Ask Lemmy

First, the appeal of Superman is his heart more than his strength. There's one comic where he fights a giant robot and stops a runaway train, but the scene everyone remembers is when he talked someone down from the edge of a building.

Second, Superman may be invincible, but Lois Lane isn't. It's easy to defeat a villain, but much harder to defeat them while also keeping Lois safe. And she actively invites danger, so it's always tricky keeping her safe.

Third, not every problem can be punched. Luthor's greatest weapon against Superman isn't kryptonite; it's Public Relations. You can punch a monster, but that won't help you stop a smear campaign.

He's OK if you stick to classic Superman. He wasn't a god, back then. Couldn't turn back time, out-speed The Flash, or fly into the sun and pupate for a hundred years into some ultimate being.

He became increasingly absurd over the years.

I’m a big fan of Supes myself, but it depends on who’s writing him and what the goal is.

He is at his best when it’s a problem he can’t punch away, it’s about courage, and honor of defending others. Superman without powers is still the same stand up powerful character, that is crux of what makes him interesting.

I love the version of Superman where he growing up and is friends with Luthor and he's like 'I cannot tell him my secret because my dad would disapprove' and it's got accidental closeted queer vibes.
And there's this comic book (not in the same continuity) where Luthor is this mad genius who escapes from prison easily and Clark interviews him and he's like "I like you Clark, you're so humble and down to Earth, but I hate Superman who is the opposite of that."
and then Lois likes Superman more than Clark, at least to start with, in some versions I think.
And then with Brainiac there's the possible storyline of 'this computer has a lot of information stored on my lost culture but he is also an existential risk to all sapients everywhere in the galaxy ahhhhggg'.
And how will Clark deal with an environment where everyone is hostile to immigrants when he is one himself and also dedicated to upholding the law?
And the first comic where he interacts with Batman is actually fairly good: Batman threatens to bomb people if Superman unmasks him and Superman is like 'oh shit, he is not lying, I can hear his heartbeat', but Batman was actually threatening to explode himself. And the cartoon where Batman is fighting Brainiac and his costume gets ripped to reveal he was Superman all along was hilarious: "I did not predict this possibility." The Justice League series in general (part of the same continuity) was pretty good actually.

I like the potential stories there. There's so many emotional possibilities. Stories where he just punches stuff are indeed boring. He is, frankly, under-utilized as a character imo because many writers don't understand that, or think the solution is to make a version of him that is evil which still involves him punching stuff, or because they're scared to actually touch on political issues like immigration or queerness. (can you imagine how many people would explode if Luthor was an ex-boyfriend for both him and Lois and they bonded over how shitty Luthor was as a date lol.)

Yeah, I don't think that it's a fantastic recipe for a character. The powers restrict the plots.

I think that less-potent powers tend to make for better story.

A lot of fictional series in various formats -- not just comic books -- make characters or events more-important or more-powerful over the course of the series, to top each previous episode, and I think that the plots tend to become increasingly constrained late in a lot of series.

it's his ideals make him interesting, his nemesis litterally is an evil billonaire