Truth, Justice and the American Way?

There has been a raging debate, as of late, of whether or not Superman should be 'killing' characters. The Phantom Zone was designed to be a non-lethal way of getting rid of an adversary (but it drives them batty) but that has fallen out of vogue. Most recently, Superman killed General Zod in Man of Steel and that has prompted the debate. If we dig a bit deeper, though, we see that Superman has been dealing out the big bucket for quite some time.

In the first season of the George Reeves show, in the episode "The Stolen Costume," Superman left a mobster and his moll to die on the top of a mountain (they fell off) when they discovered his little secret, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. In the comics, Superman has killed for the greater good many times. In the early years, through the 1940s, Supes killed all kinds of thugs. Even into the original It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman musical from 1966, Big Blue knocks off the evil Professor Sedgewick (not in our version). Even Christopher Reeve got in on the action. In 1979's Superman II, instead of dealing with the powerless Zod, Ursa and Non, Supes just lets them die presumably.

Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman has killed a pocket universe Zod and two other Kryptonians, Doomsday (who returned the favor at the same time), thousands of people (including the Joker) in the alternate universe Injustice game and comic series and a handful of others.

So, we can safely say that Superman has an issue with Zod, that's for sure, but everyone else in standard continuity?

Dang. I think that jury is still out.

- Dave