The best reason that could be used to explain why Superman kind of had to kill Zod in Man of Steel is that he had no other choice. He’d met someone that wouldn’t stop, that wouldn’t be caged, and wouldn’t cease unless someone was able to put him down. To think that people like this exist in real life isn’t hard. There are those that will go and go and go until someone can put a stop to them, and it’s never a pretty picture when it comes to facing down someone that won’t end until they or those they’re pitted against are no longer standing. With someone like Superman and Zod, it’s a matter of pitting two individuals that could break the planet if half if they really unloaded with everything they had. The only problem was that Zod knew what he could do, and he wasn’t bound to stop himself since conquest was what he did, it was in his blood, and it was the only reason he had for existing at that point. But for Clark, life was precious as he’d been taught to revere life and to believe that taking a life had a great deal of power that he didn’t want to face. Considering that he’d developed his powers since he was young, Clark was still finding out just what he could do and where he’d come from, while Zod had decades if not more of military and combat experience under his belt. If not for Clark’s sheer strength and years of adapting to earth it might have been a very one-sided battle. In a sense it kind of should have been in the first place since combat experience versus raw power is usually seen to win out, but Superman losing to Zod would paint a grim picture that DC would have undoubtedly said ‘no’ to.
On that note, however, it’s still hard to really accept the verdict that Zod had to die if only for the reason that he would be set up to become Doomsday in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. A lot of people were actually excited about this, but some were groaning and face-palming themselves as they tried to figure out what DC was trying to do. As a lot of fans already know, Doomsday and Zod do share one similarity, they’re both from Krypton. The biggest difference however is that Doomsday was born in the prehistoric times of Krypton as a scientist performed cruel experiments on an infant until The Ultimate, or Doomsday, was created. In the movies, this was scrapped to allow Lex Luthor to give rise to the Doomsday we’ve already seen, and the one that has been dealt with. There are times when the comics, however kooky they might get, are better off being followed no matter if the story has been told and directors want to find something else to do with the characters. People would actually love to see the source material presented in a way that they can recognize if only to see just what it would look like onscreen.
The amusing thing about this is that Zod usually, in the comics, doesn’t want Superman dead. Instead, he feels that the powers that Clark has are wasted on him since he won’t seek to define himself by his physical might and act as a superior should to those beneath them, in Zod’s opinion. This makes it necessary for Zod to attempt to show Clark much like a cruel drill instructor just how things are supposed to be done and how the natural order is meant to be followed, again, in his opinion. Zod is all about power, superiority, and who should rule. The fact that Superman chooses to live among the humans obviously doesn’t sit well with Zod as he’s tried to get Superman to unleash his full potential more than once in the past. But for all that he does try, Clark, who was taught to be a kind and caring individual, refuses and seeks to save and preserve life as much as possible, protecting the human race as he believes they’re worth saving. Zod on the other would flatten the planet if he was given the chance, and Clark comes to realize this at one point and sees that Zod will continue to slaughter those that oppose him if he’s not stopped for good. It’s interesting to note that if Zod had spent any more time under a yellow sun that he might have easily overcome Clark and beaten him senseless, but of course the ‘what if’ game is one that gets played a lot, while the idea is that the people in charge took a big risk in getting Superman to break one of his most important rules: no killing. It was a gamble, but it’s definitely generated a lot of discussion.
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