Superman Red and Blue #1 (2021)

Clark feels nervous and his palms are sweating. He hadn't felt this nervous since the time he moved an entire planet, and now, he is travelling to Lubania, a former Soviet nation that had now become a modern financial powerhouse. Clark's official assignment is to do an interview on one of Lubania's wealthiest entrepreneurs, but on a personal level, this journey serves as therapy to Clark. He asks for a taxi and travels to the Kelebnic Reducation Facility, also known as the "Prison with no Name." As he walks through the place, Clark remembers the last time he was in Lubania. Superman had travelled to Lubania to address an emergency. Back then, he felt invincible and that nothing could hurt him, not the forces of nature or the laws of nations, but his time in Lubania was a huge wake-up call for him. The Soviet regime had found a way to synthesize Kryptonite radiation, not enough to kill Superman, but strong enough to take away his powers. Superman was captured, taken to the camp and thrown in with enemies of the regime. For eight months, Superman was beaten and tortured by Nikolai Koslov and his treatment was used by the regime as propaganda to prove the weakness of the West. Eventually, with Batman's help, Superman escaped the camp, but he's never felt free of it or of Koslov. Clark returns to the taxi and, as he moves towards his interview, he thinks about the torture he endured. He privately admits that Koslov made him feel humilliated in a way Lex or Brainiac had never been able to do, and now, he's returning to Lubania to face Koslov yet again. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Koslov spent time in his own camp until a truth and reconcilliation commission considered him punished enough for his crimes. Koslov then used his connections to build a business empire and now, he's one of the wealthiest men in Lubania. During the interview, Koslov opined on everything from the scalability of global economics to the capitalization of cheap human labor in rising human nations. Eventually, Clark asked him if he felt regret about all the pain and sorrow he had caused. Clark hoped that Koslov was either genuinely remorseful, which would give Clark hope that Koslov was still a decent man, or that he wasn't remorseful at all, giving Clark the excuse to take revenge on all the suffering he endured at Koslov's hands. In the end, Koslov was neither reformed nor remorseless. He simply said that many people made mistakes during the Cold War, but in the end, the West won and it was time for everybody to move on. Clark thinks that it's easy for Koslov to talk about "moving on" because Koslov was the victimizer, not the victim. With the interview over, Koslov parts ways with Clark, who thinks that he could use the information he gathered to write a high-profile exposé on how Koslov was exploiting workers around the world, building wealth on their backs, but then, he watches the squad of police cars rushing past him. Clark understands that Koslov thrived in the past because few people cared enough to stop him. Clark reveals his Superman uniform and tells himself that, no matter the consequences, he will always care.