Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4453: Revised - 3538 Study on Cats and Dogs (49)

The enmity between Zod and Clark Kent can be traced back to the early comics. This Krypton General is Superman's top enemy aside from Luther, often outshining Luther in appearances and narrative scope, causing Superman significant trouble every time.

Although Superman is a positive character who can defeat the evil alien General each time and protect Earth and his city, watching Superman defeat General Zod never feels as satisfying as watching him defeat other enemies. Instead, there's a faint sense of frustration.

The reason is that both of them are Kryptonians. Zod wants to revive Krypton; Superman wants to protect Earth. This could be considered a clash of ideologies, but the question is, if two Kryptonians want to prove their ideologies, why do they have to come to Earth to fight?

Even if Zod doesn't have any ideals to prove and simply wants to invade Earth, turning it into a second Krypton, the destruction of Krypton had nothing to do with Earth. You destroyed your own civilization and now want to replace it with Earth. How is that justified?

The most important thing is that the battlefield is set on Earth. If Earth's defeated, it gets occupied; if the battle is won, Metropolis gets torn apart. Does the human race lose twice?

It's akin to Sud signing a non-aggression pact, leaving Poland scratching its head in confusion, isn't it?

Although rationally, readers know Superman is on the humans' side defending Earth, it still makes one wonder: if Superman hadn't come, would Zod have come?

Reading the comics might just be entertaining, but upon reflection, the whole situation seems off.

And from Superman's perspective, it's even more frustrating.

When Krypton was destroyed, he knew nothing and didn't actively choose to come to Earth. He was happy living on Earth, but then a madman from his destroyed homeworld followed him here, endangering the humans who treated him well.

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After barely defeating a strong enemy, despite recognizing the war's debris and ruins, he couldn't help but wonder: if he hadn't come here initially, could this tragedy have been avoided? Would the human race live a safer and happier life?

What's more annoying is that Zod obviously understands this point too. So, whenever he retreats, he carries an attitude that says, "See, look at what you've brought upon the ones you love."

While this seems a bit like a mental victory, it effectively strikes at Superman. If some uninformed person accuses Superman of bringing all the trouble to Earth, that would hurt even more.

Superman has many enemies: Luther, Doomsday, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and so on. But none of them, like his fellow Kryptonian Zod, make him feel sad even after winning, looking at the war-ravaged city ruins.

He won, but didn't entirely win.

The majority of Justice League Supermen in the cosmos face such dilemmas. With a high moral bottom line, they inevitably ponder various philosophical issues about their existence and societal roles, commonly known as "thinking too much."

However, there's a simple solution—to abandon the moral shackles and enjoy a life of imprudence.

In short, Superman is still too well-mannered. Before Zod retreats, if you insult him by calling him a stray dog, a wandering mutt, a bearded old thief or a white-haired rascal, the nastier the insult, the deeper it strikes, he'd definitely come back for another fight.

Typically, insulting someone isn't right and seems like rage from incompetence. But that's only when the game hasn't been decided yet. Against such disgusting opponents, winning without taunting is like not really winning.

Indeed, it's very uncouth, but also very satisfying.

Of course, some may think that Zod is a General and was a significant figure on Krypton, he wouldn't be rattled by a few insults.

But the taunting isn't solely to make him lose control; it's also to help Superman relieve stress. When focusing on taunting the opponent, there's no room to overthink.

If the opposition aims for philosophical mental victories, we can also seek mental victories through creative taunting. After all, mental victories remain mental victories, neither side is nobler.

Of course, in this cosmos, Clark doesn't taunt for mental victory. He genuinely believes Zod is incompetent.

That's his judgement, not a form of taunt.

You're a respectable Krypton General who captured Bruce in your stronghold, and yet you let him escape?!

Furthermore, it's not just Bruce who escaped; he probably took some items with him. You aren't just incompetent—you're unreliable like the bouncing produce that Pamela researches!

Apparently, Zod himself didn't expect this, or he wouldn't be so enraged.

But he got angry too early.

As Zod regained his calm, he realized exposing himself so quickly was a mistake. The Justice League members have discovered his base location, making immediate relocation necessary.

Deciding quickly, he avoids further battles, escaping the two pursuing Supermen at top speed.

What surprised him, though, was that the Justice League from this cosmos didn't pursue him. Instead, they immediately returned to the estate, making Zod inwardly scoff at their stupidity.

Upon reaching the cave's entrance, his heart sank entirely.

The cave, previously half-emptied of equipment, was now completely void.

The Krypton spaceship, occupying most of the rear part of the cave, had vanished without a trace.

Zod stood at the entrance, stunned for several seconds completely unable to accept the reality.

It indeed was ridiculous—that was a modified Krypton battleship, its performance and security measures were superior to regular Krypton ships. After Krypton's complete destruction, this battleship could almost traverse the cosmos with unmatched superiority.

This vessel couldn't be operated by humans. It could only recognize Kryptonian identity information, and only his identity could successfully activate the ship.

Even if the ship was started, its operation was highly complicated, requiring specialized space navigation training from Krypton; impossible for anyone on Earth to manage.

There are only a few Kryptonians on Earth, even considering the additional two Supermen, that makes three.

These three were sent to Earth in infancy, what would they understand about Krypton ships? Even if they grasp some basics, they aren't highly skilled engineers cracking the identity recognition system?

Zod never considered the ship could have been lifted away as a whole.

Because in his view, humans wouldn't possess the technology to directly move such a large ship, especially within a few minutes.

Zod reviewed the alert from the ship sent to his communicator. The alert detecting abnormal energies surfaced around a minute and a half ago.

Are you saying a primitive civilization yet to fully leave the ground managed to relocate such a large ship in one and a half minutes?

If they had such ability, what am I even fighting Earth for?

To accomplish such a feat, one would need teleportation portal technology or even warp technology, coupled with anti-gravity or compression tech.

Of course, Zod knew about Green Lantern. The whole cosmos knows about the Green Lanterns, including the old Krypton. Thus, his ship was equipped with an energy rejection system, unable to be moved by Green Lantern energy, or passed through portals created by Green Lantern energy.

What Zod didn't know was, Green Lantern Hal tried several times unsuccessfully to move the ship.

Striking by the coordinates to find the cave, Hal was taken aback: "This guy really hides well."

He noticed energy isolation devices around, but by now visible to the naked eye, energy isolation was futile.

The energy barrier Zod placed at the cave entrance shattered with a punch from Hal. Flying inside, he saw the vast ship.

"Wow," Hal exclaimed as he flew around the ship, "These Kryptonians sure have good aesthetics, this ship is gorgeous."

Finally, he hovered above the ship, extending his hand with Green Lantern energy cascading down.

As the energy touched the ship's surface, it trembled violently, uncontrollably dispersing like fireworks.

Hal sighed in frustration.

The Green Lantern Corps occupies an awkward position in the cosmos. They are under the Little Blue People, but many civilizations match the Little Blue People's technology level.

The Little Blue People's disdainful nature makes everyone wary of them.

Many advanced civilizations developed technology to counter the Emotional Spectrum. Though they can't directly destroy the Ring Corps, they can keep them at bay.

Regretfully, Krypton's civilization had similar technology. Despite its scarcity, making large-scale armament impossible, Zod led Krypton's elite, equipping his ship with such tech wasn't unusual.

Unyielding, Hal flew another lap around the ship, recalling Bruce mentioning the ship's surface might be damaged.

Hal meticulously inspected the ship inside out, eventually finding a person-sized opening at the bottom.

Crawling through, he discovered the internal components didn't repel his Green Lantern energy.

Technically, he could disassemble the ship piece by piece. But Zod would return soon, switching to forceful seizure is viable, but if Zod retaliates desperately, it would be a great loss.

After considering, Hal decided against risking it. He contacted Oliver, briefly explaining the situation.

"I'll contact Barry," Oliver said, "he might have a solution."

Thus, Barry sitting in Bruce's car received Oliver's call, called away to relocate the ship at the crucial moment.

Barry's method looked simpler but was actually more subtle—it's what he used against Injustice Superman: transporting the ship to another time point.

This time, however, he didn't leave a projection from another time point. The ship completely disappeared as if never existed.