- "A good death is its own reward."
- ―Faora-Ul[src]
Faora-Ul is a Kryptonian soldier holding the rank of subcommander and served as second-in-command to her superior officer General Zod.
History
Faora was born on the distant planet Krypton. She was a fiercely dedicated soldier under General Zod’s command and alongside him conspired a coup d’état on the planet Krypton, supplanting the ruling Law Council. They attempted to overthrow the Council and start anew by extinguishing the “unworthy” lineages that had led Krypton and its people to the edge of annihilation. They attacked the Legislation Chamber where scientist Jor-El was in council with them informing them Krypton was lost and that they had to abandon their planet. Faora threw council members on the floor on Zod’s orders.
As Zod had Jor-El arrested, Faora and Zod's other men executed the Law Council. Jor-El escaped however and stole the codex and returned to his home. Faora helped Zod chase Jor-El to his homestead in pursuit. When there Zod engaged Jor-El in hand to hand combat, Zod killed Jor-El as his wife Lara Lor-Van launched the codex off inside their son’s ship. Loyalist forces arrived and arrested Zod, Faora and the rest of his men.
Faora at Zod's side during the coup.
She searched for the codex, before being captured. The attempt was ultimately in vain and she and her fellow conspirators were placed in the Phantom Zone for their offences. As a result, when Krypton exploded they escaped death and eventually made their way to the planet Earth in search of Jor-El’s son who possessed the codex.
There they devised a plan on terraforming the entire planet into a new environment suitable to sustain a new generation of Kryptonians. Faora was returned to the Phantom Zone when the phantom drive from Kal-El's ship was used to against Black Zero's sucking all into a singularity.
They were put on trial in the Legislation Chamber and were sentenced to 300 years of reconditioning in the Phantom Zone. They boarded the Black Zero ship and travelled through the Phantom Zone Projector to their fate. Krypton exploded however and the ripple effect broke Black Zero free. Faora, horrified that her world had blown up followed her General's plans to find survivors and a new planet to rebuild Krypton.
After Kal-El, now grown up, activated a thousands year old Scout Ship it sent a signal throughout space which Black Zero picked up. Knowing they had located Kal-El and the growth codex, they set course for Earth. After Zod sent a message across Earth requesting Kal-El be handed over, Zod sent Faora in a dropship to pick him up and also the human Lois Lane. Faora fitted Lois with one of their visors so that she would be able to breathe onboard Black Zero. The atmosphere aboard their ship disrupted Kal's powers and he was strapped down and both were subjected to mental torture and probing trying to find the codex. Lois had without knowing brought aboard Jor-El's AI hologram which helped Lois escape and change the atmosphere aboard the ship.
General Zod had rounded up his troops and went to Earth. Landing at the Kent's Farm and confronting Martha Kent, Faora picked up her off the ground using her new powers wanting the codex after not finding it on Kal-El's ship. Faora threw her down to find Kal's ship hidden beneath the barn as Kal-El returned and tackled her General away. Faora and Nam-Ek went off in pursuit and confronted Kal-El in Smallville.
Faora searching for the growth codex.
The two quickly outmatched Kal-El with their numbers and pummeled him into the ground and through shop windows. As the military intervened and Nam-Ek dealt with them, Faora tackled Kal-El herself proving her vast fighting experience by beating him at the start, though he eventually overpowers her and Nam-Ek due to his superior solar-energy supply. When a missile hit her, it broke Faora's visor and she and Nam-Ek retreated after being picked up in a dropship.
General Zod recovered aboard his ship and commanded them to release the Terraforming Generator and send Black Zero to Metropolis where its initiates the gravity beam as Zod goes to retrieve the Scout Ship, which signal brought them to Earth. Faora commands the troops and soon Zod returns with the ship as does Kal-El after destroying the Terraforming Generator. Earth military forces begin to attack Black Zero to which Faora begins to deal with them. Aboard a C-17 piloted by Hardy, they have Kal-El's ship and after throwing Lois out of the plane and killing 2 military personnel, Hardy flies the plane directly at Black Zero. Before Faora can get to Hardy the plane has hit and the lightdrive from Kal-El's ship against Black Zero's creates a black hole singularity that begins to suck everything in it's path inwards.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Kryptonian Physiology: As a Kryptonian, Faora's alien body adapted to Earth's atmosphere and gravity and absorbed the yellow radiation emitted by the Sun, which granted her superhuman powers.
- Super Strength: while under a yellow sun, Faora possessed incredible, potentially incalculable superhuman strength, enough to effortlessly break a man's neck, shatter concrete, break through thick metal walls and doors, and fight fellow Kryptonian Kal-El in hand-to-hand combat. In fact, Faora was able to hurl him to the other side of Smallville, while her blows were powerful enough to send him flying and visibly hurt him. She was also able to grasp Kal by the neck hard enough to make the latter wince in pain. Together with Nam-Ek, Faora was also able to force Kal-El back down when the latter tried to fly up into the air. However, she was still not quite as strong as Kal-El, due to the latter's superior solar-energy supply.
- Super Speed: Faora can run and react at incredible speeds, allowing her to overpower many soldiers within seconds, without them being able to even react.
- Invulnerability: The enhancing process that Earth's yellow sun environment did to Faora's skin, bones and muscles made her incredibly tough, durable, and virtually indestructible. She withstood high-caliber bullets shot by military jets and helicopters, which knocked her back, but did not wound her in the slightest. She also withstood the explosion of a military plane, Kal-El's heat vision attack (though it caused her burning pain), and numerous mighty blows from the younger Kryptonian without any kind of permanent damage. However, she was left disoriented and in agony when the breather that allowed her enhanced senses to be stable (without her having to learn to hone them) was destroyed by Kal-El, greatly weakening her durability, to the point that a direct hit from a powerful missile knocked her unconscious. She is also immune to earthly diseases and viruses. However, Faora can be damaged by magic (which completely bypasses her invulnerability, directly affecting her physiology) and Kryptonite xenominerals.
- Super Leaps: Faora is able to use her incredible strength to perform super jumps, shown when she leaped into the Kents' barn, and when she almost leaped onto a flying military jet (only to be stopped by Kal-El just in time).
Abilities
- Expert Combatant: as an illustrious member of the Kryptonian Warrior Guild, Faora is a fierce and ruthless combatant, being extremely skilled in a vast array of Kryptonian martial arts. She easily gained the upper hand against Kal-El in a duel, and was only incapacitated after her visor broke open. Faora might also have some skill in wielding bladed weaponry, since she was about to attack Colonel Nathan Hardy with a Kryptonian combat knife.
Weaknesses
- Sensory Overload: As Faora and her fellow Kryptonians have superhuman senses, their brains can be overwhelmed by the information it takes in. Though they could learn to hone their senses in time, an attack on their sight or hearing can briefly stun and greatly weaken them, to the point that a direct hit from a missile was enough to knock a weakened Faora unconscious.
- Red Sun Radiation/Kryptonian Environments: A red sun robs Faora of the powers that she gained under a yellow sun. Because of this, a Kryptonian environment filled with red sun radiation and greater gravity will render her to human levels.
- Kryptonite: Radioactive pieces of Faora's home world Krypton. This kind of mineral is mostly green in color, and is extremely toxic to Kryptonians, causing them great pain, nausea, and sickness, while completely breaking down their invulnerability, making them vulnerable to attacks, to the point that even a regular human can defeat them without much effort. Prolonged exposure to Kryptonite will result in the Kryptonian's death. The xenomineral's effects can, however, be instantly neutralized by even a very thin coating of lead.
- Beings of Equal Power: Beings of comparable incalculable superhuman might, such as other Kryptonians, can generate enough force that can knock out, injure and even kill Faora, breaking through her invulnerability without the need of kryptonite, much like how Superman was able to kill Zod by breaking the latter's otherwise invulnerable neck.
Behind the Scenes
Diane Kruger, Rosamund Pike, Alice Eve and Lindsay Lohan were considered for the role of Faora before Antje Traue was cast.
External Links
- Faora at the Superman Wiki.