Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel has one of the most controversial and still-debated endings of any superhero movie, with Henry Cavill’s Superman killing General Zod, and it is worth considering what would have happened had Zod not died in the movie’s final battle.
Snyder’s Deconstructionist Approach
Zack Snyder’s deconstructionist approach to superheroes was first seen in his 2009 adaptation of Watchmen before really taking off with his 2013 Superman origin movie Man of Steel, which continues to polarize and inspire such intense debate that it is as if the movie had just been released (ditto for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League.)
Among the numerous elements of Man of Steel that remain controversial is the movie’s ending in which Superman snaps the neck of General Zod (Michael Shannon) to stop him from killing a terrified family with his heat vision. Detractors often cite this ending as a fundamental betrayal of the essence of Superman as a hero who embodies hope personified and who would never, ever, under any circumstances, take a life.
Putting aside that there are examples of Superman being forced to use lethal force in both the comics and numerous big-screen and televised adaptations, the reactions to Man of Steel’s ending raise the larger question of just what would have happened had Superman not resorted to killing Zod in Man of Steel. When looking at the situation in its totality, the possibilities of where their final showdown could have gone are not pretty.
Zod’s Unyielding Threat
To begin with, Superman and General Zod, both being Kryptonians, possess the same metahuman powers and invulnerability. They also share the same weaknesses of Kryptonite, red ultraviolet light, and sorcery, none of which were readily available during Superman’s final showdown with Zod. As such, the Herculean brawl between Superman and Zod could have easily continued indefinitely since both Kryptonians can withstand the kind of punishment they are capable of throwing at each other.
There is no reason to think that Zod was less than 100 percent sincere in his vow to wipe out all of humanity after Superman had thwarted his plan to terraform Earth into a new Krypton. Indeed, Zod’s rage made him an immediate threat to the whole planet since he was left with nothing to live for, but revenge after every surviving Kryptonian save for himself and Kal-El had been sent to the Phantom Zone.
Speaking of the Phantom Zone, the option to simply send Zod there with the rest of his Kryptonian followers was no longer on the table since the doorway to the Phantom Zone had been shut, and there was no tool to re-open it available. At that point, the only option Superman had left was to put a stop to Zod’s rampage as quickly as possible.
The Potential for Greater Destruction
While the level of destruction in Man of Steel is itself another of the movie’s controversial elements, the destruction seen in the film pales in comparison to what it could have been had Superman not stopped Zod when he did. Just one Kryptonian could wreak truly apocalyptic levels of death and destruction upon the entire world.
An ongoing brawl between the two of them could have wiped out entire nations in a matter of hours and most of the planet within a day or two at the most. Superman was quite literally in a race against the clock to stop Zod’s order from happening, and had he not broken Zod’s neck when he did, it could have created one of the most tragic and horrifying prospects of all – that being the death of Superman on an internal level.
The Psychological Toll on Superman
The longer Zod stood his ground, the more lives were at stake, and Superman being unable to prevent the deaths of billions of people could very well have left him a jaded, bitter, and even murderous superhero. Even in the event that Superman somehow managed to stop and imprison Zod without killing him, the sheer volume of death and destruction that would inevitably have preceded that outcome could have left Superman feeling that killing should now be the first option to stop a villain rather than the last resort.
Superman could then easily have determined that his own adherence to a strict code of never killing had ended up costing more lives than he saved. In turn, this could have led him down a very dark path, with Superman protecting what few humans remained on Earth with a philosophy closer to that of Injustice Superman or even Knightmare Superman, a truly horrifying scenario to contemplate.
The Necessity of Zod’s Death
For all the debate around Man of Steel’s ending, the undisputable fact is that General Zod was lashing out at all of mankind, showed no intention of stopping, and there were no means available to restrain, de-power, or imprison him. Superman, quite simply, didn’t have much choice but to kill General Zod to save the world, and it’s a very good thing that he did so when he did.
Had Superman allowed the final fight with Zod to go on for much longer, it could not only have wiped out the human race but completely destroyed the very heroism within Superman himself and turned him into the next General Zod.
Tell us, do you think General Zod’s death in Man of Steel was necessary? Also, check out our pieces on Jonathan Kent’s death scene in Man of Steel and why James Gunn can’t take Superman back to a no-kill rule.
