General Zod's Secret Plan Brings Back Chris Kent

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Action Comics #984, by Dan Jurgens and Patrick Zircher, on sale now.

Action Comics #984 concludes the six-part “Revenge” storyline that started when Hank Henshaw assembled a team of villains to take on the Man of Steel back in issue #979. While things have changed considerably since then, and General Zod has taken over as the de facto leader of the so-called Superman Revenge Squad, the core of Dan Jurgens’ story remains family, and this final chapter not only delivers a surprising twist on the theme, it appears to alter Superman’s post-Rebirth continuity even further.

The story gets underway with a confirmation of the previous issue’s obvious fake-out; in short, Jonathan and Lois are not dead. Realizing the inherent threat of Zod’s heat vision, the Kents sent out an unmanned Kryptonian flyer knowing that the craft would make an easy target for Zod. Although Lois is safe, Jonathan has disappeared, and the worried mom is left asking Krypto -- who was absent for all of issue #983 -- where her son might have gone.

Meanwhile, in the Phantom Zone, an immaterial Superman gets his sight back, reversing the crippling injury he sustained in the black vault that surrounded Belle Reve. But he and his cohorts quickly realize that they are not alone: Zod has projected the Eradicator and a snivelling Hank Henshaw into the Phantom Zone, ostensibly to retrieve the General’s Kryptonian army. The inevitable confrontation ensues, and the heroes -- just like the villains -- discover that Zod’s plans aren’t what any of them thought.

Back at the Fortress of Solitude, Zod dispatches his non-Kryptonian allies one by one. He sends Metallo crashing into the walls with one punch, and Mogul into orbit with another. Blanque is in agony, bleeding from the eyes as he serves as a telepathic link to the Eradicator in the Phantom Zone. Then there’s Kara. Intent on revenge, the Kryptonian general plans to execute Superman’s cousin, but Jonathan steps in.

Piloting the same Kryptonian battle suit that helped resurrect his father after his deadly battle with Doomsday, Jonathan comes to Kara’s aid, but even with his enhanced strength (and the help of a mysterious stranger who has patched into the armor’s comm system) is no match for Zod, who rips off a mechanical arm. Although the melee is short, Jon wins Kara enough time to break Zod’s grip, and to strike back.

Lois then bursts into the scene with Krypto, who plunges his teeth into Zod’s leg and then into his neck, further slowing the tyrant down. But Superdog is no match for the general, who swats him away like an insect.

The combined strength of Superman’s family proves only a minor hindrance to Zod, and once the Eradicator has sent the telepathic signal to Blanque -- who is killed by the effort of serving as a psychic conduit -- the general activates the Phantom Zone projector. His objective, it turns out, is not the retrieval of his army but the return of his wife, Ursa, and his son, Lor-Zod.

But who is the Lor-Zod that the general has retrieved?

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Why Lor-Zod May Change Superman's Rebirth Landscape

Making his first appearance in Action Comics #844 during the Lost Son storyline -- which also gave us the original Superman Revenge Squad—Lor-Zod was born to Ursa and Zod in the Phantom Zone, but his father built a vessel that allowed the infant to escape the other -- dimensional prison. Like Kal-El, the Kryptonian child’s rocket made it to Earth, and he was adopted by Lois and Clark, who called him Christopher.

After his parents broke free and attacked Metropolis, Christopher sacrificed himself by following them back into the Phantom Zone, closing the portal to the alternate dimension behind him. He re-emerged some time later as New Krypton’s Nightwing, and endured painful accelerated growth spurts that caused him reach the equivalent age of a 23-year old.

Following a brief time in this adult incarnation, he reverted to his childhood form and was returned, once more, to the Phantom Zone. We last saw him during 2010’s War of the Supermen event. It is unclear at this point whether his history has been altered. However, finding him with Ursa, rather than in the company of Superman’s Daxamite “cousin,” Mon-El -- who was put into the Zone as a form of stasis after he was poisoned -- suggests that Lor-Zod’s status quo may have changed, much like the rest of the DC Universe when the New 52 era arrived; after all, despite Rebirth partially "fixing" Superman's continuity, we've yet to see any indication that he remembers Mon-El or the Legion of Super-Heroes, so it's possible Lor-Zod's story has been re-written in a manner that renders him a stranger to Lois and Clark.

With Superman in pursuit of Ursa, Lor-Zod and the Eradicator return to the Fortress of Solitude. There is no time for an extended family reunion, so we'll have to wait to learn whether Superman remembers his one-time adopted child. The injured Zod wants to fight, but Ursa urges flight. Kal-El and his enemy exchange glances before the General and his clan flee for the stars.

Knowing the pain of separation from his own family, did Superman show compassion to Zod, seeing a fellow father than a foe? His insistence on bringing back the rest of his trapped cohorts rather than pursuing Zod rings somewhat false, but he does take a couple of precautions in bringing everyone back; he asks Lois and Jonathan to hide, because he doesn’t want to reveal them to Luthor, and he leaves the dangerous Henshaw stranded in the Phantom Zone.

There is a symmetry between the Zod and Kal-El’s family at the end of Action Comics #984, but they are at cross purposes. Zod, Ursa, Lor-Zod and the Eradicator represent a vision of ethnic purity that is hostile to outsiders. Lois, Clark, Jonathan, Kara and Krypto represent a unit that embraces diversity.

Zod’s family is alone. The non-Kryptonian members of the Superman Revenge Squad were merely pawns in his scheme to free his family. Superman’s squad, on the other hand, is a coalition of ethnically diverse humans, metahumans and Kryptonians.

The issue's final panels show Zod and his family arriving on a peaceful alien planet that he can transform into a New Krypton. His goal, of course, is conquest and colonization. Unlike Superman, who is in many ways the ultimate immigrant, and who has found a way to combine his Kryptonian heritage with his humanity, Zod sees other species as inferior to his, and as raw material for his dream of an unsullied, ethnically pure Kryptonian race. He is very much a supremacist and a tyrant. For somebody who comes from an advanced society, he is no better than humanity’s worst dictators, colonizers and mass murderers.

The final page also reveals that the helper who guided Jonathan during his fight against Zod is the same Mr. Oz, who has been messing with the DC universe behind the scenes. In the lead-up to the November Doomsday Clock, it is still unclear where the hooded figure stands, but it’s likely that he helped Jonathan now, in order to use him as a pawn at a later date. His words about Lois expanding her way of thinking suggests that their future meeting, one which will finally take place in September, will not be pleasant.