It’s a vastly overdone story idea: What if Superman was actually a jerk. It’s also very unnecessary considering that you’ve got a Jerk Superman already built into the lore. That is exactly the best possible use for General Zod.

Zod is a great mirror to Clark. What if Superman was the type who saw his powers as something that places him over other people? What if he thought that violence was the best way to solve problems? What if you had a Might Makes Right Superman? That right there is General Zod.

And like Superman, Zod comes with a whole family of his own. His wife Ursa may not directly parallel Lois in any real way, but just being a superhuman like her husband is a contrast to Lois. I bet there’s a plot to be mined from Lois and Ursa having to team up to save their husbands or something. Lois could show her that brute force isn’t the only way. And Zod and Ursa’s son Lor-Zod is a natural foil to Jon Kent, Lois and Clark’s son, the current Superboy. Given the chance I’d find a way to have Jon and Lor-Zod going to school together.

The Eradicator has been teamed up with the House of Zod in recent years. It’s probably not how I would have done it, but even that can parallel the Superman family. These days Eradicator is Zod’s Steel (or maybe his Kelex?). And Zod’s other soldiers, like Non or Faora, are basically his equivalents to Conner and Kara and so on.

Nothing I’m saying here is extremely revelatory. Mostly I think the books get what to do with Zod and friends. They may not do it exactly how I want, but nobody is getting is exceptionally wrong either. Given control of the franchise, I’d probably keep them out of the Phantom Zone and give them a base on an asteroid or something. They could commute to Earth and to other planets regularly, without needing a thing about breaking out to begin each plot. Let’s just have them all around when we need them. If nothing else, maybe it’d allow writers to go to the “Superman-Turns-Bad” well quite so often.

NOTE FROM 2019 PDR: I recently had cause to be playing around on the Wayback Machine site and noticed there was some Contains2 stuff on there. Here is a piece I put on that site Thursday, 27 June, 2002, 11:08 PM:

I realized something recently that sickened me. I’m prejudiced against people who are bigoted, which is ironic or something. In the efforts of making amends with all those bigoted persons who feel I may have wronged them, I am offering them twenty new stereotypes they can use as fuel in their constant battle against whoever else.

1. The Irish love Mountain Dew so much they routinely kill tourists and steal their money to get it.
2. The entire population of South America believe in the Loch Ness Monster.
3. All Americans wear poorly stiched hats that clash with their shirts.
4. All black people spend at least an hour a day practicing Multiplication with Flash Cards.
5. The Italian people have larger nipples than most.
6. All Jewish people dislike A Midsummer’s Night Dream, but they all love MacBeth.
7. Canadians brutally kill anyone who talks about Dan Akroyd in public.
8. All white people drink urine.
9. The Chinese are casually indifferent to kittens.
10. The Australians killed Jesus.
11. French people all ride DeLorians.
12. Gay people are secretly trying to make straight people eat more canned foods.
13. All English people are bad at Tetris.
14. Russians are addicted to pills made from sheep innards called Haggidol.
15. All lesbians are afraid of asteroids destroying the Earth.
16. Catholics all smell like bowels.
17. Japanese people are all poor and spend what money they do get on helicopters.
18. Arab people are terrible at breakdancing.
19. Mexicans are all impotent due to years of working with radiation.
20. Ethiopians won’t admit when they vomit, even if it happened in front of others.

Patrick D Ryall, the D is for Psyche

ANOTHER NOTE FROM 2019 PDR: I bet this thing gets me some site traffic I don’t actually want.