(no subject)
I'm trying to decide which is the better Superman story: Red Son, or Secret Identity.
They're both magnificently unconventional takes on the Superman mythos. They're both excellently written. They are, however, quite different from each other.
Busiek's Secret Identity does what Busiek's writing does best. He takes us in for a close look at the humanity (pardon the pun) of Superman. We look at his fears and see him evolve as a man and then husband, father, and grandfather. We see him deal with family concerns and fears over messing up his kids despite his best efforts. It is beautifully written and illustrated and creates an image of a Superman divorced from his mythology and living a small, happy life while evading government intervention and trying to save humanity from disasters.
Red Son is the polar opposite of Secret Identity. Red Son explores Superman as smothering Godhead who is controlling every facet of humanity for their own protection. It is the ultimate paradise paradox as humanity has largely entered an age free from fear and want, but ultimately stifled into complacency against the trappings of pure totalitarian communism, complete with surgical reeducation. Everyone is forced to be happy, and thus, no one is. Ultimately it is a story a very old concept of Liberty as eventually the alien overlord is replaced by a human one, still acting in humanity's "best interest" but acting out the tyranny of the great man, acting in his own motivated self interest in a Rayndian utopia. An excellent story and one of the greatest stories told in a comic legacy that is rapidly approaching the end of its first century.
Luckily, I get to yak about this with other geeks this weekend, but I wanted to know what my deep nerd friends on Facebook thought, as well.
They're both magnificently unconventional takes on the Superman mythos. They're both excellently written. They are, however, quite different from each other.
Busiek's Secret Identity does what Busiek's writing does best. He takes us in for a close look at the humanity (pardon the pun) of Superman. We look at his fears and see him evolve as a man and then husband, father, and grandfather. We see him deal with family concerns and fears over messing up his kids despite his best efforts. It is beautifully written and illustrated and creates an image of a Superman divorced from his mythology and living a small, happy life while evading government intervention and trying to save humanity from disasters.
Red Son is the polar opposite of Secret Identity. Red Son explores Superman as smothering Godhead who is controlling every facet of humanity for their own protection. It is the ultimate paradise paradox as humanity has largely entered an age free from fear and want, but ultimately stifled into complacency against the trappings of pure totalitarian communism, complete with surgical reeducation. Everyone is forced to be happy, and thus, no one is. Ultimately it is a story a very old concept of Liberty as eventually the alien overlord is replaced by a human one, still acting in humanity's "best interest" but acting out the tyranny of the great man, acting in his own motivated self interest in a Rayndian utopia. An excellent story and one of the greatest stories told in a comic legacy that is rapidly approaching the end of its first century.
Luckily, I get to yak about this with other geeks this weekend, but I wanted to know what my deep nerd friends on Facebook thought, as well.