--- Chris Doss <itschris13 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Well, Stalin DOES mean "man of steel." :) This was
> posted on marxmail.
>
>
> Publisher/Date: Sunday Times (UK), April 27, 2003
>
> ----------
>
> Title: Superman declares war on America
>
> ----------
>
> Location:
>
http://www.agitprop.org.au/nowar/20030427_boztas_red_superman.htm
>
> ----------
>
> IS IT a Soviet spy plane? Is it a communist missile?
> No, it's Superman --
> but not as we know him.
>
> DC Comics, creator of the 1930s all-American
> superhero, is bracing itself
> for a patriotic backlash this week when it unveils
> the long-awaited new
> Superman, reinvented by Glasgow comic artist Mark
> Millar as a "weapon of
> mass destruction" for the Soviet Union -- depicted
> as the world's only
> superpower.
>
> Millar says his Superman vilifies America's
> "unethical foreign policy" in
> the aftermath of the war on Iraq.
>
> "Superman: Red Son" imagines what would have
> happened if the Earth had
> turned for 12 more hours and the baby Kal-El from
> the destroyed planet
> Krypton had landed not in the golden Smallville
> wheatfield but in a
> Ukrainian collective farm and was raised not by Ma
> and Pa Kent, but under
> Joseph Stalin.
>
> Instead of a quest for truth, justice and the
> American way, the world's most
> famous superhero fights for international socialism
> and the dictatorship of
> the proletariat.
>
> The iconic "S" on his rippling chest -- one of the
> world's most recognisable
> cultural symbols -- is transformed into a Soviet
> hammer and sickle and,
> rather than morphing from a downtrodden Daily Planet
> journalist to the
> spandex-suited guardian of liberty, he becomes the
> power-hungry leader of
> the USSR.
>
> Eisenhower's hydrogen bomb is no match for Superman
> and so the Soviet Union
> becomes the centre of a global economy, with Tony
> Benn as his pipe-smoking
> deputy in Downing Street.
>
> America, the only country resistant to communist
> ideology, descends into a
> fragmented parody of the modern eastern bloc, run by
> warring mafiosi.
>
> In America, 40,000 people have already reserved
> copies of the comic before
> publication, and magazines such as Rolling Stone and
> Entertainment Weekly
> are keen to promote it.
>
> Yet Millar, the son of a Coatbridge trade unionist,
> accepts that he and DC
> Comics are taking a massive gamble with one of the
> world's most enduring ico
> ns. He has already received criticism from
> right-wing commentators who see
> it as an attack on American values.
>
> "Drawing images of Superman tearing down the stars
> and stripes and kicking
> in the Whitehouse doors with a hammer and sickle on
> his chest is the
> equivalent of making a joke about Princess Diana at
> her funeral," he said.
>
> Millar said he changed the storyline, created by
> Jerome Siegel and Joseph
> Shuster in 1934, to create a modern commentary on
> "unethical American
> foreign policy".
>
> "A character like Superman is as well known as the
> American flag itself and
> in the movies we see him rescuing cats from trees
> and doing all of these
> nice things," he said.
>
> "But the logical conclusion of a guy who interferes
> with your life is one
> who is going to take over the world eventually.
>
> "He is an allegory of George W Bush and very like
> America. Superman is
> rolling over every despot in the world and feels he
> has a moral
> justification to take away these problems,
> particularly the small wars in
> the Middle East and the starving in Africa.
>
> "At the end of it, Superman has created 10,000 years
> of rule where there has
> not been a piece of litter dropped and this immortal
> figure realises what he
> has done. It is a 'God is dead' moment."
>
> In Red Son, Superman grows up to be Stalin's
> personal bodyguard. When he
> takes over power, he can see and hear everything and
> performs reconstructive
> surgery on people who do not agree with him.
>
> His girlfriend is not Lois Lane but Wonder Woman,
> reimagined as a Soviet
> diplomat, while Batman has what Millar describes as
> an "Al-Qaeda role" as a
> terrorist freedom-fighter.
>
> The world falls to Superman's rule. Nixon becomes
> American president and is
> assassinated in 1963 after beating Kennedy, who
> grows old and paunchy with
> Marilyn Monroe.
>
> Lex Luthor, Superman's legendary rival, later takes
> over the American
> presidency and is the country's last hope.
>
> Ivor Davis, manager of Red Hot Comics, the
> Glasgow-based specialist
> retailer, said: "There is no doubt this will offend
> diehard fans and it is
> partly for the political commentary that it has been
> delayed thus far. But
> Superman was a bit of an anachronism and a 1930s
> wartime hero.
>
> "My orders for Red Son have doubled normal sales,
> despite the fact that its
> cover price is more than double."
>
> Jordan Elliot, creator of a leading American
> Superman fan website, said:
> "Millar has a point and he also has a message that
> should probably get out.
> But I think it unfortunate that it's getting out at
> the expense of Superman.
> I've always thought that politicising Superman is a
> mistake."
>
>
>
>
>
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