Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Young Justice season 4.
The House of Zod took on a new prominence in Young Justice season 4, with one episode introducing both General Dru-Zod and a man called Lor-Zod into the ensemble. The House of Zod was one of the oldest families of Krypton in the original Superman comics, and frequent rivals to the House of El. Young Justice seems to be continuing that tradition by revealing Lor-Zod as Superboy’s attempted murderer and by introducing the infamous General Zod as an ironic ally of circumstance.
The action of Young Justice season 4, episode 18, “Beyond The Grip of the Gods!” revealed that the White Martian terrorist and brother of Miss Martian Ma’alefa’ak was on Apokolips, continuing to seek the favor of the tyrant Darkseid. This led to him being ordered to accompany Mantis (the arch-enemy of the Outsiders’ Forager) and a figure who was unknown to him, but recognizable as the time-traveler who seemingly killed Superboy earlier in Young Justice season 4. When Ma’alefa’ak asked the stranger for his name, he replied “I am Lor. Lor-Zod,” as the camera revealed his armor to be emblazed with a red sigil resembling a stylized “Z.” This was a nod to the modern Superman comics, where the House of Zod’s emblem was remade into a dark mirror of the gentler curves of the House of El’s S-shield.
General Zod requires no introduction to even casual superhero fans, having been the chief villain of both Superman II and Man of Steel, but the character of Lor-Zod is a more recent creation. He first appeared in 2006’s Action Comics #844 and is notable for having been co-created by Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner and Geoff Johns with artist Adam Kubert. Lor-Zod was introduced as the son of General Zod and his right-hand, Ursa, conceived in the Phantom Zone after their imprisonment and sent out into the physical world using an experimental ship in an ironic echo of Kal-El’s own journey to Earth from the doomed Krypton. This version of Lor-Zod rejected his father’s teachings and was briefly adopted by Lois Lane and Clark Kent before sacrificing himself to reimprison his parents in the Phantom Zone. Since that time, an older version of Lor-Zod who was loyal to his father was introduced into the DC Rebirth reality in 2017. The name of Lor-Zod was also given to a character in the cast of Krypton, though that Lor-Zod was an ancestor of General Dru-Zod rather than his son.
The character of General Zod was introduced later in the same Young Justice episode, as Conner “Superboy” Kent continued to fight his way through a strange dimension, finally confirmed to be the Phantom Zone. There, Superboy was tormented by images of what his life would have been like had he become the living weapon Lex Luthor had intended to forge when he cloned Superman. He was then comforted by a stranger, who explained that Superboy was suffering from what was called “Zone-Sickness” and that he could teach him how to overcome it and survive in this harsh world. The stranger quirked an eyebrow when the amnesiac Conner introduced himself as “the Superboy” but said nothing else before replying, “My name’s Dru… Dru-Zod. General Dru-Zod.” The camera pulled back to reveal that his armor had the same symbol as Lor-Zod’s as the episode ended.
General Zod and the concept of the Phantom Zone were both introduced in the same 1961 comic book story, “The Phantom Superboy,” from Adventure Comics #283, so it is historically fitting that Young Justice should introduce him into the reality of Earth-16 at this point in the story. It seems doubly fitting then, given that the central story of the Young Justice: Phantoms season also centers around a phantom Superboy.
