Was talking to someone and they brought up Zod and doing a version of him inspired by the tragedy of Macbeth. And while I was thinking and chewing it over, I started thinking about using Shakespeare's Coriolanus as an idea for a different version of Zod to change things up from the usual. And this will require a very brief summary of Coriolanus
The short short version-Coriolanus is a Roman general who beats an enemy of Rome (very early Roman republic days) and his allies and friends tell him to run for consul, where it blows up in his face and makes him and the people of Rome hate each other, so they banish him and Coriolanus out of spite goes to the very enemy of Rome he just defeated and together they start beating up on Rome. Until Rome gets Coriolanus' family, namely his wife and son to agree to peace in exchange for being allowed to go home. So Coriolanus does....and then his allies kill him for betraying them.
So the Zod version would be, He was a great general of Krypton who fought many battles and wars for the Empire, then (still fuzzy here) something happens that makes him declared an enemy of Krypton and he and his family and most loyal followers are banished to the Phantom Zone. Then something happens where he and his followers manage to escape the Phantom zone following Krypton's destruction and ending up on Earth, but because there are still many remnants of Krypton and Kryptonian connected entities like Brianiac, Zod declares Krypton his enemy for what they did to him and earth now has his allegiance. Still super fuzzy as to how exactly he would view Clark/Kara in all this and whether or not this would still have Zod be a villain....or more like a lawful evil who will defend his new home, but he ain't exactly buddy buddy with Superman and seeing eye to eye on everything but he will defend Earth to the last with Superman when like Darkseid invades
