#xa-du

Action Comics #1080 - "Phantoms XI" (2024)

Do…your worst, Xa-Du.

Gladly take an animated adaption, but I believe he's already a meaningful addition in that he embodies the Phantom Zone as an antagonistic force, and Superman can believably fight him in a brawl unlike Aethyr. Zod and other evil Kryptonians being imprisoned in the Zone is peripheral to their whole deal, but it's central to the Phantom King. He's actually been mutated by his time there, and ideally if I had my way, it would result in a different powerset for him too. As an evil Kryptonian he is different enough from the rest to justify keeping around, and he actually has an awesome design to make people remember him.

I cannot overemphasize enough how important having a cool design is. Venom has coasted off being cool-looking for practically his entire existence. Artists like to draw cool stuff and writers like to use characters that look awesome. Waid loves Jax-Ur because that guy was the most prominent Silver Age Kryptonian baddie, but Jax fell off and has never recovered because he has neither the personality, potential, or coolness factor to compete with Zod. Jax has never had a cool looking design, even his DCAU appearance makes him look like Diet Zod.

Xa-Du meanwhile strikes a dramatic contrast with Zod in both personality and motivation. If Zod remains the Space Fascist, seeking to exert total control over everything he sees, even as his control over himself continues to crack, Xa-Du is the cackling maniac who left sanity and self-control behind long ago. Where Zod dresses in pristine power armor, Xa dresses in rags. Where Zod has shown a twisted concern for his fellow Kryptonians, trying to revive the Kandorians with the Lazarus Pits, Xa used the Kandorians as bullets to try to kill Superman's loved ones. Actually that's the fundamental difference between the two and why Xa works alongside Zod: he doesn't give a damn about Krypton being gone or what happens to his fellow Kryptonian survivors. He's never going to repent or reform, he has no sympathetic backstory or traits, and he doesn't really serve as a twisted mirror to Superman. Being pure evil let's him be fun to read because he stands out amidst all the other Superman Rogues who are frequently being given sympathy in the modern era.

A Very DC Halloween: Strange Visitor (2017).

Supergirl Vol. 7 #10 (2017)