I was reading the discussion in this thread and it was this line that I think I might be reading differently:

That's what pits him against General Zod (Boardwalk Empire's Michael Shannon), a Kryptonian tyrant who wants Clark to join him back on Krypton, which would mean abandoning his post as defender of the weaklings of Earth.

Now, the tyrant thing throws me off a bit, but what if Krypton is not completely destroyed/annihilated, but rather scourged? "Destroying" a planet, in modern science fiction, can go a lot more cruel/terrifying aside from just reducing it to an asteroid belt. So here's what I think they could do to preserve all the glory of Superman (one of the last Kryptonians, etc).

Krypton, by whatever means it happens, is scourged and everyone on the planet is killed. The biosphere is destroyed and perhaps it is a hellish inferno/nuclear winter type event. Only those Kryptonians in orbit survive, which because of the civil war, is very, very few. That happens to be General Zod and a few of his troops.

General Zod wants to repopulate/restore Krypton and essentially believes it is the duty for all Kryptonians to return home to help (maybe a shot out to Daxam?) to help rebuild. He goes and tracks down El (maybe he wants to restore the houses eventually?) and finds Superman... and now wants him to come home.

It preserves the mythos that he's part of a "dead" race, but brings a new twist.

Thoughts?