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Aug 19, 2015 Web Exclusive By Mark Redfern

DC has a great history of alternate universe versions of their characters. Sure Marvel had their fun What If? comics in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s that presented different scenarios for their characters (starting with issue 1’s “What if Spider-Man joined The Fantastic Four”), but DC has the multiverse. In Superman: Red Son the baby Man of Steel’s spaceship landed in Communist Russia rather than Kansas. Flashpoint featured Bruce Wayne as a boy getting murdered in that Gotham alleyway and his father Thomas Wayne thus taking on the mantle of Batman. And Crisis on Infinite Earths, Multiversity, and Convergence all featured a multitude of different takes on your favorite DC heroes. The new straight-to-DVD/Blu-ray animated movie Justice League: Gods and Monsters offers another alternate world, including Batman as an actual vampire and Wonder Woman as an alien, and there’s also a corresponding series of tie-in comics.

Justice League: Gods and Monsters - Superman imagines a world where General Zod’s infant song rockets away from Krypton as it explodes, rather than Kal-El. im being a “strange visitor” from another planet and all that), Gods and Monsters takes it one step further-Zod’s rocket crash lands in Mexico and he is adopted by a Mexican family who end up as migrant workers in America. Given the ns adoptive parents and older sister, but soon grows tired of having to keep his powers hidden and being treated as a second-class citizen by racist xenophobes.

This Superman teeters on the edge of darkness much more than the optimistic Man of Steel we all know and love. But, of course, that’s what makes him such an interesting variation on the character. It’s really too bad this is just a one-shot prequel comic mainly being used to set up the movie. Writers Bruce Timm (who co-produced the movie and helped come up with its story) and J.M. DeMatteis set up a complex character, a Superman clad mainly in black who you’re not quite sure will fight for the innocent or for his own self-interests. Is he a savior or conqueror? Perhaps if Gods and Monsters and its six prequel comics (one each for Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and three for the Justice League) are a success then this version of the character will live on in printed form. At the very least, let’s hope he shows up at the next multiverse crisis. (www.dccomics.com)