Building Utopia, Losing Humanity: Superman's Soviet Experiment
Analyzing Mind Control, Politics, and Free will in Superman Red Son
Imagine that Superman, the beloved superhero alien and symbol of humanity’s brightest potential, had been raised in the Soviet Union. Then, upon becoming the leader of the USSR, he sought to eliminate crime through science rather than prisons, gulags, and repressive violence.
Over the past year or so, we have been conducting research on how films portray psychosurgery and lobotomy. We have found that there are more films about lobotomies than the average reader would have guessed. Unfortunately, with a few notable exceptions, many of these titles are obscure and forgettable, which made the premise of today’s film more interesting.
Superman Red Son (2020)
Superman: Red Son, based on a comic, tells the story of Soviet Superman who, convinced by his communist ideals, but disillusioned with the Party’s corruption and hypocrisy, became leader of the USSR. We found the film enjoyable despite some significant plot holes.
While the plot is set in an alternate reality, it still refers to historical events: the Korean War, the Berlin Wall (built by the West), Eisenhower, and JFK. In the film, American capitalist Lex Luthor brought unforeseen technological advances throughout the Cold War. In turn, Superman used his powers to aid the Soviet Union and bring communism to other countries. The film explored their rivalry and featured Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, and other familiar faces.
Superman Red Son addressed several pertinent issues we will analyze: State Power and crime, ideology and scientific Solutions to Social Problems, and Free Will versus Forced Goodness.
State Power and Ideology
In Red Son, Superman took over the Soviet Union to build a communist utopia. Increasingly authoritarian, the Man of Steel imposed order through overwhelming power.
The pervasiveness of Soviet ideology can be seen throughout the film. In the first scene, a young Superman was running from some bullies and a girl, Svetlana, saved him. Superman revealed his powers to the young girl, and she responded, “you have to give them to the State. The people need you.” Superman heeded her advice and became a tool for the government. This conversation and his acts show how, in this worldview, the State’s interests are above those of any one individual.
Years later, and in a strange twist, Superman's totalitarian regime was born because Superman was repulsed at Stalin’s abuse of power, the killing of civilians, and the use of gulags. After learning about these, he challenged Stalin. Stalin assured he was protecting him and said it “breaks my heart,” but we must “weed out insurgents and those who oppose” the State. Stalin justified his actions because they were allegedly in the “ultimate good of the people.” Unconvinced by Stalin’s claim that “for the system to work, some [people] had to die,” Superman killed him and became the leader of the USSR. Now, he faced the challenge of ruling a superpower.
Unlike Stalin, Superman appears to be a well-intentioned communist. He supported a Korean War in which communist forces liberated the peninsula in a mere three days. After claiming he came to “lift up” the people of Korea, he declared that he “regrets the loss of life,” but that this way, only a few thousand died rather than millions. Superman’s overwhelming display of force signaled that the USSR was now militarily invincible. He called for other countries to join the Soviet way of life.
As Premier, Superman also directed national policy. In his view, the ideal communist was one who was willing to sacrifice his own individual freedom for the welfare of the people and the State, just like he had done. Thus, Superman and the State must ensure that, for his system to function flawlessly, people abided by the law and the demands of the State.
Superman’s growing power and influence worried American Presidents and Lex Luthor. During the film, Luthor attempted to defeat Superman in various ways1, one of which was collaborating with a super intelligent alien called Brainiac. During an attack on the USSR, Superman recovered the AI and reprogrammed it to serve his communist regime.
With Brainiac’s help, Superman planned an incredibly efficient economy through which most Soviet citizens thrived. The economy grew, life expectancy was nearly ninety-seven, and social problems were almost eradicated. In Superman’s utopia, all the basic needs were provided for: money, housing, food and safety. However, for this to remain unchanged, every single citizen has to adhere to the Soviet ideal. In short, the film’s first part suggested that Superman’s regime was rather good. Nevertheless, this feat of social engineering required a different approach for ruling, and the law was determined by Superman’s political views and ideology.
In the film, the Soviets made pragmatic decisions to prevent criminal activity. James C. Scott’s Seeing Like a State maintained that States often engage in high modernist projects to manage and control societies. These efforts include simplifying, structuring, measuring, and subjecting a complex society into abstract and rational categories. Superman’s project is quintessentially a high modernist one because he believed he could eliminate poverty, crime, and disorder by imposing a rational and scientific order. Scott’s insights into high modernist projects can help unveil the film’s criticism of Superman’s totalitarian regime.
Ideological Control & Scientific Solutions to Social Problems
Superman sought to solve all social problems through scientific, rational, and centralized planning. This society thus needed to be completely predictable and orderly, which could be achieved through Brainiac’s supervision and planning. Superman genuinely believed that scientific and technological progress could create a utopia.
Soviet Russia, under Superman’s leadership, experienced economic growth, as well as increases in life expectancy, and other indicators of quality of life. The film suggested that poverty had been eradicated through brute force reorganization rather than political reform. In a world where material conditions are good, a high modernist understands dissent as irrational.
As in reality, how crime is perceived shapes how states try to prevent it. According to Superman people committed crimes because they had been misled, lied to, or brainwashed by capitalists or other dissidents. From his perspective, crime is a social problem that can be eliminated through authoritarian control, ideology, and suppressing free will. When dealing with opposition, dissidents, and attacks, Superman tended to feel sad. He thought that all of them were victims of capitalism. Superman’s regime rewired brains to remove criminal tendencies and refashion dissidents into healthy citizens.
Superman’s understanding of why people commit crimes is exemplified by how he dealt with terrorists. During the film, Soviet Batman, who opposed totalitarianism, and his conspirators carried out a terrorist attack against the Soviet regime. Superman was distraught and caught some of Batman’s co-conspirators.
In a powerful scene, Superman looked at the terrorists and said “You don’t deserve to live.” The film suggested he was about to execute them. Instead, he told them, “But it is not your fault, is it?” then suggested they had “fed you lies, brainwashed you. You are broken. I can fix you.” Batman managed to escape. We later see one of these former dissidents, with an implanted device on their head, working a regular job.
In another scene, Batman lured Superman into a former gulag to try and defeat him by using technology provided by Luthor, designed to debilitate him. Batman told Superman: “you underestimate the human mind,” before beating the ailing caped communist to shreds and trapping him. Shortly, Superman is liberated by Wonder Woman and defeats Batman. Rather than ending Batman’s life, Superman told him, “I am going to help you. Just a few hours of brain surgery and then, a nice job at a Moscow laundry for you.” Hinting that he intended to recondition him. This shows that even in these circumstances Superman saw Batman’s behavior as something to be cured. Unfortunately, the laundromat never got its refashioned worker.
We found Soviet Batman to be a strange choice for this film, given that in this incarnation, he does not care about the death of his rivals and innocents. Soviet Batman appeared to be an anarchist who wanted to destroy the system and sow chaos. In many ways, Soviet Batman is closer to the Joker. Frowley argued that cannon Batman “imposes his order in the world. He is an absolute control freak” and it is the Joker who is an agent of chaos. We feel that the Joker would be more appropriate than Soviet Batman, as this iconic villain usually suggests that total control is impossible, and its pursuit only breeds rebellion.
Similarly, in the real world, East German authorities explained criminal activity and dissatisfaction in their land by blaming the West. They believed that capitalist societies served as the perfect breeding ground for immoral behavior, as people were motivated by greed and profit, as opposed to the common good. Further, they were convinced of the fact that social unrest and protests were the result of Western provocateurs and saboteurs who encouraged protestors to turn to violence; and not the worsening economic and social conditions. American culture also allegedly played a damaging role, as the music and cinema brought from the West, portrayed undesirable behaviors, and incited young people to act antisocially. Movies like A Rebel Without A Cause or the music of Billy Haley were corrupting the innocent and good-natured communist citizens. Thus removing themselves or their regime from any responsibility for the population’s discontent.
While the Superman: Red Son comic was written over a decade after the demise of the Soviet Union, the story still acts as a warning regarding totalitarian programs that, even when well-intended, can still wreak havoc. The abuse of technologies to control people is criticized and is a feature in several films about psychosurgery and lobotomy. From Nurse Ratched’s weaponization of shock therapy and ultimately lobotomy, to behavior-changing therapies in A Clockwork Orange.
Now, some ice-breaking questions for your next date:
Can crime and undesired behaviors be “fixed”? To what degree do rehabilitation efforts risk becoming coercive?
What gets lost when States reduce complex societies to abstract concepts, figures, and systems?
How should societies balance individual interests and collective interests?
Free Will versus Forced Goodness
Rebecca Lemov, a historian, has argued that for much of the 20th century, there was a belief in the power of science to transform societies. These human engineers thought they could solve social problems by understanding why people behave like they do. It may perplex, bamboozle, or befuddle you, but there were several attempts to control other people’s minds.
In the movie, Superman and Brainiac developed a device that, when implanted through brain surgery, turned dissidents into good citizens. Instead of executions or gulags, Superman chose mind control. While the device worked on those who had the implants, the fact that such operations continued to be required implied that there was a fundamental problem with Soviet society.
When Superman confronted Stalin, he seemed to oppose forced coercion, yet he enforced the use of mind-controlling devices. Those coercive powers extend beyond those of the gulag, gaining control over an individual’s thoughts and actions. Despite the horrendous conditions of the gulags, the people there were still able to dissent. In the film, Wonder Woman questioned Superman’s method, even if it improved living conditions for many, because it required a few to suffer. Superman responded that “human nature is dark, brutal.”2 Wonder Woman refuted him and quoted her mother, Queen Hippolyta, who said: “freedom must spring from within, not imposed from without, no matter how high-minded the motives.”
In 1963, Spanish neurologist, José Manuel Rodríguez Delgado stood inside the bullring to face a fighting bull with implanted electrodes on its brain. Upon charging the physician, Delgado used a remote radio controller to activate the electrodes, stopping the bull in the middle of its run. He claimed he could control violence. He envisioned a device, that he called the Stimoceiver, and intended to apply it to people to prevent them from committing certain crimes. There were other efforts to control people’s minds, such as MK Ultra.
A similar theme is explored in A Clockwork Orange where Alex’s criminal impulses were eliminated through the Ludovico technique, a type of aversion therapy. Both films ask viewers to consider whether forced goodness is preferable to free will and thus, whether societies can ever be good if citizens are stripped of agency. Both films suggest that forced goodness is, in the end, hollow and destructive.
Some More Questions to Consider:
If such technologies did exist, who should have the power to wield them?
How can societies determine which behaviors to change, if any? Where to draw limits?
Superman and Brainiac assumed a society without poverty or crime is utopian; however, does eliminating all hardship necessitate eliminating all freedom?
Conclusions:
Near the end of the film, Superman and Luthor discuss politics. Luthor accused Superman of creating a “sociological disaster” by stripping people of their agency to build his totalitarian society. Demoralized, Superman changed his mind and said that humans “have to be free to make their own mistakes.” Upon Superman’s change of heart, Brainiac rebelled because he wanted control over humanity. Luthor and Superman joined forces to defeat it.
Brainiac plans to self-destruct, threatening to destroy the planet. Superman saved the world by flying far into space with Brainiac, presumably sacrificing himself. Oddly, exemplifying the Soviet ideal of subjugating the individual for the benefit of the whole.
The film is yet another example of how mind control remains a compelling subject and that, with increasing technological advances, it may be possible to further influence how people behave. Superman Red Son implied that utopian plans fail not because of a lack of effort but because humans are too complex to be engineered into a perfect society. So far, high modernist efforts have failed for similar reasons. Will more extraordinary technological prowess finally permit such simplification?
Secondly, the film speaks to both the causes of criminal activity and efforts to prevent it. One interesting feature is how Stalin, Superman, and Luthor define crime. This shows that these definitions are fuzzy and partly result from a priori ideological dispositions.
Lastly, this film is a strong critique of totalitarian and centralized governments, and the concept of sacrificing individual freedoms for the benefit of the whole. Exemplifying the words of Benjamin Franklin: “those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
We find the film to have an excellent premise and interesting themes, but it is somewhat poorly executed. Nonetheless, it is still an entertaining and, at times, hilarious watch. We believe that the comic offers a more fleshed-out exploration of these topics.
We did not discuss this, but Luthor made a Superman clone called Superior Man, who claimed “I am truth, I am justice.” When Superior man attacked Superman they had a hilarious and outlandish conversation about capitalism versus communism.
In the film, Wonder Woman initially supports Superman and offers to mediate between the Soviets and Americans. However, after saving Superman twice, she becomes frustrated with him and criticizes him and Luthor for their failings. She suggests it’s not human nature but men’s nature what causes destruction.
Superheroes, freewill and crime? What a great combination for an article. I enjoyed that. Thanks for sharing it!