At this rate, the complex Superman prequel series, Krypton could easily just bring on a time-traveling Kal-El. Why not? If you count a sly Lex Luthor easter egg in the first episode, four of Superman’s greatest enemies have either been referenced or outright depicted, despite the fact all of this takes place two generations before his birth. On Wednesday, the sixth episode of Krytpon confirmed one old Superman bad guy and dropped another one in by surprise. But what does it all mean? And is Adam Strange on the level or what?
Spoilers ahead for Krypton episode 6, “Civil Wars.”
You’d think the big reveal this week is that Lyta’s time-traveling son (played by fan favorite Colin Salmon) is General Zod. If you’re a DC fan and a Superman fan in general, that, in theory, should be enough to carry this entire episode. Adam Strange recognizes General Zod, tells Seg that Zod is a giant asshole in the future, and everyone is conflicted. The audience is conflicted of course, too. The primary reason to be upset about Seg and Lyta not totally trusting Adam is only if you have a vague understanding of the idea of General Zod from other Superman media. But, based on his behavior, this version of the character might be totally different.
Seg and General Zod join forces
Part of the reason why the new time-traveling General Zod is such a mystery is that it’s hard to believe that Lyta would raise someone who would end up hating House El as much as we know Zod does. Plus, now there’s the whole notion that there’s another combo-house on Krypton that is a mash-up of House El and House Zod. How and when this happens, and the origin of the weird combo sigil is also still up in the air. But again, that’s not even the big news in this episode.
House Zod combined with House El (but when?)
Sure, we know that the Voice of Rao is infected by Brainiac, and now, in the final moments, it looks like he’s going on a killing spree. But, hold on. What’s this? Seg and General Zod have now discovered Doomsday buried in the depth of the planet? Yep, that’s right. The monster Doomsday, who, in the 1992 DC storyline, is the killer of Superman.
Appropriately, Doomsday is rendered as a prehistoric Kryptonian monster, which checks with most of the creature’s origin stories from the comics. (Though in Batman V. Superman Doomsday was created artificially by Lex Luthor.) Right now, Doomsday is frozen, and pretty much everyone (except General Zod) wants to keep him that way.
So, now Krypton has introduced the following deadly Superman villains: Brainiac, General Zod, and Doomsday. Showrunner Cameron Welsh said we won’t see Lex Luthor, even though the character was vaguely referenced. But the question here isn’t whether or not we’ll see more Superman baddies, but instead, how can a Superman show WITHOUT Superman possibly hope to defeat all these classic villains?
It seems like the only answer would be to bring a time-traveling Supe himself into the fray, but that would, of course, invalidate Seg’s journey. So, how all the characters deal with all of this probably the number one reason to keep watching, if only because at this point it seems impossible that Superman’s timeline hasn’t already been severely altered. Afterall, if Seg takes care of Doomsday right now, that means Doomsday will never “kill” Superman like a whole century later. -Krypton airs at 10 pm eastern time on Wednesdays on SyFy.
