WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Superman: Red Son, now available on digital HD.
Superman: Red Son does a clever job of adapting the Elseworlds story of the same name to produce one of DC's most thought-provoking and sociopolitical animated movies ever. Director Sam Liu incorporates shades of the Dark Knight from Batman v Superman while trying to paint a Man of Steel as a somewhat sympathetic USSR leader in a war-torn world.
As Lex Luthor takes control of America and world powers clash in terms of ideologies and armies, it's a test of egos and super-powered weapons. However, not everything is adapted exactly as it was in the classic story. Let's break down all the changes made to Superman: Red Son.
SUPERMAN'S POWER MOVE
In the comic, Superman and Stalin share a relatively good relationship after the tyrant adopts the Kryptonian and him as a successor. Stalin is poisoned by his bodyguard, the man who thought he'd inherit the throne, and this gives Superman the chance to run the show when the ruler dies.
This is vastly different in the film as Superman and Stalin run into conflict over slave camps. Lois Lane, via Lex's research, gives Superman evidence after he stops a fallen Russian satellite in America, leading to him bickering with Stalin after he finds the camps. Superman then incinerates the ruler in a coup and takes over to help the people of the USSR.
THE LANA FACTOR
In the comic, Lana doesn't really figure in much except in a few scenes when Superman talks about his farm life.She does get a cameo later on when Supes meets an older Lana, who inspires him to keep fighting for the poor, but that's about it. There's no romantic follow-up or confession Superman loves her still.
The movie makes Lana the reason Superman wants to go global after early on in his life she saves him from bullies, starting a friendship between the two. Lana has a bigger role in the movie, though, because she's one of the slaves he rescues from the camps. Sadly, she dies from cancer in his hands, but not before asking him to be that inspirational hero they need.
SUPERMAN'S ROGUES
The source material has Lex and Toyman cooking up rogues such as Doomsday, Parasite, Metallo, Atomic Skull and Bizarro for the Russian Superman to fight. They're soundly beaten, but Lex and the U.S. government have a backup in a Green Lantern legion led by Hal Jordan, a former war prisoner. The Corps would be crushed, however, as Superman removed their rings and sped off to America for revenge against Lex invading his territory.
Here, there aren't rogues except Superior Man. He's basically an evil clone of Superman and only when Lex flicks on his solar battery and powers him up, he becomes a Hulk-like monster. As for the Corps, Lex and Co. experiment on Abin Sur, found after Roswell, and cut his ring finger off to form a much more streamlined Corps. Hal's leading as he's just a pilot, but we also see John Stewart and Guy Gardner, who weren't in the books. Superman takes a much more vicious approach to them, killing some of them off.
BATMAN ISN'T AS MURDEROUS
The comic had a less-crazy Batman, although he saw his parents shot to death by Pyotr, who even shot the boy for kicks. He'd go on to make an alliance with Pyotr and Lex to take Superman down when he became a terrorist vigilante, but he didn't come off as much as a psychopath as the Bat still cared for innocent lives.
The film does it differently as Batman blows up museums in Russia and kills innocent women and kids to get his point across to Superman. Another dark addition comes when he enslaves Wonder Woman with her lasso, instructing her to kill herself if Superman harms him. These two sadistic acts show how desperate Batman was, made even more shocking as Pyotr was left out the movie altogether, which means the Dark Knight really harbored hate from being a kid in the mines and watching his parents die.
WONDER WOMAN AND SUPERMAN'S FINALE
The original story had this duo as possible romantic interests who could have united empires together, but Diana and Themyscira eventually shied away from trusting Russia any more than America. Eventually, Diana abandons Superman after Batman blows himself up in their battle. The big shock comes when Lois convinces her years later to fight with America as Superman's out of control. Superman eventually battles Wonder Woman and the Amazons, along with Lex's rogues and Lanterns, going on to blind Diana with heat rays before sparing them all and flying to the White House.
The film takes a more diplomatic approach as Diana, who's also changed to be gay here, appears out of the sky to talk him out of killing off the Lanterns and razing America. She has no army with her and just wants Superman to remember what being a global ambassador means. However, he tries to sucker punch her as he's had enough of being a pacifist. Without flinching, she stops him and leaves. He's not worth it and she admits this is the last time they'll speak.
LEX'S BIG WEAPONS
In the comic, Lex's main weapons are the rogues, and as much as he doesn't know it, Lois. That's because when Superman comes to burn the White House, she gives him a letter Lex wrote that mocked Superman for what he'd do with power -- bottling the entire planet. Superman realizes he's the villain of the story and changes his mind, only for Brainiac to attack him.
Here, Lois has no letter, but she offers him Stalingrad, the Russian city Brainiac shrunk. This is a token of peace and Superman changes his war-hungry ways with the offering. Interestingly, when Brainiac turns on his master here, Lex joins in with his iconic robotic suit, which he didn't have in the source material, as he helps the Man of Steel stop the alien.
THE GRAND FINALE
In the comic, Superman threw Brainiac into the depths of space, hiding out on Earth afterward. Lex got a second term with Jimmy Olsen as his V.P. and he went on to use Superman's advanced data from the Fortress of Solitude to make the world a better place for everyone. There was no more poverty and disease and the Luthor empire spanned centuries, with his descendants, Jor-L and Lara-L, sending their son Kal-L back in time as the planet was destroyed. Thus, it was a closed loop as the ship crashed back in 1938 Russia, thus kickstarting this story and making Superman a descendant of Lex and vice versa.
This temporal paradox doesn't occur at all in the movie. This version sees Lex rescind his presidency, allowing Jimmy to take over. Superman does hide out and watch Lex heal the world, but it's not as grand as the books. It's a time-linear story from Liu's team, as Superman, in disguise, heads off into retirement, leaving Earth to Jimmy and the new United Nations.
Directed by Sam Liu, Superman: Red Son stars Jason Isaacs as Kal-El, Amy Acker as Lois Lane, Diedrich Bader as Lex Luthor, Phil Morris as James Olsen, Phil LaMarr as John Stewart, Vanessa Marshall as Wonder Woman, Sasha Roiz as Hal Jordan, Roger Craig Smith as Batman, Paul Williams as Brainiac and William Salyers as Joseph Stalin. The film is now available on digital HD, and will be available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on April 17.