I was expecting Superman to Kill Zod.

The fact that Superman killing Zod at the end of Man of Steel has been so controversial confuses me because I was expecting it to happen, I would have been confused if it hadn't.

Because every prior major Zod story that was worthwhile ended with Superman killing Zod.  From Superman II to the Pocket Universe storyline early in the Post-Crisis era.

And don't try to muddle the situation by talking about that deleted Superman II scene showing them alive.  It didn't even get included in the final Donner Cut.  Deleted scenes aren't canon, it was cut for a reason, because they knew it would be stupid.  No one left that theater in 1980 thinking anything happened to Zod, Ursa and Non other then death.

Man of Steel presented the most morally justified version.  Superman II was the least justified version, your beloved God-Like Reeve Superman murdered them when they were depowered and helpless.  The Pocket Universe scenario was Superman carrying out a legal capital punishment, which for me as someone who opposes Capital Punishment is still a big problem.

In Man of Steel he snapped the neck of an unhinged Zod on a suicidal genocidal rampage about to fry an innocent family.  My only problem with KyleKallgrenBHH's Caligari to Hitler video was him throwing this moment in there.  Calling that Fascist is stupid, condemning Superman killing Zod in that moment is like condemning an allied soldier for killing a Nazi soldier who was about to massacre a Jewish family.  And condemning the Pocket-Unvierse scenario you could compare to condemning Israel for executing Eichmannn if you wanted.

So it bugs me that this version of Superman killing Zod is the one considered the most unprecedented controversial character assassination in Superhero film history.  Besides Zod, Comic Book Superman has also killed in comparable scenarios Doomsday and the Cyborg Superman, and some other mostly forgotten characters, all long before the movie MoS was made to replace was even made.

KyleKallgrenBHH also seems to feel it makes Superman less God-Like, when every God who's ever actually been worshiped by a real religion has some blood on their hands.  The God I worship brags about how He kills the enemies of His people, and Pagan gods were all homicidal maniacs.

Of course Kyle touches another Pet-Peeve of mine in that Superman video, thinking "Man" is a gender specific word and somehow distinct from Mensch when in fact they are variations of the exact same Indo-European root.  Man is a synonym of Human, "Woman" means a Man with a Womb.  Man in the King James Bible is used to translate Adam, Enosh and Anthropos, all words that meant Human Being.  But the confusion began with it also being used of Zakar and Ish.  Regardless of if you agree that the Superman character matched Neiche's Ubermensch idea, Superman was named after it, going back to the Reign of the Superman comic.  Superhero names like Superman and Batman and Spiderman clearly originally meant Man as in Human, this only became muddled when female counterparts were created like Batwoman, Batgirl and Supergirl.