I like the fic but Clark's reaction seems so over the top.
I guess my problem is that my vision for Clark is such that I would see him reacting very differently than this. I wouldn't expect him to withdraw into himself the way he has done. My expectation would be that he would reach out and hold on more tightly to those that he knows do love and care for him.
That's a reasonable expectation, but we all have to remember that in this story Clark's entire history, his sense of self, his tie to noble Krypton, has been utterly and ruthlessly crushed. Should he focus on the present. Yes. Is it understandable that he be knocked off center by such a revelation? Of course.
How would you react if your mother - who you believed had died saving your life just after you were born - suddenly reappeared and said, "Oh, no, we were too embarrassed to tell people I was pregnant, so your dad and I gave you up for adoption in another country, and your dad just died a few weeks ago and asked me to look you up. Here I am!"
I don't know what I'd do. I doubt that any of us would know what we'd do. And while the above description is an oversimplification of the actual circumstances, Clark isn't thinking logically.
Consider this. The noble Jor-El, laboring frantically to construct an escape vehicle for his family, is barely able to build one rocket for his infant son. As he and his beloved wife Lara watch the telemetry from the rocket assure them that it's on course, the planet beneath them disintegrates and they die gasping for breath.
Heroic, isn't it? And it's a fitting beginning for Superman, too. The Last Son of Krypton, sole survivor of a brilliant, advanced, powerful but doomed people becomes the hero to an entire world. But now that beginning, that image, that heroic mold is shattered beyond repair. He's an illegitimate child. His parents sent him away because they couldn't (or, to Clark's mind, wouldn't) admit that they had lost control of their passions, not to save him from certain destruction. He's unwanted. He's an inconvenience, an intruder in their happy home, a source of shame.
Clark has
never had to deal with anything like this before. This isn't just bad news. This means that everything he's based his origin on - and based Superman on - is a lie. Yes, Jonathan and Martha took him in and loved him without reservation and raised him to be a man, but now in his eyes he's damaged goods. Yes, Superman has saved countless lives and prevented destruction and devastation all over the world, but the society which inspired his costume - and, by extension, his super-identity - is no longer noble to him. It's all a lie.
His feelings and opinions aren't factual, but he can't acknowledge that yet. He'll get there, I think, but it will take some time, and it won't be pretty in spots.
