Originally posted by carver9Zod flying in and sucker punching him and breaking his jaw was merely the 'introduce the new baddie' moment, in their straight up fight at the end of that series, Supes whipped his ass, while draining under a red sun.
I also agree about the stepping up thing but I think you all are taking it out of context. Superman ALWAYS hold back (on some occasions he let loose). When Superman pull crazy feats, I think of it as him basically using his full potential, not getting an amp from a outside source.The zod fight, it could be used against superman or with him. In one instance we have Zod taking superman out in like 3 panels (blitzing him which broke his jaw), then we have supes whippin his ass (I always thought of supes as being zods superior due to fighting skills). Bizarro, he could be more powerful than supes but one thing I know for sure, supes is a better fighter than bizarro which could be the reason for supes better showing against zod.
Bizarro always have terrible showings, its just who he is, rhino junior but power wise, we havent seen a limit yet. Superman even questions his powers against bizarro and rely on plot devices to stop him.
Superman holds back against Bizarro, Russian Zod did not, and crushed Bizarro repeatedly, without effort.