I didn't know anything about Superman: Red and Blue before reading it, and it made the experience very surprising, so if you don't want to know what it is or what it's about but want to know if it's worth picking up, yes, yes it it. If you want to know more about the book and what I thought of it please read on.
Superman: Red and Blue is an anthology of short stories that focus on Superman, all with art where the only colours are, you guessed it, red and blue. This issue has five stories, 'Untitled' written by John Ridley with art from Jordie Bellaire, 'The Measure of Hope' written by Brandon Easton with art from Steve Lieber and Ron Chan, 'The Boy Who Saved Superman' by Wes Craig, 'Human Colors' written by Dan Watters with art by Dani, and 'School of Hard Knock-Knock Jokes' written by Marguerite Bennett with art from Jill Thompson.
One of the things that all of these stories have in common, beyond the obviousness of them all being about Superman and using a limited colour pallet, is that these are some of the most human stories I think I've seen featuring the character.
'Untitled' sees Clark Kent travelling to the nation of Lubania, a nation where Superman and Batman were held prisoner and tortured for months in Worlds Finest #192 - 193. Clark has travelled there to interview Nikolai Koslov, the man who ran the concentration camp where he was held prisoner; the man who tortured him every single day he was there. Clark comes face to face with the man who made him feel his weakest, the man who still haunts his dreams, and has to talk with him. We see the level of trauma that Clark has had to live with in this story, the amount of post-traumatic stress that he has inside him. We even see that a small part of him wants to punish Koslov for what he put him through, to burn him in half with his heat vision. This story shows a level of pain that we've never seen in Superman before, and it's incredibly shocking for that.
'The Measure of Hope' sees Superman coming to attend the funeral of a woman who has passed away following an addiction with heroin. Her son was a kid who looked up to Superman as a child, who's best moment was seeing Superman in action, in having Superman talk to him. He adored and idolised him, so when he learnt his mother was a drug user, when he was afraid of what might happen he wrote to Superman asking him for help. Unfortunately, thanks to how much fan mail he gets it takes Superman a long time to read through his letters, and by the time he reaches these ones it's too late to help this family. The story is an incredibly moving one, one where we see that Superman can't save everyone, even if he really wants to. It's a story that shows why terrible things still happen in a world where Superman is there to help; because despite all his powers he's still just one man, and one man can't save the entire world all the time.
'The Boy Who Saved Superman' sees Clark at the Daily Planet, watching a young man interview for a job, a man who he calls his hero, the man who was the boy who saved Superman. We go back to one of the earliest adventures of Superman, where he'd only been around for a few months, and in protecting Metropolis from a giant monster is rendered unconscious. Whilst others are fleeing in terror a lone boy takes hold of the unconscious hero and drags him through a collapsing building, taking him to the roof, above the dust clouds, so that he can get into the sunlight the hero needs. He manages to get Superman out, he gives him the boost he needs to save the day, but loses his hand doing so. When seeing him again in the Daily Planet we see Clark almost lost for words, stuttering out what he wants to say, because he's face to face with the young man who saved his life, his own personal hero.
'Human Colors' is the strangest tale in the collection, and sees Superman confronting an imp from the fifth dimension, who has drained all of the colour out of the world, leaving it completely black and white. The imp gives Superman a small box, a box that contains all of the stolen colours, but Superman isn't sure if he should open it or not; so decides to start with two particular colours to see what happens. This is probably the strangest of the stories in this issue, and it doesn't so much focus on Clark in particular, but on humanity as a whole and the connections that we all have with our emotions.
'The School of Hard Knock-Knock Jokes' is the only story in this issue to not feature Superman at all, instead focusing on Clark as a child, attending his first days in kindergarten. The story shows Clark in a very mundane situation, one where powers and abilities won't help him through, and instead he needs to focus on the qualities that make him a good person, his kindness and generous spirit.
The stories in this issue focus on what make Superman great, not his powers, but his humanity. Superman might be an alien, he might have the powers of a god, but he's one of the most human of characters, one of the kindest and most decent; and these stories demonstrate that. I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the series has in store.
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