4. Superman: Red Son
It's fun to think about "What If?" scenarios for superheroes. What would happen if Batman got a Green Lantern ring? What would happen if the Justice League appeared earlier in history? Superman: Red Son takes our famed Man of Steel and changes one detail of his history: where his rocket ship landed on Earth. In regular continuity, Kal-El of Krypton lands in Smallville, Kansas and is raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent. Raised with a strong, moral foundation, Clark Kent takes the identity of Superman and begins his fight against criminals and evildoers, standing for truth, justice, and the American way. However, what would happen if instead of the United States, his rocket ship landed in Soviet Russia during the 1930s? Raised by the Soviet government, Superman is revealed to the world in the 1950s, and his appearance causes a panic in the United States, who now have to contend with both nuclear weapons AND super-humans. Desperate, the U.S. hires Lex Luthor to create a number of contingencies to take down Russia's newest hero. When Luthor's disfigured clone of Superman fails to kill the Man of Steel, Luthor dedicates his life to taking down Superman. Meanwhile, Superman deals with enemies within his own borders, including from a disgruntled officer who's jealous of the attention Superman is getting from Stalin. As the years pass, Luthor continues to send his experiments to kill Superman, and Superman eventually leads the Soviet Union to become the leading world power. Without spoiling how the story ends, one aspect of this story I find fascinating is that it shows that no matter where Superman ends up or how he is raised, he is still the same idealistic and moral person that he is in the main comics. He is an outsider who genuinely cares about the welfare of his adoptive planet and does whatever he can to keep it safe, whether he's a Communist or American citizen. It's ironic: Superman is a great character, but there are very few well-written stories about him, and one of the best that exists is about an alternate version of him. We've already had several animated Superman films, but this story is unique and original enough that it would work perfectly as one of their animated hits.