Ask the average, casual fan who is Superman’s second most popular villain in his rogue’s gallery after Lex Luthor, and most people would tell you it’s General Zod. In the pages of the comics, the second biggest Superman villain would probably be Brainiac, but thanks to the character of Zod’s status as the bad guy in the movies Superman II and, more recently, Man of Steel, for most the ruthless Kryptonian military leader is much higher on that list.
Now, General Zod is coming to plague Superman’s cousin Kara on the second season finale of Supergirl, and is likely being set up as the “big bad” of season 3. The first pics of actor Mark Gibbon (Stargate, Smallville) on the set in Vancouver have surfaced online, and you can see them in the tweet below:
Mark Gibbon’s menacing General Zod on #Supergirl in Robon Square Apr 25. He uses his heat vision in this scene @WhatsFilming @olv @yvrshoots pic.twitter.com/CaFVyzXDIc
— WonderWoman (@ThemysciraBound) April 26, 2017
The first season of Supergirl featured a series of Kryptonian survivors led by Kara’s aunt Astra as the bad guys, so we know that in the show’s mythology, there are far more Kryptonian survivors than just Supergirl and Superman. In both the comics and the movies, General Zod (and at least two more companions) were exiled into the Phantom Zone before the destruction of Krypton.
On Supergirl, Kara’s escape pod from Krypton got knocked off course by going through the Phantom Zone, which in the show was also the home of the Kryptonian prison, Fort Rozz. When Kara’s pod escaped the Zone and landed on Earth and was discovered by her cousin Kal-El, it was revealed that Fort Rozz was also released from the Zone, and crashed in Nevada. It’s the show’s explanation for why there are so many alien refugees on Earth. So was General Zod on Fort Rozz too? And if so, where has he been hiding all this time? Astra’s companion in season one was Non, who is traditionally one of Zod’s underlings. Could he have had something to do with hiding Zod somewhere on Earth?
Although General Zod first appeared in DC Comics in 1961, he was just one of several different Phantom Zone criminals who came into conflict with Superman over the years, and didn’t make that much of an impact. But when director Richard Donner was making the original Superman movie, he gave actor Terrance Stamp’s Kryptonian character the name Zod, and it was then that the villain truly reached iconic status. There have been other interpretations of Zod in the comics over the years, but they all stem more from Stamp’s portrayal of the character than anything from any comics that came before him.
In both Superman II and Man of Steel, Zod’s trusted second-in-command is a bad ass female Kryptonian. First it was Ursa, then more recently it was Faora. I would imagine that on Supergirl, we’d get a version of one or both of those bad ass ladies, although so far, no casting announcements have been made. Zod is certainly a big enough threat that Kara wouldn’t be able to handle him on her own, which is probably why her cousin Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) is also returning for the season 2 finale. Superman is only used sparingly on the show, so if Zod is indeed the big bad for season 3, Kara will likely be taking him on alone for the most part.
What do you think is in store for Supergirl facing off against one of her cousin’s most dangerous villains? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.
Images: DC Comics
