A review by ostrava
Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar
3.0
In retrospective this one is more of a 3/5, because I don't know how to feel about it and with each passing day I care less and less about it.
My issue is that Mark Millar had a BRILLIANT idea with the comic book and basically wasted all of its potential by not really having anything of substance to say. I'm not expecting a political treatise, but you're turning Superman into a fucking COMMUNIST. BE A BIT MORE CREATIVE, FOR FF!!
The comic book is not really interested in exploring the tension between the ideologies exposed in the story, it's happy with just having heroes and villains beating each other, with meta references to the universe behind it and whatnot. And it pisses me off, because in the hands of a more ambitious writer the damn thing could have been GLORIOUS. At first I was more forgiving because after all, it's well paced, well written... I had a good time reading it, and Luthor was one hell of a character here! But it's the potential I can't forgive. And the disappointing unclearness behind the resolution. A part of me wants to believe Millar knows what he's doing, but the other is just convinced he was only interested in the potential behind such a story, without chasing it.
Enjoyable, but the inevitable comparison with better works just brings the rating down for me.
My issue is that Mark Millar had a BRILLIANT idea with the comic book and basically wasted all of its potential by not really having anything of substance to say. I'm not expecting a political treatise, but you're turning Superman into a fucking COMMUNIST. BE A BIT MORE CREATIVE, FOR FF!!
The comic book is not really interested in exploring the tension between the ideologies exposed in the story, it's happy with just having heroes and villains beating each other, with meta references to the universe behind it and whatnot. And it pisses me off, because in the hands of a more ambitious writer the damn thing could have been GLORIOUS. At first I was more forgiving because after all, it's well paced, well written... I had a good time reading it, and Luthor was one hell of a character here! But it's the potential I can't forgive. And the disappointing unclearness behind the resolution. A part of me wants to believe Millar knows what he's doing, but the other is just convinced he was only interested in the potential behind such a story, without chasing it.
Enjoyable, but the inevitable comparison with better works just brings the rating down for me.