Warning! Contains a preview for Kneel Before Zod #4!
Joe Casey and Dan McDaid’s Kneel Before Zod has become a fan-favorite DC series as it has documented the story of General Zod, one of Superman‘s greatest enemies. The series has followed the villain in his efforts to re-establish Krypton through New Kandor. However, the old bottled city has been left with a bleak future.
Kneel Before Zod #4 will pick up after the death of Ursa, as shown at the end of the third issue, leaving the door open for a new chapter in the life of Zod. The tragic demise of the villain’s love at the hands of alien attackers will push the Kryptonian general down an even darker path than readers are accustomed to. The miniseries follows Zod on his own cosmic odyssey, seeing him retain his evil persona while also being cast in a somewhat heroic, sympathetic light. His decision regarding Kandor is the latest reminder of the villain’s reckless, selfish nature.
Kneel Before Zod has flipped many aspects of Superman’s lore on its head, with Zod serving as DC’s mirror image, the evil counterpart to Superman. As shown in the fourth issue, this extends to his reckless treatment of valued parts of Krypton’s history — despite claiming to treasure them.
Zod Might Have Just Doomed Kandor
The Bottle City of Kandor has played an integral role in Superman history, as the last surviving piece of Krypton, as well as effectively a Noah’s Ark of its survivors. The Man of Steel has long been caught in a dilemma as to the city’s fate, with it remaining in a miniature state for most of DC history. However, now in the hands of General Zod, the city has been sent on a bleak, mysterious path. In a misguided effort to ensure the safety and survival of his people, the villain ensured the structural integrity of the city, only to jettison it into space.
The disparate treatments of Kandor illustrates a key difference between Superman and Zod. Where the Man of Tomorrow is, at his core, a hero of Earth, he has been an ever-vigilant guardian of Kandor, always defending it from external threats. Zod, on the other hand, claims to value nothing above the safety and well-being of his fellow Kryptonians. This only makes his decision to jettison the bottled city all the more perplexing. It also demonstrates the villain’s own irresponsibility, with him seeing space as a better, safer choice for the city than keeping it under his protection — or returning it to Superman.
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Kandor Is Facing A Bleak Future
Although the DC Universe is a relatively populated one, the thought of drifting alone in space is still a daunting one. Considering that Kandor’s inhabitants are in a state of stasis for the journey, it could open the door to a Kryptonian resurgence in the far future. There’s almost a sense of cosmic horror to the idea of being trapped in stasis for potentially millennia, let alone in space. The city could fall into the hands of just about anyone, from Darkseid or Brainiac to Lobo or Mongul. Whatever Kandor’s fate, General Zod‘s decision regarding the city leaves the door open for a new story in Superman‘s future.
