Blue was full of teases and analysis about his Major Zod - there's a time-travel element to the character's appearance in the show - but said that, for all his complexity, he's a very simple man:

I don't want him to have any question in his mind about what he wants to do. I don't want him to have any redeeming qualities or redeeming features. There's definitely a human side of him, he's insecure, there's a reason why he's a villain... The complexities of the character, the reasons why he wants what he wants and does what he does, that's what interests me. The human side of it. I think he's a very sad lonely character, but he doesn't ever let that show... There's a reason he's so shut down. Before I go on set, I'm in my trailer, working myself into a real emotional state, and then I go on set and try to cover that up, so there's always some fire going on within him, but there's a coolness as well... He knows what he wants. He wants everyone to kneel before him.

That famous line, in fact, is one of Blue's favorite things about the character:

I'm milking [Kneel before Zod] for all it's worth, I mean, I love that line. I've already said it in the show, it's in the first episode. [Zod's] not quite as cool as Terence Stamp yet, but he's growing into it... I remember the movie from being a kid, and remember being terrified of him. That steely coldness, he's not over the top at all in that movie, and that terrified me when I was a kid. I loved it.

It's also not the only thing he hopes to steal from the Zod we saw in Superman II:

My costume at the moment is army fatigues, because I have a whole army, kind of like the Fascist Party, and I'm the leader of it? So we all have the same outfit, with armbands... It's a different take on the costume. I guess when I start growing into being General Zod - I'm actually Major Zod at the moment - that's when the [movie's more familiar] costume will come in. And I'm hoping it's really low, like the one [from Superman II]. I'm going to do a few more weights before that.

Explaining just who Zod will be in season nine, and who will be there with him, requires some lateral thinking. Pay attention, all:

The Zod that took over Lex's body was the future me. This is where it gets confusing: Zod is in the Phantom Zone, Tess takes me from the past, where I haven't actually... Zod in the show has blown up Krypton, he's in the Phantom Zone for major crimes against Krypton, I think he's the one who destroyed the planet. I haven't done that yet in my body. But that will be happening... Faora... I think that's my future wife? She's in it, she's with me all the time. And the guy that doesn't speak - but he does speak in this version, Non. He's in it too. And they're great, they're my sidekicks and I boss them around a lot. But in the first couple of episodes, nobody knows what's going on, and I have to fight to get my power back. There's a huge speech, it's kind of a Hitler speech, and he gets everybody back on his side... Everybody turns against me because we've been promised these powers [on Earth] and we get there and we don't have these powers and we don't know why.

Smallville season nine - complete with Hitler-esque Zod, whom is fond of kneeling, premieres September 25th on the CW.

Talking at San Diego Comic-Con, showrunners Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson talked about what's lying in store for Clark, Lois and the rest of the Smallville cast. Saying that the show would now explore the "last stage" of "what Clark Kent goes through in his decision to put on the cape and tights," Peterson laid out the themes of the season:

the thread of the year is twofold. One is Clark training with Jor-El and for the first time ever embracing what that means to be a hero, trying to give up his human identity but finding how hard that is when you're in love with somebody, and so that's kind of the thread, between Lois and Clark and the Blur, and his training with Jor-El, that's kind of the thread.

(The "Blur" refers to the "red-blue blur," the mysterious glimpse of Clark doing his superpowered thing that a number of people have seen and speculated about at this point.)

Talking of threads, Souders admitted that "there's a little bit of a wardrobe change this season," with Peterson explaining,

It's kind of based on a couple of pieces of mythology of when he died, and his Doomsday fight in the comics, and the costume he wore after that, and that's kind of the basis of what we're doing with his look this year.

Are we really about to see the return of the black suit and mullet? Suddenly, we can't work out if this makes the show more exciting or horrifying. Thankfully, the new villain might make up for any bad costuming decisions:

We're bringing him in as Major Zod, and we have a whole backstory that's going to unfold as to why he's here. He comes with pretty much a legion of Kryptonians from Kandor, and so it dovetails and touches on what they're doing in the comic world right now.

For those not reading the Superman comics, that means an army of Kryptonians on Earth under the command of Zod, who may or may not be a threat that even Superman can't take care of. Will Clark have to deal with kneeling before more than one superpowered troublemaker from his home planet before the end of the season? It's looking likely, but it's also likely that he's not going to be doing it alone; the producers also confirmed that comic writer Geoff Johns will be writing an episode of the season, introducing elder statesmen superheroes the Justice Society of America.

Smallville returns for the start of its ninth season on September 25.

Blue, who has previously starred in Showtime's The Tudors and Billie Piper-starring Secret Diary of a Call Girl, will finally be giving a face to Zod, who has been part of the show's mythology since the fifth season, but has never actually appeared onscreen until now (He previously possessed Lex in the fifth season finale/sixth season opener).

The character first appeared in 1961's Adventure Comics #283 as a villain in a Superboy short, but really came to prominence as the main villain in 1980's Superman II, birthplace of the now-famous "Kneel before Zod" line.

Smallville season nine begins on the CW in the fall.

'Smallville' casts its General Zod [Hollywood Reporter]

DC Comics have a pretty hefty week of important launches hitting stores tomorrow. (And, no, I'm not including "WWII Heroes Fight Dinosaurs" book The War That Time Forgot, the first collection of which is released this week.)

You can catch a glimpse at how Gotham City has been affected by the disappearance of Batman in Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead?, or follow Superman as he abandons Earth to kneel before Zod in the first issue of Superman: World of New Krypton. You can even catch up with the storyline that led to the creation of New Krypton in the hardcover collection Superman: Brainiac, which also includes the last days of poor Pa Kent. There's even a brand new space superhero series launching from the cosmic-awareness addled mind of Jim Starlin, called (appropriately) Strange Adventures.

Marvel are heading into space themselves, with the launch of their new "Intergalactic War - Again!" series, War of Kings; it's one of a number of launches from the House of Ideas this week, which include the Hulk anthology mini-series Hulk: Broken Worlds, a continuity-heavy Dark Reign: Fantastic Four, the wonderfully goofy one-shot Spider-man & The Human Torch in Bahia De Los Muertos (The plot of which is "Spidey and the Human Torch go to Puerto Rico and meet monsters." Seriously, how could you resist?) and the surprisingly fun New Avengers: The Reunion, which offers marriage counseling via superheroes and evil mad scientist cults.

(If you're jonesing for some Wolverine ahead of the upcoming movie, Marvel are there for you as well; they're re-releasing both Barry Windsor-Smith's classic Weapon X and Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's even-more-classic Wolverine mini-series in new editions, just in case you've never read them before.)

Of course, all of the above pales before IDW's Galaxy Quest: Global Warming, which proved that apparently comic book spin-offs of minor SF comedy movies years after they came out can still manage to be more fun than the movies themselves. Just don't let writer Scott Lobdell know I said that.

All of these releases, and many more, can be found by perusing the complete list of this week's new comic releases, and then purchased - if you have "the green" - at your local store which can, as ever, be found using the Comic Shop Locator Service. Although, really, you should know where it is by now. What're you waiting for?