How come Superman the Animated Series had no General Zod?
- Thread starter indolover
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Why leave out one of Superman's iconic enemies? 
Jax-Ur was for all intents and purposes General Zod. He was certainly more Zod than he was the Jax-Ur of the comics.
Yeah Bruce Timm probably felt Zod was too specific to the movies and wouldn't have fit as well within his more comic-based animated series.
Although I do think an animated Zod would have been pretty cool to see (on JLU, perhaps). Especially if they got Stamp to voice him.
Although I do think an animated Zod would have been pretty cool to see (on JLU, perhaps). Especially if they got Stamp to voice him.
I'm glad they didn't use Zod. I am so ****ing sick of every single Superman interpretation revolving around Luthor and/or Zod. He does have other enemies. Plus I never thought Zod was a particularly good villain either. The only interpretation of him I actually enjoyed was the "New Krypton" version because he was more than just a conquering dick but out to protect his people.
When the DCAU was created, Zod was a character that was limited to the Donner films. Zod had never been a part of the comics continuity. It has only been recently that elements of that film have been incorporated into the larger Superman mythos (mostly by folks that were fans of those movies).
Bruce Timm was much more committed to the modern Post Crisis version of the DCU and thus rightly ignored anything that predated 1985 when creating his universe.
Bruce Timm was much more committed to the modern Post Crisis version of the DCU and thus rightly ignored anything that predated 1985 when creating his universe.
Actually until the Silver Age came back into fashion over at DC....Zod had not been used in ANY other interpretation of Superman. In fact it was Donner himself who inserted Zod into the comics. Smallville has been the only other incarnation to feature Zod...and that's because it slavishly copied the Donner films.
Wrong, guys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Zod .
General Zod was the only of the three Phantom Zone villains in the Donner/Lester films to take his name from one of the many PZ vils in the Silver/Bronze Age comics. He was quite different from the movie version, but he dates back to 1961.
General Zod was the only of the three Phantom Zone villains in the Donner/Lester films to take his name from one of the many PZ vils in the Silver/Bronze Age comics. He was quite different from the movie version, but he dates back to 1961.
^That's right. Zod was a recurring antagonist in the Silver Age, although he was just one of several major Phantom Zone villains, usually portrayed as a co-conspirator of the chief Phantom Zone villain, Jax-Ur, and the female villain Faora. (The movies' version of Zod was actually more like Jax-Ur than the comics' Zod, and Ursa was basically a renamed Faora.) But when the DC continuity was revamped in the late '80s, DC wanted Superman to be the only survivor of Krypton, so the Phantom Zone villains were phased out. When S:TAS decided to use the Phantom Zone villains, they went back to the Silver Age source material and chose Jax-Ur and Faora, but they changed Faora's name to Mala (poor gal can't get a break) and gave Jax-Ur some characteristics reminiscent of the movies' Zod.
It's only in the past five years that Zod has been reintroduced into the comics as a major character, and that happened in a story co-written by Richard Donner. The comics were probably following the lead of Smallville, which had featured Zod as a major villain because the show borrowed heavily from the Donner films. So people only familiar with the movies and Smallville could come away with the false impression that Zod has always been a key antagonist of Superman, but the fact is that he was never all that major a villain in the comics until recently.
It's only in the past five years that Zod has been reintroduced into the comics as a major character, and that happened in a story co-written by Richard Donner. The comics were probably following the lead of Smallville, which had featured Zod as a major villain because the show borrowed heavily from the Donner films. So people only familiar with the movies and Smallville could come away with the false impression that Zod has always been a key antagonist of Superman, but the fact is that he was never all that major a villain in the comics until recently.
CaptainJack
Lieutenant Commander
You know I dont think Superman SHOULD be the only surviving Kryptonian. It works better if he just "thinks" he is the last Kryptionian.
Bruce Timm was really offended by the notion of kneeling before Zod
Like it's been said, they merged characters together for the Timm Superman series: Jax-Ur was a combo of Jax-Ur and movie Zod, Brainiac was a combo of the Eradicator and Brainiac, etc.
It's like how Batman TAS merged villains together, their Clayface being a combo of Clayface I, II and III.
It's like how Batman TAS merged villains together, their Clayface being a combo of Clayface I, II and III.
^And their Tim Drake was basically Jason Todd with Tim's name.
Yeah, there were occasional post-Crisis comics stories that brought in villains named Zod and tried to reconcile them with the "no other Kryptonian survivors" policy of the time (like one was in a pocket universe, that sort of thing), but they were intermittent. The character popped up from time to time, but he was never as major a nemesis as people who are only familiar with Superman from the movies and Smallville might expect.
There was no Zod in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman either, though there was a similar character named Lord Nor. He didn't appear in the '88 syndicated Superboy either, though he and Ursa did show up in one episode of the '88 Ruby-Spears animated Superman series along with Faora. Overall, historically, he hasn't been one of Superman's top villains.
There is an issue of the S:TAS tie-in comic, the Supergirl special, which introduces Zod as a villain from Argo, the same planet the DCAU Supergirl came from. However, that issue contains a number of ideas that were contradicted by later DCAU continuity (like Wonder Woman and the Justice League already being active when Supergirl arrives on Earth, and Supergirl being immune to Kryptonite), so it's an apocryphal tale.
Yeah, there were occasional post-Crisis comics stories that brought in villains named Zod and tried to reconcile them with the "no other Kryptonian survivors" policy of the time (like one was in a pocket universe, that sort of thing), but they were intermittent. The character popped up from time to time, but he was never as major a nemesis as people who are only familiar with Superman from the movies and Smallville might expect.
There was no Zod in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman either, though there was a similar character named Lord Nor. He didn't appear in the '88 syndicated Superboy either, though he and Ursa did show up in one episode of the '88 Ruby-Spears animated Superman series along with Faora. Overall, historically, he hasn't been one of Superman's top villains.
There is an issue of the S:TAS tie-in comic, the Supergirl special, which introduces Zod as a villain from Argo, the same planet the DCAU Supergirl came from. However, that issue contains a number of ideas that were contradicted by later DCAU continuity (like Wonder Woman and the Justice League already being active when Supergirl arrives on Earth, and Supergirl being immune to Kryptonite), so it's an apocryphal tale.
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The very last (or at least one of the very last) Pre-crisis story is one that most people have never read - and features Argos City exploding and dead bodies falling from the sky all over Metropolis (which is also largely destroyed) - it's quite odd.
I'll agree with you about Zod, but not Lex. Granted, I don't think he should be the main villain of every Superman movie, but he is a central character to the Superman mythos. In a similar way to how an X-Men movie without Magneto wouldn't work, IMO.
True but very few have the appeal of Magneto. Their next best villain is the Sentinals and they wouldn't translate well to the big screen. Apocolypse. Mister Sinister. Nothing really appealing in them. There rest are mostly worthy of being henchmen/secondary threats.
Superman has a similar problem. Very few of his comic book foes are at the level of Luthor. Zod and Brainiac maybe. After that its strickly B list.
I freakin love Zod, but only because of Terrance Stamp. Simply using the name, as Smallville and the new movie are doing, just doesn't really do a whole lot for me.
Lex could be played by lots of different people, but Zod doesn't really work without that wonderfully pompous, aristrocratic attitude Stamp gave him.
Lex could be played by lots of different people, but Zod doesn't really work without that wonderfully pompous, aristrocratic attitude Stamp gave him.
Wouldn't they? The Transformers have managed to garner considerable box-office success despite the handicap of being in Michael Bay movies, so I don't see any reason to assume giant robots can't work well on the big screen.
First Class managed pretty well with the Hellfire Club, even if it only used two of its standard members. Although they did retcon Sebastian Shaw into essentially Magneto's forerunner, politically speaking, so it's not entirely divorced from that.
Zod was B-list in the comics for most of his existence. Luthor and Brainiac are the big two, then probably Metallo.
Callum Blue did a pretty good job channeling Stamp when he played a younger version of Zod on Smallville. And of course he had far more to work with in the characterization department.
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