Val-Zod

Creation

Created by Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott in Earth 2 #19 – The Dark Age, Part 3 as part of the N52 reboot. Val-Zod takes over the role of Superman from Kal-El starting in Earth-2#25.

Origin

Val-Zod was rendered an orphan and last of his house when his parents were executed by the Kryptonian court. Moments before Krypton’s destruction, Val, Kara, Kal-L and another child managed to escape and survive their planet’s destruction thanks to Jor-El and Lara.

Through his trip, Val was educated by his parents’ knowledge recorded on his capsule, including one teaching him that violence was an ill advise way to overcome challenges driving him to pacifism.

When Val-Zod landed on Earth, he was taken in by Terry Sloan who offered him asylum to “protect” him from the outside world, where he became a recluse. During the time he was captured, he helped Sloan developing the Firepits.

Due to living most of his life in a capsule after Krypton’s destruction, Val-Zod has developed a fear of open spaces. However after being enlightened by Dr. Fate, Val decided to step up to become a hero, finally bypassing his fear of the outside world.

Current Events:

Val-Zod has reluctantly been fighting the forces of Apokolips for quite some time. He is against violence so his instincts are to solve problems by other means. As Apokolips has murdered millions of people and begins to devour the planet. He dawns the uniform and fights back. In the last few pages of Earth 2 and Worlds End he is seen fighting against Darkseid alongside Flash, Green Lantern, Powergirl and the other heroes. Most recently he is seen in Convergence #2. He and Green Lantern fight Brainiacs care taker while he’s away. The caretakers name is Telos and his job is to maintain and care for all the cities that Brainiac has stolen from though out the multiverse. Green Lantern strikes first and he makes Telos retreat for a few seconds before he returns and Green Lantern is too weak from all the power he expended. Val-Zod knows what its like to lose a planet and so he unleashes on Telos to avoid a similar fate for everyone he loves. In a surprise to everyone, Telos decides to retreat, although he acts as if he doesn’t need to physically fight the heroes and has more important things to handle.

Rebirth

Val was among the many Supermen of the multiverse was kidnapped by Prophecy to steal their powers however they were freed by the Justice Incarnate.

Personality

Val is a Kryptonian sent to Earth along with three other Kryptonian space pods before the destruction of his home planet. He has been shown to be very timid and was diagnosed by Batman to be an agoraphobic. He prefers closed spaces.