Superman vs. Zod Part 2
Much like Brian said in his last post, with the big finale tomorrow night, we thought it would be neat to look at some of the greatest battles between Superman and Zod in the comics. While Brian wanted to look at a less recent battle between Zod and Superman, I figured it would be better to take a look at a more recent conflict between these two, but first some context for those who haven’t read World of New Krypton, the most recent story arc that has woven its plots all over the Superman family of books for the past year and a half or so.
New Krypton was established after Superman freed the bottle city of Kandor from Brainiac, who had captured the city and was holding it hostage on his ship. Afterwords, Alura, Supergirl’s mother and Superman’s aunt, Alura, used Kryptonian technology to free the city from its place on Earth to it’s own planet filled with Kryptonians, including Zod, who seems to have turned to the side of good. Superman leaves Earth for a year in order to be an ambassador of sorts between New Krypton and Earth, and ends up joining the military guild in order to help the thousands of Kryptonian soliders get a better handle on their newly acquired powers. Things progress and eventually other plot lines come to a head with an unlikely duo of Brainiac and Lex Luthor deciding to attack New Krypton. After Lex Luthor unbottles a random city Brainiac had in his ship, the ship crashes and kills many Kryptonians. Zod then attacks and almost kills Brainiac, but Superman interferes, saving Brainiac’s life, and telling Zod that if they he was to kill Brainiac, that they would be no better than the monster himself. Brainiac 5, one of the members of the Legion of Superheroes and a descendant of Brainiac himself, then appears and teleports the two away to the future. The attack wipes out all of the Council expect for Alura, and Zod uses this opportunity to rise to power and convince the public, which he tells 100,000 New Kryptonians that attacking Earth would be the best course of action.
Superman then barges into the command center where Zod, Ursa, and Non are monitoring things, and demands to know why Zod wanted to attack Earth. After avoiding an attack from Ursa, Superman is captured and held to listen to Zod’s plan of attack. Superman learns that Zod was never a good guy, and had no reason to ever turn good. Zod had everything planned out from the start. He had Superman join the military guild in order to have Superman train the Kryptonians on how to full control and use their powers. He reveals that he had a sleeper agent within the ranks of General Lane, (Lois’ father) but she was found out and killed, but not before transmitting valuable information to him. Zod also reveals that Lane had sleeper agents of his own embedded on New Krypton. However, Zod reminds Superman that his biggest fight is with Superman himself and he’s going to use this chance to destroy the planet he loves so much and to also find the woman Superman loves and kill her in front of Kal-El. At this point, Superman breaks free and warns Zod that if he follows through with this plan, it could mean the end for both worlds. Zod then trumps Superman by saying that he’s already given the order to attack Earth.
This brief conversation show just how truly powerful, calculating, and evil Zod is. He’s always one step ahead of Superman and is more than a worthy foe for our Man of Steel. War of the Supermen is on sale at your local comic book store and will see a huge change for the Superman Universe moving forward and so far has been an interesting read. Issues #1 and #2 are already on sale as I said, with issue #3 coming out May 19, and issue #4 coming out May 26. I highly recommend you check it out! However, if you have read the first two issues, what did you think? Sound off in the comments below!
I’ve actually been enjoying the New Krypton stories, specifically the titles that focus on Superman on New Krypton and the ones with Mon-El (I’ve developed a soft spot for Mon-El).
I also like Lois’ role in these stories because with the world deciding that all Kryptonians (with the aid of General Lane’s propaganda) are dangerous, Lois has remained the Voice of Truth. She’s doing what she does best, using her journalistic skills to remind people of what Superman has done for them all, and also trying to get people to realize that Flamebird and Nightwing, Mon-El and Supergirl, that they are still on the side of Earth, either quietly or openly protecting humans, and that those that wear the \S/ symbol (Supergirl, Mon-El, Steel) still believe not only what Superman stands for, but the man himself by openly wearing the shield and that humanity should to. Plus she’s been trying to expose just what her father is up to and getting into Lois Lane trouble while doing so.
This is my way of encouraging the Lois fans to give the titles a try :D. I read them regardless because it’s Superman, but it is heartening that just because he isn’t on Earth, that doesn’t mean Lois stops existing or being just as relevant to the Superman story than if they were working side by side at the Planet.
I totally agree Natasha. The work on Lois has been outstanding, particularly in Action Comics. I really wish Eric Trautmann and Greg Rucka, the writers on Action Comics, would do a Lois Lane on-going, but sadly, I don’t think DC thinks there’s enough interest for this.