Can Superman do the wrong thing & should he be punished for it? Short answer: Yes, and yes.
Disclaimer: I haven't been reading Terry's fic.
In general, though -- yes, Superman can do the wrong thing. Part of the appeal of L&C was that Clark/Superman was *not* perfect, that he could and might do stupid things. But he's not above the law, either. Murdering someone is wrong, period. No matter how many lives he's saved, that doesn't give him the right to kill anyone, so if he *did* kill someone, he needs to face consequences for that. Otherwise, how could he stand for justice? Judges and juries have some leeway, though, to consider any mitigating circumstances and come up with an appropriate sentence. (I suspect, though, that Clark will *not* grant himself any leniancy at all)
I don't especially *like* the idea of Superman killing someone, but it is an interesting topic for a writer to explore. Carol Malo touched on the issue, a few years back, in
Yesterday, Upon the Stair, and I think Raconteur did too, though I can't remember the fic title.
Would he still be in character? Depends on how well it's written, and how it's read by each individual person. There have been stories that I look at and wonder, who *are* these people, and why are they called Lois & Clark? But others have loved them, so there you are.
Carol, on Smallville, Chloe has a lot of character traits & plot functions that we'd expect to see Lois in -- she's the Daily Planet investigative reporter who digs up all the dirt, and for the last few seasons, she's known Clark's secret and worked closely with him. They're writing Lois as, well, pig-headed but not brilliant, and she's only just beginning to get into that whole investigative reporting thing -- she's been published in a tabloid. Mostly she's there for the writers to make fun of, from what I can tell. So Chloe comes a heck of a lot closer to fitting what I think of as the Lois Lane character.
Well, gotta get back to work now, so I'll stop rambling
PJ
