General Zod

General Zod
General Zod as seen in Action Comics #845 (January 2007). Art by Adam Kubert.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Adventure Comics #283 (April 1961)
Created by	Robert Bernstein George Papp
In-story information
Full name	Dru-Zod
Place of origin	Krypton
Team affiliations	Kryptonian Military Guild
Partnerships	Non Ursa Faora Quex-Ul Nam-Ek Aethyr-Ka
Abilities	Trained military strategist and warrior Super strength, speed, endurance, agility and hearing Flight Heat Vision Vortex and freezing breath Healing factor Invulnerability Longevity X-Ray Vision Enhanced extrasensory

General Zod (full name Dru-Zod) is a fictional supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character, who first appeared in Adventure Comics #283 (April 1961), was created by Robert Bernstein and initially designed by George Papp. Zod is a warlord from Superman's home planet of Krypton. As a Kryptonian, he exhibits the same powers and abilities as Superman and is consequently viewed as one of his greatest enemies.

In Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), British actor Terence Stamp portrayed the character, which Total Film later ranked as #32 on their "Top 50 Greatest Villains Of All Time" list in 2007. Pop-culture website IGN.com ranked General Zod as #30 on their list of the "Top 100 Comic Book Villains", asserting that "Stamp is Zod" (emphasis in original). The character was played by Michael Shannon in Zack Snyder's 2013 film Man of Steel, and by Callum Blue in Smallville.

Dru-Zod is a megalomaniacal Kryptonian, in charge of the military forces on Krypton. He knew Jor-El, Superman's father, when Jor-El was an aspiring scientist. When the space program was abolished after the destruction of the inhabited moon Wegthor (engineered by renegade scientist Jax-Ur), he attempted to take over Krypton. Zod created an army of robotic duplicates of himself, all bearing a resemblance to Bizarro. He was sentenced to exile in the Phantom Zone for 40 years for his crimes. Zod was eventually released by Superboy when his term of imprisonment was up. However, he attempted to conquer Earth with his superpowers acquired under the yellow sun. With his threat now obvious, Superboy was forced to oppose him and ultimately returned him to the Zone.