Red Son is fucking terrible. It's ideologically dishonest and atrociously researched, and everyone failed remedial math.
Stalin died in 1953 IRL and in the comic. The comic cites the Warsaw pact, that's 1955 IRL. Ike is president from 1953 to 1961.
...Mmmmmkay.
Except holy shit
WWII happened in this universe.
Hitler happened. And Supes was supposedly raised
on an Ukrainian farm. Since 1941 at the latest, Stalin should have ruled every country involved in WWII through his teenage proxy. (And why is he President and not Secretary General?)
"A chemical plant on fire three thousand miles west of Vladivostok" - 3000 MILES, motherfucker? And do you know what's 3000 miles west of Vladivostok? The Kazakh/Kyrgyz border, in Central Asia. Shouldn't it be "250 km from Bishkek and Tashkent"? (And no, they aren't in Vladivostok at the time of speaking.)
Earthquake in Stalingrad LOOK AT THE FUCKING MAP
Piotr is 2 miles away when Supes looks for him at the party in Moscow, and Stalin in Moscow is 200 miles away from Piotr. Aaaaargh the geography it's killing me. And MILES, MILES, MILES again. SUPES, YOU IMPERIALIST TRAITOR.
"lovers" - fuck no. The Russian language doesn't have the word "lover" in its English sense, the literal word "lyubovnik/lyubovnitsa" means "someone I'm cheating on my spouse with". On the other hand, boning for procreation is
heavily romanticized. A healthy sexual attraction unconnected to marriage and childbirth isn't something Red Supes should have a word for.
Chanel #5 - unless he'd been trained as a spy, and he's too stupid to have been, Red Supes has no business knowing women's bourgeois perfume brands. Even the New Dawn selection is pushing it if he hasn't dated women yet.
Supes learning English "10 minutes ago" while the Cold War has been going on since forever and the US is the #1 enemy.
OH FUCK THIS IS SO STUPID STALIN'S CHIEF OF POLICE GOT DRUNK AND ANGRY AND ARRANGED STALIN'S MURDER AND EVERYONE WENT ALONG WITH IT
Use of artistic license to portray Stalin and Stalin's regime in
uncharacteristically cartoonishly evil ways (Stalin's personal bodyguard is murdering people in their homes, Stalin grooming an obviously incapable "illegitimate" child for leadership).
Curing mental illness is somehow badwrong.
Then we have the regular stupid:
Big Brother is an anachronism.
Zubway sign.
Pre-revolutionary clothes, especially on kids.
Winter clothes in Moscow despite summer in the US.
Presidential suite.
"Oh Jesus." You don't say. Was "My God" so hard to write?
Soviet bars didn't have tabs.
Jordan and Mehri aren't Russian or Soviet names by any stretch of the imagination.
Pyotr Iosif Roslov is not a valid Russian or Soviet name.
Supes notices the arousal of a random bystander in a split-second but doesn't notice WW is horny.
"Pyotr?" Again, Supes can supposedly read emotions like a pro.
Batman murders people. How does he still live?
The queen of Themiscyra gets visibly older over ~20+ years, but she was several thousand years old in 1953.
Super-senses not detecting the equipment and the power lines.
And, of course, the resolution is completely arbitrary.
The US held on, despite isolation and economic devastation, and sustained Luthor and his crazy inventions. Supes didn't intervene, despite children living and presumably dying in the streets. Neither did he defeat AIDS and cancer, despite having learned English instantly (why not medicine?)
Then we are informed Luthor's utopian dictatorship is qualitatively different from Supes' utopian dictatorship. There's a number of ways this could've played out without being intellectually offensive. Supes could've been brawn only, a pawn in various self-serving power-plays by Soviet officials (oh and the historical Lana was just the right age to date Supes, this is one hell of a missed opportunity). Instead of a single person, Supes could've been opposed by a generational dream team of inventors, thus highlighting capitalism's alleged incentivization of innovation and personal excellence through FREEDOM!!1! and unrestrained exchange of ideas. He could've cooked up some crazy transhuman scheme only to realize there won't be any people left in a meaningful sense after its implementation. Instead, we got a deepity that nevertheless makes it onto various "bestest graphic novels" lists in mainstream publications. Ew.