse dictator. Pyotr points out that at least he's human and will die some day. For all they know, Superman is immortal and his reign could last forever. [[spoiler: Considering that he survives to see the end of Earth, itself the counterpart of Krypton, perhaps billions of years in the future, Pyotr turns out to be right.]]
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* FatalFlaw: Superman's origin in Russia is not the main difference between him and his mainstream counterpart, and is arguably just a distraction. The true distinction is that this is a Superman who sees the world and its inhabitants as problems that need to be fixed, instead of people that need support to be better. This leads to his ignorance over Pyotr and Wonder Woman's true feelings, and to his world domination.
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* FatalFlaw: Superman's origin in Russia is not the main difference between him and his mainstream counterpart, and is arguably just a distraction. The true distinction is that this is a Superman who sees comes to see the world and its inhabitants as problems that need to be fixed, instead of people that need support to be better. This leads to his ignorance over Pyotr and Wonder Woman's true feelings, and to his world domination.
* {{Narrator}}: Superman, narrating the story from after the events of it. [[spoiler: Millions, if not billions, of years after it, as it happens.]]
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** The relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman is one of best friends, but there are enough hints to let the reader know Diana wants more than that. Superman, however, is shown to be utterly clueless about it.
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** The relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman is one of best friends, but there are enough hints to let the reader know Diana wants more than that. Superman, however, is shown to be utterly clueless about it.it, something he later sadly reflects upon.
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* HistoryRepeats: On a cosmic scale. [[spoiler:TheReveal at the end of the last issue is that Earth becomes Krypton of this universe's continuity and Lex Luthor's distant descendant is actually Red Son Superman himself.]]
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* HistoryRepeats: On a cosmic scale. [[spoiler:TheReveal at the end of the last issue is that Earth becomes the Krypton of this universe's continuity universe and Lex Luthor's distant descendant is actually Red Son Superman himself.]]
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* HistoryRepeats: On a cosmic scale. [[spoiler:TheReveal at the end of the last issue is that Earth becomes Krypton of this universe's continuity and Lex Luthor's distant descendant is the Superman of this continuity.]]
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* HistoryRepeats: On a cosmic scale. [[spoiler:TheReveal at the end of the last issue is that Earth becomes Krypton of this universe's continuity and Lex Luthor's distant descendant is the actually Red Son Superman of this continuity.himself.]]
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* HistoryRepeats: On a cosmic scale. [[spoiler:TheReveal at the end of the last issue is that Earth becomes Krypton of the main DC Universe continuity and Lex Luthor's distant descendant is the Superman of that continuity.]]
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* HistoryRepeats: On a cosmic scale. [[spoiler:TheReveal at the end of the last issue is that Earth becomes Krypton of the main DC Universe this universe's continuity and Lex Luthor's distant descendant is the Superman of that this continuity.]]
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* HistoryRepeats: On a cosmic scale. TheReveal at the end of the last issue is that Earth becomes Krypton of the main DC Universe continuity and Lex Luthor's distant descendant is the Superman of that continuity.
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* HistoryRepeats: On a cosmic scale. TheReveal [[spoiler:TheReveal at the end of the last issue is that Earth becomes Krypton of the main DC Universe continuity and Lex Luthor's distant descendant is the Superman of that continuity.]]
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%%* AntiVillain: Everyone. [[spoiler:Except ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} and Pyotr.]]
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%%* WeHardlyKnewYe: Most of Superman's Rogue Gallery.
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* GeniusBonus: The eagle motif on Wonder Woman's chestplate has two heads, not one. The double-headed eagle is one of the most important symbols of Russia, and, coincidentally, was brought in by the Greeks: fitting for an ancient Greek heroine who became a Russian citizen.
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* TranslationConvention: A lot of Soviet terminology is adapted for Western comprehension. For example, Piotr refers to himself as chief of ''police'' and not ''militia''.
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* TranslationConvention: A lot of Soviet terminology is adapted for Western comprehension. For example, Piotr refers to himself as chief of ''police'' and not ''militia''.''militia'', and KGB insignia are rendered in Latin rather than Cyrillic.
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* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Not exactly a mistake, but Stalin's advisor complaining about Superman being Ukrainian does not exactly make sense in the context of contemporary Soviet politics, since the party leadership under Stalin was quite diverse, including Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians and Georgians.
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** Saint Petersburg is called by its current name, whereas it should have been referred to as Leningrad at this point in history.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory:Not exactly a mistake, but Stalin's advisor complaining about Superman being Ukrainian does not exactly make sense in the context of contemporary Soviet politics, since the party leadership under Stalin was quite diverse, including Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians and Georgians.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory:
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*TranslationConvention: A lot of Soviet terminology is adapted for Western comprehension. For example, Piotr refers to himself as chief of ''police'' and not ''militia''.
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* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Not exactly a mistake, but Stalin's advisor complaining about Superman being Ukrainian does not exactly make sense in the context of contemporary Soviet politics, since the party leadership under Stalin was quite diverse, including Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians and Georgians.
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Not An Example - the What If in Red Son is "What if Superman was Soviet?", not "What if Superman and Lois Lane were never a couple?".
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* {{Double Blind What if}}: Superman had a brief encounter with Lois Lane in Metropolis after he prevented the city from being destroyed by Sputnik 2. This meeting sparked people's imaginations for years to come. Centuries later, a famous poet wrote an alternate history in which the two of them became lovers. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and become the best selling fictional book of all time.
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%%* DomedHometown: Stalingrad.
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%%* InsufferableGenius: Luthor.
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%%* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Brainiac to Superman.]]
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* NiceHat: Russian Batman's Bat-[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushanka Ushanka]]. The sketches included in the trade paperback have the commentary: "I took a lot of flak for this hat, but it's cold in Russia. Why shouldn't Batman have a warm hat?"
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** The very first time we see Lois she looks exactly as she does in the WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons.
* NiceHat: Russian Batman's Bat-[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushanka Ushanka]]. The sketches included in the trade paperback have the commentary: "I took a lot offlak crap from my friends for this hat, but it's cold in Russia. Why shouldn't Batman have a warm hat?"
* NiceHat: Russian Batman's Bat-[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushanka Ushanka]]. The sketches included in the trade paperback have the commentary: "I took a lot of
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* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Lex Luthor's introduction in the story has him beating multiple opponents in chess, reading Machiavelli, and teaching himself Urdu using a portable tape recorder he designed in the washroom earlier that morning. All at once.
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* {{Expy}}: Pyotr Roslov, the head of the KGB and Stalin's bastard son is an Elseworlds equivalent of Superman's childhood friend Pete Ross, but he is also a parallel to Stalin's eldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili, who Stalin famously let die in a German prison camp.
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* {{Expy}}: Pyotr Roslov, the head of the KGB and Stalin's bastard son is an Elseworlds equivalent of Superman's childhood friend Pete Ross, but he is also a parallel to Stalin's eldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili, who Stalin famously let die in a German prison camp.camp, as well as secret police chief Lavrenti Beria, [[spoiler: including the possibility that Beria / Pyotr poisoned Stalin]].
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** Kal-L's ship lands in Ukraine in 1938, yet the story begins in the early 1950s... Superman would be 14-15 at most.
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** Kal-L's ship lands in Ukraine in 1938, yet the story begins in the early 1950s... Superman would be 14-15 at most. Maybe he's OlderThanHeLooks?
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* {{Double Blind What if}}: Superman had a brief encounter with Lois Lane in Metropolis after he prevented the city from being destroyed by Sputnik 2. This meeting sparked people's imaginations for years to come. Centuries later, a famous poet wrote an alternate history in which the two of them became lovers. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and become the best selling fictional book of all time.
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* {{Richard Nixon The Used Car Salesman}}: Other than the examples mentioned above, Tony Benn is seemingly a senior figure in the British government after it becomes a communist country.
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* {{Soviet Superscience}}: Thanks to Superman.
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* {{Deconstruction}}: The story acts as a rebuttal to the oft repeated criticism that [[ReedRichardsIsUseless Superman doesn't use his powers to solve the world's problems]]; using an alternate reality to explore what would happen if Superman actually did try to do this: At the helm of Soviet Russia, Superman almost completely eradicates crime and poverty, spreading this prosperity to most of the rest of the world. However, in the process he becomes a totalitarian dictator that lobotomizes dissidents and reprograms them into obedient drones. As a result, there is no individual liberty under his rule.
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* {{Deconstruction}}: The story acts as a rebuttal to the oft repeated criticism that [[ReedRichardsIsUseless Superman doesn't use his powers to solve fix the world's problems]]; using an alternate reality to explore what would happen if Superman actually did try to do this: At the helm of Soviet Russia, Superman almost completely eradicates crime and poverty, spreading this prosperity to most of the rest of the world. However, in the process he becomes a totalitarian dictator that lobotomizes dissidents and reprograms them into obedient drones. As a result, there is no individual liberty under his rule.
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* {{Determinator}}: Hal Jordan, who survived four years of torture as a P.O.W. by imagining he was building a place from which to execute all his tormentors. A grim way to prove yourself worthy of being a Green Lantern, but nevertheless.
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* {{Deconstruction}}: The story acts as a rebuttal to the oft repeated criticism that [[ReedRichardsIsUseless Superman doesn't use his powers to solve the world's problems]]; using an alternate reality to explore what would happen if Superman actually did try to do this: At the helm of Soviet Russia, Superman almost completely eradicates crime and poverty, spreading this prosperity to most of the rest of the world. However, in the process he becomes a totalitarian dictator that lobotomizes dissidents and reprograms them into obedient drones. As a result, there is no individual liberty under his rule.
* {{Determinator}}: Hal Jordan, who survived four years of torture as a P.O.W. by imagining he was building a place from which to execute all his tormentors. A grim way to prove yourself worthy of being a Green Lantern, but nevertheless.
* {{Determinator}}: Hal Jordan, who survived four years of torture as a P.O.W. by imagining he was building a place from which to execute all his tormentors. A grim way to prove yourself worthy of being a Green Lantern, but nevertheless.
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* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Batman subduing Wonder Woman, as well as Superman's entire off-screen history with his rogues gallery (here reimagined as CIA assassination attempts) and then taking them all at once in the final issue.
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* WhamLine: [[spoiler: Why don't you just put the whole world in a bottle, Superman?]].
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Everyone knows the basic story of Franchise/{{Superman}}. Strange visitor from another world, who can change the course of mighty rivers, and bend steel with his bare hands. He's faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But in one universe, instead of fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, he fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, communism, and the international expansion of the WarsawPact.
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Everyone knows the basic story of Franchise/{{Superman}}. Strange visitor from another world, who can change the course of mighty rivers, and bend steel with his bare hands. He's faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But in one universe, instead of fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, he fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, communism, and the international expansion of the WarsawPact.
UsefulNotes/WarsawPact.
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* AntiVillain: Everyone. [[spoiler:Except ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} and Pyotr.]]
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* TheChessmaster: Luthor, complete with {{Chess Motif}}s and to a lesser extent, Brainiac and Superman.
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* TheChessmaster: TheChessmaster:
** Luthor, complete with {{Chess Motif}}s and to a lesser extent, Brainiac and Superman.
** Luthor, complete with {{Chess Motif}}s and to a lesser extent, Brainiac and Superman.
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* DomedHometown: Stalingrad.
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* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler: Lex Luthor explains that everything has gone exactly as planned. "One can almost be forgiven for thinking that this had all been worked out to the tenth decimal point forty years ago, eh?"]]
* GenerationXerox: [[spoiler: Red Supes shares his ancestor's taste for global domination]].
* GenerationXerox: [[spoiler: Red Supes shares his ancestor's taste for global domination]].
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* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler: Lex [[spoiler:Lex Luthor explains that everything has gone exactly as planned. "One can almost be forgiven for thinking that this had all been worked out to the tenth decimal point forty years ago, eh?"]]
* GenerationXerox:[[spoiler: Red [[spoiler:Red Supes shares his ancestor's taste for global domination]].
* GenerationXerox:
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* GreyAndGrayMorality: Superman is a TotalitarianUtilitarian, [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood dissenter-brainwashing]] KnightTemplar, but Lex Luthor, despite all he does for his country, is still ComicBook/LexLuthor, a [[MadScientist mad]] [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] [[ItsAllAboutMe egomaniac]]. [[spoiler: Though Luthor does lead the world in a long Golden Age after Superman has gone, this is probably for his ego as much as anything else.]]
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* GreyAndGrayMorality: Superman is a TotalitarianUtilitarian, [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood dissenter-brainwashing]] KnightTemplar, but Lex Luthor, despite all he does for his country, is still ComicBook/LexLuthor, a [[MadScientist mad]] [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] [[ItsAllAboutMe egomaniac]]. [[spoiler: Though [[spoiler:Though Luthor does lead the world in a long Golden Age after Superman has gone, this is probably for his ego as much as anything else.]]
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* InsufferableGenius: Luthor.
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* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: Brainiac to Superman.]]
* MarySueTopia: The book creates two. At first, that's what it seems like. In the world Superman creates "Every adult had a job, every child had a hobby, everybody had a full eight hours sleep. Crime didn't exist. Accidents never happened... Almost six billion citizens and hardly anyone ever complained. Even in private". (Granted, this is because of the frequency with which dissidents are lobotomized by having mind-controlling chips forcibly implanted in their brains. "A totalitarian state can work very well when the leader has super-hearing.") However, Lex manages to shake this with his ArmorPiercingQuestion, and Superman realizes he's no better than Brainiac. "Another alien bullying a less-developed species." In the world Lex creates: [[spoiler: the world does become perfect, Lex manages to creates a one-world government of scientists, writers and artists, colonizes the solar system and makes humanity the most advanced race in the universe. But, millions of years in the future, Earth is about to be consumed by its growing red sun and the leaders of mankind along with the populace are too prideful and apathetic to care about it and as Jor-L puts it: "Have nothing left to do but die." Jor-L sends his son back in time to make sure humanity never becomes "this cold complacent lot", ironically setting the stage for it to become exactly that via StableTimeLoop.]]
* MarySueTopia: The book creates two. At first, that's what it seems like. In the world Superman creates "Every adult had a job, every child had a hobby, everybody had a full eight hours sleep. Crime didn't exist. Accidents never happened... Almost six billion citizens and hardly anyone ever complained. Even in private". (Granted, this is because of the frequency with which dissidents are lobotomized by having mind-controlling chips forcibly implanted in their brains. "A totalitarian state can work very well when the leader has super-hearing.") However, Lex manages to shake this with his ArmorPiercingQuestion, and Superman realizes he's no better than Brainiac. "Another alien bullying a less-developed species." In the world Lex creates: [[spoiler: the world does become perfect, Lex manages to creates a one-world government of scientists, writers and artists, colonizes the solar system and makes humanity the most advanced race in the universe. But, millions of years in the future, Earth is about to be consumed by its growing red sun and the leaders of mankind along with the populace are too prideful and apathetic to care about it and as Jor-L puts it: "Have nothing left to do but die." Jor-L sends his son back in time to make sure humanity never becomes "this cold complacent lot", ironically setting the stage for it to become exactly that via StableTimeLoop.]]
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* MarySueTopia: The book creates two. At first, that's what it seems like. In the world Superman creates "Every adult had a job, every child had a hobby, everybody had a full eight hours sleep. Crime didn't exist. Accidents never happened... Almost six billion citizens and hardly anyone ever complained. Even in private". (Granted, this is because of the frequency with which dissidents are lobotomized by having mind-controlling chips forcibly implanted in their brains. "A totalitarian state can work very well when the leader has super-hearing.") However, Lex manages to shake this with his ArmorPiercingQuestion, and Superman realizes he's no better than Brainiac. "Another alien bullying a less-developed species." In the world Lex creates:
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* NotMyDriver: How does [[spoiler: Batman secretly meet with a high official of the government he's opposing? By posing as the man's driver and kidnapping him, of course.]]
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* NotMyDriver: How does [[spoiler: Batman [[spoiler:Batman secretly meet with a high official of the government he's opposing? By posing as the man's driver and kidnapping him, of course.]]
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** In a more positive light, Bizarro. In spite of his disfigured appearance and altered superpowers, Bizarro ''does'' have the same ideals for human life and happiness that his original does. [[spoiler: When human life is threatened during his fight with Superman, Bizarro chooses to sacrifice himself to save them rather than continue his battle.]]
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** In a more positive light, Bizarro. In spite of his disfigured appearance and altered superpowers, Bizarro ''does'' have the same ideals for human life and happiness that his original does. [[spoiler: When [[spoiler:When human life is threatened during his fight with Superman, Bizarro chooses to sacrifice himself to save them rather than continue his battle.]]
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* ShutUpHannibal: Luthor attempts a face-to-face HannibalLecture to Superman, but Brainiac restrains him. [[spoiler: Too bad Lex already thought of that.]]
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* ShutUpHannibal: Luthor attempts a face-to-face HannibalLecture to Superman, but Brainiac restrains him. [[spoiler: Too [[spoiler:Too bad Lex already thought of that.]]
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* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler: Albeit a very, ''very'' long one; Lex Luthor's leadership leads Earth to become Krypton in the future, then his descendants (whose last name has atrophied from Luthor to Luth to L) send their son Kal-L back in time to prevent that from happening, unknowingly ensuring that Lex would fight against Kal-L to ensure he gains leadership over Earth to begin with.]]
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* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler: Albeit [[spoiler:Albeit a very, ''very'' long one; Lex Luthor's leadership leads Earth to become Krypton in the future, then his descendants (whose last name has atrophied from Luthor to Luth to L) send their son Kal-L back in time to prevent that from happening, unknowingly ensuring that Lex would fight against Kal-L to ensure he gains leadership over Earth to begin with.]]
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* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Supes' mindset in a nutshell. He brainwashes dissidents by lobotomizing them and is willing to go to war with another country but it's because he wants to unite the world under his [[spoiler: (Brainiac-molded)]] ideals. [[spoiler: Lex eventually calls him out on this with a certain letter, only to incorporate several aspects of Superman's Utopia into his own]].
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* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Supes' mindset in a nutshell. He brainwashes dissidents by lobotomizing them and is willing to go to war with another country but it's because he wants to unite the world under his [[spoiler: (Brainiac-molded)]] [[spoiler:(Brainiac-molded)]] ideals. [[spoiler: Lex [[spoiler:Lex eventually calls him out on this with a certain letter, only to incorporate several aspects of Superman's Utopia into his own]].
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* WeHardlyKnewYe: Most of Superman's Rogue Gallery.
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* HistoryRepeats: On a cosmic scale. TheReveal at the end of the last issue is that Earth becomes Krypton of the main DC Universe continuity and Lex Luthor's distant descendant is the Superman of that continuity.
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** "What's going on? What's he doing?" "[[Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace Something wonderful]], Jimmy."
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* {{Elseworlds}}
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* AlternateHistory: The Cold War happens ''very'' differently when you throw Superman and Lex Luthor into the mix. Also, the Roswell spacecraft was [[Franchise/GreenLantern Abin Sur's ship]].
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* AlternateHistory: The Cold War happens ''very'' differently when you throw Superman and Lex Luthor into the mix. Also, the Roswell spacecraft was [[Franchise/GreenLantern Abin Sur's ship]]. [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy JFK]] governs the United States for years, as he wasn't assassinated, he divorces Jacqueline Bouvier and marries Creator/MarilynMonroe, who goes by her name Norma Jean Mortenson as the First Lady.
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* AlternateHistory: The Cold War happens ''very'' differently when you throw Superman and Lex Luthor into the mix. Also, the Roswell spacecraft was [[GreenLantern Abin Sur's ship]].
* AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome
* AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome
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* AlternateHistory: The Cold War happens ''very'' differently when you throw Superman and Lex Luthor into the mix. Also, the Roswell spacecraft was [[GreenLantern [[Franchise/GreenLantern Abin Sur's ship]].
*AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesomeAlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome: Superman and Luthor, freed from the confines of StatusQuoIsGod, each come to power in their respective countries, advance their technology and standards of living decades ahead of even the modern day and build them up into rival superpowers over the course of the comic.
*
* TheCameo: Superman's Winter Cave includes statues of what look to be Krypto and ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}.
* {{Determinator}}: Hal Jordan, who survived four years of torture as a P.O.W. by imagining he was building a place from which to execute all his tormentors. A grim way to prove yourself worthy of being a Green Lantern, but nevertheless.
Changed line(s) 77 (click to see context) from:
* InSpiteOfANail: Green Lantern and Superman's entire RoguesGallery end up existing in this world in much the same way as they do in our own, with only the circumstances of their creation changing.
to:
* InSpiteOfANail: Green Lantern and Superman's entire RoguesGallery end up existing in this world in much the same way as they do in our own, with only the circumstances of their creation changing. Notably, in this universe Superman's enemies are only "villains" in that [[WrittenByTheWinners he won all his fights against them and they are portrayed as such in the USSR]], when in fact they are really US government-mandated {{Super Soldier}}s created by Luthor to fight Superman.
Changed line(s) 85 (click to see context) from:
* MarySueTopia: The book creates two. At first, that's what it seems like. In the world Superman creates "Every adult had a job, every child had a hobby, everybody had a full eight hours sleep. Crime didn't exist. Accidents never happened... Almost six billion citizens and hardly anyone ever complained. Even in private". (Granted, this is because of frequency with which dissidents are lobotomized by having mind-controlling chips forcibly implanted in their brains. "A totalitarian state can work very well when the leader has super-hearing.") However, Lex manages to shake this with his ArmorPiercingQuestion, and Superman realizes he's no better than Brainiac. "Another alien bullying a less-developed species." In the world Lex creates: [[spoiler: the world does become perfect, Lex manages to creates a one-world government of scientists, writers and artists, colonizes the solar system and makes humanity the most advanced race in the universe. But, millions of years in the future, Earth is about to be consumed by its growing red sun and the leaders of mankind along with the populace are too prideful and apathetic to care about it and as Jor-L puts it: "Have nothing left to do but die." Jor-L sends his son back in time to make sure humanity never becomes "this cold complacent lot".]]
to:
* MarySueTopia: The book creates two. At first, that's what it seems like. In the world Superman creates "Every adult had a job, every child had a hobby, everybody had a full eight hours sleep. Crime didn't exist. Accidents never happened... Almost six billion citizens and hardly anyone ever complained. Even in private". (Granted, this is because of the frequency with which dissidents are lobotomized by having mind-controlling chips forcibly implanted in their brains. "A totalitarian state can work very well when the leader has super-hearing.") However, Lex manages to shake this with his ArmorPiercingQuestion, and Superman realizes he's no better than Brainiac. "Another alien bullying a less-developed species." In the world Lex creates: [[spoiler: the world does become perfect, Lex manages to creates a one-world government of scientists, writers and artists, colonizes the solar system and makes humanity the most advanced race in the universe. But, millions of years in the future, Earth is about to be consumed by its growing red sun and the leaders of mankind along with the populace are too prideful and apathetic to care about it and as Jor-L puts it: "Have nothing left to do but die." Jor-L sends his son back in time to make sure humanity never becomes "this cold complacent lot".lot", ironically setting the stage for it to become exactly that via StableTimeLoop.]]
Changed line(s) 87,88 (click to see context) from:
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Superman, after reading Luthor's letter: "Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"]]
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler: Superman considers failing to restore Stalingrad to size after being shrunk by Brainiac as the black spot of his career.]]
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler: Superman considers failing to restore Stalingrad to size after being shrunk by Brainiac as the black spot of his career.]]
to:
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Superman, [[spoiler:Superman, after reading Luthor's letter: "Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"]]
* MyGreatestFailure:[[spoiler: Superman [[spoiler:Superman considers failing to restore Stalingrad to size after being shrunk by Brainiac as the black spot of his career.]]
* MyGreatestFailure:
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** This isn't the first time Lex Luthor becomes [[spoiler:President of the United States.]]
to:
** This isn't the first time Lex Luthor becomes [[spoiler:President President of the United States.]]
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Supermanredson.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"There is only one superpower now."]]
Everyone knows the basic story of Franchise/{{Superman}}. Strange visitor from another world, who can change the course of mighty rivers, and bend steel with his bare hands. He's faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But in one universe, instead of fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, he fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, communism, and the international expansion of the WarsawPact.
''Superman: Red Son'' is a Franchise/DCUniverse {{Elseworlds}} story, written by Creator/MarkMillar and published in 2003, that dares to imagine what would have happened if the spaceship holding baby Kal-El had landed in the Soviet Union instead of the United States, due to a small difference in the Earth's orbit compared to the main DCU. Instead of being adopted by the Kents in Smallville, Kansas, he is raised on a collective farm in Ukraine, where he discovers that he has powers greater than any man, powers he decides to use for the good of his country, and the world.
As an adult, he aligns himself with the government of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, protecting the citizens of the Soviet Union from even the smallest crimes and accidents, eventually succeeding Stalin as the country's leader. When the people of the United States learn of Superman's existence, they're naturally terrified, and the government turns to the smartest man in the country, scientist ComicBook/LexLuthor (husband of ComicBook/LoisLane), to combat this newest threat to the American way. Thus begins a superhuman arms race and a legendary battle of power and philosophies between Superman and his archnemesis.
Red Son has gained a reputation as one of the most famous, thoughtful and well-written Elseworld stories, and even regularly features in lists of the greatest Superman stories of all time.
The world of ''Superman: Red Son'' is part of the new DC Multiverse as Earth-30, presenting the possibility of Soviet Superman visiting the mainstream continuity, or vice versa.[[note]] The last variety has already happened in ''Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer'', although [[YouCantFightFate it didn't change squat.]][[/note]]
----
!!''Superman: Red Son'' provides examples of:
* AIIsACrapshoot: ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}. OK, he was already evil, [[spoiler:but as it turns out, he was able to evade Superman's attempted reprogramming of him.]]
* AlternateHistory: The Cold War happens ''very'' differently when you throw Superman and Lex Luthor into the mix. Also, the Roswell spacecraft was [[GreenLantern Abin Sur's ship]].
* AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome
* AmericaTakesOverTheWorld: The end of the comic has not only [[spoiler:President Luthor]] winning, but also manages to use the United States as the basis for his OneWorldOrder. [[spoiler:By the time he dies centuries later, his utopia's still noticeably American]].
* AntiVillain: Everyone. [[spoiler:Except ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} and Pyotr.]]
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Possibly the most famous in comic history. [[spoiler:"Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"]]
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: [[spoiler:Luthor gets really upset with Superman, because the Bizarro he created had the temerity to beat him at chess]].
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: While Ukraine ''was'' part of the Soviet Union, it wasn't part of Russia at that time. Russia and Ukraine were constituent republics of the USSR. [[spoiler:The final page fails to make this distinction with a caption reading "Ukraine, Russia, 1938".]]
* TheBackwardsR: Supes is a Soviet, so surely.
* BadassArmy: The Green Lantern Marine Corps and the Amazon Army.
* BadassNormal:
** Batman, of course. [[spoiler:(The original, that is.)]]
** Lex Luthor mixes this with MadScientist and MagnificentBastard.
* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: Batman asks why he should kill Superman to have Pyotr in his place, as Pyotr will undoubtedly be a worse dictator. Pyotr points out that at least he's human and will die some day. For all they know, Superman is immortal and his reign could last forever.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:Batman blows himself up using a bomb he implanted in his body]] rather than be turned into a Superman robot.
* BombThrowingAnarchist: Batman, of all people, is this in this continuity.
* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: Superman does this to dissidents, turning them into "Superman robots" who are forced into being happy and productive. He also reprograms Brainiac to serve his cause. [[spoiler:It doesn't take, but Brainiac just rolls with it because Superman is essentially turning Earth into a world that lives by Brainiac's own motto.]]
* BreakingSpeech: Lex manages to squeeze an entire HannibalLecture into a single question: [[spoiler:"Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"]]
* BreakTheCutie: Wonder Woman, who loses a piece of herself when she has to break her own lasso to save Superman.
* BritainIsOnlyLondon: And its most famous landmark gets destroyed during Superman's fight with Bizarro.
* BrokenAesop: Played with.
** On one hand, Lex's ArmorPiercingQuestion is appropriate. Then, he goes to do the exact same thing with Luthorism except this time, Superman doesn't mind only because the only difference between Lex and him is Lex being human. It defeats the point of the utopia since, you can improve a place only if you were born there. It goes on for [[spoiler:millions of years to boot. It's heavily implied a single bloodline has been ruling Earth during all this time despite the whole point of fighting against Superman's presence and rule was to preserve the free will of the people and avoid totalitarian rule. So much for democracy and the right to choose its ideology]].
** On the other hand, it shows how hypocritical Luthor is at his core. As usual, no matter how clever his arguments, ultimately Lex is DrivenByEnvy the same as always, and only doesn't want Superman in charge because he is convinced ''he'' should be. Indeed, Luthor is not necessarily intended to be portrayed as much better than Superman. Even though he led to an era of peace and prosperity, it should be noted that Superman was doing the same.
** In-universe, Pytor points out that for all his value in Soviet propaganda, Superman is living proof that socialist doctrine is wrong: all men are ''not'' created equal.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Subverted. Even a few days after the fact, Pyotr Roslov can no longer remember the names of the future Batman's parents or why he was sent to shoot them, but even decades later he remembers the little boy with the piercing DeathGlare with perfect clarity.
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Brainiac. In his first appearance, [[AnticlimaxBoss he is defeated by Superman in less than a minute]], but then he is [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood reprogrammed by Superman]] to serve him. Except he wasn't really reprogrammed at all, but [[TheManBehindTheMan actually]] [[BigBad manipulating]] Superman into turning Earth into a world upholding Brainiac's ideals.]]
* TheChessmaster: Luthor, complete with {{Chess Motif}}s and to a lesser extent, Brainiac and Superman.
** In fact, it becomes personal for Luthor when Bizarro beats him at chess.
* TheChosenMany: The Green Lantern Marine Corps. [[spoiler:For all the good it does them; Superman easily and completely kicks their asses before stealing and destroying their rings.]]
* ClarkKenting: [[spoiler:Used and [[LampshadedTrope lampshaded]] by Superman at the end, after he survives his apparent death.]]
* ConflictKiller: Inverted. [[spoiler:Braniac turns on Superman]] ''after'' the main moral question is resolved.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Lex Luthor breaks off his engagement and relationship to ComicBook/LoisLane in order to devote his entire life to beating Superman because... The deformed clone of Superman beat him in Chess! This is particularly hilarious because earlier he had explicitly stated "I have no doubts that [Superman] and I would get along if we had been born in the same country."
* DividedStatesOfAmerica: The USA experiences a second civil war, with 16 "prodigal states" (including Georgia) successfully seceding. America gets better, [[spoiler:but it takes President Lex Luthor to do so.]]
* DomedHometown: Stalingrad.
* {{Elseworlds}}
* EnemyMine: [[TheStarscream Pyotr]] makes a temporary alliance with Batman to kill Superman, using technology developed by Lex Luthor. Both men make it clear that they'll do their best to kill the other once Superman is out of the way.
* EvilIsPetty: It's never remarked upon, but Superman has his former enemies perform rather degrading tasks when they're brainwashed into Superman robots, such as clean toilets in Bombay and act as janitors in his Fortress.
* {{Expy}}: Pyotr Roslov, the head of the KGB and Stalin's bastard son is an Elseworlds equivalent of Superman's childhood friend Pete Ross, but he is also a parallel to Stalin's eldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili, who Stalin famously let die in a German prison camp.
* FallenStatesOfAmerica: By 1978, America is pretty much in the gutter with crime and riots being rampant because of poverty. Wonder Woman suggests it all began with the assassination of Richard Nixon in Dallas back in 1963, and now John F. Kennedy is running the show. He's forced to grant independence to Georgia, with similar pressures being exerted by Detroit and Texas, riots in California, and a White House bombing by communist sympathizers.
--> '''Luthor:''' I'm afraid you won't be getting my vote next year, Jack.
* FatalFlaw: Superman's origin in Russia is not the main difference between him and his mainstream counterpart, and is arguably just a distraction. The true distinction is that this is a Superman who sees the world and its inhabitants as problems that need to be fixed, instead of people that need support to be better. This leads to his ignorance over Pyotr and Wonder Woman's true feelings, and to his world domination.
* FateWorseThanDeath: A "Superman robot" in this continuity, rather than a robotic double for Superman, is someone who has been subjected to mind control and painful cybernetic implants.
* FlyingBrick: Faster than ''ten times the speed of thought'', more powerful than... well, basically anything, and ''immortal'', not to mention lacking several of his usual weaknesses, this Superman is even more powerful than usual.
* ForWantOfANail: [[spoiler:Subverted in the sense that this isn't really just what if Superman's rocket landed in the Ukraine instead of Kansas. Certain characters have been relocated as well, such as the Russian Lana Lang, Pete Ross and even Batman. Abin Sur was even the alien at Roswell. And then there's TheReveal that all of it is in one big StableTimeLoop, that Krypton depicted here is actually the future fate of this Earth and that Supes is Luthor's distant descendant! (That's what the L in Kal-L stands for!) It can however be argued that this is how the mainstream characters would have turned out if they were born in such conditions.]]
* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler: Lex Luthor explains that everything has gone exactly as planned. "One can almost be forgiven for thinking that this had all been worked out to the tenth decimal point forty years ago, eh?"]]
* GenerationXerox: [[spoiler: Red Supes shares his ancestor's taste for global domination]].
* GeniusBruiser:
** Superman. When Stalin is poisoned, he quickly goes through several books of medicine for a possible treatment, and later confronts the Bizarro Superman after learning English 10 minutes ago.
** Bizarro himself is one ironically, having beaten Luthor at chess. He is still incapable of normal grammar.
* GloriousMotherRussia: Fuzzy Bat-hat and all.
* GodzillaThreshold: "What have we got to '''lose'''? Release all those '''supervillains''' Luthor created over the years!" Doomsday was set loose on the National Mall in hopes of ''damage control''.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Superman is a TotalitarianUtilitarian, [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood dissenter-brainwashing]] KnightTemplar, but Lex Luthor, despite all he does for his country, is still ComicBook/LexLuthor, a [[MadScientist mad]] [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] [[ItsAllAboutMe egomaniac]]. [[spoiler: Though Luthor does lead the world in a long Golden Age after Superman has gone, this is probably for his ego as much as anything else.]]
* HappyPlace: Hal Jordan was a former POW in Malaysia, eventually chosen by ComicBook/LexLuthor to wear the GreenLantern Power Ring because of the elaborate version of this he constructed as a survival mechanism while being tortured. In his, he literally imagined himself building a prison for his captors in real time. The time it would take him to dig a hole or chop down a tree or take a break was imagined in his head until finally after years of real time imagination, he had "constructed" the prison and set about killing each of his captors in what he called the most glorious night of his life.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: Luthor murders the entire staff of S.T.A.R. Labs to ensure the Bizarro Superman can never be duplicated.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** Done by the Bizarro Superman. "Hello everybody. Me very pleased to meet you."
** [[spoiler:Later done by Superman, in a very similar fashion. However [[DisneyDeath it doesn't take]].]]
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Josef Stalin, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon (who is mentioned in passing).
* IgnoredEpiphany: On the part of Pyotr. His heart to heart with Superman, complete with DrowningMySorrows and attempted suicide sure didn't change him, did it?
* InfallibleNarrator: Superman is telling the entire story from some future point, and doesn't miss one detail. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by his super memory.
* InSpiteOfANail: Green Lantern and Superman's entire RoguesGallery end up existing in this world in much the same way as they do in our own, with only the circumstances of their creation changing.
* InsufferableGenius: Luthor.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Luthor. He becomes maniacally obsessed with beating Superman, not because of ideological differences, PatrioticFervor, or even FantasticRacism, but because he can't tolerate the idea that someone might actually be as smart as he is.
* KnightTemplar: Superman. As if becoming absolute dictator of the Soviet Union isn't enough, the final chapter involves him launching an all-out invasion of the United States. [[spoiler:It turns out that Brainiac is an even ''bigger'' KnightTemplar however. In the end, Brainiac is defeated, and the USA is saved.]]
* KryptoniteFactor: Batman uses red sun radiation to block Superman's powers, but kryptonite itself is noticeably absent throughout the comic; in the end it's implied that this is because [[spoiler:instead of a separate planet that explodes and becomes kryptonite, Krypton is actually Earth in the far future.]] However, kryptonite is given a ShoutOut of sorts when [[spoiler:Brainiac nearly kills Superman with a green beam of energy.]]
* LegacyCharacter: Batman inspires other Batmen over the years.
* LibertyOverProsperity: The Global Soviet Union rules over the whole world, save the DividedStatesOfAmerica. Despite people all over the world living in a socialist utopia, the Americans remain independent, living in a war-torn country, to avoid being ruled over by Superman.
* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: Brainiac to Superman.]]
* MarySueTopia: The book creates two. At first, that's what it seems like. In the world Superman creates "Every adult had a job, every child had a hobby, everybody had a full eight hours sleep. Crime didn't exist. Accidents never happened... Almost six billion citizens and hardly anyone ever complained. Even in private". (Granted, this is because of frequency with which dissidents are lobotomized by having mind-controlling chips forcibly implanted in their brains. "A totalitarian state can work very well when the leader has super-hearing.") However, Lex manages to shake this with his ArmorPiercingQuestion, and Superman realizes he's no better than Brainiac. "Another alien bullying a less-developed species." In the world Lex creates: [[spoiler: the world does become perfect, Lex manages to creates a one-world government of scientists, writers and artists, colonizes the solar system and makes humanity the most advanced race in the universe. But, millions of years in the future, Earth is about to be consumed by its growing red sun and the leaders of mankind along with the populace are too prideful and apathetic to care about it and as Jor-L puts it: "Have nothing left to do but die." Jor-L sends his son back in time to make sure humanity never becomes "this cold complacent lot".]]
* MonumentalDamage: Big Ben gets taken out after Bizarro punches Superman through it.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Superman, after reading Luthor's letter: "Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"]]
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler: Superman considers failing to restore Stalingrad to size after being shrunk by Brainiac as the black spot of his career.]]
* MythologyGag:
** This isn't the first time Lex Luthor becomes [[spoiler:President of the United States.]]
** The shot of Superman handing the balloon back to the little American boy is an homage to the cover of ''Superman'' #1.
** When Brainiac and Superman are discussing the political situation in America, an image of people rioting appears on the page. The image is very similar to the cover of ''Action Comics'' #1, where Superman first appeared, featuring the same man fleeing, except here it was from ordinary rioters instead of Superman lifting up a car.
** Stalingrad and the Winter Palace are the story's versions of the bottle city of Kandor and the Fortress of Solitude.
** [[spoiler:Krypton actually being Earth in the future mirrors the ''original'' origin story of Superman in the first newspaper comics, where he was a time traveller from Earth's future]].
** The Soviet propaganda about Superman mimics the intro of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman''.
* NiceHat: Russian Batman's Bat-[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushanka Ushanka]]. The sketches included in the trade paperback have the commentary: "I took a lot of flak for this hat, but it's cold in Russia. Why shouldn't Batman have a warm hat?"
* NobleDemon: Lex Luthor. Everything he did was to prove his superiority over Superman, but that still doesn't change the fact that he did so by being a better, more merciful leader.
* NoodleIncident: At one point, Luthor can be seen inspecting a brain inside a jar that appears to be labelled "[[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]]."
* NoPoverty: Superman manages to eliminate poverty in his Global Soviet Union. Later Luthor achieves this as well, turning the US from a penniless state on the brink of collapse to a thriving state within a year.
* NotBrainwashed: [[spoiler:Brainiac, due to his Level 12 intellect.]]
* NotMyDriver: How does [[spoiler: Batman secretly meet with a high official of the government he's opposing? By posing as the man's driver and kidnapping him, of course.]]
* NotSoDifferent: From the original Superman, that is; one of the key elements of the story is that while this Superman becomes increasingly authoritarian throughout the story, he still shares a lot of the same values and characteristics as the one we are all familiar with.
** Also, [[spoiler:Luthor's post-Superman global utopia isn't all that different from Superman's global Soviet state -- in fact, Luthor actually admits that his old enemy had some good ideas and incorporates them into "Luthorism". There are significant differences though, such as humanity being in control, no immortal all-knowing leaders, and no Superman Robots.]]
** Brainiac to Superman as well. Superman initially defeats and reprograms Brainiac to help him increase the efficiency of his burgeoning Global Soviet Union, [[spoiler:until Brainiac reveals that he merely [[NotBrainwashed faked being reprogrammed]] since Superman was already carrying out Brainiac's plans anyway. This leads Superman to the HeelRealization that he's no better than Brainiac in trying to control humankind.]]
** In a more positive light, Bizarro. In spite of his disfigured appearance and altered superpowers, Bizarro ''does'' have the same ideals for human life and happiness that his original does. [[spoiler: When human life is threatened during his fight with Superman, Bizarro chooses to sacrifice himself to save them rather than continue his battle.]]
* ObliviouslyEvil: What makes the comic so disturbing is that Superman is a monster, yet his personality is barely any different from his mainstream incarnation. He believes turning dissidents into zombie-like Superman Robots and creating an Orwellian state is justified if it makes an efficient Orwellian state.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In this timeline, Batman considered Superman a serious enough threat that he was even willing to make a temporary alliance with the man who killed his parents just to try to take down Superman.
* PresidentSuperhero: The Soviet-raised Superman becomes Premier of the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin. He uses his powers to both fight crime and improve the living standard of every citizen in the expanding Soviet state, but also [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill eliminates all free will]].
* RedScare: In Soviet Russia, [[BewareTheSuperman Superman scares Americans]].
* ReluctantRuler: Superman initially resists the idea of being elevated to leader, noting (correctly, but unsuccessfully) that putting him in charge because of his inborn advantages is [[UsefulNotes/{{Socialism}} utterly contrary to socialist principles]]. This later changes as he slips into believing he knows what's best for humanity.
* RoguesGallery: What Luthor creates under CIA contract to kill Superman. Parasite, Livewire, Atomic Skull and Doomsday all appear, termed super-criminals in Soviet propaganda despite apparently being soldiers. Bizarro is the only one to really feature in the story though.
* RussiaTakesOverTheWorld: The Soviet Union expands into a global empire under Superman's Big-Brother style leadership, who creates a totalitarian "utopia" to protect humanity from itself. [[spoiler:After Superman's "death" it is replaced by Lex Luthor's [[AmericaTakesOverTheWorld Global United States]].]]
* SecretIdentity: Superman's given name is mentioned as being a "state secret", but it doesn't come up much because he never uses a Secret Identity, spending all his time as Superman [[spoiler:until the end]]. [[spoiler:We never even find out what his real name is.]]
* SelfMadeOrphan: Pyotr is implied to have had Stalin assassinated due to Stalin's intensive favoritism towards Superman and his over-all abusive tendencies considering Stalin threatened to have Pyotr killed for standing against him.
* ShutUpHannibal: Luthor attempts a face-to-face HannibalLecture to Superman, but Brainiac restrains him. [[spoiler: Too bad Lex already thought of that.]]
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Superman, Brainiac, and especially Luthor (who is first seen playing ''fourteen'' games of chess at once while reading ''Literature/ThePrince'' and teaching himself Urdu on a tape recorder he designed that morning). It acts a recurring motif throughout the story. Funnily enough, in spite of his typical portrayal, Bizarro is skilled enough at chess to beat Luthor at it.
* SmugSnake: Pyotr Roslov, who believes he can take on Batman despite being completely outclassed.
* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler: Albeit a very, ''very'' long one; Lex Luthor's leadership leads Earth to become Krypton in the future, then his descendants (whose last name has atrophied from Luthor to Luth to L) send their son Kal-L back in time to prevent that from happening, unknowingly ensuring that Lex would fight against Kal-L to ensure he gains leadership over Earth to begin with.]]
* StylisticSuck: Not the miniseries itself, of course, but the first few pages are deliberately written in the style of a bad [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] comic... then Superman saves Metropolis from a Sputnik-turned-meteor. Which, as you should have guessed, is in the country he's at war with.
* SuperSenses: Played with. A totalitarian state can be very effective if its leader has X-ray vision and super hearing. Before he becomes leader, it's mentioned that he doesn't stick around watching parades by Stalin's side when he knows someone needs help hundreds of miles away.
* SuperSupremacist: ZigzaggedTrope. At first Superman subverts it when he refuses to become the new premier of the Soviet Union after Stalin's death because ruling on the basis of his innate superpowers is directly contrary to the communist ideal of equality. He later recants when he decides that he could use his powers to protect and improve humanity, but he gradually becomes a totalitarian dictator and his promised utopia a CrapsaccharineWorld. When [[spoiler:Brainiac turns on Superman after apparently being reprogrammed to help him with his new order, Superman acknowledges that he's no better, just another powerful alien bullying a weaker species. He decides to fake his own death and let mankind decide its own fate.]]
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Brainiac prevents Lex from talking to Superman, stating that someone of Lex's intelligence is able to talk Superman into committing suicide ''within fourteen minutes.'' [[spoiler:Actually, it takes Luthor only [[ArmorPiercingQuestion one single sentence]] to completely shatter Superman's values.]]
* ThouShaltNotKill:
** Surprisingly, Superman still sticks by this policy despite his different values, though for different reasons: He could take over the world in 10 seconds if he used brute force, but he wants other countries to join him willingly because of the success of his economy and government. Not that he isn't fond of brainwashing his enemies.
** Averted with Batman, who's now a ruthless terrorist.
* {{Unconfession}}: Pyotr tells Superman that he's done something terrible, but Superman flies off because he's just got word that Stalin has been poisoned...
* UnresolvedSexualTension:
** The relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman is one of best friends, but there are enough hints to let the reader know Diana wants more than that. Superman, however, is shown to be utterly clueless about it.
** There's also this between Superman and Lois. The first time the two see each other there's an immediate and powerful spark of attraction, but their being on opposite sides and Lois's marriage to Lex prevents them from acting on it.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Supes' mindset in a nutshell. He brainwashes dissidents by lobotomizing them and is willing to go to war with another country but it's because he wants to unite the world under his [[spoiler: (Brainiac-molded)]] ideals. [[spoiler: Lex eventually calls him out on this with a certain letter, only to incorporate several aspects of Superman's Utopia into his own]].
--> '''Superman''': Success is only measured in results.
* VillainProtagonist: Superman, as raised in Cold War era Ukraine.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Most of Superman's Rogue Gallery.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:Stalingrad.]] Did they ever fix it? We never do find out for sure. Also, everyone who became a Superman Robot.
* WhoWritesThisCrap: Perry White has this reaction to Soviet propaganda about Superman. It doubles as a TakeThat, since said propaganda mimics the introduction of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman''.
* WomanScorned: Wonder Woman chooses to side with Lex and the Americans against Superman during his invasion strictly because she's still enraged at him for not only rebuffing her feelings, but convincing her to destroy her own lasso to save him against Batman which permanently crippled her.
* WritersCannotDoMath:
** Kal-L's ship lands in Ukraine in 1938, yet the story begins in the early 1950s... Superman would be 14-15 at most.
** Also, Sputnik-2, which weighs 5000 pounds/about 2268 kilograms, hitting the ground at 100 meters per second wouldn't be nearly enough to wipe out an entire city.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: The Batman organization, a group of people who decided to follow the example of the deceased terrorist Batman who caused upheaval in the name of preserving human free will in Superman's totalitarian regime.
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[[caption-width-right:350:"There is only one superpower now."]]
Everyone knows the basic story of Franchise/{{Superman}}. Strange visitor from another world, who can change the course of mighty rivers, and bend steel with his bare hands. He's faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But in one universe, instead of fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, he fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, communism, and the international expansion of the WarsawPact.
''Superman: Red Son'' is a Franchise/DCUniverse {{Elseworlds}} story, written by Creator/MarkMillar and published in 2003, that dares to imagine what would have happened if the spaceship holding baby Kal-El had landed in the Soviet Union instead of the United States, due to a small difference in the Earth's orbit compared to the main DCU. Instead of being adopted by the Kents in Smallville, Kansas, he is raised on a collective farm in Ukraine, where he discovers that he has powers greater than any man, powers he decides to use for the good of his country, and the world.
As an adult, he aligns himself with the government of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, protecting the citizens of the Soviet Union from even the smallest crimes and accidents, eventually succeeding Stalin as the country's leader. When the people of the United States learn of Superman's existence, they're naturally terrified, and the government turns to the smartest man in the country, scientist ComicBook/LexLuthor (husband of ComicBook/LoisLane), to combat this newest threat to the American way. Thus begins a superhuman arms race and a legendary battle of power and philosophies between Superman and his archnemesis.
Red Son has gained a reputation as one of the most famous, thoughtful and well-written Elseworld stories, and even regularly features in lists of the greatest Superman stories of all time.
The world of ''Superman: Red Son'' is part of the new DC Multiverse as Earth-30, presenting the possibility of Soviet Superman visiting the mainstream continuity, or vice versa.[[note]] The last variety has already happened in ''Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer'', although [[YouCantFightFate it didn't change squat.]][[/note]]
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!!''Superman: Red Son'' provides examples of:
* AIIsACrapshoot: ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}. OK, he was already evil, [[spoiler:but as it turns out, he was able to evade Superman's attempted reprogramming of him.]]
* AlternateHistory: The Cold War happens ''very'' differently when you throw Superman and Lex Luthor into the mix. Also, the Roswell spacecraft was [[GreenLantern Abin Sur's ship]].
* AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome
* AmericaTakesOverTheWorld: The end of the comic has not only [[spoiler:President Luthor]] winning, but also manages to use the United States as the basis for his OneWorldOrder. [[spoiler:By the time he dies centuries later, his utopia's still noticeably American]].
* AntiVillain: Everyone. [[spoiler:Except ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} and Pyotr.]]
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Possibly the most famous in comic history. [[spoiler:"Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"]]
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: [[spoiler:Luthor gets really upset with Superman, because the Bizarro he created had the temerity to beat him at chess]].
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: While Ukraine ''was'' part of the Soviet Union, it wasn't part of Russia at that time. Russia and Ukraine were constituent republics of the USSR. [[spoiler:The final page fails to make this distinction with a caption reading "Ukraine, Russia, 1938".]]
* TheBackwardsR: Supes is a Soviet, so surely.
* BadassArmy: The Green Lantern Marine Corps and the Amazon Army.
* BadassNormal:
** Batman, of course. [[spoiler:(The original, that is.)]]
** Lex Luthor mixes this with MadScientist and MagnificentBastard.
* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: Batman asks why he should kill Superman to have Pyotr in his place, as Pyotr will undoubtedly be a worse dictator. Pyotr points out that at least he's human and will die some day. For all they know, Superman is immortal and his reign could last forever.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:Batman blows himself up using a bomb he implanted in his body]] rather than be turned into a Superman robot.
* BombThrowingAnarchist: Batman, of all people, is this in this continuity.
* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: Superman does this to dissidents, turning them into "Superman robots" who are forced into being happy and productive. He also reprograms Brainiac to serve his cause. [[spoiler:It doesn't take, but Brainiac just rolls with it because Superman is essentially turning Earth into a world that lives by Brainiac's own motto.]]
* BreakingSpeech: Lex manages to squeeze an entire HannibalLecture into a single question: [[spoiler:"Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"]]
* BreakTheCutie: Wonder Woman, who loses a piece of herself when she has to break her own lasso to save Superman.
* BritainIsOnlyLondon: And its most famous landmark gets destroyed during Superman's fight with Bizarro.
* BrokenAesop: Played with.
** On one hand, Lex's ArmorPiercingQuestion is appropriate. Then, he goes to do the exact same thing with Luthorism except this time, Superman doesn't mind only because the only difference between Lex and him is Lex being human. It defeats the point of the utopia since, you can improve a place only if you were born there. It goes on for [[spoiler:millions of years to boot. It's heavily implied a single bloodline has been ruling Earth during all this time despite the whole point of fighting against Superman's presence and rule was to preserve the free will of the people and avoid totalitarian rule. So much for democracy and the right to choose its ideology]].
** On the other hand, it shows how hypocritical Luthor is at his core. As usual, no matter how clever his arguments, ultimately Lex is DrivenByEnvy the same as always, and only doesn't want Superman in charge because he is convinced ''he'' should be. Indeed, Luthor is not necessarily intended to be portrayed as much better than Superman. Even though he led to an era of peace and prosperity, it should be noted that Superman was doing the same.
** In-universe, Pytor points out that for all his value in Soviet propaganda, Superman is living proof that socialist doctrine is wrong: all men are ''not'' created equal.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Subverted. Even a few days after the fact, Pyotr Roslov can no longer remember the names of the future Batman's parents or why he was sent to shoot them, but even decades later he remembers the little boy with the piercing DeathGlare with perfect clarity.
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Brainiac. In his first appearance, [[AnticlimaxBoss he is defeated by Superman in less than a minute]], but then he is [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood reprogrammed by Superman]] to serve him. Except he wasn't really reprogrammed at all, but [[TheManBehindTheMan actually]] [[BigBad manipulating]] Superman into turning Earth into a world upholding Brainiac's ideals.]]
* TheChessmaster: Luthor, complete with {{Chess Motif}}s and to a lesser extent, Brainiac and Superman.
** In fact, it becomes personal for Luthor when Bizarro beats him at chess.
* TheChosenMany: The Green Lantern Marine Corps. [[spoiler:For all the good it does them; Superman easily and completely kicks their asses before stealing and destroying their rings.]]
* ClarkKenting: [[spoiler:Used and [[LampshadedTrope lampshaded]] by Superman at the end, after he survives his apparent death.]]
* ConflictKiller: Inverted. [[spoiler:Braniac turns on Superman]] ''after'' the main moral question is resolved.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Lex Luthor breaks off his engagement and relationship to ComicBook/LoisLane in order to devote his entire life to beating Superman because... The deformed clone of Superman beat him in Chess! This is particularly hilarious because earlier he had explicitly stated "I have no doubts that [Superman] and I would get along if we had been born in the same country."
* DividedStatesOfAmerica: The USA experiences a second civil war, with 16 "prodigal states" (including Georgia) successfully seceding. America gets better, [[spoiler:but it takes President Lex Luthor to do so.]]
* DomedHometown: Stalingrad.
* {{Elseworlds}}
* EnemyMine: [[TheStarscream Pyotr]] makes a temporary alliance with Batman to kill Superman, using technology developed by Lex Luthor. Both men make it clear that they'll do their best to kill the other once Superman is out of the way.
* EvilIsPetty: It's never remarked upon, but Superman has his former enemies perform rather degrading tasks when they're brainwashed into Superman robots, such as clean toilets in Bombay and act as janitors in his Fortress.
* {{Expy}}: Pyotr Roslov, the head of the KGB and Stalin's bastard son is an Elseworlds equivalent of Superman's childhood friend Pete Ross, but he is also a parallel to Stalin's eldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili, who Stalin famously let die in a German prison camp.
* FallenStatesOfAmerica: By 1978, America is pretty much in the gutter with crime and riots being rampant because of poverty. Wonder Woman suggests it all began with the assassination of Richard Nixon in Dallas back in 1963, and now John F. Kennedy is running the show. He's forced to grant independence to Georgia, with similar pressures being exerted by Detroit and Texas, riots in California, and a White House bombing by communist sympathizers.
--> '''Luthor:''' I'm afraid you won't be getting my vote next year, Jack.
* FatalFlaw: Superman's origin in Russia is not the main difference between him and his mainstream counterpart, and is arguably just a distraction. The true distinction is that this is a Superman who sees the world and its inhabitants as problems that need to be fixed, instead of people that need support to be better. This leads to his ignorance over Pyotr and Wonder Woman's true feelings, and to his world domination.
* FateWorseThanDeath: A "Superman robot" in this continuity, rather than a robotic double for Superman, is someone who has been subjected to mind control and painful cybernetic implants.
* FlyingBrick: Faster than ''ten times the speed of thought'', more powerful than... well, basically anything, and ''immortal'', not to mention lacking several of his usual weaknesses, this Superman is even more powerful than usual.
* ForWantOfANail: [[spoiler:Subverted in the sense that this isn't really just what if Superman's rocket landed in the Ukraine instead of Kansas. Certain characters have been relocated as well, such as the Russian Lana Lang, Pete Ross and even Batman. Abin Sur was even the alien at Roswell. And then there's TheReveal that all of it is in one big StableTimeLoop, that Krypton depicted here is actually the future fate of this Earth and that Supes is Luthor's distant descendant! (That's what the L in Kal-L stands for!) It can however be argued that this is how the mainstream characters would have turned out if they were born in such conditions.]]
* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler: Lex Luthor explains that everything has gone exactly as planned. "One can almost be forgiven for thinking that this had all been worked out to the tenth decimal point forty years ago, eh?"]]
* GenerationXerox: [[spoiler: Red Supes shares his ancestor's taste for global domination]].
* GeniusBruiser:
** Superman. When Stalin is poisoned, he quickly goes through several books of medicine for a possible treatment, and later confronts the Bizarro Superman after learning English 10 minutes ago.
** Bizarro himself is one ironically, having beaten Luthor at chess. He is still incapable of normal grammar.
* GloriousMotherRussia: Fuzzy Bat-hat and all.
* GodzillaThreshold: "What have we got to '''lose'''? Release all those '''supervillains''' Luthor created over the years!" Doomsday was set loose on the National Mall in hopes of ''damage control''.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Superman is a TotalitarianUtilitarian, [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood dissenter-brainwashing]] KnightTemplar, but Lex Luthor, despite all he does for his country, is still ComicBook/LexLuthor, a [[MadScientist mad]] [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] [[ItsAllAboutMe egomaniac]]. [[spoiler: Though Luthor does lead the world in a long Golden Age after Superman has gone, this is probably for his ego as much as anything else.]]
* HappyPlace: Hal Jordan was a former POW in Malaysia, eventually chosen by ComicBook/LexLuthor to wear the GreenLantern Power Ring because of the elaborate version of this he constructed as a survival mechanism while being tortured. In his, he literally imagined himself building a prison for his captors in real time. The time it would take him to dig a hole or chop down a tree or take a break was imagined in his head until finally after years of real time imagination, he had "constructed" the prison and set about killing each of his captors in what he called the most glorious night of his life.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: Luthor murders the entire staff of S.T.A.R. Labs to ensure the Bizarro Superman can never be duplicated.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** Done by the Bizarro Superman. "Hello everybody. Me very pleased to meet you."
** [[spoiler:Later done by Superman, in a very similar fashion. However [[DisneyDeath it doesn't take]].]]
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Josef Stalin, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon (who is mentioned in passing).
* IgnoredEpiphany: On the part of Pyotr. His heart to heart with Superman, complete with DrowningMySorrows and attempted suicide sure didn't change him, did it?
* InfallibleNarrator: Superman is telling the entire story from some future point, and doesn't miss one detail. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by his super memory.
* InSpiteOfANail: Green Lantern and Superman's entire RoguesGallery end up existing in this world in much the same way as they do in our own, with only the circumstances of their creation changing.
* InsufferableGenius: Luthor.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Luthor. He becomes maniacally obsessed with beating Superman, not because of ideological differences, PatrioticFervor, or even FantasticRacism, but because he can't tolerate the idea that someone might actually be as smart as he is.
* KnightTemplar: Superman. As if becoming absolute dictator of the Soviet Union isn't enough, the final chapter involves him launching an all-out invasion of the United States. [[spoiler:It turns out that Brainiac is an even ''bigger'' KnightTemplar however. In the end, Brainiac is defeated, and the USA is saved.]]
* KryptoniteFactor: Batman uses red sun radiation to block Superman's powers, but kryptonite itself is noticeably absent throughout the comic; in the end it's implied that this is because [[spoiler:instead of a separate planet that explodes and becomes kryptonite, Krypton is actually Earth in the far future.]] However, kryptonite is given a ShoutOut of sorts when [[spoiler:Brainiac nearly kills Superman with a green beam of energy.]]
* LegacyCharacter: Batman inspires other Batmen over the years.
* LibertyOverProsperity: The Global Soviet Union rules over the whole world, save the DividedStatesOfAmerica. Despite people all over the world living in a socialist utopia, the Americans remain independent, living in a war-torn country, to avoid being ruled over by Superman.
* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: Brainiac to Superman.]]
* MarySueTopia: The book creates two. At first, that's what it seems like. In the world Superman creates "Every adult had a job, every child had a hobby, everybody had a full eight hours sleep. Crime didn't exist. Accidents never happened... Almost six billion citizens and hardly anyone ever complained. Even in private". (Granted, this is because of frequency with which dissidents are lobotomized by having mind-controlling chips forcibly implanted in their brains. "A totalitarian state can work very well when the leader has super-hearing.") However, Lex manages to shake this with his ArmorPiercingQuestion, and Superman realizes he's no better than Brainiac. "Another alien bullying a less-developed species." In the world Lex creates: [[spoiler: the world does become perfect, Lex manages to creates a one-world government of scientists, writers and artists, colonizes the solar system and makes humanity the most advanced race in the universe. But, millions of years in the future, Earth is about to be consumed by its growing red sun and the leaders of mankind along with the populace are too prideful and apathetic to care about it and as Jor-L puts it: "Have nothing left to do but die." Jor-L sends his son back in time to make sure humanity never becomes "this cold complacent lot".]]
* MonumentalDamage: Big Ben gets taken out after Bizarro punches Superman through it.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Superman, after reading Luthor's letter: "Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"]]
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler: Superman considers failing to restore Stalingrad to size after being shrunk by Brainiac as the black spot of his career.]]
* MythologyGag:
** This isn't the first time Lex Luthor becomes [[spoiler:President of the United States.]]
** The shot of Superman handing the balloon back to the little American boy is an homage to the cover of ''Superman'' #1.
** When Brainiac and Superman are discussing the political situation in America, an image of people rioting appears on the page. The image is very similar to the cover of ''Action Comics'' #1, where Superman first appeared, featuring the same man fleeing, except here it was from ordinary rioters instead of Superman lifting up a car.
** Stalingrad and the Winter Palace are the story's versions of the bottle city of Kandor and the Fortress of Solitude.
** [[spoiler:Krypton actually being Earth in the future mirrors the ''original'' origin story of Superman in the first newspaper comics, where he was a time traveller from Earth's future]].
** The Soviet propaganda about Superman mimics the intro of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman''.
* NiceHat: Russian Batman's Bat-[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushanka Ushanka]]. The sketches included in the trade paperback have the commentary: "I took a lot of flak for this hat, but it's cold in Russia. Why shouldn't Batman have a warm hat?"
* NobleDemon: Lex Luthor. Everything he did was to prove his superiority over Superman, but that still doesn't change the fact that he did so by being a better, more merciful leader.
* NoodleIncident: At one point, Luthor can be seen inspecting a brain inside a jar that appears to be labelled "[[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]]."
* NoPoverty: Superman manages to eliminate poverty in his Global Soviet Union. Later Luthor achieves this as well, turning the US from a penniless state on the brink of collapse to a thriving state within a year.
* NotBrainwashed: [[spoiler:Brainiac, due to his Level 12 intellect.]]
* NotMyDriver: How does [[spoiler: Batman secretly meet with a high official of the government he's opposing? By posing as the man's driver and kidnapping him, of course.]]
* NotSoDifferent: From the original Superman, that is; one of the key elements of the story is that while this Superman becomes increasingly authoritarian throughout the story, he still shares a lot of the same values and characteristics as the one we are all familiar with.
** Also, [[spoiler:Luthor's post-Superman global utopia isn't all that different from Superman's global Soviet state -- in fact, Luthor actually admits that his old enemy had some good ideas and incorporates them into "Luthorism". There are significant differences though, such as humanity being in control, no immortal all-knowing leaders, and no Superman Robots.]]
** Brainiac to Superman as well. Superman initially defeats and reprograms Brainiac to help him increase the efficiency of his burgeoning Global Soviet Union, [[spoiler:until Brainiac reveals that he merely [[NotBrainwashed faked being reprogrammed]] since Superman was already carrying out Brainiac's plans anyway. This leads Superman to the HeelRealization that he's no better than Brainiac in trying to control humankind.]]
** In a more positive light, Bizarro. In spite of his disfigured appearance and altered superpowers, Bizarro ''does'' have the same ideals for human life and happiness that his original does. [[spoiler: When human life is threatened during his fight with Superman, Bizarro chooses to sacrifice himself to save them rather than continue his battle.]]
* ObliviouslyEvil: What makes the comic so disturbing is that Superman is a monster, yet his personality is barely any different from his mainstream incarnation. He believes turning dissidents into zombie-like Superman Robots and creating an Orwellian state is justified if it makes an efficient Orwellian state.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In this timeline, Batman considered Superman a serious enough threat that he was even willing to make a temporary alliance with the man who killed his parents just to try to take down Superman.
* PresidentSuperhero: The Soviet-raised Superman becomes Premier of the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin. He uses his powers to both fight crime and improve the living standard of every citizen in the expanding Soviet state, but also [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill eliminates all free will]].
* RedScare: In Soviet Russia, [[BewareTheSuperman Superman scares Americans]].
* ReluctantRuler: Superman initially resists the idea of being elevated to leader, noting (correctly, but unsuccessfully) that putting him in charge because of his inborn advantages is [[UsefulNotes/{{Socialism}} utterly contrary to socialist principles]]. This later changes as he slips into believing he knows what's best for humanity.
* RoguesGallery: What Luthor creates under CIA contract to kill Superman. Parasite, Livewire, Atomic Skull and Doomsday all appear, termed super-criminals in Soviet propaganda despite apparently being soldiers. Bizarro is the only one to really feature in the story though.
* RussiaTakesOverTheWorld: The Soviet Union expands into a global empire under Superman's Big-Brother style leadership, who creates a totalitarian "utopia" to protect humanity from itself. [[spoiler:After Superman's "death" it is replaced by Lex Luthor's [[AmericaTakesOverTheWorld Global United States]].]]
* SecretIdentity: Superman's given name is mentioned as being a "state secret", but it doesn't come up much because he never uses a Secret Identity, spending all his time as Superman [[spoiler:until the end]]. [[spoiler:We never even find out what his real name is.]]
* SelfMadeOrphan: Pyotr is implied to have had Stalin assassinated due to Stalin's intensive favoritism towards Superman and his over-all abusive tendencies considering Stalin threatened to have Pyotr killed for standing against him.
* ShutUpHannibal: Luthor attempts a face-to-face HannibalLecture to Superman, but Brainiac restrains him. [[spoiler: Too bad Lex already thought of that.]]
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Superman, Brainiac, and especially Luthor (who is first seen playing ''fourteen'' games of chess at once while reading ''Literature/ThePrince'' and teaching himself Urdu on a tape recorder he designed that morning). It acts a recurring motif throughout the story. Funnily enough, in spite of his typical portrayal, Bizarro is skilled enough at chess to beat Luthor at it.
* SmugSnake: Pyotr Roslov, who believes he can take on Batman despite being completely outclassed.
* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler: Albeit a very, ''very'' long one; Lex Luthor's leadership leads Earth to become Krypton in the future, then his descendants (whose last name has atrophied from Luthor to Luth to L) send their son Kal-L back in time to prevent that from happening, unknowingly ensuring that Lex would fight against Kal-L to ensure he gains leadership over Earth to begin with.]]
* StylisticSuck: Not the miniseries itself, of course, but the first few pages are deliberately written in the style of a bad [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] comic... then Superman saves Metropolis from a Sputnik-turned-meteor. Which, as you should have guessed, is in the country he's at war with.
* SuperSenses: Played with. A totalitarian state can be very effective if its leader has X-ray vision and super hearing. Before he becomes leader, it's mentioned that he doesn't stick around watching parades by Stalin's side when he knows someone needs help hundreds of miles away.
* SuperSupremacist: ZigzaggedTrope. At first Superman subverts it when he refuses to become the new premier of the Soviet Union after Stalin's death because ruling on the basis of his innate superpowers is directly contrary to the communist ideal of equality. He later recants when he decides that he could use his powers to protect and improve humanity, but he gradually becomes a totalitarian dictator and his promised utopia a CrapsaccharineWorld. When [[spoiler:Brainiac turns on Superman after apparently being reprogrammed to help him with his new order, Superman acknowledges that he's no better, just another powerful alien bullying a weaker species. He decides to fake his own death and let mankind decide its own fate.]]
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Brainiac prevents Lex from talking to Superman, stating that someone of Lex's intelligence is able to talk Superman into committing suicide ''within fourteen minutes.'' [[spoiler:Actually, it takes Luthor only [[ArmorPiercingQuestion one single sentence]] to completely shatter Superman's values.]]
* ThouShaltNotKill:
** Surprisingly, Superman still sticks by this policy despite his different values, though for different reasons: He could take over the world in 10 seconds if he used brute force, but he wants other countries to join him willingly because of the success of his economy and government. Not that he isn't fond of brainwashing his enemies.
** Averted with Batman, who's now a ruthless terrorist.
* {{Unconfession}}: Pyotr tells Superman that he's done something terrible, but Superman flies off because he's just got word that Stalin has been poisoned...
* UnresolvedSexualTension:
** The relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman is one of best friends, but there are enough hints to let the reader know Diana wants more than that. Superman, however, is shown to be utterly clueless about it.
** There's also this between Superman and Lois. The first time the two see each other there's an immediate and powerful spark of attraction, but their being on opposite sides and Lois's marriage to Lex prevents them from acting on it.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Supes' mindset in a nutshell. He brainwashes dissidents by lobotomizing them and is willing to go to war with another country but it's because he wants to unite the world under his [[spoiler: (Brainiac-molded)]] ideals. [[spoiler: Lex eventually calls him out on this with a certain letter, only to incorporate several aspects of Superman's Utopia into his own]].
--> '''Superman''': Success is only measured in results.
* VillainProtagonist: Superman, as raised in Cold War era Ukraine.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Most of Superman's Rogue Gallery.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:Stalingrad.]] Did they ever fix it? We never do find out for sure. Also, everyone who became a Superman Robot.
* WhoWritesThisCrap: Perry White has this reaction to Soviet propaganda about Superman. It doubles as a TakeThat, since said propaganda mimics the introduction of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman''.
* WomanScorned: Wonder Woman chooses to side with Lex and the Americans against Superman during his invasion strictly because she's still enraged at him for not only rebuffing her feelings, but convincing her to destroy her own lasso to save him against Batman which permanently crippled her.
* WritersCannotDoMath:
** Kal-L's ship lands in Ukraine in 1938, yet the story begins in the early 1950s... Superman would be 14-15 at most.
** Also, Sputnik-2, which weighs 5000 pounds/about 2268 kilograms, hitting the ground at 100 meters per second wouldn't be nearly enough to wipe out an entire city.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: The Batman organization, a group of people who decided to follow the example of the deceased terrorist Batman who caused upheaval in the name of preserving human free will in Superman's totalitarian regime.
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