Zeb Larson reviews Red One #1…
What happens when America’s greatest hero…is a Russian Spy? Soviet Agent Vera Yelnikov is sent to 1977 Los Angeles by the Kremlin to become an American Superhero and spread communist values in the land of Uncle Sam in a funky superhero romp straight out of a Tarantino film by TERRY & RACHEL DODSON (Uncanny X-Men, Wonder Woman, Spider- Man, Harley Quinn) and XAVIER DORISON (Long John Silver, The Third Testament).
Red One is a new comic with an interesting premise but a somewhat off-key debut, largely due to some odd characterizations and the weird way the author handles the Cold War dynamic. With some more character development, this book could make for an interesting read.
It’s 1977, and the fragile détente between the United States and the Soviet Union is unraveling. Vera Yelnikov is one of the USSR’s best operatives, and she’s being sent to the United States to counteract a cultural problem. There’s a new wave of conservatism sweeping the land that threatens to wreck any possibility of compromise over the new SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) agreement. This conservative movement is spearheaded by a culture warrior nicknamed the Carpenter, who’s been killing people he or she deems to be offensive. Vera is there to create her own brand of superheroics, one that will de-fang this newly ascendant conservative movement.
The premise of the comic is an interesting one: the Soviets need to send somebody who can move the United States less conservative. The Carpenter is a frightening figure indeed, one who kills a Hollywood actress over a racy scene in a movie. In a weird way, the Soviets end up being the good guys in this book, or at least they seem somewhat more rational than this group of Americans.
While the premise is an interesting one, the history is a bit off. Comics need to be careful when they want to situate themselves in a historical context. For one thing, giving somebody a Trabant as a gift would be a pretty crappy gift, given that the car was the butt of many jokes in the Soviet bloc. Also, if this is supposed to be August of 1977, why would Vera have been in Afghanistan? The PDPA doesn’t seize power until April of 1978, and the Soviets hadn’t given the communist party much of a chance for success in Afghanistan because they thought there wasn’t an industrial base in the country. Remember, the Soviets believed in stages of history, and a country that was insufficiently industrialized/bourgeois could not fit into this pattern. (Nevermind that it didn’t apply to their own history). So, again, what was she doing there? If comics want to be historical, they need to act accordingly.
Also, if Red One is a story about Vera being a communist spy, communism is an awfully small part of this story. We don’t really know much about her motivations, though she’s obviously friends with some people who act like poorer versions of Americans. From a narrative perspective, you want her to be sympathetic, and that does come through in this issue. That being said, she looks way too much like a good guy for a superspy operating in a global conflict known for its moral ambiguity. Some hints as to her personality would help.
One can appreciate this inversion of the Cold War dynamic here: the Americans as over-the-top uncompromising psychos, and the Soviets as basically rational actors trying to make everybody like Bob Marley. The problem comes when you have Soviet generals talking about making people like Bob Marley, which just feels silly and unrealistic. This book still has promise, so let’s see if it gets born out in subsequent issues.
Zeb Larson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ONsp_bmDYXc&list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published March 18, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
