Zod (DC Extended Universe)

"You believe your son is safe? I WILL FIND HIM!"

- Zod

General Zod is the main antagonist of the film Man of Steel. He was portrayed by Michael Shannon.

Biography
The planet Krypton is facing imminent destruction due to an unstable core drained of resources, and its ruling council is under the threat of rebel General Zod and his followers. Scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara launch a spacecraft carrying their newborn son Kal-El, born of natural birth, and a genetic codex which all Kryptonians are genetically "born" from with pre-determined life paths. After Zod murders Jor-El, he and his followers are banished to the Phantom Zone, but manage to escape when Krypton explodes.

Years earlier, Zod and his followers are released from the Phantom Zone, only to see the field of Krypton's remainders. After years of galactic searching, all colony worlds died out when Krypton stopped communicating centuries ago. Around the time of the scout ships activation, Zod detects the scout ship and travels to Earth where he demands that Kal-El must surrender to him. Because Zod threatened the native population if he does not comply, Clark agrees to surrender to the U.S. military, who thus hand Lois and Clark over to Zod's right hand Faora. Clark gives Lois a Kryptonian data key to activate the Jor-El program on Zod's ship, which later tells Lois how to defeat Zod. Zod reveals to Clark that he intends to use a terraforming "world engine" in conjunction with his own spaceship to transform Earth into a more Krypton-like planet and eradicate the human population, then use the codex (which has been revealed to be located within Clark's cells) to repopulate the planet with genetically-engineered Kryptonians.

After Clark and Lois escape, Zod deploys the world engine to the Indian Ocean and initiates the terraforming by hovering his ship over Metropolis. Clark, now dubbed "Superman", destroys the world engine in the Indian Ocean which deactivates the one in the city. The military then loads the spacecraft that brought Superman to Earth (which Superman delivers to them) into a military cargo plane and flies it into Zod's ship, creating a black hole with the pod's self destruct function. Then Faora attacks, causing the pilot Col. Hardy to fly the very plane with the shuttle into the world engine that consumes the ship and Zod's followers. Zod, having been separated from his ship earlier, still remains, and he and Superman use their powers to engage each other. After a lengthy battle, Superman is forced to snap Zod's neck to save a group of innocent civilians. Wracked with guilt for killing one of his own people with his own hands, he is comforted by Lois who arrived on scene.

Personality
Zod was a warrior at heart, as he was made to be. He is a violent, ill-tempered, ruthless, power-hungry tyrant that has no problem with genocide or mass-destruction as long as it benefits himself and his people. Despite all of this, Zod truly believes all his actions, no matter how violent are for the sake his people. This is shown when he comforts Faora after they witness Krypton's destruction.

He is shown to feel regret as well, especially his murder of Jor-El as the two were once friends and did agree on one thing, the end of Krypton.