Superman: Red Son #1

History

Mark Millar has said the seed of the concept came to him as a child reading Superman #300 (1976), an imaginary story in which both superpowers race to claim the infant Kal-El, and that he first pitched a crude version of the idea to DC when he was a teenager. By 1992 he had developed much of the plot, and the project eventually sold and entered production while Millar was still at DC — though he had already departed the company following a professional dispute before the series was finally published in April 2003. Artistic delays during production caused Millar to swap illustrators partway through the second issue; the finished series credits Dave Johnson as primary cover and layout artist and Kilian Plunkett as interior penciler, with inks by Andrew Robinson and Walden Wong. Fellow British writer Grant Morrison has publicly credited himself with contributing the predestination-paradox twist used in the story's final pages.

Trivia · 9 facts

• Published April 30, 2003 (cover date June 2003) by DC Comics under the Elseworlds imprint as a prestige-format miniseries; issue title is 'Red Son Rising.'
• Written by Mark Millar; primary art by Dave Johnson (covers/layouts) and Kilian Plunkett (interior pencils); inks by Andrew Robinson and Walden Wong.
• Core premise: Kal-El's rocket lands hours later than in standard continuity, placing it on a Ukrainian collective farm instead of Kansas — meaning Earth's rotation alone splits the timeline.
• Issue #1 introduces the Earth-30 versions of Superman, Lex Luthor (here a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist married to Lois Lane), Lois Luthor, Wonder Woman, James Olsen (CIA agent), Pyotr Roslov (Stalin's illegitimate son and NKVD chief), and this universe's Bizarro — all first appearances within the Red Son continuity.
• The splash panel in issue #1 directly homages the cover of Superman #1 (1939), and a riot scene later in the series mirrors the cover of Action Comics #1; the Soviet propaganda broadcast mimics the introduction of The Adventures of Superman radio show.
• The series was nominated for the 2004 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series.
• DC's New 52 continuity officially designated the Red Son universe as Earth-30, with its Soviet Superman subsequently appearing in Countdown: Arena (2007), Countdown to Final Crisis: The Search for Ray Palmer (2008), and the 'Convergence' crossover.
• An animated feature adaptation — Superman: Red Son — was released by DC Universe Animated Original Movies on February 25, 2020, starring Jason Isaacs as Superman, Amy Acker as Lois Lane, and Diedrich Bader as Lex Luthor.
• The 2004 trade paperback collection (160 pages) included an introduction by writer/producer Tom DeSanto and a character-design sketch section featuring art by Johnson, Plunkett, and Alex Ross, who assisted Johnson with the original character designs.

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