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I've tried reading Superman and haven't enjoyed it at all. I always found the kryptonite thing to be a crutch too. ("Okay, we need an element of danger... let's use kryptonite! It will be purple colored this time!") Every time Batman or Spidey even take down a mugger there's a risk. With Supes, it seems there's only danger when there's a hidden brick of kryptonite conveniently around. Okay, so there are some others who might match Supes in the strength category, but they are always other-worldly beings like Doomsday or Dark-Seid and I can't relate to their motivations, personality or code of morality at all. That is a personal taste thing though. I've always hated cosmic entities in comics.
I also don't find his civilian ID compelling at all. I'm sorry, but Superman is like a God. If you were Supes, you would never find the need to be Clark Kent. The whole concept just feels disingenuous and odd. He's not grounded at all and heroes like Spidey came up in reaction to these omnipotent heroes like Supes who had no flaws. Plus, I'm sorry Nats and anyone else, but I'll never get over the leap in logic of Clark not being suspected as Supes at all just because he slouches and puts on glasses. Lois Lane must be a crap investigative reporter if she didn't know for years that her co-worker was the same guy who kept rescuing her every time she went building diving. It's a conceit I just can't buy.
Look, different strokes for different folks. You've explained why you like Supes. I've explained why I don't. No need to keep going back and forth. I understand people have different tastes and like you I'm pretty set in my opinion about Big Blue.
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... and pretty much takes care of all of your issues with the character. It seems pretty silly that you think all Superman stories must suck just because of the character featured within, when there have been umpteen variations on the guy throughout the decades. No character sucks; there's just bad writing.
While it's harder for Superman to have physical setbacks like Spidey or Batman ("I have to fight crime with the flu!" "Some asshole broke my spine!"), it doesn't mean he's less interesting. This is comics-- the good guys are never in any danger, they always win. It's a narrative conceit. Therefore Superman has to deal with emotional trauma, or intellectual problems, rather than just punch things. Punching things is boring.
I suppose it's all a matter of suspension of disbelief, and you sound pretty disbelieving, which is fine, I guess, but will clearly limit your enjoyment of silly genre ficton. Me, I love silly genre fiction. Your disinterest in characters like Darkseid make me sad, because New Gods is one of my favorite comics ever, and Darkseid under Kirby's pen was very human, even though he hid it under a face of granite.
And heck, I'm even sort of enjoying Spider-Man comics now, and I'm not usually a Spider-Man guy. Yeah, they played stupid, needless games with continuity to get us to this point, but all I really care about is if the stories are good. I like some of what Slott's going for, anyway; the issues drawn by Marcos Martin are bolstered by the art, and look amazing.
