The Time Warriors and Beyond

Toys To Write By: ROTJ’s Darth Vader Unmasked Figure

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Watch any child play with toys and you are witnessing a brand new world being created right before you that only they are privy to. Every single story begins behind the wide eyes of a mesmerised child.

People often ask what inspires me to come up with sci fi or horror scenarios and aliens. I’ve written an article here on that very subject of inspiration and ideas. Read it by clicking on the link here https://timewarriors.co.uk/2023/04/03/to-sit-down-and-write-get-off-your-arse/ However there is one thing I actually forgot about and yet have surrounded myself with them all my life and will enjoy to the day I die.

As a child you are forever creating stories with your toys and when I was young, it was the Star Wars toys especially that gave us our new Star Wars adventures and spin offs along with the comic strip in Star Wars Weekly. I had a Tardis and a Star Trek transporter that could send my imagination anywhere and to any time. So when my Dad built a rockery in our garden it was the site for many new Star Wars adventures and with the plethora of figures released anything could happen and crossovers between shows were common long before it became popular. Luke Skywalker travelled in the Tardis and R2 was beamed to a lost dimension of Transformers characters. So in this series I will look at the toys that blew me away as a kid and helped spin new worlds in my head. Every single story begins behind the wide eyes of a mesmerised child.

I love the unmasked Darth Vader for many reasons not least of which is the controversy of Sebastian Shaw’s force ghost being replaced by Hayden Christensen in one of George’s many tweeks. But from a writing point of view it reminds me that to write a good villain, you must ensure they are multilayered. People don’t set out to be baddies and life and circumstance sometimes throw you into that dark pit. Anakin was on to a downward slide from the start with only Obi Wan and Padme on his side. But his was a life of strife and separation from his mother thanks to an order that did not want him in the first place. Then when he failed to save his mother from death at the hands of the Sand People he never recovered. Such was his pain that it allowed the Emperor to get inside his head and tap the raw power for the dark side of the Force.

No one is truly all bad with a few exceptions so when writing a story you need to give a human dimension to the baddie. It is up to you if they have any glimmer of redemption further down the line just like every villain in the Fast and the Furious movies. But is a villain a villain due to circumstance, manipulation or because they were born bad? How big a threat do they and should they pose to your heroes in your story?

For the Time Warriors books, my intention was always to ensure the bad guys were not just one dimensional figures. Sandara Vendris hates Varran because she blames him for the destruction of their home world Xereba. Add into this that she lost the love of her life and Varran’s enemy, General Solos, and miscarried their baby, so this all sets her on a vengeful path. If Sandara has lost her family then Varran deserves to lose his too with Earth to be reshaped into the new Xereba. Similarly the arachnoid Mentara are not simply scavenging the battlefields of Earth for flesh. Their agenda runs much deeper to the point that when you discover their secret you don’t look at them the same way again.

So when you see Vader without his helmet, you see a man who found in his children a reason to stand up against evil, sacrificing his own life in the process. Even Hannibal Lector has a redeeming quality; his respect for Clarice, which he has for no-one else as well as a desire to help her capture serial killers that may get in his way.

So when constructing your villains just think of them stroking a kitten as they watch innocent civilians get executed and the rest will fall into place.

Book Excerpt: Zombie Blues 2: Racist Zombie

By and copyright of Owen Quinn

More Zombies, more trouble. Welcome to book 2 of Zombie Blues who give us their view on the world and life from behind undead eyes. This time round meet Diabetic Zombie, Racist Zombie, the Ice Queen and why is there a zombie with no teeth?

Now on Amazon

Racist Zombie

Life (or should that be unlife?) as a zombie does have an unexpected side effect. It gives me time to reflect on the life I’ve lost. I could cry if it wasn’t so laughable. I look around me and see…well, perhaps I should tell my story first. It’s as valid as any of the others you’ve heard so far and of those yet to come. I wish I could have seen into other peoples’ minds as easily when I was human. Even that has made me revaluate who I was.

Jason Crawford is my name. I almost said was but I’m still here even if my outer appearance doesn’t exactly make the ladies swoon any more. At this point in the apocalypse I believe I’m shambling through Wembley near the stadium.

I don’t know where it started but all my life I believed our kind was superior: that we had been put on this Earth to rule over the others. By our kind I mean white people. I had little dealings with people of colour growing up.

Growing up in the town of Shapley, we were predominantly white. Of course we had Chinese and Indian restaurants and take-aways but at school there was one Asian kid whom we kept at a distance.

I suppose you think I was brought up in a house that hated coloureds. Well, you’d be wrong. My parents ran a pub and all sorts came through their doors. As an only child I was forced to fight back against the bullies so my life would not be as miserable as Bobby Cain. That poor kid was tormented on a daily basis but it was his own fault; he should have had the balls to fight back. He simply wasn’t tough enough. He was also black.

What? Are you disgusted by my attitude? Don’t judge before you know the facts. In this day and age world leaders have given people like me a voice to stand up and show who we really are; to show the world that people like that should know their place. In a world where we are told to speak the truth, it is apparent that my truth hurts the snowflakes and humanists.

I didn’t grow up like this. I’m a product of nature rather than nurture. I simply had no exposure to any other colour so my world has always been predominantly white.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t belong to any groups or want to immigrate to America to join the Klu Klux Klan or any of that nonsense but I can understand where they are coming from. Later in life I attended some rallies in London when the circumstances called for it.

I used to sit at home in the evenings when my parents were at work watching all sorts of documentaries on the History Channel. I watched all the stuff about Nazi Germany and while everyone else saw the atrocities, I found that I could see Hitler’s mind. He had valid reasons to protect his race which mirrored those of today. I understood that. I also saw how the Christians waltzed into foreign countries and made the natives embrace Jesus. The native ways were branded heathen and devil like letting the word of God reduce their culture to fit the will of the missionaries. If only the missionaries were here right now to see how these other cultures were trying to change us. There is only one God just as the national anthem says. All this other rubbish that is used to justify terrorism on our own soil should be absorbed by the Lord just as they did in the past. If I went to their countries I wouldn’t get away with it. How would you feel if someone simply walked in to your home and demanded you change your décor to suit them? Or what if you went to a restaurant for dinner only to be told you could only eat foreign food? That’s the danger you see. They try to enforce their beliefs and customs on us, the indigenous race. Would they be so accommodating if we did it to their homes or enforce our customs on them?

Doctor Who Christmas Trailer 2023 released

Now the new era begins with Ncuti Gatwa as the new Doctor facing goblins in the Church on Ruby Road. Only a couple of weeks to go.

Monarch Legacy of Monsters S01E05 Review

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

So we’re halfway through this 10 part season and I’m not a happy bunny.

After such a strong start we are still in the ever drawn out Randa family crisis, Cate’s survivor guilt and May hate the world. While May’s character gets a twist in th end of the episode, I’m asking myself were the writers given ten episodes and told to fill them out or is there an actual plan to this season?

As I said, it was a great start but last week we wandered about snow and ice bitching and surviving impossible odds and this week we wander about devastated San Francisco with the siblings finding common ground and Cate’s survivor guilt once again. While it is fascinating to see the aftermath of the Godzilla attack I want to explore that,, not see Cate gurning again. The whole concept of the Red Zone is great where Cate’s mother and her want to be boyfriend James recover people’s possessions and where looters are shot on sight. But why not rebuild rather seal it off? What does Monarch know we don’t? It is however a nice reminder that these Titans leave physical and emotional damage their wake that is not easy to come back from.

According to an imprisoned Shaw, Monarch know nothing and have gotten it all wrong. He is their captive and is unafraid of the Director’s threats. Shaw knows more than they do including w he isn’t much older than he is. Monarch think they know what the Titans are all about but Shaw holds the superior ground. While May and the Randa siblings are sent on their way, they fly back to San Francisco to the Red Zone and where Cate troubled relationship with her mother goes to some way explain her behaviour. Between survivor’s guilt and her mother revealing she pushed Cate to go to Tokyo becasue she suspected but hadn’t got the balls to go see for herself if her suspicions were correct and her husband was leading a double life.

This is a perfect example of what the writers should have done from the start. Cate and her mother find common ground and resolve their issues by the end of the episode. The Red Zone contains their father’s office where they find a major clue to the Titans and where he might be or at least, where he went. Now it’s global so can we now leave all the emotional drama behind and get busy with story.

If you create a series based on giant monsters then they need to be as equal in focus to the story as the human characters. If these upcoming episodes do not match the scale of the movies or bring the audience what they expect bar fleeting moments of monster then the wrong people are writing and producing this show and need to go back to the drawing board.

Thus far the ship is sinking so if they pull it round for the final episodes and make it to a second season, we need a complete rethink of story structure and plot resolution. Character angst should be part of a character not their be all for several episodes. The horror series From did this brilliantly in their first season but dragged a major plot point and development for far too long reducing the impact in their second season.

I’m tired of the wandering we need to be running.

Toys To Write By: Star Wars Gamorrean Guard

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

People often ask what inspires me to come up with sci-fi or horror scenarios and aliens. I’ve written an article here on that very subject of inspiration and ideas. Read it by clicking on the link here https://timewarriors.co.uk/2023/04/03/to-sit-down-and-write-get-off-your-arse/ However there is one thing I actually forgot about and yet have surrounded myself with them all my life and will enjoy to the day I die.

As a child you are forever creating stories with your toys and when I was young it was the Star Wars toys especially that gave us our new Star Wars adventures and spin-offs along with the comic strip in Star Wars Weekly. I had a Tardis and a Star Trek transporter that could send my imagination anywhere and to any time. So when my Dad built a rockery in our garden it was the site for many new Star Wars adventures and with the plethora of figures released anything could happen and crossovers between shows were common long before it became popular. Luke Skywalker travelled in the Tardis and R2 was beamed to a lost dimension of Transformers characters. So in this series I will look at the toys that blew me away as a kid and helped spin new worlds in my head. Every single story begins behind the wide eyes of a mesmerised child.

Whether you like it or not Return of the Jedi was a tsunami of alien creatures. Fans all over the world would soon add them to their collections. But there was something special about getting those figures as there was no internet back then. The feeling of walking into a store and seeing a full wall of figures all hanging from pegs was a sight to behold. There was a certain magic in it that no longer exists today due to online shopping. To have the figures you wanted in your hands having fallen for them in the movie never fails to incite excitement. You can’t wait to get it home and open it to play with. Of course if we knew then what we know now, we’d have bought two or at least begged our parents to pay for two, one for play, one for the future.

Now, I’ve collected Star Wars stuff all my life but when I watched Return of the Jedi in the cinema the first monsters that made me sit up and stare were the pig like Gamorrean Guards of Jabba the Hutt’s palace. There was something about them that determined that this was going to be a figure I wanted badly. Now I don’t mean the awful tacky Gamorreans from the Book of Boba Fett which were simply rubber masks on shirtless larger men and did not look right at all. I mean the originals in full armour that Luke choked with a brush of the Force.

When one of them got eaten like a marshmallow by the Rancor monster, I was like “NOOOOOO!” I had gotten attached to them that fast. So when I finally got the figure I was delighted. He was big and burly with a hefty axe that could take a head off. He was green, big, beautiful and mine. I eventually got a second one which became the Gamorean twins working at Jabba’s palace to send information to both the rebel alliance and the Empire. Loyalty wasn’t an issue for them; money was to feed their families back on Gamor. The adventures they had alongside the rebels were endless like Waterworld or the log forests of the rockery. Damn I could write a book.

And that’s the point.

There are no barriers to a child’s imagination; only time when mum calls you for dinner, visit granny’s house or sleep. What you are subconsciously doing is creating storylines, sorting plot holes and creating new characters to populate the world the figure populates and seeing where it goes. If you are a storyteller then this is exactly what you will do when tackling a story. And not realising it you are training yourself to focus on what you like to see in a story and what excites you to write. Even we writers have to enjoy the story too or we end up leaving the story as a bad job.

I still have my Gamorrean Guard to this day but did have to get a repo axe to replace the original. So jump forward forty years to the anniversary of Return of the Jedi’s theatrical release.

A new series of 6 inch figures are announced and among them is the Gamorrean Guard. Only this time he is bigger and bulkier than ever with multiple weapons included. When I saw him on display with the others I just fell in love with him all over again. The packaging was bulkier than the rest but that was to be expected due to his design and size. It was the one that immediately caught the eye but was more expensive than the others. I was thrown back there and then to my Gamorrean twins fooling rebels and imperials alike beneath the very nose of Jabba the Hutt. I was back in the rockery, in Waterworld bath, the record player where an elastic band held Princess Leia to the central pole the record slid onto and Luke had to get past the Gamorrean to rescue her before the record ended. I thought of my Gamorrean in the house in dire need of a big brother. So when one arrived expectantly for my birthday I was delighted. Not that I open the packaging anymore. So he sits on my shelf proudly and that kid in me that never grew up looks at him and smiles. He winks back secure in the knowledge that his double agent life still continues and his family are safe and secure.

As much as I love this figure, it still doesn’t stop me eating bacon sandwiches with brown sauce.

Book Excerpt: Zombie Blues 2 Diabetic Zombie

By and copyright Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Diabetic Zombie

Holy shit, I found the cure for diabetes!!

Of course, it did involve getting turned into a living dead rotting zombie. As my comic book friends you met earlier will tell you this revelation is like finding the very first issue of Amazing Fantasy #5 featuring Spiderman’s first appearance and finding two of the pages stuck together.

Not good!

What has diabetes got to do with zombies? Easy. Mother Nature had a great plan but it has several flaws. Our bodies rot slowly except our teeth and gums. Those are our greatest weapon. It’s just a pity she doesn’t have enough cosmic power to ensure our entire bodies are sustained until her genocidal plan is carried to completion. It’s like putting a spanking super powered engine in an old banger. It’ll take you a while to get there but at least you can show off the engine.

There’s an equal irony as when I first got diagnosed with diabetes I was told that if untreated it would essentially rot me from the inside out. Believe it or not I immediately pictured myself as a zombie which makes me a trendsetter. This was in the days before zombies became popular thanks to that show from my friend from the last Zombie Blues wanted to be a part of. Now there was a case of be careful what you wish for. Of course, I’m not one to talk. I did picture my self as a diabetic zombie and here we are! What a bitch!

I was diagnosed at twenty five because I had a cut on my arse that wouldn’t heal. That was partially because I love to pick a scab so that would slow down any healing anyway. Don’t be turning your noses up at scab picking. There is not one of you out there that doesn’t love it. There’s just something about it that gives me a sense of pleasure. Knee scabs are the best; that tear of rough skin that makes your spine shiver as you pull it off just can’t be beaten. Well it’s not as if I pull the wings off butterflies is it?

Anyway, it was a lady doctor that day. I told her what was wrong and she asked me to drop the kecks. The macho part of me began opening my belt and sliding my jeans down with this image in my head she would take one look at me and start drooling. I could hear the Diet Coke advert theme play in my head as I then turned and pulled my boxers down. I could see the doctor bite her lower lip as she took in my toned buttocks. Her fingers played with her stethoscope in anticipation. In seconds we would be on her examination table, a scab the last thing on our minds. Yeah, my Perceptions Zombie friend hit the nail on the head. Little did I know diabetes can target your dick making a man’s greatest treasure as useful as a chocolate saucepan.

Of course the reality was she took one look, didn’t drool and just stated ‘you have diabetes’ before sitting back down at her desk. As I pulled my jeans back up I was slightly taken aback at the lack of reaction at the sight of my lower parts. Another part of me said she’d probably seen better hanging out a bird’s nest. Another part of me decided the doctor must not like men which was her loss.

But there it was. My life changed in one simple phrase.

The word diabetes which I associated with people who couldn’t eat chocolate and drink full sugar fizzy drinks was suddenly stamped across my head or in this case my arse.

God, never again would I be able to eat a bag of Maltesers or glug down a 2 litre of Pepsi. But it was only a scab on my arse. Surely I would have lost a lot of weight or been constantly drinking or sleeping all the time. I had been a champion kickboxer and fought all over the country in my twenties. Yeah, I had been a chubby kid in my teens and gained a lot of weight in my early twenties but I had taken care of that.

The Problem with Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

When Marvel announced that before the release of the final Guardians of the Galaxy movie, we would be getting a rather special present before the end. A 45 minute holiday special would air on the Disney channel with a dual purpose: sowing seeds for the new movie by introducing us to new crew members Kraglin Obfonteri (Sean Gunn) and Cosmo the space dog voiced by Maria Bakalova. We also learn that Manta is actually Peter Quill’s sister. They both share the same father Ego the Living Planet, a fact Manta only reveals to Drax at first.

Set after the events of Endgame, Quill is a mess, spending most of his time drinking and feeling spry for himself. He is lost without Gamora. His version was murdered by Thanos but the version restored in the events of endgame has no memories of her and Quill. She doesn’t love him because it never happened for her. She is a member of the Ravagers now. It’s Christmas which makes things worse for Quill. Manta and Drax hatch a plan to cheer Quill up by getting him the bst present ever for Christmas.

They are going to kidnap his hero, Kevin Bacon from Footloose.

Photos copyright Marvel

The mission goes according to plan with plenty of comedy with Drax and Manta at their best experiencing Christmas. They find Bacon and take him when Manta puts him under her spell. However they don’t get the reaction from Quill they were expecting when they present Kevin Bacon to him. A shocked Quill accuses them of human trafficking and releases Bacon from Manta’s spell.

When everything is explained the episode ends with a sing song as Kevin Bacon sings with a band and brings Christmas cheer before departing. So what’s my problem? As good as the episode is, at least up until the end,it failed its udienc completely.

Kevin Bacon is Quill’s hero. Footloose is an amazing movie. It played such a part in the first Guardians installment that the emding of this holiday special should have been a no brainer. I am sure I was not the only one thinking the same thing. When Quill meets Kevin Bacon there should have only been one ending….a bloody dance off!

You meet your hero and the one thing you want is hear their catch phrase or see them do something they are associated with. With Kevin Bacon literally in Quill’s lap, this was the perfect opportunity to give fans what they wanted to see. I thought part way through the song, Bacon and Quill would do a Footloose sequence but it never happened. For me such a great, fun packed story just threw away a chance that would never come again. I don’t even watch the holiday special on repeat because of Marvel’s misstep here. But then again, given the quality of movies and television series that have been produced over the last year mayb this was a glimpse of things to come with Marvel taking their eye off the ball. I can’t believe James Gunn let it slip either but it is what it is.

The Guardians holliday special remains as an almost perfect piece of Marvel with a twist of if only.

The Boys are back!! Godzilla X Kong New Empire Trailer

Presented by Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

After the bore fest of Godzilla vs Kong, here comes the boys again in the New Empire. This time we will get to see more of the world beneath us and Kong and Godzilla seem to be forced to work together to save everything. That scene alone in the trailer gets me excited. While the story of Monarch unfolds on the small screen in Legacy of Monsters, giving us Titans in drips and drabs, this movie looks like they have learned from the previous movie’s mistakes. Check out the trailer and let us know what you think.

Also released are two new graphic novels to tie in with the new movie.

Book Excerpt: Zombie Blues 2: The Question Zombie

By and copyright of Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Now available on Amazon

The Question Zombie

I’ll never forget that dark day in June.

We had just entered rainy season but the weather had been mild up to the 22^nd of that month. Suddenly the skies darkened and the rain began to fall. I stood blankly by the graveside with no more tears to cry. Inside I was numb with pained rage. My features were locked in a steely glare. Even now as a member of the undead, my expression has not changed. I didn’t think there could any pain worse than what I felt that day in June.

I was aware that the other mourners who had come to pay their respects to my brother were casting furtive glances at me. Inwardly I was grateful that the trickling rain ran down my cheeks in place of real tears. To them I was simply a grief stricken sister lost in the thralls of grief; a statuesque pillar of respectful mourning clad in black.

My head was a muse of clouds of grey that reduced the priest’s sermon to a muffled drone that I could not contemplate.

All I could do was watch the raindrops trickle down the white rose buds of the flower sprays. It looked like the roses were weeping for the loss of the man in the mahogany coffin. All I could do was focus on that image mesmerised by the tranquil beauty of it. The spiral spray with the layered roses was eloquent in design. As the rain fell, each and every rose caught the droplets. Their gentle shaped leaves cradled the moisture as it slowly trickled off the edge of the leaves to the coffin beneath it. It was like a hundred roses crying in harmony for the loss of a soul. The polished wooden surface allowed the droplets to slide gracefully off its edge to the ground below. The white against the dark wood with its myriad moving rain drops gave it an ethereal look like other Nature herself was mourning the loss of Yugala. But as we know that bitch mourns nothing but herself.

A voice whispered in my head sarcastically that at least something was shedding tears. My reserves were simply not there.

I barely registered the coffin being lowered and the ceremony ending with the priest shaking my hand as he gave his condolences. I think I acknowledged his graciousness and I know my husband Chuan gratefully shook the priest’s hand before slipping his an envelope with a gratuity. One by one the mourners dispersed like smoke on the breeze. I must have told Chuan to take the children back to the car as I found myself all alone staring at the grave.

My black overcoat was soaking and my hair was flattened to my head. Someone had put an umbrella over my head during the ceremony but that was gone now. Or had I ushered them away thoughtlessly? Anyone observing would have detected a slight tremble in my frame and assumed it was from the chill of the rain. It wasn’t. It was tropical heat still in this part of Thailand. You could stand shirtless in it and still not be cold. No, my trembling came from a burning desire for answers. I couldn’t understand it.

Forgotten Villains: Superman 2’s General Zod

By Owen Quinn author

Photos copyright Warner Brothers

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

There have been many incarnations and actors who have played the role of Lex Luthor, Superman’s arch enemy over the years but there is only one version that fans remember and has never, ever been matched for intensity and sheer raw screen presence.

In 1978 you really did believe a man could fly when actor Christopher Reeve took on the role of Superman and blew audiences away. At the start of the movie, we see a tribunal where three criminals are on trial for subverting Kryptonian society. General Zod, the mute Non and Ursa are sentenced by Superman’s father Jor El to the Phantom Zone. But with the success of the movie a sequel was inevitable and there was only one way to go.

Superman 2 is the best and most epic of the movies and that includes the Henry Cavill era. When Superman detonates a nuclear bomb in space that was intended to level Paris, the shockwave shatters the barrier between the Phantom Zone Zod and co were launched in freeing them in our solar system. How ironic that the son of their jailor is their saviour albeit accidentally.

General Zod here is played by Terence Stamp. With theIR distinctive black leather overall and trimmed beard and sallow features is the perfect Zod. His unique English accent is up there with Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber. It stands out and Stamp oozes the character.

Zod is arrogant, ambitious and has little regard for life. When he observes Ursa rip a badge from an astronaut’s spacesuit, his death is a mild curiosty at best. As they explore their new found powers and head to Earth, Zod and his cohorts arrive in a small town where they literally tear it apart turning it into a war zone. He is sadistic with death a mere means to amuse him. This is best displayed when a military helicopter fires missiles at them. Their primitive firepower has no effect on them and with a cold arrogance he asks Ursa to blow them a kiss. Her super breath blows the chopper out of the sky killing those aboard but as new found gods, everyone on Earth are mere sheep to Zod. Their attack on the town is merely a way to gauge the strength of their new found subjects and how much of a threat they are. When it is clear that none of the townspeople have super powers, Zod is angry. The warrior within him demands battle and a constant need to prove his superiority. There can be only one fish in the pond and that’s Zod. He roars into a television news camera for someone to challenge him as he always wins. However as we know Clark is busy revealing he is Superman to Lois and giving up his powers to be with her forever. By the time he finds out about Zod, Clark is completely human.

As the newly self appointed ruler of the planet Earth, Zod turns the faces of Mount Rushmore into his own likeness as does Ursa and Non. They then storm the White House where he observes from the American flag that humans are accustomed to worshipping things that fly. Zod is smart enough to know when a false President is presented to him but learns of Superman’s existence thanks to another old foe of Superman’s, the opportunistic Lex Luthor.

So begins an epic battle on and above the streets of Metropolis when Clark regains his powers and takes the fight to Zod. Luthor leads the Kryptonians to the Daily Planet where they take Lois and the staff hostage in hopes of luring Superman to them. By destroying the son of their jailor, they will have their revenge and take their place as unchallenged rulers of Earth. When Superman arrives we get classic timeless lines that have been used in other versions of the Super family.

“General, would you care to step outside?” and “Kneel before Zod!”

Zod is a warrior and unafraid to fight but he is alo a master tactician and realises that the only way they can hurt Superman is to hurt the people of Earth learning and calculating with every fight.

Destruction reigns down on Metropolis as the four battle in midair. Debris falls to the streets below and Zod and Ursa toss a bus full of people at Superman. He is not as easy to defeat as they first thought. They will burn everything to the ground in order to kill the son of Jor El regardless of the casualties. They have no mercy or compassion and betray Luthor who is delighted when Superman turns up in a classic comedic moment.

“Suoerman, thank God. I mean, get him!”

Zod may be a great warrior but Superman realises the only way to defeat them is to take the fight away from the city. The final standoff is in the Fortress of Solitude where Zod believes with Lois hostage that he has won. He finds it tasteless, a sad replica of a planet long gone.Zod wants Superman to be his slave forever or all Earthlings will die. When Luthor tells Zod that Clark has a molecule chamber which will turn them into humans. Zod puts Superman inside and the machine powers up. But there has never been a look of surprise more explicit than when Zod forces Superman to his knees and offers his hand to sweat eternal loyalty by his new slave. Zod and the others have been turned into humans while Superman was safe. Zod’s pained gasps of surprise are priceless as is the look on his face as his bones are crushed and he is thrown into a precipice of ice. But in a deleted scene Zod and his cronies are arrested and removed from the Fortress by the police. So somewhere Zod, ursa and Non are sitting in prison scheming a way to get back their powers and seek revenge on Superman.

We really are unsure at times through the movie if Superman is going to win but the onscreen chemistry between Reeve and Stamp is electric. Zod is so stoic in his superiority and new found powers under the yellow sun that it in the end clouds his warrior spirit. Stamp brings Zod to life with a regal air that comes from every pore. He bounces off the others brilliantly especially Ursa with his withering glances and his I’m better than everyone else attitude. But there is no doubt that Superman 2 and the epic battle between General Zod and Superman is a must see.

For the ultimate classic super hero villain, keep your Thanos; Terence Stamp as General Zod is the man to watch.