Yeah, the best hero would have found out a way to stop a rampaging superpowered madman without the aids of a phantom zone, Kryptonite, magic, etc.
And he'd also fly away from the family and risk Zod escaping and killing more people.
And saved at least a dozen kittens.
Superman saved the oil workers, technically the Coast Guard helicopter crew (and the oil workers again), the bus full of kids, Lois, his mother, Lois (again), a fighter pilot, the guy falling out of the helicopter, Harding, Lois, and everyone and everything on the planet, and then that family of four.
But I guess that's just not enough for
some people. We have to ***** that Superman took some clothes and killed someone who had proven that he didn't give a damn about life. Zod was actively trying to destroy an entire family when Superman killed him. Not like he was pointing a gun at them, or threatening them with a bomb, but a more immediate danger. There was no way to disarm Zod, and if Superman shifted position even a little, either to cover Zod's eyes or to try to fly off with him, Zod would have slipped free.
But I guess if Superman had just buried Zod in a ton of ice, or thrown him into space without a helmet, or dumped him on an abandoned planet to die a slow death, it would have been fine.
What nonsense.
Putting people in a dangerous situation, or abandoning them to a dangerous situation like Batman has does not give him a free pass on his 'no killing' idiocy. Being a passive participant in someone's death is worse, in my opinion, because that means there was literally another choice or route he could have taken, and he chose death for that person.
Superman killing has always been in the most desperate and grave of times. Batman has killed in desperate and grave times.
Both the guys are flawed in their own ways.
Speaking of flaws, I've never been able to figure out why Bruce doesn't use his genius and his money to build a better prison, and to maybe, I don't know, fund more research for the criminally insane. It seems like he'd have at least one or two less problems if he did something other than dress up like a rodent and beat insane people up all the time.
Just sayin'....