First Look At "The Man Of Steel's" Enemies!

hat-tip to Devin and to ComingSoon

Pix snapped by fans on the "Smallville" location-shoot of "The Man of Steel" offer a first look at Superman's full costume in broad daylight, the reveal of villainess Faora, and an another actor whose attire - or lack thereof - is setting off a ton of fan speculation.

What's after the jump COULD concievably constitute spoilers, but I doubt it...

Okay, so this first one is your first look at Faora, who I think most people have assumed was going to be a secondary villain because "everybody knows" she was the basis for General Zod's ladyfriend Ursa in "Superman II." In the comics, Faora is generally the boss and Zod etc take orders from her... otherwise, same basic character: Evil woman with the strength of Superman who homicidally-hates all men (if that characterization makes it into the movie, it won't help the common critique of both Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan as latent mysogynists.)

I like the "Rarrr! I'm a Bad Guy!!" spiky black space-armor - very "comic-booky," exactly the sort of thing I want to see in a Superman movie at this point. Also like that she has a cape - it'd be awesome if the idea is that capes are just "what people wear on Krypton." I'm feeling like this outfit, plus Superman's big billowy red cape and straight-off-the-page physique seen below, could end up being Exhibits A and B in the "Bob Was Right About Zack Snyder Being Right For This Project" case. But it's the OTHER "costume" people are more curious about...

The guy in the motion-capture suit has been snapped in other images already. People have been assuming that it's actor Michael Shannon, who's (supposedly) playing Zod, but I'm not so sure. Whoever it is, it seems to confirm that there's a major character in this whose being realized through motion-capture animation... so who (or what) is it? Is Zod some kind of creature? Does his power manifest in some body-altering way (Super-Saiyan Zod?) Or... is this some OTHER enemy that wasn't confirmed yet - Brainiac? Parasite? The Kryptonite Man?

It's worth pointing out, I think, that waaaaay back in April a largely nonspecific synopsis of the movie's basic story got posted on a non-news site and everyone brushed it off as a fake... only to have the REAL synopsis released last week match it perfectly. Why is that significant? Because that "fake" synopsis named a different villain than Zod or Faora: METALLO. Granted, I don't think any of those is terribly likely, but now that these pix are out there Warner Bros. will probably have to say who/what it is sooner than later.

FWIW, supposedly the big "new" angle on this version of the character is that Superman is not as overwhelmingly trusted/embraced by the public and the world's militaries as in the past - some have suggested that this is partially due to the "evil" Kryptonians having shown up to start trouble BEFORE Clark Kent has decided to adopt a costumed identity and use his powers in public. The "fake-sounding" site had suggested that Metallo (a Kryptonite-powered robot) starts out as a man-made anti-Kryptonian weapon.