If you haven’t read Superman: Red Son, skip this post. Seriously. Spoilers ahead. The book’s a couple year’s old, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Ready? I can wait a little bit.

Okay. Those who are interested, more after the cut.

For those of you who remember the AWESOME ending of the book, Red Son depicts that Superman in fact was a time-tossed refugee from a doomed world millenia more advanced than our own. It’s such a smart twist that makes perfect sense (especially how a so-called alien would look anything like a human being)… but what interests me even more is the fact that Jerry Siegel had the idea first:

From Letters of Note, we see a detailed origin story from Siegel to Buck Rogers artist Russell Keaton:

1. In his laboratory, the last man on earth worked furiously. He had only a few moments left.

2. Giant cataclysms were shaking the reeling planet, destroying mankind. It was in its last days, dying…

3. The last man placed his infant babe within a small time-machine he had completed, launching it as —

4. — the laboratory walls caved-in upon him.

5. The time-vehicle flashed back thru the centuries, alighting in the primitive year, 1935 A. D. A passing motorist sighted the metal cylinder…

6. …and upon investigating discovered the sleeping babe within.

In other words, Red Son writer Mark Millar (and Grant Morrison, who apparently gave the ending to Millar) are still brilliant, but it’s fascinating to see what might have been. That the most powerful alien in the DCU was in fact the standard-bearer for all humanity. What say you, Rama readers?

[Hat tip to Kevin Church]

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