In “Man of Steel,” General Zod backed Superman into a corner — his refusal to give up and the already caused destruction to Metropolis meant that the superhero had to stop Zod’s evildoings no matter what. However we feel about it, it’s true Superman had no choice left but to kill Zod.
Timm shared with ScreenRant that he originally wanted the superhero to kill Doomsday in the direct-to-video movie, “Superman: Doomsday.” Unfortunately, DC Comics disagreed, citing that it was out of character for Superman to do so. Timm had set up the climactic finale so that the brutal neck-snapping scene from “Man of Steel” would have occurred in his animated film first: Superman would feel helpless seeing innocent people about to be killed, and he’d do the only thing he could do to help: kill Doomsday.
“You know, it depends on the specific projects. When we did the first of our direct-to-video movies, Superman: Doomsday, I actually literally wanted Superman to break Doomsday’s neck to stop him. And again, DC Comics had a really big problem with that. They said, ‘Nope, Superman will never kill, no matter what. He will always find some other way.’ And I had arranged it so that it was exactly like what happened in Man of Steel, where Superman was being held immobile and innocent people were about to get killed, and I thought, ‘Well, Superman is gonna do the only thing you can do, which is to break Doomsday’s neck.’ And they just wouldn’t let me do it.”