Apparently I'm reading tonight that Chris Nolan was completely against killing Zod. He told Goyer not to do it, didn't even want him to write the scene. But Goyer convinced him it could be done, and wrote it... and apparently Nolan gave in to it.

I don't know... I think it was the violence of the scene that shocked people. Superman has killed enemies before, albeit rarely.

Snyder and Goyer's thinking behind it seems to be creating a reason for Superman's moral code, not just saying he can't kill for no reason.

Either way, I wasn't completely put off by it. I was put off more by him stealing clothes out of the back of that guy's truck after saving the rig. I thought that was a bit strange. It would have been fine if they'd just cut away to the next scene and he'd somehow found clothes.

http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/06/17...advised-on-it/

It bothered me because it didn't make sense. Shouldn't Zod be as invulnerable as Superman? He was fully powered breathing in earth atmos.

Not to mention where did Clark learn how to choke a guy out. It's not like he'd spent a life training at the local dojo.

But they wanted the wilhelm scream and the moment between Clark and Lois. And I do think there was poignance to Clark being forced to kill someone for the first time, even aside from it being the last of his kind, until Kara Zor-El shows up (if you saw the wal-mart comic, you'll understand what I mean. If you didn't...they showed an empty pod on the scout ship during the movie. That was hers.

Perhaps more importantly, it opens the door for the Death of Superman...

The Genetic imprint of a Kryptonian warrior could've activated that capability, but the film didn't go into how the genetic imprints affected Kal-El's personality

Heh, I thought the same thing about the clothes stealing part. And I have zero problem with him killing Zod. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

Even though I loved his movies, I've never been for the whole "never kill anyone" logic that Nolan used with batman.

And he didn't choke him out, he broke his neck. Not something you exactly have to "learn".

I didn't have a problem with him taking the clothes. His moral compass was still a little at odds with things obviously. This is a different superman and I like the way they built it.

I was referring to the hold he put him in before he killed him.

Isn't wrestling (real wrestling) big in Kansas? Maybe Kal-El watched that Ultimate Fighter reality show on Spike TV?

Also, while the snapping of Zod's neck surprised me a bit, I realized that while he fought Zod in the city and crashed through many a skyscraper and highrise, he potentially and accidentally killed thousands of people so Zod's death was just one of a shitload of deaths caused by Superman

Those buildings were all empty. They showed people in the streets, trying to get out of the city. Some of those may have died from falling debris, but it wasn't like entire buildings were falling during that fight (earlier yes, when he was halfway around the planet, but not then). It was a couple of minutes of fighting with them throwing and punching each other through empty skyscrapers. At most a few dozen rubberneckers on the ground that got crushed with falling debris. Not thousands or millions or whatever nutty numbers some people have been throwing around.

It was in no way different from the New York battle in the Avengers, basically.

I did notice a LexCorp truck that was thrown at Superman by Zod