Originally Posted by
Ascended
I think it can be read that way and not really "break" anything, absolutely. That's a fair take. But I think Jurgens and Tomasi simply ignored the characterization because it didn't fit the happy Rockwellian narrative of SuperDad they wanted to tell, and everyone after is now stuck with it. We can tell ourselves that Clark learned to be a good father, and in truth I think he would grow into the role, given time. But we never actually see that happen. We just meet Jon, fully formed and ten years old, and are left to assume that all the mischaracterizations are due to intentional character development and not inconsistent writing or not fully understanding the character in the first place. And as my old English Lit professor said, the only evidence is what's on the page.
No, fatherhood isn't a role Clark found himself in often. But it's not just fatherhood, it's family in general.
Kara has been left with foster parents, Amazons, and Lex Luthor (depending on the continuity). After losing everything else in her life, a kid unaware of earth culture and custom, and her only surviving family member leaves her with people he barely knows (admittedly the Lex thing was against his wishes and Matrix doesn't *totally* count, but still).
Power Girl is a weird one because she's family, but not family. However, she's still *a* Kryptonian, still *a* El, and Clark only sees her at JLA/JSA Thanksgiving dinners. Karen isn't exactly Clark's family but she's awfully damn close, yet he has a better relationship with Bizarro. I give Clark a free pass here because of Karen's multiversal origins (which is why I didn't list her as an example before) but she certainly doesn't prove that Clark is *good* with family, either.
Conner, yeah he wasn't Clark's clone at first but he wears the "S" and is a young, naïve kid in need of guidance. Clark still dumps the kid off on someone else rather than deal with it.
John Henry is something different. He's Clark's age, human, and while he wears the "S" he's not a child in need of family. He's a friend, and Clark has a great relationship with him (or did, back when DC still used John Henry). Which helps prove that Clark is better with his friends than his family.
Chris, yeah I suppose we can say Clark did okay by that kid. I don't remember the details enough to really judge. It was written by Johns though, so there's no doubt in my mind this wasn't intentional character growth as much as Johns just not understanding Clark's history and character (I like Johns, but he doesn't write a good Superman in my book).
We can also make some allowances for Mon-El, because Clark was so young (and it was the Silver Age, gotta take that stuff with a grain of salt). But it shows us that dealing with family is something that has never come naturally to Clark at any point in his history until the modern age, where his legend has become this weird boy scout space jesus thing that makes him out to be far more perfect than he is.
I'm totally willing to accept the notion that Clark grew into the fatherhood role with Jon. I'll buy that. But we never see it, the struggle Clark would have gone through to become a good father (because nobody changes overnight) is never referenced. We can read it as character growth and that's not entirely unviable, but really, we're just accepting a change in characterization that isn't justified by anything on the page.