Val-Zod (Earth 2)

Alias: Superman

Publisher: DC Comics

Created by: Tom Taylor, Nicola Scott, and Robson Rocha

1st appearance: Earth 2 #19, January 2014

Nationality: Unknown

Team Affiliations: Unknown

Legal Status: Unknown

Height: 6’3                    Weight: 230 lbs

Eyes: Blue                        Hair: Black

Relatives: Zod (Father, Deceased), Unnamed mother (Deceased), Kal-El (Adopted Brother), Zor-El (Adopted Father), Lar

Skills and Abilities: Thanks to his pod feeding him information for most of his life he is a keen scientific mind.

Powers:  Under a yellow sun he has superhuman speed, strength, endurance, resistance to injury, microscopic vision, Heat vision, Enhanced senses, etc. like Superman. His strength is comparable to other black supermen such as Icon, Blue Marvel, Harvey Dent, and president superman.

Weakness: Green Kryptonite causes him pain and weakens him.

Biography

Origin

On the alternate world of Earth 2, the Zod family came from Vathlo island where dark-skinned Kryptonians had lived for years, the same place President Superman originated. Val was an only child but when his parents tried to “speak the truth to power” they were punished for it and put to death. Lara and Jor-El then took him in and treated him as though he was his own child. He became fast friends with fellow orphan Kara-Zor-El. When Krypton was on the brink of destruction Lara and Jor-El launched four Kryptonian ships that managed to escape the planet [Earth 2 #25]. One contained Kal-El who would become Superman, another contained Kara-Zor El who would become Power Girl and one of them contained Val-Zod.  Inside his pod, his mind was fed the teaching of his parents, scientists about peace, and the need to avoid war and conflict at all costs. Stuck in the Capsule most of his life he became afraid of anything beyond his “bubble” [Earth 2 #22].

His pod crash-landed on Earth and he was found by Terry Sloan had secreted him under his base. He was attended to by Kym and secured behind a vault door. He was told he could leave at any time though he opted not to for his own protection. Upon meeting Batman, Jimmy Olsen, Aquawoman, and Red Tornado he becomes ill. At that point, Batman who is carrying Kryptonite realizes that the boy is Kryptonian.

Rise of Superman!

He is carried away by Red Tornado and Batman saved by Hawkgirl while evil superman rages war on the United States [Earth 2 #19, 2014]. Once at their secret location they try to convince the boy to embrace his powers and try to help them save the planet [Earth 2 #20]. After agreeing that needed to help his new-found friends he was trained in to fly by Louis Lane, now Red Tornado and Hawkgirl. The training didn’t last long however as the evil original Superman now under the control of Apokalips descend on the trio with para-demons and tried to kill them [Earth 2 #22].

His unwillingness to fight during the battle leads to the death of Red Arrow, the capture of Red Tornado/Louis Lane, and the heroes needing to flee. On Amazonia, he revealed the House of El symbol o his chest [Earth 2 #24]. With the aid of Dr. Fate, he rises up against the evil Superman but not before the opening of a Boom-Tube. In the process Evil Superman is destroyed after being revealed as a clone of the original [Earth 2 #26]. While investigating a fire pit in Geneva alongside Thomas Wayne/Batman and Red Tornado/Louis Lane they are attacked by the Fury of War [Earth 2: World’s End #1-3]. After their defeat, he combines his speed with Kara Zor-El/Power Girl to end a contagion threat and in the process, the two realize as adults their feelings are more than just friendly [Earth 2 #27]. Val used the remaining lab equipment to build suits for Helena Wayne/Huntress and Thomas so they could enter the fire pit. Inside they are confronted by Desaad who captures huntress and flees. They also stumble onto the cloning facility of Desaad and Val destroys Thomas’s power giving drug when it compromises his mind [Earth 2: World’s End #4-6]. 

World’s End

Val went to the Outskirts of Geneva alongside Lois and Thomas to save the people from the remaining Apokoliptian fire pits when two strangers arrived to the scene. When things were getting settled, a massive earthquake heralded the arrival of a female creature that emanated from the fire pit.^{[Earth 2: World’s End #1]}

They fought against the self-proclaimed Fury of War until she took control of Lois, Helena and Kara^{[Earth 2: World’s End #2]} with the intention of killing them while she joined her Fury sisters. However, Lois’ robotic body managed to reboot their minds and get free. Deciding to go right into the fire pits,^{[Earth 2: World’s End #3]} they took a detour to a nearby lab that sent a distress signal. The lab was being attacked by mutated creatures that could potentially contaminate the world, thus he and Kara had to combine their speed and strength to generate the impact force of a neutron bomb, effectively destroying the threat and saving everyone.^{[Earth 2 #27]}

Val used the remains of the destroyed lab to create protection suits for Batman and Huntress in order to descend to the fire pit, walking for hours before being confronted by DeSaad^{[Earth 2: World’s End #4]} who took Helena and escaped with her. Luckily, Batman had a tracking device that could lead them straight to Helena, following the trail to the lowest levels until they found what appeared to be the long lost Superman.^{[Earth 2: World’s End #5]} It was another clone, since they were currently on DeSaad’s cloning facility full of imperfect replicas of Superman, meaning that the original may still be alive. Thomas insisted that Helena was more important than the fallen hero, suffering the Miraclo’s intoxication that was driving him mad, forcing Val to destroy his drug.^{[Earth 2: World’s End #6]}

At that moment, the dead clones awoke and went through a destructive rampage before being neutralized by Batman’s electromagnetic pulse.^{[Earth 2: World’s End #7]} Searching once again for Helena, they came across Superman’s ripped shield that was kept as a trophy, as well as discovering that Helena’s vital signs suddenly disappeared, fearing the worst.^[17] They went behind DeSaad when this time, they encountered the real Clark Kent being held on a stasis pod, awakened by his wife before discovering that he was powerless^[18] and that DeSaad was creating armies of Parademons, right before being confronted by the new Fury of Famine.

They left Helena for Kara^[19] while Val took the rest to safety, but it was short as DeSaad appeared^[20] to unleash the Avatar of the Red upon them.^[21] Val quickly deduced the situation and discovered that the Red Avatar must be freed^[22] in order to finally destroy the entire cloning facility, something that Superman did by connecting himself to the entire network, successfully using his blood as poison for the whole labyrinth, releasing the Red Avatar while sacrificing himself.^[23]

The battle won, Val and Kara buried the previous champion of Earth on a peaceful hill before traveling to a World Army outpost. There, Val heard the entire planet rejoice at the fire pits’ extinction, receiving a call from Flash requesting assistance against the Furies. Arriving to the battlefield, Val defeated the Fury of War by overloading her cells with radiation, shutting her powers off.^[24] Unfortunately, Death’s child was finally born to revage the planet’s heart. They couldn’t do much since Atom’s Heaven was under the attack of the Protofuries led by Barda, destroying everything on their path until they arrived to push them off.^[25] Val and Kara joined Commander Sato and Steel on Atom’s Heaven HQ^[26] when Apokolips’ terraformer fell to Earth, with Val immediately recognizing the threat.^[27]

Val, Kara and Lois begin their attack against the terraformer, forcing it to unleash Parademon hordes to distract them^[28] until Commander Sato commanded them to attack Apokolips itself, crossing paths with a weathered Green Lantern who failed to shield Earth from Apokolips.

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