KNEEL

Warning: this post is quite lengthy.

Zod may be my favorite Superman villain ever. He's got so much going for him: he was played by Terrance Stamp, he was created by Otto Binder, he's got a cool name, he says one of the best lines in movie history. He can do everything Superman can do, but does nothing Superman would do with those abilities.

Sadly, he was one of the most tragic victims of the Superman reboot in the 80s. There was an edict that said Superman was to be the only survivor of Krypton in this new continuity, so attempts to have a villain called General Zod and not break that rule were made. Repeatedly. And poorly.

Variations of, "So what's the deal with Zod these days?" and "How many Zods have there been now?" have got to be the second most asked questions when ever my super-geekery comes up. (Plug the name Supergirl in those questions and you have the most asked.)

When it's all spelled out plainly, it's not so confusing, really. But it can be, without a doubt, a huge mess. So I give you, in all his many forms, General Dru Zod.

General Zod first appeared in an early 60s in a Superboy story (Adventure Comics #283). Superboy discovers the Phantom Zone projector in a case of forbidden Kryptonian weapons. In a flashback detailing the history of the device and the Phantom Zone, we see Zod's plan to overthrow Krypton. Using an army of Bizarro robots of himself, he planned to conquer the planet. He was far from being the star of his debut; his entire tale was related in just a few panels. In fact, Zod wouldn't become a major villain until many years later.


The Phantom Zone criminal we saw the most during the silver age was Jax Ur. He was an evil scientist; sort of a Kryptonian Luthor with a cheesy mustache. He was even bald like Luthor. Zod's next major appearance was a couple of years after his debut. He teamed with Jax Ur and another Zone escapee against Supergirl, and he was second banana even then. That story was published in 1963, and for more than a decade after Zod wouldn't be seen as anything more than a quick cameo as one of many phantoms whenever a Phantom Zone story was told.

Zod would appear in the occasional flashbacks to Krypton's last years. It was revealed that Zod worked with Jor El on the same government base for researching the rockets they used to travel around their world. Jor El was there as one of the chief scientists in their rocket and propulsions programs, while General Dru-Zod was the base military commander.

Jor El later discovered the Phantom Zone in researching ways to evacuate the populace of Krypton but ultimately it would be used as a prison. Most who were sent there blamed and resented Jor El for their captivity, including Zod. Shortly before Krypton's destruction, Zod and the other Zone prisoners would attempt to use the limited telepathic abilities granted by imprisonment there to control Jor El and have him set them free. Lara would snap Jor El out of his trance moments before their planned succeeded. That story, where he was only one of many involved in the escape attempt, was his biggest appearance in years. There was still very little seen of Zod, but something big happened for the character in 1978.

After all those years of being a very minor player in the Superman mythos, the opening scene of Superman The Movie would be the beginnings of the Zod we know and love.

Zod and his followers (Ursa, who was smoking hot and based on comics Zone villain Faora, and Non, the mute bruiser created for the film) are on trial before Krypton's ruling council and Jor El. Zod didn't have the same look as his comics counterpart, but he was the same character. A military man gone rogue with his eyes on ruling Krypton. It was a small part, but vital back story for the sequel. And it contains one very important piece of dialog. "You will bow down before me! Both you and one day your heirs!" Then he got zapped.

The movie was a huge hit, and the folks making it knew it would be. Much of its sequel was filmed along with the original (though much of it would be re-filmed as well, but we won't get into that now).

Superman II. Not as good as the first in many, many ways, but it gave us something important. Since his introduction in 1961 we'd had Zod. Now we had ZOD! Freed from his prison in the Phantom Zone by an explosion in space, Zod would find "Planet Houston," by way of some astronauts on the moon who met a not so pleasant end. On Earth, Zod realized he was unbeatable, and quickly set about becoming the ruler he knew he was meant to be.

This is the Zod every one knows. Arrogant, powerful, and just melodramatic enough to make you love him. This Zod destroyed cities. This Zod had a cool accent and an immaculate beard. This Zod conquered the US and made the president kneel before him.

"I will kneel before you if it will save lives."
"It will. Starting with your own."

Damn. Straight.

He would learn of Superman from the president, giving us what we all desperately want in a Superman film: Superman in a big fight. It's a bit cheesy by today's standards, but it's still fun. Superman would go on to defeat Zod and Co in the bizarre "Where the hell did those powers come from?" Fortress of Solitude scene. It's not really clear what his final fate is, but there's a good chance he's dead.

And because it has to be here,

Come to me, Son of Jor El! KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!

I don't know why Zod was chosen over Jax Ur for the films. I can only assume they felt he had a cooler name. Which he does. There would only be two more major Phantom Zone stories before DC started their universe over with Crisis on Infinite Earths, but thanks to the films Zod would take the lead in both of them, supplanting Jax Ur as Phantom Zone baddie numero uno.

In The Phantom Zone mini series, Zod would mastermind an escape from the Zone, bringing with him all the most famous and dangerous villains, who reluctantly followed his lead. They trapped Superman in the Phantom Zone, defeated Supergirl and the Justice League, and began a plan to send all of the Earth to their former prison. In the end, they're sent back where they belong.

Zod's final appearance before Crisis would be in a story that had Mxyzptlk tricked into merging with a crystal that led to the destruction of the Phantom Zone and the criminals there merging with Mxy and the crystal. Or something. It kinda sucked and I was barely paying attention.

(For completeness sake, this classic version of Zod would also appear in one episode of the short-lived 1988 Superman cartoon. In it he creates a monster in the Phantom Zone that he sends after Superman.)

Back in the comics, though, things were changing. If you don't know how I feel about John Byrne's work on Superman, you've not been paying attention at all. This story is what I believe to be one of the worst ever told with Superman.

There were no survivors of Krypton besides Kal El, post-revamp. So where does Zod come from? The Krypton of an alternate universe (called "The Pocket Universe") created by the Legion of Super Heroes villain the Time Trapper. The Pocket Universe's Zod is for all intents and purposes the silver age Zod, with a couple of movie style henchmen thrown in for good measure.

The Pocket Universe's Lex Luthor accidentally sets Zod and his underlings free and they kill every one on that Earth except for the population of Smallville (saved by Luthor). The survivors manage to call Superman from his universe. He swoops in and defeats them, using gold K to take away their powers permanently. Nice and tidy. They can now be imprisoned and put on trial to meet whatever punishment is deemed appropriate by the world, right? Zod's re-introduced and the "only Superman survived" rule is technically unbroken.

But no. No. Byrne felt Superman's vow not to kill should be born of something other than just knowing it's wrong to kill people. So the story ends something like this:

"Well, you guys messed up pretty bad, and I don't know what else to do with ya, so..."
*murders*

That's stupid. I never had to kill any one to learn that I shouldn't do it, and I like to think Superman's at least a little more on the ball than me.

The ghost of the Pocket Universe Zod would later haunt Superman in a story where spirits strongly tied to the living were able to communicate with them. He'd also have influence over the next man to use the name.

The second General Zod we see post-crisis is not Kryptonian at all. He was a young boy mutated as a result of Kyrptonite radiation. His parents were cosmonauts exposed to the radiation as Superman's rocked passed too closely to them on its way to Earth. This caused him to develop the ability to channel solar radiation into super-powers like Superman, but unlike Superman, he needed the radiation of a red sun. He took the name Zod after being spoken to by the spirit of the Pocket Universe Zod.

He succeeded in turning Earth's sun red, giving him superpowers and robbing Superman of his, but this was reversed and Zod died expending his last bit of power trying to destroy Superman.

He was kinda lame, and the writers tried waaay too hard to sell him as a threat and credible villain. He had little to nothing to do with previous versions of the character. He did however command Superman to kneel once, so I guess there's that.

Not-Zod number 3. This is where the waters begin to muddy. There are two last Zods that aren't the original. To keep things simple, I'll give you an explanation up front that readers didn't get as these stories were being published.

Brainiac, like the Time Trapper before him, created a false Krypton; one very much like the silver age Krypton. This false Krypton, instead of being in a parallel universe, was inside the Phantom Zone. Superman travels to this Krypton, believing he's going back in time to his own Krypton trapped in time and the Phantom Zone. He helps the Jor El of that Krypton prevent its destruction, but along the way encounters the Zod of this world. Zod manipulates the ruling council into letting him activate a weapon to apprehend Jor El, who has violated the law by traveling in space. He uses the weapon to stage a coup, and is seemingly destroyed in a battle with Superman and Jor El. Superman eventually learns the origins of this world, and after sealing it off in the Phantom Zone, leaves it to go on as Krypton would have had it not exploded.

A couple of years later, we'd meet this Zod.

Man that's stupid looking. We know almost nothing about this Zod. In a pretentious story that makes no sense, Superman creates (yet another) world in the Phantom Zone. It was Superman's contingency plan for the destruction of the Earth. This world he created would house the Earth's population should it suffer Krypton's fate. Through some means or another that may or may not have been explained, over a million people end up in this world Superman's created. And Zod was already there.

This Zod lead an army of people bitter about being trapped on this world against those that are happy there. That's all I know about him. At one point in the story it's implied Jor El banished him there, at another point something is said about his being "brought back." So this could be the Zod from Brainiac's false Earth, or this could be yet another new version of the character sent there by Jor El. Who the hell knows. In the end, this Zod... you know, I don't even know what happened to this guy and I just re-read the story to write this.

What happened here, Brian Azzarello? 100 bullets is so good, but this?

These days, after DC's latest big crossover, things have been simplified. We gots the real Zod back. Evil general from Krypton who hates Superman because he blames his father for his imprisonment in the Phantom Zone. He's got an updated look, but he's the classic Zod. He's even got Ursa and Non with him. And none of that other stuff ever happened. I'm very happy about this.

It's happening in issues of Action Comics by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner and they're lots of fun. He's a perfect version of the character- no alternate universes or ghosts or false Kryptons in sight.

So there we have it. What's the deal with Zod these days? He's the one you know. How many Zods have there been? 5 or so.

1) The original/movie/current Zod.

And when he wasn't around, the efforts to fill the gap were:

2) Byrne's from the pocket universe
3) The Russian mutant
4) The one from the false Krypton created by Brainiac
5) Azzarello's from I bet not even he knows where.


Oh, and just because, the Superman the Animated Series universe did have its own version of Zod. Jax Ur and a new character named Mala (based on Ursa) were used as the Phantom Zone villains on the show, but Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer introduced Zod in Superman Adventures, the comic that shared continuity with it. This Zod was from Krypton's sister planet Argo. Much like the classic Zod, he was a failed military despot banished for treason. This version would later return in the comic based on the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. At one point he's referred to as "The Butcher of Argo." That just sounds cool and I hope that gets picked up by other writers.

I also hear that Zod was featured in a roundabout way on Smallville, but I really dislike that show, so I've no idea what's going there. Probably something stupid that involves Tom Welling trying desperately to emote. Man, that kid's face has one setting: dumb.

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If you've made it this far, I'd appreciate if every one reading could answer a question for me. These longer articles that are just character profiles (this only the second; the first was about Krypto, and I suppose the kryptonite articles fit, too), do you enjoy these? You could probably just get all this info on wiki without my swearing and deep "John Byrne sux!" insights.