New Superman Villain Caused Krypton’s Destruction

Brian Michael Bendis has started his run on Superman with a bang, introducing a new villain who apparently caused Krypton’s destruction.

The veteran comic book writer has spent his entire career either at Marvel or creator-owned projects, so it was a surprise to fans when, a few months ago, he announced plans to jump ship to DC Comics. It was later revealed that his main interest was in Superman: he is making his premiere with Action Comics #1000, and will later do a Man of Steel miniseries before taking over both Superman titles.

This landmark thousandth issue features several stories, one of which (titled “The Truth”) was written by Bendis. There we meet Rogol Zaar, an axe-wielding alien being who is attacking downtown Metropolis. Apparently, he came to Earth specifically looking for the last members of the Kryptonian race, and while he admits that Superman and Supergirl are stronger than he expected, he handles the pair together with relative ease.

“I cleansed the galaxy of the Kryptonian plague, and I am here… to finish the job!” he says. And then, ending the story, reveals that he knew Superman’s birth father, Jor-El, and promised to finish him family line when “…when I destroyed the planet Krypton.”

While Krypton’s destruction was established way back in 1939’s Superman #1, the cause has varied in the telling. Usually it is some kind of environmental disaster, though often one caused by the Kryptonians’ own bad environmental policies. The idea of a villain aiding the genocide is not new: often Brainiac sped the process up, and Smallville‘s version of General Zod apparently helped accidentally cause it.

Whether or not Rogol Zaar destroyed Krypton, and the how and why, remains to be seen in later issues, and the answers could potentially stir up the franchise in new and exciting ways. For now, however, one could argue that he is somewhat bland as an antagonist, despite his dramatic pronouncement: his apparent hatred of all things Kryptonian makes him a more intelligent version of Doomsday, perhaps combined a bit with Zod, given his stated grudge against Jor-El and his family.

That said, Bendis has done amazing work in the past (The Avengers movie was inspired by one of his stories), so fans can hope that this is just the beginning of something grand.