My story "Another Dimension, Another Time, Another Lois" is technically a deathfic, in the fact that Clark isn't alive in it (it starts out with Tempus succeeding in killing baby Kal-El in "Tempus Fugitive"). The story is more about how Lois would have coped, and fended for herself, with all that happens to her at the end of S2 and into S3 without Clark around (without knowing that he should have been around, too), and whether learning that Clark should have been there would drive her insane. Of course, since there's never been a Superman in this dimension a lot of other people die or get injured who survived in canon. The story isn't about Clark dying, but about Lois surviving long enough to be able to save Clark from dying in the first place. I cannot say more without ruining the ending of Book 1, and since Book 2 (of the Wrong Trilogy) is still a work in progress, I cannot tell you if she is ever successful in her endeavors.
Like Nan, normally I cannot read a story where a beloved character dies (and why I hated "Lovely Bones" and thought it a horrible, horrible story, unlike the majority of readers and critics). I would rather a death mean something, as in Mouserocks's "Distraught" and "Mr. Kent is Dead" stories, than just because you've got a really cool way to kill off a character, horror for horror sake, or it's just something that happens. There also has to be closure, the other characters have to be able to come to terms with the death in a way that gives the reader hope, otherwise it's pointless.
More often than not, I'll give a deathfic a pass, because I want a happily ever after. If I wanted to be depressed, there's enough of that in RL.
