That’s a fair question. The problem is that Clark doesn’t really have an answer: he just wants to know for the sake of knowing, because he’s a big fat cat and curiosity will get him killed one of these days. And also, maybe, because being the only one with that kind of power is… frightening, and a weight on his shoulders he never wanted.

“I can do more stuff than flying.” He says, as a compromise. In a second, his eyes turn bright red- it takes him a few seconds, and it’s not just his eyes. The veins leading to his eyes also shine bright red, because he still doesn’t have control of that either. But he has enough control to write with his laser vision.

And so he writes ‘A lot more stuff’ on the tree, with said laser.