Kneel Before Zod #1 – Joe Casey, Writer; Dan McDaid, Artist; Mike Baron, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: Villain-led books are always tricky to pull off, but the groundwork for this title has been laid for some time. Both Brian Michael Bendis and Robert Venditti played a role in setting Zod up to retire from villainy by getting everything he wanted—a planet to turn into New Kandor. Now he rules over a rising world, populated by natives who are second-class citizens and a small number of Kandor/New Krypton refugees as he plots to release the inmates from the Phantom Zone and create a new Kryptonian empire. He’s the unquestioned ruler of a world, his wife is his second-in-command AND expecting his second child, and he has an heir in his son Lor-Zod—except that Lor-Zod is bristling under his orders and is actively seeking to challenge him—starting with investigating Zod’s secret projects in the forbidden zone. And those projects look a lot like a massive weapon aimed at… something.
The question of whether Zod can rule in peacetime is an interesting one, and so far the outlook is spotty at best. He’s a general at his core and is unable to turn it off. So when his son challenges him, he battles him and then banishes him—in a twisted attempt to help Lor-Zod grow through hardship. It might be more Conan than Ozai in its intentions, but it’s still another case of Zod potentially creating a new enemy for himself. Add in a growing rift with Ursa and tensions with the United Planets, and a small Khund invasion might be the least of his worries. Overall, this debut is pretty interesting—it’s Zod’s first solo focus, and this creative team’s first DC work in a very long time. But it does suffer a bit from a lack of likable characters in this first issue. It’s clear from the beginning that Zod hasn’t changed, his circumstances have—and that can only last so long.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
