Movie General Zod vs Movie Thor

[JCAll]

Perfectly ordinary humans develop psychic powers all the time, why can't a Kryptonian?

[dupersuper]

Perfectly ordinary humans develop psychic powers all the time

They do...?

[Surtur]

They do...?

Of course! You never heard of the russian chick who could stop the heart of a frog with her mind? It happened during World War 2, so it must be true.

I've also heard stories of Stalin hiring psychics and giving them tests. One test was to infilrtrate some soviet base and another was(I think) to rob a bank. I'm not making that up either. IIRC, the psychic passed the first test by using psychic powers to make people think he was a high ranking soviet officer. Again: I'm not making that up. Not to say it really happened, but people certainly said it did.

Don't ask me what made me start thinking about supposed soviet psychics because I do not have an answer.

[Siriel]

The US government also hired psychics to scry on military bases. The test was to figure out what was at a location the army had under watch.

...Through the amazing act of guessing that the military would be interested in a military base, the psychics were hired.

[Jonathan8572]

Superman also flew a hydrogen bomb into space and survived its detonation. So while not as impressive as the first movie, Superman II wasnt as low powered as some of yall try to make it sound.

Zod should take this.

[Surtur]

Superman also flew a hydrogen bomb into space and survived its detonation. So while not as impressive as the first movie, Superman II wasnt as low powered as some of yall try to make it sound.

Zod should take this.

Wait the bomb feat happened in the second movie? I too am trying to understand the low powered comments. What durability feats from the first movie are more impressive then that? What feats would even be considered *as* impressive? Surely those missiles from the first movie were not on the level of hydrogen bombs.

[big_adventure]

Wait the bomb feat happened in the second movie? I too am trying to understand the low powered comments. What durability feats from the first movie are more impressive then that? What feats would even be considered *as* impressive? Surely those missiles from the first movie were not on the level of hydrogen bombs.

Well, the whole "flying under the continental plate and pushing the fault back into place" thing took some pretty massive durability.

On top of that, the "hydrogen bomb" that blew up in space was well after he let it go, right? And he didn't no-sell it at all, it knocked him backward and dizzied him at least, right? And it was a featless bomb - we have no idea at all if its yield was 1kt, 100kt, 1mt or whatever. Anyway, the nuclear missiles in the first movie were likely MUCH more powerful than a portable bomb cobbled together by people who brought it on to the Eiffel tower elevator.

"Excuse me, sir, what's in that steamer trunk you are bringing onto this crowded elevator today? Really? Gideon Bibles? You know that there isn't a Motel 6 here (or in this country), right?"

[Powerboy]

Difficult to call as Zod doesn't have many feats outside of going up against the Reeve Superman. Then you get a whole can of worms about whether all movie Kryptonians are equal.

If they are, Zod, if not, Thor.

A while ago, there was a thread about Zod vs. somebody and I think those were the basic arguments. On the one hand, we generally don't grant someone the feats of another character. Or, Superman not using his speed doesn't prove Zod has super speed, for example. On the other hand, when characters are of the same species and there are certain base abilities that this species has, there is some leeway.

While I'm not willing to give Zod super speed that he never displayed just because Superman has it, I am willing to give him strength enough to hurt a guy who survived a nuclear missile because he did hurt Superman with a punch and we've seen the stuff Superman could take.

I likewise give him the durability to take hits from a guy who otherwise displayed the strength feats Superman displayed.

We could argue that fighting Zod was a low-showing for Superman but fighting Superman is almost all we have to go by. There are no other showings for Zod to indicate this is a low showing for Superman or a ridiculously high one for Zod.

[Powerboy]

Just to show how utterly subjective this is, I just realized there is another thread that involves Doomsday and part of measuring DD's powers circa 1992 was how he fared against Superman. General opinion, mine included, is that DD was not portrayed as being on Superman's high-end level but rather Superman's entire showing in that fight was a low showing.

Yet here I argue that Zod's showing was against a high-end Superman even though there's no way to determine that. Granted there's the factor of racial abilities ie. they are all Kryptonians. But still, I'm going to reverse myself. Sure, we all know that Zod was intended to be on Superman's level just as Doomsday was. We know the reason the power levels were played down was because Superman and any opponent of a level comparable to what he was in the first movie fighting each other would level nations and kill millions.

But going strictly by feats, what we really have is a Superman who is only displaying some really low-end feats.

[Siriel]

Err...

Just to note, the thing about Doomsday is that Superman was portrayed, not only in that issue but in that era in general, as being much weaker than he was later on.

It's not "Superman did not show any particular strength in that issue", it's "Superman was just plain weaker back then".

[JCAll]

They do...?

So late night infomercials have lead me to believe.

[Jonathan8572]

Wait the bomb feat happened in the second movie? I too am trying to understand the low powered comments. What durability feats from the first movie are more impressive then that? What feats would even be considered *as* impressive? Surely those missiles from the first movie were not on the level of hydrogen bombs.

One of them. In one of the earlier parts of Superman II, Lois is in France investigating terrorists who have put a hydrogen bomb on an elevator and where threatening to blow up the city. Superman carried the whole elevator including the bomb into space and tossed it away, but he was still caught in the shockwaves from the blast and even knocked back by them somewhat, but quickly recovered and returned to Earth.

Superman IV is where he survived the detonation of supposedly all of the world's nukes, which may be what you thought I was referring too.

[Powerboy]

Err...

Just to note, the thing about Doomsday is that Superman was portrayed, not only in that issue but in that era in general, as being much weaker than he was later on.

It's not "Superman did not show any particular strength in that issue", it's "Superman was just plain weaker back then".

I see your point. Comic Superman, except for not using his speed, was generally at about the power level he displayed against DD. Movie Superman in the other movies seemed far more powerful. While I do think the fight scenes were toned down to evade the real level of death and destruction that would have been there, one could argue that Zod has strength and durability comparable to the Superman of the movies, any of them. One can argue it either way.

[Zagreus]

Actually, the Krytonians and Superman were knocking each other around pretty impressively in the second movie. I can think of several times that the Krytonians and Superman knocked each other across the city. Plus, Superman and Non actually shook the city with their punches before Superman punched Non from below the street through the upper floors of a skyscraper. Superman also effortlessly caught that radio tower that was falling from a skyscraper. The bus example really is a low showing for both the Krytonians and Superman, though it was a fine an example of the Krytonians cruelty by attacking Superman with the very people he's trying to protect. Superman not immediately recovering from savin the people in the bus was pure plot driven to allow the Krytonians to display their power against the people of Metropolis. This isn't at all indicative of Superman's displayed durability through the rest of the movie. The scene is so powerful though, I can forgive the plot induced necessity.

Also, Zod actually tested his strength against Superman and initially overpowered him by throwing Superman into a truck. Of course, Superman returned the favor in spades by throwing Zod into the Times Square billboard. This proves Superman is stronger than Zod, but Zod is also clearly in Superman's strength class because he actually can throw Superman around while Superman is struggling against him face to face in a test of strength.

Even though Superman II is Superman's lowest showing of strength, people do tend to forget that this is still one of the greatest superhero fights in movie history because it was clear by the end of the fight that Superman ran away because he knew the only way he could beat the other three was to stop protecting Metropolis and allow it to leveled. Which, by the intensity displayed in the fight in Superman II, Metropolis would have been. Even using only strength feats in Supeman II, Zod is so far above Thor in terms of strength and power, it isn't even funny.

It's not a feat, but I remember one of the witnesses saying in Superman II, "The big one is as strong as Superman!" And Lois frowning at that. This seemed to imply to me that only the idiot Non was as strong as Superman and the others were not quite as strong as him. Of course Non had trouble using his heat vision (I think he starts to get the hang of it later in the movie) and didn't have TK like Zod did. So all Kryptonians are not created equal, imo. Zod didn't strike me as strong as Kal El and would have lost to him one on one, clearly indicating that he was outpowered, if only by a little.