- "I designed this ship. I can modify its atmospheric composition... ...to human compatibility. We can stop them. We can send them back to the Phantom Zone."
- ―Jor-El to Lois Lane[src]
The Black Zero[1] was a Kryptonian prison frigate originally designed by Jor-El to transport criminals into the Phantom Zone. It was used to imprison General Dru-Zod and the Sword of Rao following their failed coup, and, following Krypton's destruction, was later used as their command ship.
General Zod proceeded to utilize the ship as a means of searching the universe for Kryptonian survivors. On Earth-1, when Kal-El triggered the distress beacon in Scout Ship 0344 and on the Flashpont timeline, when Kara Zor-El's pod sent a signal, the Sword of Rao travelled to Earth in their resumed pursuit of the Growth Codex.
Upon finally reaching Earth, Zod attempted to use a World Engine to terraform the planet into a world suitable for Kryptonians, but was defeated by Emil Hamilton's activation of the Phantom Drive aboard Kal-El's starcraft, sucking the ship and Zod's soldiers back into the Phantom Zone. They were succesful on the Flashpoint Timeline, though.
History[]
The Black Zero over Krypton
Creation[]
The Black Zero starship was originally designed by Jor-El, Krypton's foremost scientist of the Thinker Guild, and was originally a prison barge.
Imprisonement of the Sword of Rao[]
When General Dru-Zod and his Sword of Rao loyalists tried to stage a coup d'état and take over Krypton, they were eventually captured. Given that this was the worst crime committed on Krypton in many thousands of years, the Council of Five decided to reuse the Black Zero to send Zod and his followers away to the Phantom Zone, for 300 years of somatic reconditioning. Once Zod and his followers were imprisoned and loaded aboard the vessel, the Black Zero was sent into the Phantom Zone through Jor-El's projector.
Controled by the Sword of Rao[]
When Krypton exploded due to its unstable core, and the Phantom Zone projector was affected by the explosion, the Black Zero was subsequently released from the Phantom Zone along with Zod and his loyalists, who, with the help of scientist Jax-Ur, retrofitted the ship as their new flagship and decided to travel the universe in search of Kryptonian survivors, the stolen Growth Codex and Kal-El. At one point during their travels, Zod and his crew found an old World Engine on the desolate Kryptonian settlement of Daxam and attached it to the Black Zero. 33 years after the beginning of their quest, Zod and his men finally picked up a Kryptonian beacon, sent out from the planet Earth; they followed the signal and subsequently realized that Jor-El's son Kal-El was on Earth, with the Codex.
Kryptonian attack[]
Arriving in Earth's atmosphere, the ship collided with a disabled spy satellite, which didn't even scratch the prison ship.[1] General Zod then sent a message to both the human race and Kal-El, demanding that humankind hand Kal-El over to them and that Kal-El surrender or watch Earth suffer. Later, after the U.S. military elected to hand Kal-El over to Zod, Sub-Commander Faora-Ul arrived in a dropship and retrieved Kal-El and Lois Lane, who were then brought aboard the Black Zero. They met Zod, who had a weakened Kal-El tied down before subjecting him to visions of humanity being wiped out while a new Krypton was being created on Earth. Meanwhile, Lois escaped from the Black Zero via an escape pod with the help of Jor-El. Kal-El also managed to escape with Jor-El's help and flew after Lois, whom he saved from the malfunctioning escape pod. As this was happening, Zod and his crew took the dropship and traveled to the Kent Farm in search of the Growth Codex.
Terraforming Earth and getting spaghettified[]
The Black Zero being sucked into the Phantom Zone
After a battle with Kal-El and Earth military forces, General Zod and his forces retreated to the Black Zero, which they positioned above Metropolis, and prepared to activate the gravity beam which would destroy Earth as the World Engine terraformed the planet into New Krypton. As Jax-Ur and others piloted the Black Zero, Zod and Faora-Ul defended it from Kal-El and U.S. military forces. Lois, with the help of Nathan Hardy, got Kal-El's infant starship aboard a C-17, and used the craft's engine against the gravity beam, causing it to become unstable and create a singularity that sucked everything inside, including the Black Zero (which spaghettified in the process) and the plane that Hardy and the ship was on.[2]
Alternate universes/timelines[]
Flashpoint Timeline[]
Controlled by the Sword of Rao[]
As in the original timeline, the Black Zero would be used to send Zod and his followers to the Phantom Zone, however, after the destruction of Krypton, they would be freed so they would begin to travel the universe inside the prison ship. Shortly after, they would find the pod of an infant Kal-El, which had just separated from his cousin's pod. The Black Zero would get close enough to the pod so that they could get it inside and once that happened, Zod attempted to extract Kal-El's codex, failing to do it and killing the infant in the process.
Kryptonian attack[]
Arriving to Earth and terraforming it[]
33 years later, after Kara Zor-El's pod sent a signal to the Black Zero, their passengers followed it and arrived on Earth on September 30, 2013. Inside the prison ship, Zod would hack all of the devices on the planet to send a message asking for an individual to be delivered. 2 days later, on October 2, the Black Zero would descend near the Edwards Air Force Base where it would drop 5 Kryptonian dropships. After Zod realized that the humans had failed to deliver the Kryptonian Traitor, he ordered Sword of Rao members present at the place to attack the military forces while the rest drove the Black zero into space.
The Black Zero in action.
In space, the Black Zero would release a World Engine which would go to the Indian Ocean while the Black Zero came back down to go to Metropolis. When Barry Allen woke up after having recovered his powers, he, along with his younger self and Kara, saw on a screen on the news how the Black Zero was already in Metropolis, so they rushed to fight the Sword of Rao. Already on the battlefield, Zod began the terraforming in front of Supergirl, using his gauntlet device with which he made the terraforming begin. The Black Zero began sending gravity pulses through the Earth, causing the destruction of buildings and cars and the death of many people.
Unlike the original timeline, the Black Zero was never stopped. Supergirl attempted to stop the terraforming when she attempted to use the gauntlet device of Zod when he was "unconscious" but was stabbed by him. Ultimately, it resulted that the terraformation of Earth was an inevitable intersection that couldn't be fixed in any way so Flash erased the Flashpoint Timeline, making it so that the Black Zero and World Engine never fully terraformed Earth.
Specifications[]
"Black Zero" in action over Metropolis.
The Black Zero is a colossal Kryptonian prison frigate, designed by Thinker Guild scientist Jor-El, and that was used to transport criminals to the Phantom Zone.
The Black Zero, after Jax-Ur retrofitted the Phantom Zone Projector into a Phantom Drive, was capable of interstellar travel. The frigate is capable of terraforming a planet when linked at a World Engine. It also had several escape pods attached.
Trivia[]
- In the comics, Black Zero is the name used by various DC Universe antagonists, all of which are enemies of the Superman family.
- The original Black Zero was an alien super-villain responsible for destroying Krypton in Silver Age Earth-One continuity.
- Following the continuity relaunch after "Crisis On Infinite Earths," Black Zero was retconned as an organization that inadvertenly destroyed Krypton.
- The "Black Zero" name was also used by an alternate reality version of Superboy (Kon-El) and a computer virus developed by the organization.
- In the film, the Black Zero is initially used to transport and contain prisoners sent to the Phantom Zone.
- The Black Zero was one of the only vehicles/objects from Man of Steel to return in The Flash.
