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10 Alternate Versions Of Superman You Need To Know About

We all know the basic tenets of Superman's character. He's the Last Son of Krypton, raised in Smallville, Kansas, works for the Daily Planet, loves Lois Lane, etc. Except sometimes, these things don't apply.

1) Communist Superman

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Red Son Superman

Like Superman: The Dark Side, a bunch of Elseworlds stories played with the idea of Superman’s pod landing somewhere other than Smallville. The definitive version of this kind of tale is absolutely Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar.

This one poses the question of what Supes would be like if he was raised, not in the good ol’ US of A, but in Communist Russia – and taken under the wing of Joseph Stalin himself (whose own name coincidentally means Man of Steel). In a tale that combines socio-political themes with a fascinating study of Superman’s character, we see that this Kal-El believes the only way to save the world is to rule it. There are similarities to the likes of Injustice, then, but Red Son offers a more optimistic take that comes to the conclusion that Superman will always be Superman, despite where he’s raised.

Aside from all that, Red Son is just a fantastic story with many excellent twists and turns that we won’t spoil here. The Communist Superman even reappeared briefly in the aforementioned ‘Multiplicity’ arc.