Red One #2

[history79]

Warning for Homophobia and Misogyny



13 pages of 39

Comments

[jaybee3]

I still think the talent of the Dodsons are wasted on this. The writing is...I don't know what to call it. Too on-the-nose? Or over the top? And I'm still not sure what exactly what is the point here - Americans are evil and fascist and an Agent from the Soviet Union (a country as repressive if not much more so in most respects than the one she has been sent to, especially to gay couples) is a "goddess" and and open-minded hero. This only works in alt-version of history. A real Soviet sleeper agent would more likely have the grey-grey morality exhibited in the tv show, The Americans (where they OK with killing and destroying lives for the motherland), or the conflicted histories and torment (due to their indoctrination and what they were forced to do) of Black Widow and the Winter Soldier. Maybe the actual comic addresses these issues better than the scans on SD?

[leoboiko]

I've already commented this with references, but the main idea is that this is not, I emphasize, NOT an image of Really Existing Communism. Rather, it's an inversion of American Cold War-era paranoia which ascribed "moral corruption", including licentiousness and homosexuality, to evil Communist ploys to weaken the national character. The authors are basically taking those fantasies and making a protagonist out of them.

[leoboiko]

I’ll add that this kind of conspiracy theory is alive and well in the alt-right, which straight-facedly believes that evil Jews Communist thinkers (they often name-drop Gramsci and Adorno) have single-handedly designed "moral degeneracy" (= sexual liberation, feminism etc.) as a sort of cultural virus, in order to weaken glorious white supremacy Western capitalism and make it ripe for the taking.

[richardak]

"[A]s repressive if not much more so in most respects"? Much, much more repressive in every respect. There was no contest. Which is why I don't mind, and actually enjoy this comic. It's completely ludicrous, but so what? Pretty much every superhero comic has a fundamentally ludicrous premise. This one makes me laugh, and what more can one ask for?

[thehood]

Yeah, well they would probably disagree with you.

It's really presumptive and arrogant to say that you know what they should or shouldn't be using theit talents for, you're not them.

And if you haven't actually read the book like you are implying, then you don't really have much room to talk.

[lieut_kettch]

Red One's one to talk. In the Soviet Union homosexuals were sent to "reeducation" camps.

[thehood]

They do it in the US too though. Those Conversion Camps. So let's not pretend the US is innocent here.

In any case, Red One herself has no issues with homosexuality, so how does "she's one to talk" apply here?

[jlbarnett]

Were/Are they government sponsored?

[locuatico]

well... mostly because this story is about her fighting for the glory of the soviet union and stuff... she has no issue... but she is still helping the people who do.

[lieut_kettch]

Because while as an individual she has no problems with homosexuality, she is also an agent working to ensure the triumph of a government for which oppression and forcible reeducation of homosexuals is a matter of state policy.

[bruinsfan]

I can't help but imagine her telling people she's from Alabama in the same accent Natasha uses to talk about hunting Moose and Squirrel.

[thehood]

I was confused about which Natasha you are speaking of.

[wizardru]

Not sure if you're kidding or not. In case you weren't, he's referring to Boris and Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.

If you were kidding, then just assume I haven't had my coffee this morning and pity me.

[thehood]

It was s joke, yes. Hence the "was".

[stubbleupdate]

The lettering on this is strange. Some parts have giant bubbles for small amounts of text and i am certain that the speech bubbles are the wrong way round on some bits.

[poshmerchant]

The whole concept of an individual superhero is incompatible with communism. If you believe in communism, you believe that history is made by mass movements of people rather than great individuals.

Something like The Harleys or The Robins where there is a team of people all wearing the same costume would work in a communist context. Good names for a team of communist superheroes with a shared identity: Spartacus; Partisan.

Superman: Red Son and this both fail in the same way -- they make it about a single person doing great deeds, which is a fascistic rather than communist concept.

[lego_joker]

I think in Red Son, the Chief of the KGB briefly called Superman out on it, saying that he's living proof Marx was full of shit and all men aren't created equal.