Thanks for the show of interest, guys.
Morgana: Like Virginia mentioned, Lois has only been gone long enough to have a two-year-old. The question of how 4+ years passed for her when she was only missing for 3 years is yet to be addressed.
Virginia: Lois and Zod?!!!!

Not even on my evilest day! (Actually, I got Zal's name from a Silver Age story where Batman and Superman decide to ask a computer what Superman's life would have been like if he'd grown up on Krypton, and they're shown that he would've had a younger brother. How the computer calculated all this based on a photo of Kal-El's family is anyone's guess, but that's the Silver Age for you.

) Also, thanks for the suggestion *and* the vote of confidence.

Breaking it down like that might just be the way to go.