In Zod We Trust

We're only a few days away from getting a new Superman movie. From all we've seen, I have high hopes for Man of Steel. But one thing I don't need to worry about is Michael Shannon as General Zod. Shannon is proving to be one of the best bad-guy actors of recent years so giving him a fun meaty role like Zod is basically a slam-dunk.

But it occurred to me that some of the more comics-illiterate among you may not know much about good General and his relationship to the Man of Steel. So, magnanimous gent that I am, I thought it'd be helpful (or at least interesting) to tell you more about him.

Hit the jump and get ready to kneel,

General Zod first appeared in 1961. He was the greatest military leader on Krypton but was also a megalomaniacal fascist. Think of a Kryptonian Nazi. It was this difference in values that brought Zod into conflict with Superman's Kryptonian daddy Jor-El. The two became rivals of a sort and when Zod tried to stage a coup of Krypton, it was Jor-El who brought him to justice. Zod was so pissed he swore a vendetta against Jor-El and his whole family. Unfortunately he wouldn't get a chance to act on that because Zod and his followers were banished to the Phantom Zone for their crimes. You know, that weird floating glass plane from Superman 2.

This thing

Being banished to the Phantom Zone was actually a blessing to Zod though. Because shortly after Jor-El sent him there, Krypton exploded. You all know how that played out. Anyway, being in the Phantom Zone allowed Zod and his followers to survive Krypton's destruction. And then Superman found his dad's Phantom Zone projector and accidentally let them out. Oops. Plus they're Kryptonians like Superman. So they didn't have superpowers on Krypton, but on Earth they had all of Superman's powers. Alien Nazis with all of Superman's powers loose on Earth. Good job Superman!

My Bad

But Superman is Superman, so he beat Zod and his buddies before they could take over the world and sent them back to the Phantom Zone. And that's how things worked for a while. Zod or one of his other Krypton Nazis would escape the Phantom Zone, Superman would defeat them and send them back. It was formulaic but it worked to deliver the requisite amount of superpowered thrills. They even used it as the framework for Superman 2, with the added twist of Superman losing his powers. And Superman 2 also created the definitive look of the general, courtesy of British actor Terrence Stamp.

Look at him. Just perfect. The Beard. The haughty look. The slicked back hair. I don't know about the plunging neckline, but it does show off his manly chest hair. When Superman 2 came out in 1980, Stamp's performance became the standard for the character. It even introduced his catchphrase, "Kneel before Zod". And watching that movie, it's easy to see what makes Zod such a good villain for Superman besides powers for cool fights. Like all good supervillains, he's a kind of mirror of the superhero. Superman is the immigrant story, he brings all that was good about his homeland to America and has assimilated in. Zod is the person who can't go back to his homeland but refuses to assimilate, he needs to drag all this old baggage with him out of pride or tradition. From the trailers, this seems to be the tack Man of Steel is running with.

But then the Crisis happened.

Ok, laconically. Back in 1985, DC Comics celebrated their 50th anniversary with a huge story called Crisis on Infinite Earths. Crisis involved the destruction of the entire multiverse by an entity called the Anti-Monitor. Part of the fallout from this was lots of people dying, history being re-written and some of DC's biggest characters getting reboots. And of course, this included Superman. But part of Superman's reboot was the mandate that he would be the only survivor of Krypton. No Supergirl, No Superdog, and No Zod or Phantom Zone.

Problem was that all of those were fun toys for the writers, so they came up with excuses to get around the "Only Survivor" rule. And to this effect, we got four replacement Zods.

Replacement Zod #1

The first replacement Zod was from a parallel universe. Superman went over to a universe that never had a Superman and found a parallel Zod & co. wrecking shit up. This world did have a Supergirl (sort of), but Zod had defeated her easily. Unlike before Superman had such trouble with this Zod he actually had to kill him. Superman retrieved some Kryptonite and exposed Zod to it until he died. And that was the end of replacement Zod #1.

Replacement Zod #2

The second replacement Zod showed up in 2001. Again, from an alternate universe. This time Superman travelled to a universe where Krypton survived, or went back in time in an alternate universe I'm not sure. Anyway, Superman went to Krypton in an alternate universe and ran into this Zod who was basically like the original one from before the Crisis. Superman defeated him when he tried to take over Krypton and we never saw him again.

Replacement Zod #3

Number Three was a weird one. This Zod was actually human, a Russian whose parents were cosmonauts exposed to Space-fucked-uppedness when Superman's rocket crashed. This space-fucked-up there baby so that he couldn't survive yellow sun radiation and could only live comfortably in red sun radiation. While being raised by Soviet scientists, he was somehow contacted by the ghost of the original Zod who told him how to make special armor to survive in yellow sun radiation, or daytime as we call it. He was later killed by Lex Luthor after trying to turn the sun into a red giant and depower Superman.

Replacement Zod #4

Not going to lie, this isn't a bad idea for a Superman villain. Kind of a Mr. Freeze but with red sun radiation. But it isn't Zod, despite having the name. He's got nothing that screams Zod. So he was never going to last long.

Finally, we had this dude. Introduced in the story For Tomorrow, he was basically the original Zod (Kryptonian Nazi, trapped in Phantom Zone) but in crappy 90's armor. In a story written in 2004. Of course, that was just what he told Superman so there's no way of knowing if it's true and he's the real Zod. It doesn't matter anyway as he was soon forgotten and never used again.

In 2006, we had the return of the true Zod. No more alternate universes, no more Russian space-fucked-uppedness, no more crappy armor. The real deal baby. And his story was an updated retelling of the original's. But with the added details of having a son who Superman had adopted away from him and his two minions from Superman 2, Ursa and Non, who'd never appeared in the comics before.

From left to right: Ursa, Zod, Non

Like most modern revamps of classic villains, this new Zod was made a bit more three-dimensional. He had a nobility to him, a strong belief in the superiority of Krypton and anger at Superman for what he saw as betraying his heritage. And in addition to his strength, he was given a keen strategic mind. No surprise that he was put in charge of the military of New Krypton (long story).

Since the New 52 relaunch, we haven't seen Zod or his followers. But you can be sure he won't be gone long. The Wolf of Krypton will be back to make all new generations kneel before him.