What makes the difference between Zod's and Superman's regenerative abilities?

What makes the difference between Zod's and Superman's regenerative abilities? - Man Wearing Brown Leather Jacket Holding Black Android Smartphone With Brown Case

I completely understand that in Man of Steel Kal-El is the only one who can break Zod's neck and it's essentially a level playing field (like two humans fighting each other).

However, what I see as a huge plot hole, surely Zod's broken neck would just heal from the sun? In Batman v Superman

Superman survives a nuke to the face!

One is to assume, if Zod had snapped his neck it would've healed almost instantly. Can someone clear this up? I can only imagine that Zod has not been on earth long enough to have such an advanced healing ability?

There is this existing question about how Superman could kill Zod and it is fine, I can understand why Kal was able to defeat Zod in the way that he did.

My point is based on what happened in BvS

Superman is physically killed by Doomsday. The life drains from him as it did Zod but over time he recovers.

How could Superman recover from that while Zod was not not able to do the same?



Best Answer

I gave an explanation of the ending of Dawn of Justice that touches on this topic a bit. So far it's not entirely clear how Zach Snyder's Superman "works", but the idea here seems to be that the Kryptonians can heal from almost any damage -- as long as they're still alive.

When Superman kills Zod in Man of Steel, he inflicts lethal damage on Zod in a very short period of time. Having his neck snapped kills him almost instantly -- we see his other Krpytonian powers (like heat vision) cut off immediately.

On the other hand, when Superman is hit with a nuclear weapon, it appears to cause him a lot of damage and injury, but it apparently did not kill him. (To be honest, I'm not sure why it even hurt him at all -- he ought to be invulnerable to that kind of thing). The key is that the blast appears to knock Superman unconscious, but he was still alive. So, the sunlight was able to boost his Kryptonian healing to recover from that damage.

A similar effect appears to be happening at the end of the movie. The combination of Doomsday's super strength plus the nearby kryptonite allowed Doomsday to inflict a very serious wound on Superman, but I suspect that it did not kill him. Instead, as with the nuclear explosion, it "shut down" his body while it repairs itself. I think we all know he's not really dead, and this seems to be the "out" that's going to let him come back to life.




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What is General Zod weakness?

This General Zod (born Avruiskin) is a Russian who was affected before his birth by Kryptonite radiation, since he was the son of two cosmonauts whose ship was too close to Kal-El's rocketship. This Zod is unnaturally weak under a yellow sun, but superpowered under a red sun (the opposite of Superman).

How strong is Dru Zod?

Superhuman Strength: While the exact magnitude of Zod's strength is unknown, it is generally accepted that his strength easily surpasses the capacity to lift 100 tons, but exactly how much more is unknown. Although it is accepted that he is not as strong as Superman or Non.



Man of Steel : Why I feel bad for Zod EXPLAINED




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Images: Enoch Patro, Tirachard Kumtanom, William Mattey, Altaf Shah