This week we take a long look at the General himself, General Zod. We dive into the past of the often psychotic, but always methodical villain of The Caped Crusader.
This issue might not make you kneel in joy, but if you and your friend can’t find a better Zod origin story then I WILL FIND HIM…a better one…because they’re out there.
Positives:
Ken Lashley’s art on this book is pretty fantastic, the amount of detail that is put into the characters and the backgrounds is rather breathtaking at times. Along with the rich and bright colours, this brings a nice look to the Man of Steel, who has lacked some colour in recent history.
Greg Pak also continues to prove himself to be one of DC’s best acquisitions in the past few years. He’s able to bring a fairly fresh origin to Zod while also adding a few quick snippits of Zod’s childhood, and while we at DC Comics News don’t believe in giving too much away with spoilers I will say, some of the stuff Pre-Pubescent Zod does is pretty intense.
While some of the dialogue from side characters and even Zod at times can be a bit weak, most of Zod’s lines and his internal monologue are fantastic. Pak is able to make Zod come across as both an incredibly intelligent military mind, and someone who is just, incredibly broken. You get glimpses of the friendship between Zod and Jor-El which gives more weight to Zod as a character. Throughout the book Pak almost makes you sympathize when a genocidal maniac…almost.
Negatives:
This is a negative that stretches across most villains month issues, almost every villains month comic suffers from not having enough time to develop itself and ends up either trying to shove in as much as possible, or just ends up being set up for future story lines and can’t really stand on its own feet.
While this issue might be cramming a lot of information and history into twenty-two pages it does a fair job of keeping everything fairly tight, though sadly it does burst at the seams in a few places.
However, as opposed to a number of other Villains Month issues that just sort of end without any real pay-off, Zod does a great job of making you want more, I’m fairly excited to see what Greg Pak will do with this new Zod in The New 52.
Verdict:
Action Comics #23.2: Zod has a few flaws here and there, but overall it’s a fairly strong addiction to Villains Month and a good way to give Nu52 Zod his introduction.
Action Comics #23.2: Zod is available digitally and physically with a normal cover for $2.99 USD, and with a special 3D lenticular cover for $3.99 USD
