Soviet Superman And Other Timelines Better Than The Original
- Thread starter Fanghawk
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Red Son really was a fantastic read. I never buy Superman comics. I love the character, but I think he works better in film or animation than in the comics, at least for my personal tastes. But Red Son was such a fun look at the very concept of Superman that I enjoyed every page. I'm grateful that my friend nudged me into reading it in the first place. 
Alternate universe stories can be fun, but they lack a certain amount of development or continuity that the mainline comics can provide. I won't lie, it can be a little too much to deal with large amounts of history and repetitive stories, but that's more of a fault of the writers than the content itself. When a mainline story is done well, they can be done, very, very well. Some of my favorite stories are Tower of Babel, Peace on Earth, The Killing Joke, Long Halloween, and much of the Superman/Batman series, all of which exist within the main canon. I mean novelty's good and all, but sometimes there's only so many times you can read another "Superman but _____" story if it doesn't have much staying power behind it.
An unfortunate example you've provided. While the story was good and told well, I felt Miles' character was just too bland for me to enjoy, a notion I felt made more evident in his later appearances.
Where would I get a copy of that gods and monsters one for shipping to the UK? The DC website links you to amazon.com rather than .co.uk so not sure if it would deliver or if it did what the international shipping cost would be.
Amazing that they passed that one by; Red Son, All-Star Superman and What's So Funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way? are three of my favourite comics of all time, because they offer three of the best examinations of Superman as an archetype rather than a character dragging around backstory.rosac said:
I don't know, with how many good characters the Avengers has had over the years who could pull off a movie, I don't think they'd need to do that by that point, and given how the MCU is set to end in 2028, my math puts it at about Avengers 6 that they will be around when the MCU comes to an end, assuming that after Avengers 4 (which will probably have the same cast as 3 since 3 and 4 are two parts of a single story) they even continue with the Avengers line-up .
Though on the topic of alternate universes, I'm still sad that the Ultimates didn't end up living up to their original intention of being a new universe free of continuity problems and instead devolved into a grimedark reimagining of the whole setting. Though how they ended it really grinds my gears, the setting itself really, really deserved a happy ending after all the things the writers put it through. It's like watching a poor animal suffer for years, only to instead of living out its old years in a nice house with a family that loves it, instead it got hit by a car.
All of the Man of Steel haters better blast the Gods and Monsters version of Superman for being too far-removed from how Superman is traditionally depicted, cause it would be completely ridiculous to get angry at Man of Steel for 'not being faithful to the character' (LOL) and than give Gods and Monsters a free pass.
See, this is exactly what was meant in the second paragraph and the overall theme of the article. The whole point of setting things in an alternate universe means you get to alter the character. SuperZod here doesn't have to be the same supposed paragon of hope and justice that the regular Superman is because he isn't the regular Superman.IOwnTheSpire said:
But since you've apparently decided to ignore anything past the opening explanation of this article in order to try and take a cheap shot, I'm going to point out that, from what I've seen of Gods and Monsters so far, its recognised in-universe as a bad thing that Superman is a cold-blooded murder. So it looks like not only did Alan Burnett and Bruce Timm not like Supes murdering a dude then just going on with his business like it was just another Tuesday, they decided to make a whole movie about what a spectacularly bad and potentially terrifying idea that would be. Satisfied?
Actually never heard of Superman/Batman: Generations. Was it part of that Superman/Batman monthly series they did a while back? What I read of that was...a bit hit and miss, imo
I see many more people making cheap shots against MoS on this forum and elsewhere, making baseless criticisms and whatnot, all because someone's valid interpretation of this long-running character didn't match their preferred version and because the filmmakers didn't read their mind and give them exactly what they wanted, they instead have to whine and say 'They didn't understand the character!' It's just like the people who complain about the SW prequels: you saw a movie you didn't like, get over it already!Pallindromemordnillap said:
As much as I thoroughly enjoyed Red Son, I did not like the ending of it. It seemed lazy and very rushed to me.
I haven't read any of the others listed here though, so I'll have to give them a read, too.
I haven't read any of the others listed here though, so I'll have to give them a read, too.
Red Son was actually the comic that got me into Superman Comics. I'd say there is a tendency for certain themes to recur across these one shots though (Kingdom Come ends in a very similar way), but Red Son explores Superman the best. I liked the whole contradiction that superman's existence posed to communism (a society that believes power is from the masses and not the hands of individualist supreme beings). On one hand, it represented the real life failures of communism by their tendency to resort to fascist, all powerful figureheads, on the other it shows how all superhero comics have always done the exact same thing. We've never noticed that fact though, as we are never normally the enemy or victim of the superhero.ZZoMBiE13 said:Red Son really was a fantastic read. I never buy Superman comics. I love the character, but I think he works better in film or animation than in the comics, at least for my personal tastes. But Red Son was such a fun look at the very concept of Superman that I enjoyed every page. I'm grateful that my friend nudged me into reading it in the first place.
Because they announced it about two years ago that they where expanding the MCU from its original end date of 2021 to 2028, and Kevin Feige has confirmed that they have planned for phase 4, but haven't made any announcements because the titles alone are apparently enough to give away major plot details for upcoming films. Though weather or not the years 2020-2028 will be phase 4 alone or have a 5th phase remains to be seen, as neither would be unrealistic given the length of phase 1, 2 or 3.B5Alpha said:
All Star Superman and What's so Funny...? Should be mandatory reading for anyone attempting to put Superman on the big screen.Thunderous Cacophony said:
And probably this page from Infinite Crisis, even if trying to explain Infinite Crisis to a non comic fan makes you sound mad.
No, because Gods and Monsters isn't supposed to be representing classic superman. That's some seriously shaking reasoning. But whatever, that doesn't support your point so we'll ignore it.IOwnTheSpire said:
No, the original Generations series released back in 1999, with the sequels following shortly after.Pallindromemordnillap said:
YES.rosac said:
I loved "What's So Funny" as well, even though it wasn't a parallel universe at the time. One of the few single issues I'd recommend as crucial Why-Superman-Is-Awesome reading.Thunderous Cacophony said:
Behold! [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Justice-League-Monsters-Blu-ray-Region/dp/B00WU9OG4A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438950860&sr=8-1&keywords=justice+league+gods+and+monsters]johnnyLupine said:
There are lots of canonical stories I love as well, but I feel they can have more trouble bringing in new readers.ShakerSilver said:
As for Miles, even if you don't like how he's presented, he's undeniably accessible. People who haven't read Spider-Man for years (or at all) were snatching it off the shelves, and his successful story was largely possible because of the alternate timeline.
Case in point: Superior Spider-Man. Great concept, very well-written - but it was tied to an established universe, and basically gave us a time limit until Peter Parker returned. By comparison, Ultimate Spider-Man was free to kill off Peter "for good" (or at least keep him dead long enough to be impactful) and introduce a new character with a clean slate who resonated with an entirely new audience. That paid off, which is why Miles will still be around after Secret Wars while Superior Spidey will remain a story of its time.