Man of Steel: Superman's Kill Count

Superman killed General Zod in Man of Steel.  That fact is irrefutable, I have the DVD, I’ve seen it multiple times.  This is, apparently, a big deal because Superman doesn’t kill…

Except when he does.  In the comics.  A lot.

But those are the comics, surely Superman doesn’t kill in the live action adaptations.

Except when he does.  In the 1950’s TV series, Superman (played by George Reeves) takes a pair of thieves who have deduced his identity to the top of a mountain and lets them climb down.  Being a pair of street thieves from the big city, they of course have all the mountain climbing skills of your average fish and promptly plummet to a gruesome demise.

Okay, but he didn’t technically kill him, that was negligent homicide.

It’s still homicide though.  But let’s not count that one.  In the more recent media, Superman doesn’t kill, except that time in Smallville where Clark killed a phantom zone criminal.  After he had beaten him.  After.  That’s an important distinction by the way.

A lot of this “Superman doesn’t kill” mojo seems to stem from those of us with very fond memories of the Christopher Reeve Superman films of the late 70’s and into the 80’s.  That Superman stood for truth, justice, and the American way and certainly didn’t resort to killing his enemies.

Except in Superman 2.  In that film he sent three de-powered villains (essentially humans) plummeting to their icy deaths, one of which had been thrown twenty feet across a room after having his hand shattered.  No, the official record shows Lois killing one, one accidentally jumping to death, and our colorful hero smirking as he murders a crippled man.

To be fair, there is a deleted scene from the film showing authorities picking up the criminals outside the Fortress of Solitude, but the thing to remember about deleted scenes is they are not canon.  They are removed elements of the story.

A dark moment, sure, but later movies don’t have him killing anyone…until Superman 4 The Quest for Peace.  Here, he shuts off Nuclear Man’s power source (this time rendering him as threatening as a coma patient) and then dumps his body into a nuclear reactor.  He had broken of Lex Luther’s programing at this point, he was an individual.  Maybe they could have rehabilitated him.  Nope, better to wait until he’s defenseless and have Metropolis cannibalize his body.

And for those of you who still want to cry “deleted scenes make it all better” he kills the original Nuclear Man (ie Bizarro) earlier in the film. 

At least he didn’t shove a bomb down someone’s crotch.  I’m looking at you Batman Returns.

So, when we go back to Man of Steel, did he have that many options?  When you get down to brass tacks, Superman’s options are painfully limited.  He had been struggling in his fight with Zod and just now got the upper hand, mainly because Clark has spent literally his whole life avoiding physical confrontation.  Never learned how to fight because 1) He’s been invulnerable to physical harm his entire life, and 2) One punch would destroy any human opponent.  Now he’s faced with a guy who has powers that match his own and has the skills to pay the bills in a knock down drag out fight.  Zod was genetically engineered as a warrior.  Clark grew up on a farm.  He’s not going to win this one in a straight on brawl, and was lucky to get the upper hand when he did.

We’re going to look at options on what he could have done and how, unfortunately, they couldn’t work.

1)      Clark could have put his hand over Zod’s eyes:  And then what?  Hold his head indefinitely?   Who’s to say his Zod’s heat vision wouldn’t have charbroiled Superman’s hand?  We know from the comics that Kryptonians can adjust the intensity of the heat vision, and Zod looked like he was going full blast.

2)      Clark could have delivered a coordinated strike to the base of Zod’s skull and knocked him out:  How?  When would Clark have had cause to learn that bit of information?  When would that have made sense to his character?  Again, grew up on a farm, spent most of his adult life looking for answers about where he came from, working odd jobs.  Further, lets say, for argument’s sake, that he did pick up that bit of info on his travels.  The split second he moved one of his hands to deliver this strike, Zod would break the hold and the fight would have been on again.

3)      He could have captured him:  And put him where?  The Phantom Zone generator was destroyed with the ship.  Even if it was intact, and Clark has the super smarts to fix it he would still need time.  Where do you put him in the mean time?  What holding facility on the planet is adequate to hold Zod?  The only reason the military “captured” Superman is because Superman turned himself in and willingly stayed. 

The fact is, the writers painted Superman in a corner.  I can appreciate the choice to kill Zod because he was a clear and immediate threat to the public at large and there were literally no other immediate and adequate options available.  Further, at least this time Superman killed someone and showed some level of remorse over the issue.

Thanks for reading.