Two years after an explosive introduction, the saga of the new Zod has an underwhelming ending. Superman also concludes his only encounter with the Mxy Twins, and meets the Futuresmiths for what may or may not be the first time.
Action Comics #805
In the conclusion to the Harvest, Superman leads a team of Ryker's prison inmates to assault Zod on Earth, while in space Luthor works to turn the sun back from red to yellow. Former member of the Elite, Coldcast, is able to use his power to simulate yellow sunlight, periodically restoring the Man of Steel's powers in battle under the red sun. Superman battles Zod hand-to-hand, but just as Luthor turns the sun back to yellow, Zod throws his whole body at Superman with full force. Zod instantly loses his powers at the same time that Superman regains his, and the blow that Zod intended to destroy Superman kills himself instead. This instant reversal serves the story, but it doesn't really make much sense when you think about light traveling from the sun.
Predictably, Luthor reneges on his promise to pardon the villains who helped Superman save the world. Luthor asks Coldcast why he hadn't simply killed Superman with one red sun punch, and Coldcast responds it was because Superman treated them like men, so they acted like men. Even though Zod had tried to murder him, Superman takes Lois to Zod's grave to pay their respect to somebody who, in another world, could have been his brother.
The guilt of the last General Zod's death haunted Superman for years after, and although it seemed like this would have a similar effect it was quickly forgotten instead. In the next year, several more alternate versions of Zod would be tried out, but after Infinite Crisis the original Kryptonian Zod would finally be reintroduced in 2008.
Adventures of Superman #618
Now that the Mxy Twins removed Earth's gravity, Superman gets help from the Atom to use a white dwarf star to create a temporary new source of gravity for the planet, which he plants in the center of the Earth. After going to such great lengths for a band-aid solution to the problem, Superman finds the Mxy Twins and asks them if he can buy a set of their encyclopedias, then he gets them to go back to the 5th dimension and the world goes back to normal anyway. Perry White wakes up in the hospital with nothing wrong with him now, and at their apartment Lois wonders what they'll do with the stacks of encyclopedias.
It really doesn't make sense why Superman didn't just get the Mxy Twins to leave in the first place, instead of wasting most of the book on a time-consuming and wasteful solution that wouldn't even matter once the twins were gone. Superman tells the Mxy Twins he likes Mxyzptlk better as a funny imp, and the readers are inclined to agree.
Superman #195
A disoriented Superman crashes through the windows of Lois and Clark's apartment and recounts to her about the encounter with the Futuresmiths that he thinks he just had, although he can't seem to remember if he told Lois the story already. The Futuresmiths had taken Superman inside their ship and shown him a glimpse of his future self in an apocalyptic Metropolis. The robot he had killed a few issues ago, M-Nine, is also in this future.
Superman takes Cir-El away from the Futuresmiths and has her DNA analyzed at S.T.A.R. Labs. He tells Lois that they discovered Cir-El does share his DNA, but not hers. Consistent with her uncharacteristic depiction in this run, Lois gets irrationally concerned that future Superman is with someone other than her. This issue uses a creative mix of thought dialogue boxes and thought balloons, sometimes repeating the same dialogue just to emphasize Superman's confusion.
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