Hi everybody! I hope you're having a great day. In this video I'm going to be covering Lor-Zod.
He made his first appearance in Action Comics, Issue number 844 in December of 2006.
He's a male Kryptonian character
Who happens to be the child of General Zod and his wife Ursa, who's widely considered to be a slightly different
interpretation of the character Faora. He was, actually, born in the Phantom Zone with brown eyes, and typically brown
hair. Although sometimes he's portrayed as having light brown hair. He's an intriguing character, because although he
is the child of some of Superman's worst enemies. He was, actually, raised
by Superman and Lois. Also going
by the name Christopher Kent, and later on taking on the alias Nightwing.
You see... While General Zod and Ursa were imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, they ended up giving birth to Lor-Zod.
The General ended up manipulating
some Phantom Zone technology and created a small space-worthy vessel that could maintain a substantial form and leave the Zone.
Since his son Lor-Zod was the only citizen of the Phantom Zone that was able to maintain a
physical form, Zod sent the ship outside of the Zone carrying his son.
This craft, eventually, entered Earth's atmosphere; and would have
crash-landed in the heart of downtown Metropolis if it were not for Superman coming in the nick-of-time. When Superman
intercepted the craft, he realized that the child inside was of alien
origin; and so he then, reluctantly, left him in the care of Sarge Steele and the Department of Metahuman Affairs.
Shortly thereafter, Lor-Zod shocked everybody, when he lifted a 300-pound television cabinet
above his head with very little effort. Then, after hearing the little guy speak, Superman immediately recognized
that he was Kryptonian. Never-the-less, Steele
insisted on keeping him overnight for observation. At this, the Department of Metahuman Affairs
relocated the unnamed Kryptonian to a secure location in Washington. But they didn't tell Superman
about the transfer. Being incensed at this oversight and skeptical of their intentions, Superman broke Lor-Zod out of their custody
and brought him to the Kent farm in Smallville.
Now it was shown that Lor-Zod, who actually preferred to be called Chris at this point
had all the typical powers of a Kryptonian under a yellow sun.
But in addition to this, he had a few extra abilities that were due to him being
born in the Phantom Zone, and then due to him being what
we later learned to be the avatar of an ancient Kryptonian deity named Nightwing.
Now these extra, powers include him being immune to the effects of the Phantom Zone and being the only one that can maintain a
physical form. He, also, has what's known as darkness manipulation; in which he can
create dark creatures and other constructs. He can teleport himself and others over great distances;
A type of enhanced sensory perception, in which he can tell what's going on inside of shadows or darkness;
And he's shown to have telekinesis; being able to move physical materials through the use of his mind.
Now after some time, Lor-Zod's birth parents, General Zod and Ursa broke free of their Phantom
Zone prisons, and they came to Earth to find him.
After they got their hands on him, they freed the rest of the Kryptonian prisoners from the Zone and mounted a massive invasion on Earth.
But during the attack on Metropolis Lor-Zod turned against his birth father; burning his hand with twin blasts from his heat vision.
After he helped defeat his biological parents and the battle was over, Lor-Zod was, officially, adopted
by Kal-El and his wife Lois;
Who then raised him as Christopher Kent, their foster son. But later the tenacious General Zod and Ursa broke out of their prison again;
And this time they attacked Kal-El and the family. However Superman, held, them off; And due to the help of, ironically, Lex Luthor
he was able to technologically exploit the connection that all Kryptonians
who, have been in contact with the Phantom Zone possessed; And it forced them to be drawn back into it.
Unfortunately, this also included Chris, who was born in the Phantom Zone, and even Superman, himself, who at different points
has had interactions with the Zone, also.
Seeing that this portal wouldn't close after all the criminals had been sucked back in,
Chris Kent chose to sacrifice himself to close the portal. Rather than let it continue and possibly
cause more damage to the city, and swallow up his foster father Superman.
Shortly after, Superman contacted his "cousin" Mon-El,
Who remained in the Phantom Zone due to his radiation poisoning, to try to find out about Chris' fate.
Mon-El let him know that Chris was either not in the Phantom Zone, or was transferred to some very remote part within the Zone that nobody knew about.
Although he thought this to be true, it was actually a Kandorian named Thara Ak-var who had rescued Chris from the Phantom Zone shortly
before the Zone began to collapse upon itself. And although a short time had passed
Chris' unique physiology caused him to age to approximately 15 to 16 years old. As a matter-of-fact; This sporadic
aging could be seen as a weakness to Lor-Zod. But that being said,
Thara Ak-Var knew that the emergence of thousands of Kandorians in the physical world could pose a great threat to the planet Earth.
And since this exact thing had happened, she asked for Chris' help to become a costumed Kryptonian
crime fighter on Earth. The two of them took on code names of two legendary Kryptonian heroes: Flame Bird
and Nightwing. As Nightwing, Chris now began to actively patrol several American cities.
But since the shenanigans of Zod and some others had tarnished the reputation of Kryptonians on earth,
Chris and Thara decided to act as the new Nightwing and Flame Bird, using simple cloth masks.
Which they then, quickly, upgraded to using fake power suits to throw people
off about the origins of their abilities. As time went on and Chris had another debilitating growth spurt; to about the age of 23
The two of them charged on and continued to save lives and act as heroes, despite his difficulties and their actions being twisted
by the anti-Kryptonian media.
Around this time Thara revealed the history of Kryptonian mythology
to Chris using an information crystal. It also became obvious that their relationship, was deepening as well.
And a little bit later Chris was, actually, contacted by the Nightwing Kryptonian entity, itself;
which was the opposite and lover of the Flame Bird entity. It's then revealed that
while Thara is, truly, the host of Flame Bird, so is he Nightwing's.
Now due to his powers and abilities, and his influence on the DC Universe;
For my 1-to-10 rating, I'll give Lor-Zod a rating of 7; which is a Master rating.
I hope everyone enjoyed this video. I'll talk to you next time. Be sure to like and subscribe to the New Sage.