Originally Posted by
Ascended
Yes, taking a life is something Clark should feel bad about. Because it means he failed. He's real big on redemption. We gotta remember that Clark has seen real, true, pure evil, and punched it in the face. After dealing with things like Darkseid, Satanus & Blaze, and Doomsday, do Lex Luthor or Zod *really* look evil?
Clark *will* kill. He's done it in almost every era and in almost every media adaptation. He's got a surprisingly high body count, especially if we include sentient beings that dont look human. So yeah, Clark will stiffen his upper lip and take a life if there's no other way. But he considers it a failure on his part; he's the guy who's supposed to do the impossible, and if he can't find a way to contain a threat then, in his mind, he's failed.
There's also the issue of his morality. Clark sees the world in black and white. An act is either right or wrong and he seems to struggle with morally gray choices. As his famous quote goes "there is right and wrong in this universe and that distinction is not hard to make." Dude does not see life the way most of us do, he doesn't understand the way intention and circumstance can change right and wrong the same way we do. And in his mind killing is wrong. So when he's presented with a situation where he has to kill in order to do the right thing and save lives, how does he reconcile that?
And given Clark's long-view, big-picture mentality, he also sometimes feels like he's removing a potential hero in the world when he takes a life. Consider the number of times Lex (and Zod too) have ended up helping save the world. If Clark had killed Lex in one of their first encounters, the world would've ended several times over without Lex's involvement (Our Worlds At War comes to mind, where Lex was pivotal in saving earth, as well as Forever Evil). If Clark takes a life, he worries he's condemning the future by removing someone who might make a difference.
And in Zod's case, this is one of the only remaining Kryptonians in the universe. Killing Zod isn't just killing one man, but also killing the chances of Clark's race being repopulated.