The following comes from a - supposedly reliably informed - user at the SHH forums, who claims to have a source that was on hand for scenes being filmed in Zack Snyder's Man Of Steel. It does gel with those set images we saw from the Plano Illinois shoot, at least in that we know Supes (Henry Cavill) and Faora (Antje Traue) do have some kind of face-off. Thing is, if this is accurate Faora will give Superman a VERY sound beating when they do..
"In line with what I've heard, Superman barely scrapes by in the movie against Zod and Faora and other supposed less powerful enemies, the person who literally beats the bloody hell out of him the most is not Zod (he actually apparently fares much better against the General) is Faora. You know the ass kicking Spider-Man receives from Green Goblin in spider-man 1 what with Tobey screaming in major pain with each punch and knee that Goblin gives him... multiply that by 3 and that's what Faora does to Superman. Or of Omni-Man's beat down of Invincible.
At first they're not as powerful but later on as she applies her fight training and adapts them to her powers, she gives Superman one of the worst beatings a hero has faced on camera... She "Doomsdays" him... literally pulverizing him with precision and lethal strength with hitting pressure-points, nerves and even just outclasses Supes in bare knuckle and gives Supes a severe beat down...he's total agony this entire time, bloody and broken and barely gets away. My buddy doesn't know at all how Superman defeats these guys eventually but he did say that Superman in this film gets hurt a lot more easily than Routh's pre-crisis Superman...the military can hurt him too but Faora pretty much nearly kills him in hand to hand."
Okay, I don't have a problem believing that something like that happens in the movie - the hero always needs something to come back from after all. The thing is, I have my doubts that such a beat down would be delivered by a secondary villain like Faora and not General Zod (Michael Shannon). I guess we'll find out, but for now sound off with your thoughts below.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.