During her youth, Faora was a strong, athletic, dark-haired woman who cared less about looking good and more concerned with her job as a soldier, with her hair normally slicked back in a tail.
As a wraith, Faora has no physical body. Once she inhabited the body of Lois Lane, she immediately changed her clothes and hairstyle to darker color tones and also more makeup.
Under a yellow sun, Faora can obtain all Kryptonian powers and abilities by taking on physical form by possessing humans.
Super strength: By claiming a living being's body, Faora became superhumanly strong, allowing her to overpower and kill humans, to lift extremely heavy objects, and could match other Kryptonians, making her an extremely powerful force. (Bloodline)
Super speed: By claiming a living being's body, Faora became superhumanly fast and agile and could easily run and or move at speeds that greatly exceeds the speed of sound. (Bloodline)
Invulnerability: By claiming a living being's body, Faora became nigh industructible. (Bloodline)
Flight: Faora could defy Earth's gravity as a wraith and while she was in Lois's body. (Bloodline)
Technopathy: Faora could read at high speeds when she tried to find Davis. (Bloodline)
Faora is vulnerable to various types of kryptonite, the same as any other Kryptonian, but she was ultimately defeated by the Martian Manhunter's red crystal, which exorcised Faora's wraith from Lois' body and sent her back to the Phantom Zone.
Faora was born and raised on Krypton, and had a younger sister named Vala. She was born into military service and never had a chance for a civilian life, she became a soldier in Krypton's army; however, it was not her choice to do so. When she was a young cadet, Faora was caught on enemy lines in the Argo Valley and saved by Zod.
During her time as a soldier, Faora served under Major Zod during the war against Black Zero. She was in the line of the soldiers having a sample of her blood taken by a medic, along with other soldiers under Zod's command, on the border outside of Kandor. She was present shortly after when Kandor was destroyed by Black Zero.
Sometime after Zod's first wife and his child were killed in Kandor's destruction, Faora and Zod became a romantic item and later married. Faora was unable to produce an heir to continue Zod's legacy, so instead she and Zod took DNA from powerful Kryptonian life-forms, which they combined with their own DNA to create their ultimate "son". They then attached their son, who was merely genetic matter, to Kal-El's spaceship which was set on a course for Earth after Jor-El and Lara-El learned of Krypton's impending doom at the hands of Zod and Brainiac.
Before Zod and Brainiac ignited Krypton's core, Faora and Zod were captured and sentenced by the Council to life imprisonment in the Phantom Zone, their only way of escaping being to possess Kryptonian vessels.
More than twenty years later, Faora's phantom managed to escape from the Phantom Zone when Kara Kent opened Zor-El's escape portal to allow Lois Lane, who had accidentally been sent to the Phantom Zone along with Clark Kent, to escape. She attacked Kara, injuring her, and possessed Lois' body shortly after escaping, using her as a Kryptonian vessel.
After possessing Lois' body, Faora went to the Daily Planet and checked the newspaper's archives to find any mention of an article relevant to her son. She disabled the male archivist at the time when he got in her way. Afterward, Tess Mercer encountered her and they each tried to pump each other for information. Seeing that Tess had no information on her son, Faora super-sped away, leaving Tess astonished.
Faora tracked down Chloe Sullivan at the Isis Foundation, telling her who she was, and began to choke her until she saw a file on Davis Bloome that Chloe dropped on the floor. She allowed Chloe to live and then super-sped away to find Davis, knowing that he was her son. She went to Metropolis General Hospital, where she found Davis caring for a small boy. Faora pulled Davis to the side and told him his true origins, explaining that he was destined to be Earth's ultimate destroyer. When Davis dismissed Lois, believing she took something, Faora stated that he was not strong enough yet to fulfill his destiny, broke off a bed railing and stabbed him with it, leaving him to bleed to death, knowing that he would resurrect because of his ability to adapt to attacks.
Faora left the room with Davis still lying there and was confronted by Clark, who had managed to escape from the Phantom Zone. Clark tried to get through to Lois, but Faora told him that he was similar to his father for falling for a human (Lois). She told Clark that he didn't stand a chance against the ultimate destroyer, whom she refused to tell the identity of, and that he, along with all of mankind, would be destroyed. Faora then shoved Clark through a wall with one hand and out of the building, causing Clark to fall several stories and onto the roof of a fire emergency SUV. Soon after, Faora flew down on top of him and started to strangle Clark with one hand, nearly killing him until Kara arrived with the red crystal and used it to separate Faora's spirit from Lois' body, trapping her in the crystal.
Faora (full name Faora Hu-Ul) was introduced in Action Comics #471. She was a beautiful Kryptonian woman whose unexplained hatred for men led her to torture and kill 23 men at a secret concentration camp in her home. For this, she was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone to complete a sentence of 300 Kryptonian years, the second longest term after Jax-Ur.
While imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, she was often depicted plotting against Superman with General Zod and Jax-Ur. Her hatred of men was not limited to Kryptonians, as demonstrated by her pointless murder of a young Frenchman who was attracted by her beauty.
Faora was an expert at the Kryptonian martial art of Horo-Kanu, which utilized the pressure points on the Kryptonian body. This made her an extremely dangerous foe for Superman to face in hand-to-hand combat; he was forced to flee from their first encounter.
Faora seemed to possess knowledge of Jor-El's prior relationship with Louise McCallum, as she makes reference to Clark's love for Lois being "like father, like son," something that is unlikely that Jor-El would go around telling people.
Faora was the inspiration of two characters:
Ursa, who first appeared on the Richard Donner films and later made her debut in the DC comics where she married General Zod and they had a child who was adopted by Superman and Lois Lane, who named their son Christopher Kent.
Mala, Jax-Ur's partner, a character who appeared on Superman: The Animated Series.
German actress Antje Traue has been cast as Faora in Zack Snyder's upcoming Man of Steel.[1]