So Superman kills Zod. Snaps his neck like he was opening up a commemorative Man of Steel Mountain Dew bottle. This angers you because Superman doesn't kill. He's better than that.
Here's why I like the fact that he killed Zod.
In the cannon, Supes just always has the high moral ground, but he never earns it. He never made a mistake.
He was born into the world, raised by surrogate saints Johnathan and Martha Kent to be a wholesome, all-around-good kid and he has always made the right decision ever since holding that car up in the air while Pa Kent changed a tire. I always had a problem with that portrayal. It seemed hollow. Here, by committing this one act just after all that spooky "This is who you are, Kal." drama necessary to explain his alien origins...we get to see him do the deed on his one regret.
We are privy real-time to his "If I had it to do over again..." moment and NO ONE, I mean NO ONE saw it coming.
This is as raw as it gets in my opinion. Here, we have the path laid out for the Hero to become the savior (forget all the Christ referencing...that's another blog and another writer) and we see him bandying about on that path. He destroys the earth killing machine and saves the day. Only he's not done. There's that one bit of unfinished business. Zod is still rambling about smashing and zapping anything that moves. This bit of business has one solution and one solution only,
Sadly, Kal/Clark for all his world travels fishing and bussing tables has not dealt with that choice before. The closest he came was allowing his father to die by innaction to save his secret identity (another point I loved) but that one stung. He hasn't forgotten that one and you feel it burned into his soul from the moment we see Kevin Costner gesture "No, boy. Leave me."
(Damn that one hit me hard)
But there we are, BIG problem that refuses to go away and is costing dearly every second it is allowed to remain.
SNAP. Problem solved.
I was pissed when I left the movie. Superman doesn't kill. I said that a dozen tomes to myself as I limped back down an eerilly deserted Jefferson Blvd at midnight (smashed toe the night prior) His moral compass points maybe not due North but damn sure to "Right" and as far opposite of "Wrong" as can be.
Then I played the chain back for the weekend.
- First encounter with death is through innaction. Innocent Dies
- Faced with another choice, chooses Action. Innocents saved, Guilty perish.
- Sees both decisions end in death. Realizes the illusion of choice.
The most powerful being on the planet now knows that death is a single breath away from him and nothing he does or doesn't do will ever change that. He has his moral delimma countered. He knows that innaction would have doomed innocents, as his innaction doomed his father, but he shoulders the burden "This one time." to change that course. This time...action = bad guy done and innocents saved.
He'll not make a habit of killing, I can tell from the anguish so brilliantly conveyed by Henry onscreen, but he knows the cost it involves and you better damn well bet that if you put him in that position, he's going to make certain the innocent puppy stays out of harm if it means toasting your ass.
I have come around on this one though I doubt that was the writer's grand design. As so often happens to me in my own writing sometimes I just fling shot out there and then spend the rest of the time painting myself out of a corner only to realize that I just wrote something so accidentally profound it moves me. I would like to think the writer here intended to show us "His One Regret" in such a manner as we would NEVER forget it. I would like to think that but the odds are against it.
Still, that doesn't diminsh the freaking TINGLE I get thinking about how I would paint myself out of that particular corner.
--rog--
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