No way -- that honor rightfully goes to All Star Superman by Grant Morrison. Trust me on this. Don't get me wrong, Red Son is great, but All Star Superman takes the conventions of the character and makes him someone you can identify with and believe in. He's a metaphor for what we can be, and Morrison very astutely teased that out of Siegel and Shuster's original concept.

My stars are for Superman, the socialist Jew sun god farm boy ubermensch who just wants to do the right thing.

I say they still haven't written the definitive "Superman" story. If they have, I haven't seen it.

As good as "All-Star Superman" is, it's largely a homage to old Superman tropes. There's value in that, but an entire chapter devoted to 60's-style Superdickery between Superman and Jimmy tells us more about a type of story than Superman himself.

And as good as "Red Son" is, it's not a story about Superman -- it says things about what Superman is and isn't, but all the same it can't be the definitive Superman story if it's about a not-Superman.

I've read All-Star, and it's fantastic. But I have to give Red Son the edge for being the only Superman book to fully explore what the existence of such a being would mean for the world.

Motion comics always seemed more like an exercise of what you can do with After Effects and limited material than an actual worthy end product.

It is a darn fine exploration, to be sure; I just balk at saying that it's "the only" exploration, because there are still other ways a Superman could improve / wreck the world, depending. At least Red Son Superman is trying to do the right thing and not cut too many moral corners (Brainiac's influence notwithstanding); the typical alternate Superman is a superpowered thug with little in the way of a moral code.

Even All-Star Superman makes me wonder at times. Why does he think Professor Quintum is such a keen fellow? The guy genetically engineers intelligent slaves and deprives them of those facets of their psyche (such as fear) that make them resent being disposable life forms. That kind of makes him a supervillain, doesn't it? I could have sworn Superman used to beat up mad scientists who pulled crap like that.

My favorite alternate Superman remains Hyperion from the old 1980s "Squadron Supreme" series, because he's the one who came closest to the original while having to deal with problems the original didn't. "Red Son" is a better read, though.

I had never read any superhero comics like superman and whatnot. I read all star superman and really liked it. I then tried red son but couldnt get past its depiction of Stalin, a man responsible for many more deaths than Hitler as a kindly old father figure.. I got the impression that the comic set in Russia was written by people with very little knowledge of Russian history who did not do even the most basic research

I think Stalin's portrayal is intentionally skewed. The whole story is being told in flashback by a much older Superman. He's meant to be kind of an unreliable narrator. Since Supes grew up in a culture that revered Uncle Joe, he has an unrealistic impression of the man. The Stalin of Red Son is actually quite close to the propaganda image of Stalin in postwar Russia.

I don't know how much research went into the book, but I think the idea was that Superman grew up under such tight government control that he never really saw the world as it is.

The book, if you'll notice, pays careful attention to the misery of the people under Stalin but since Superman is in the inner circle, he chooses to overlook Stalin's crimes and forgives him without much thought as to the actual governance of the man. It's an awesome metaphor for the disconnect of the inner circle at that time period because right afterwards Kruschev had to clean up Stalin's mess and was quick to crush any personality cult lingering around by pointing out Stalin's crimes.

Kingdom Come.

'nuff said.