Ursa (comics)
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Ursa is a supervillain that appeared as an enemy of Superman in the theatrical film Superman II. She was a co-conspirator and accomplice of General Zod. Ursa was played by actress Sarah Douglas. The character made a brief appearance at the beginning of Superman: The Movie.
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[edit] Superman: The Movie
In the first Superman film, Ursa appears alongside General Zod and Non as they are being sentenced to the Phantom Zone by Superman's Kryptonian father, Jor-El. Jor-El describes her as "the woman Ursa, whose perversions and unreasoning hatred of all mankind has threatened even the children of the planet Krypton." She, Zod, and Non are imprisoned in the Phantom Zone where they should remain for all eternity and are not heard from again in the first film.
[edit] Superman II
In the theatrical version of Superman II, Ursa, Zod, and Non are freed from the Phantom Zone when a hydrogen bomb thrown into space by Superman detonates near the Zone, shattering it. The three villains encounter a group of astronauts on Earth's moon, where we see Ursa's hatred for males first-hand. She meets an astronaut, asking him what sort of a creature he is. When he replies that he is a man, Ursa rips the NASA emblem off his spacesuit, rupturing it and killing him.
Following the Lunar confrontation, Ursa and the villains make their way to Earth, which they believe is called "Houston", and proceed to lay waste to the small town of East Houston, Idaho. From there, they move to the White House, where the President of the United States (played by E.G. Marshall) kneels before Zod. When Ursa, Zod, and Non finally meet Superman, a climactic battle sequence takes place in the streets of Metropolis, which ends when Ursa and Non throw a bus onto Superman and he flees the scene. Lex Luthor then tells the villains he knows where Superman has gone and suggests taking Lois Lane along because of her relationship with Superman. The villains are led to the Fortress of Solitude in the arctic, where Ursa and Non threaten to tear Lois Lane in two if Superman does not kneel to General Zod. Superman attempts to trick the villains into a molecule chamber that will take away their powers but ends up being forced into it himself by Zod. However, Superman has actually tricked the villains: he reversed the effects of the molecule chamber so that its red sun radiation is beamed throughout the fortress while Superman remains protected inside the chamber. The villains are stripped of their powers and Ursa is last seen when Lois punches her, knocking her into a crevasse in the Fortress where she disappears into the mist.
In extended versions of the film that have screened on television, Ursa has a slightly expanded role. She is seen ripping a badge off a military officer's uniform at the White House while remarking how peculiar it is that men wear ribbons and jewelry on this planet. In one deleted scene, a boy in East Houston attempts to escape and get help, but Non rips the light from the top of a police car and throws it like an artillery round, killing the boy and his horse in the distance. A horrified woman remarks "He was only a boy!" to which, with obvious pleasure, Ursa replies, "Who will never become a man!" Also, in some extended versions, a powerless Ursa, Zod, and Non are seen being led into Arctic Police vehicles following the final confrontation at the Fortress. The theatrical version and the later reedited version Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut suggests that they are dead, as they are all seen falling into crevices inside the Fortress from which they never come out.
[edit] The Character from Superman: The Movie and Superman II
Ursa is depicted in both films as a hater of any member of the male gender anywhere. The only exceptions to this appear to be Non and General Zod. In the first film, this aspect of her character is emphasized by Jor-El in his speech as he sentences them to the Phantom Zone. In the second film, as directed by Richard Lester, Ursa's male hating tendencies survive, but the reprise of Jor-El's speech emphasizes a different aspect of her character. In Lester's Superman II, Jor-El says "Ursa, the only feeling you showed was for your vicious general. Your only wish, to rule at his side." Lester altered the character slightly, making her softer, and at least to a degree, in love with General Zod. In Superman II footage shot by Richard Donner, Ursa is more vicious and expresses her desire to kill as many men as she can in one scene from an extended TV version. In Donner's footage, Ursa does not necessarily appear to be in love with General Zod, but is with him because they share common goals.
Throughout Superman II, Ursa collects symbols and badges as she encounters law enforcement and military officers on Earth, and she keeps these badges on her costume as symbols of those she has conquered or killed. She takes a NASA patch from an astronaut, a Sheriff's badge, a badge from a military officer's uniform at the White House, and several more badges and symbols that can be seen attached to her uniform as the film progresses.
[edit] The Character from the Comics
Until recently, the character of Ursa had never appeared in the Superman comic books, but she was almost undoubtedly based on the character of Faora from the Pre-Crisis Superman comics. Faora was a Phantom Zone villain who first appeared in Action Comics #471 (May, 1977). Like Ursa, she hated males and was in fact sentenced to the Phantom Zone for "wantonly causing the death of 23 Kryptonian men in her own male concentration camp." Since she is from Krypton it is most likely she is vulnerable to Kryptonite.
Action Comics #845 (November 2006), which is the second part of the "Last Son" arc by Geoff Johns & Richard Donner, finally introduced Ursa to the Superman comic book canon. This version of her was shown to have taken a cue from the Lester version (even though Donner is co-writing this arc) where she is in love with Zod. Zod and Ursa may also be the parents of the kryptonian boy that Superman & Lois Lane want to adopt.
In a flashback in Action Comic Annual #10 a fleshed out retelling of the story told in Superman II aligned partly her story to her movie counterpart. Lover of General Zod, and part of the Kryptonian guard along with his lover, she believed that Non and Jor-El were right about Krypton final fate, and sought to rebel the Council. When Non was kidnapped, lobotomized and turned into a brute with minimal intelligence and unable to speak, Zod and Ursa snapped, instigating open rebellion, while Jor-El surrendered the Council, eventually using the Phantom Zone projector upon the trio during the trial told in the movie. Ursa stayed loyal to Zod, even in their "exile", and believing that eventually Jor-El could have been able to save Krypton, or at last his lineage, agreed with Zod in pursuing and taking vengeance over the House of El.
[edit] Animation
Ursa has only appeared in the Superman movies and comics, but a very similar character named Mala appeared in two episodes of Superman: The Animated Series. Seemingly based on both Ursa and Faora, she was played initially by Leslie Easterbrook and more notably, by Sarah Douglas herself in her second and final appearance on the series.
