Alan Kistler's Profile On: ZOD!

KRYPTON’S HITLER

As has been stated in my SUPERMAN PROFILE, by the 1950s, Superman had become more of a sci-fi adventurer. Part of this was he was continually discovering more and more about Krypton, both in his adventures as Superman and in the adventures that depicted him as a younger Superboy.

In 1961, “The Phantom Superboy” was a story that introduced the “Phantom Zone.” Superboy discovered that the Phantom Zone was a strange “twilight dimension” that existed on a different plane of existence. Krypton used it as a prison for their most horrible criminals. There was no death penalty on Krypton, so sending them to the Phantom Zone, a place discovered by Superman’s father Jor-El, was seen as the worthy alternative. A press of the button on the Phantom Zone Projector and the criminal was exiled into the other dimension, not to be retrieved until their sentence was up (prisoners could be observed via special viewscreens and retrieved by the same projector).

Superboy looks over the instructions for the projector (that red device).

In this place, the prisoners existed as spirits, unable to age, but also unable to touch each other or interact with the true physical universe, which they could still see and observe. Curious that Kryptonians considered death too harsh, yet one could argue that being exiled to existence as a ghost for anywhere from a few years to a few decades, forced to watch friends, family and enemies go on with their lives and not able to interact at all, would be a fate far worse than death.

In the same story, Superboy learned of a couple of criminals who had been exiled to the Phantom Zone long ago. One was General Dru-Zod, former Military Director of the Kryptonian Space Center. His basic origin story was given in that same issue and, over the years, more and more of Zod’s history would come into light. It would be revealed that he had actually known Jor-El when the scientist was young and just beginning. He had told the young Jor-El, “A young man with your talents can make quite a name for himself in rocketry!”

But Zod was a fanatic, a purist who believed that his specific view of Krypton and its way of life had to be preserved at all costs. When the space program was cancelled after the destruction of Wegthor (a moon that was accidentally destroyed by fellow Phantom Zone inmate Jax-Ur), the ambitious General decided he wasn’t about to be transferred to a less important project. It was time for him to seize his destiny. He created a legion of robotic duplicates, all of whom resembled Superboy’s imperfect double Bizarro, strangely enough (this was blamed on the fact that robotics were not Zod’s strong suit). With these duplicates, Zod attempted to take over Krypton and make himself leader, believing he was the only and best man suitable for the job. He was eventually defeated and exiled to the Zone for his crimes.

Eventually, Kal-El released Zod when the criminal's sentence was up. Sadly, the general attempted to conquer Earth with the powers he gained under the yellow sun. Eventually, he was returned to the Zone, but it was clear that he was too clever to never come back.

General Dru-Zod
(what is it with Kal's arch-enemies having to be bald?)

Other Phantom Zone criminals would occasionally pop up as well. Quex-Ul, who later actually reformed and finally sacrificed his life to save Kal-El. Foara Hu-Ul, a deadly woman who tortured men she lured into her death camps and who also had the added power of being able to fire potentially lethal psionic bolts. Dr. Xa-Du, who conducted illegal experiments that killed many.

There was Jor-El’s cousin Kru-El (now there’s a ridiculously implicative alien name, right up there with the villain Sinestro), who created forbidden weapons. Gaz-Or who, old and dying, had decided that Krypton was gonna go with him and tried to destroy the whole world with a quake machine, a plan that would have worked had Jor-El not stopped him (scientist AND crime-fighter, way to be, Jor!).

Different folks had different favorite Phantom Zone criminals, of course, but Zod just stuck out a little bit. Maybe it was his personality, how he acted as the formal general rather than just a scheming criminal plotting revenge. Zod was the kind of guy who would dine with Doctor Doom and verbally spar with him. Perhaps another reason for his popularity was the Nazi implications of the character. His uniform, his belief that all other life-forms were beneath Kryptonians in both mental and biological prowess.

This latter explanation is interesting to me in particular, as there were several Nazi like villains showing up in comics and sci-fi during the 60s. A few years after Zod showed up, Stan Lee brought back the Red Skull, Hitler’s right hand man. Rather than keep him as a communist, as had been shown in a story in the 50s, Stan Lee said screw it, this man’s a Nazi and loving it. In the show DR. WHO, the first true villains the Doctor faced were the Daleks, who were very much the alien equivalent of Nazis, obsessed that they were the only pure race and that all lesser beings had to be exterminated for their own good and in order to preserve the genetic purity of the Dalek race. So it seems that in the 60s, we had had enough time to recover from the fear of just how scary the Nazis had been and were now free to use them as templates for villains we loved to hate.

WHY YOU SHOULD LOVE TERRENCE STAMP

Zod’s popularity soared in the late 70s when a little movie came out called SUPERMAN. In the opening scenes of the movie, we see Jor-El not as scientist yet, but as jailer. Standing before three Kryptonian criminals, he argues a prosecution case against them, naming each criminal and their crimes. There was Non, Ursa and General Zod who had attempted to overthrow Krypton’s government. The Kryptonian Council all vote guilty, and then the vote comes down to Jor-El. Zod says that the vote has to be unanimous for them to be exiled to the Zone, so if Jor-El votes yes then it will be him and him alone that Zod holds responsible. Jor-El is unmoved and Zod tries a different tactic.

“Join us. You have been known to disagree with the Council before. Yours could become an important voice in the new order, second only to my own! I offer you a chance for greatness, Jor-El, take it! Join us!”

Jor-El turns and walks away and then Zod explodes into fury.

“You will bow down before me, Jor-El! I swear it! No matter that it takes an eternity! You will bow down before me! Both you … and then … one day … YOUR HEIRS!”

Just have to say, Terrence Stamp did not look like Zod, was not dressed like Zod, but dammit if he didn’t make that character larger than life and simply terrifying. When he screams his threats, they don’t seem like just the empty threats that a criminal being sent away makes to the cop that got him. It’s more like a Shakespearean villain making a vow of revenge, one he intends to fulfill even if it takes 100 years. Brilliant work by a fine actor.

Jor-El activates a machine and a flat crystal (looking like a floating window) flies down and absorbs the three criminals into it. We see them, seemingly trapped within the crystal, fly away into space. The Council later congratulates Jor-El on exiling the three to the Phantom Zone.

We would not see Zod and his crew again until SUPERMAN II. In the beginning of the film, Superman tosses an atomic bomb planted by terrorists into space. By sheer coincidence, it hits the Phantom Zone crystal/window that is still floating through the void (and has inexplicably drifted very close to Earth’s moon) and shatters it. Zod and his crew were released now and realized that near Earth’s yellow sun they got amazing powers. They then head down to Earth and Zod explains, simply and formally, in no uncertain terms, that he is taking over.

"I am General Zod, your ruler. Yes, today begins a new order. Your lands, your possessions, your very lives will gladly be given in tribute to me, General Zod! In return for your obedience, you will enjoy my generous protection. In other words, you will be allowed to live."

Ursa, Zod and Non

He forces the President of the U.S. to kneel before him and seems to be succeeding. But then, Terrence Stamp and Dick Donner (who directed several parts of SUPERMAN II, along with all of the first film) bring us an interesting side to the villain. He gets BORED. Ursa tells Zod, “You are master of all you survey.” And Zod merely answers, “So I was yesterday. And the day before.” This is not merely a power-mad dictator then, this is a conqueror, a guy who thrives on warfare.

Eventually, he learns of Superman and decides to draw him out. He attacks the Daily Planet (on Lex Luthor’s advice) and Lois Lane in particular. And then, when we hear that all-too-familiar voice from outside the window say, “GENERAL! Would you care to step outside?”

What happened next was the first super-hero/super-villain knockdown battle ever in cinema. Superman tackled Zod, Ursa and Non, doing his best to not let them overwhelm him while also trying to protect the civilians caught in the crossfire. Zod notices this and remarks to Ursa, “This Superman is nothing of the kind. You see, I've discovered his weakness. He cares. He actually cares for these Earth people.” Ursa frowns and suggests, “You mean like … pets?” Zod grimaces and admits, “I suppose so.”

Wonderful illustration of just how different Zod and Kal were in personality. One views Earth as his home, his people. The other can’t even picture humans as equals to Kryptonian life.

Natrually, Zod was defeated at the end of the movie, even rendered powerless. He was not seen again in film or television, but fans never forgot him or the phrase “KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!” Years later, filmmaker Kevin Smith actually had his character Jay attack a security guard and then proclaim, “Son of Jor-El … KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!”

FROM CONQUEROR TO SPREE KILLER

The 80s came. And THE CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS happened, an event which reordered a lot of continuity and history for many characters, not the least of which was Superman himself. For more details, go to my CRISIS GUIDE. Anyway, after the crossover was done, a few new mandates were handed down by DC. One was that Superman was, and always had been as far as history was currently concerned, the LAST son of Krypton. No other survivors, period. So Zod and the Phantom Zone criminals were all dropped from continuity.

John Byrne, the main architect behind the Superman reboot, later decided he wanted to bring back Supergirl. He couldn’t just bring back the same Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, because that would go against the "no other Kryptonians" mandate. So he took a roundabout way of bringing in a new version of the character who wasn’t technically Kryptonian.

After the Crisis, Superman had once journeyed to a parallel “pocket universe” in which a younger version of himself had become a hero called Superboy and lived in what readers realized was the Pre-Crisis version of Smallville. A while after this adventure, Byrne had Superman meet a young blonde woman dressed in a female version of his costume. This shape-shifting lady with telekinetic powers and the ability to become invisible called herself Supergirl. She was an artificial being from the same pocket universe, created by that Earth’s version of Lex Luthor to combat three villains who were destroying their planet. In the pocket universe, Superboy had not been the only survivor of his Krypton. There had been three villains who had survived as well, having been preserved in that universe’s version of the Phantom Zone. They were Dru-Zod, Zaora (why did Faora have to have her name altered slightly?) and Quex-Ul.

The three had been accidentally freed by Luthor and were now raining death and destruction on planet Earth, burning up the atmosphere and killing nearly everyone without care. The pocket universe Superboy was not around to fight them, as he had died during an adventure that happened after our Superman met him, and this Supergirl was not powerful enough to fight them. So she had come to get OUR version of Kal-El to help her.

Superman journeyed to the pocket universe and found that each of these three Kryptonian terrorists might have had the same powers as him, but were all stronger in each of those powers than he was. He was unable to defeat them and finally it came down to that Earth’s Lex Luthor being the last human being alive. This good Luthor told Superman about where there was some Gold Kryptonite hidden, capable of permanently robbing the Kryptonians of his universe of all their powers. Superman asked why Luthor hadn’t used it before, and the man said it was hubris. He had been responsible for freeing the criminals, he wanted it to be his hand that brought them down.

Superman used that universe’s Gold K to render the three villains powerless. Zod promised that he and his two soldiers would find a way to regain their powers and then they would journey to Superman’s universe and do to his Earth what they’d done to this one. Superman decided there was too great a risk and as literally everyone on this Earth was simply dead (not counting Supergirl), he decided he was the sole judge and jury left to pass sentence. Not wishing to risk his own planet, no matter how unlikely that possibility seemed, he used that universe’s version of Green Kryptonite (useless against him but lethal to this universe’s Kryptonians) to execute the three terrorists. They fell to the ground, reaching out and pleading to him as they all died. Superman was distraught, but didn’t believe he had any other choice.

Byrne left the Superman titles after that and many fans were ticked. While some were glad that Supergirl was back at least in some form, many claimed that it made no sense for Zod, a man who was always interested in conquering and enslaving, to literally kill every living thing he saw. How does one rule a world of corpses? What’s more, many pointed out that Luthor’s explanation of hubris preventing him from using Kryptonite on the three terrorists was ridiculous and merely part of a contrived plot to force Superman to actually kill villains for once.

To their credit, the following Superman writers, Roger Stern in particular, dealt with Superman’s execution very well and logically. Superman was extremely disturbed by an act he considered nearly as bad as simple murder. He was so traumatized by it that a psychic attack by Brainiac caused him to take on the identity of Gangbuster, where he pretended to be a human being who attacked criminals with no mercy and no qualms about hospitalizing them, because internally he believed this was the kind of man he had become.

Supeman later realized he had a psychotic break and decided that a mentally unstable Superman was too dangerous to remain on Earth. He exiled himself to the stars, still haunted by the images of Zod, Zoara and Quex-Ul dying in front of him. Eventually, less powerful now due to his absence from a yellow sun, Superman was taken as a slave by the alien warlord Mongul. This experience helped him open his eyes and he regained his fire when he was refused to kill his opponent, declaring loudly that he was Kal-El of Krypton, Superman of Earth and that no matter what he would not kill an opponent he could defeat otherwise.

Around the same time, the Phantom Zone was re-introduced as a twilight dimension that Superman’s ancestor Kem-L had discovered, using it as a storage facility for Kryptonian artifacts which would later adorn the Fortress of Solitude. Naturally, then, things did not lose their physical nature in the Phantom Zone any longer, but it was still true they couldn't interact with the rest of the universe (nor could they actually see the rest of the universe it seemed now).

Superman returned to Earth and resumed his life, but occasionally his thoughts would stray to the death of Zod, reminding him just how important it was that he never take a life in the future.

Of course, since he was dead, there wasn’t much chance for a rematch, so Post-Crisis readers never really thought of Zod after those initial stories.

THE MAN IN RED

As the new millennium approached, Jeph Loeb had Clark and Lois journey to a version of Krypton that existed in the Phantom Zone (later it would be discovered that this was a fake Krypton). On this version of Krypton, there was a General Dru-Zod who was attempting to discredit Jor-El’s pleas that Krypton would explode soon and was trying to take over. Along with introducing us to a new actual Kryptonian alphabet, Loeb gave Zod his own cool Kryptonian seal. This version of Zod later wound up disintegrating, swearing he would have his revenge.

Notice the small "Z" logo on his hat.

Around the same time, a man in red armor with green eyes took control of the fictional Eastern European country Pokolistan. For months, he staged various attacks on Superman, infecting him with a Kryptonite cancer and later mutating that same tumor into an actual living creature called Kancer. This General, as he was called, also sent out a couple of soldiers named Ignition and Faora. And finally, he attacked Superman himself, breaking Kal’s jaw with his first punch. Superman's robot Kelex immediately panicked, registering this enemy as a "Doomsday level threat" and forced Kal to retreat.

"KNEEL!"

When they met again, the two fought viciously and with his hands aroung Superman's throat, the General proclaimed that the hero would “KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!” Superman said this was a trick, the only Zod he knew was lying dead in another universe. Before the question could be answered, the villain Imperiex made an attack on Earth and Superman had to put the mystery of the man in red aside so that he could engage in the OUR WORLDS AT WAR crossover.

It was assumed by some readers, myself included, that this Zod was the same one who had seemingly disintegrated in Loeb’s “Return to Krypton” story. And I do believe that was the original intention. But then Loeb left the books and the Krypton was revealed to be fake and finally a story came out revealing the “true” origin of this new Zod.

It was shown that during the Cold War, a Russian space satellite had been manned by several cosmonauts, two of whom had a child there. When Clark came to Earth, a few Kryptonite meteors came in his wake, some of which crashed through the satellite and killed most of the crew. The survivors were mutated, including the newborn boy.

Post-Crisis, it had been the policy that only one sample of Kryptonite had fallen to Earth, but with the advent of the show SMALLVILLE, DC became more open to the show’s idea that there had been several meteors that had crashed to Earth (though not nearly as many as the tv show potrayed). Mark Waid would later agree with this in his story SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT.

The boy was weak and they later discovered the sunlight weakened him more. With experimentation, the Russian scientists who had taken him in for study discovered that in the light of a red sun the boy grew incredibly powerful, more so as he got older. The boy trained with other super-agents, such as the KGBeast who would later become a Batman villain. Later, Superman came on the news and the boy (now in his late teens/early twenties) realized that he had an opposite number, one who had been birthed from the same planet that had killed his parents and turned him into a freak with its meteors. And somehow, the spirit of Zod from the pocket universe came into his mind and he grew a new identity and a new purpose. The armor he wore was to protect him from yellow sunlight and its insides bathed him in red solar radiation, making him Superman’s equal in power.

The two fought and the new version of Zod (who made himself resemble Superman in looks) tried to blanket the Earth in red solar radiation, turning the table on how he and Superman lived. In the end, the sun was restored and Zod, not realizing this, rammed himself into Superman at top speed just as his powers went away. He died and Superman was saddened by the death of an enemy who had really been confused more than anything else.

A rather lackluster ending for a villain who had a lot of potential. I feel like after Loeb left, the other writers just weren’t sure what to do with him, not realizing the great potential of now having essentially a Kryptonian version of Dr. Doom on their hands. Ah, well.

THE GENERAL IS BACK

With SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT, Mark Waid presented a version of Superman and Krypton that melded what he believed to be the best elements of Pre and Post-Crisis history. Brian Azarello took these ideas and followed them out in his story SUPERMAN FOR TOMORROW, where it was retconned that instead of Superman’s ancestor Kem-L discovering the Phantom Zone, it was Jor-El who created it specifically to be a prison for a man deemed too dangerous to be locked up in any other way, a man whom he considered to be his mortal enemy and who considered him in the same regard: General Zod. This version of the Dru-Zod considered himself "Krypton's greatest visionary and its greatest threat."

Jor-El sends Zod through a Phantom Zone portal

In SUPERMAN FOR TOMORROW, Superman tried to create a utopia for Earth people within the Phantom Zone and Zod attacked him, sporting a new suit of armor that definitely showed this was not your Daddy’s Zod. The Kryptonian villain was enraged that the son of his jailer was now trying to turn his prison into a paradise for others. He donned a suit of armor that made him look every bit a Devil counterpart to Superman's angelic nature and they fought viciously.

In the end, Zod drifted helplessly into the outer reaches of the Zone and is likely still floating around there.

Zod without his helmet on (he's got some hair now!!)

This story opens us up to the possibility that at least a couple of Zod’s Pre-Crisis battles with Superman are back in continuity and I for one am glad. Like the Pre-Crisis Brainiac, the old version of Zod just seemed a lot more menacing than what came later. (And besides, I have my own story written down of how Superman and Zod first meet, as a sort of sequel to Birthright, so I would like very much to be able to get away with that story someday :-P).

OTHER MEDIA

Although a couple of Phantom Zone villains (Jax-Ur and Mala) showed up in the SUPERMAN ANIMATED SERIES, Zod was not among them. He DID show up in the SUPERMAN ADVENTURES comic that was meant to emulate the Animated Series and its continuity. He called himself the "Butcher of Argo" and the "Merchant of Death." He was a loud and boasting conqueror, revelling in his power and lust for violence.

In the show SMALLVILLE, Terrence Stamp has been portraying the voice of Jor-El (interesting switch). In the season premiere of this season, two Kryptonians landed on Earth, each sporting a tattoo of the same symbol Loeb had designed for Zod a couple years back in “Return to Krypton” (not surprising, since Loeb is involved in SMALLVILLE). These two Kryptonians claimed to be followers of Zod and tried to send Clark thorugh a Phantom Zone portal they opened (it was described as a place Kal couldn't escape from, but we old school movie fans knew damn good and well it was the Phantom Zone). Clark beat them, of course, and sent them through the portal themselves.

Zod's logo, originally created in "Return to Krypton"

Later, when the SMALLVILLE version of Brainiac attempted to take control of the Fortress of Solitude, he opened up a portal and shouted “GENERAL ZOD! You’re free!” Clark closed the portal and forced Brainiac to flee, but not before he found out that Zod had apparently been a dictator that his father had helped overthrow.

It seems Zod is intended to meet Clark on SMALLVILLE. Who will play him and what will happen in that battle is something we’ll have to wait and see. And with the new SUPERMAN RETURNS movie coming out, is it too much to hope that a sequel may feature Zod as well (or at least give us Brainiac)?

I hope you enjoyed this look on General Dru-Zod and his history. Future articles will deal with THE FLASH and STARMAN. Also, be on the look-out for my new “KNUCKLE-FEST” feature in which I will pit people against unlikely opponents. Until next time, cheers!

And by the way, Happy Thanksgiving!

Alan Kistler is a New Yorker in his mid-twenties who has been labeled a “continuity cop” and “comic book historian” in articles of Wikipedia.org and by several of his readers. He enjoys both those titles very much and loves the opportunity of writing these articles for Monitor Duty, run by the ever-patient Michael Hutchison. His fan-fiction blog can be found HERE. He would love to write for DC and Marvel some day. He also wants to time travel.

Other articles by Alan Kistler, including various other Profiles posted on Monitor Duty, can be found HERE.