10 Times Superman Was Forced To Kill

10. Zod At The End Of Man Of Steel

Let's get the obvious one out of the way first off. Zack Snyder's reboot of the Superman movie franchise came after Bryan Singer's slavish sequel and love letter to the more colourful, innocent fare of Christopher Reeve in the seventies - which dramatically bombed at the box office.

Not wanting a repeat of that disaster, Warner Bros. looked to Christopher Nolan's incredibly successful Dark Knight trilogy of Batman adaptations, and decided they wanted more of that. So Man Of Steel became the "realistic", grimdark Superman movie where death and destruction awaits behind every corner and, more often than not, Kal-El himself plays a big part in it.

Basically the entire last half of the film is Supes grappling with Kryptonian bad guys General Zod and Faora across Smallville and Metropolis, highly populated urban areas that are completely decimated during the superpowered battle.

If that wasn't enough accidental death caused by our supposed paragon of humanity and heroism, the film climaxes with Zod and Superman in a train station, with Zod shooting some eye beams that will evaporate a family if Supes doesn't stop him in time. So the Man Of Steel decides to break the guy's neck, which is direct and indisputable murder. Zod didn't really leave him a choice, but still.

Not cool, grimdark Clark.