Why is Superman uninteresting?
Since I started reading comics way back in the 80s I always found Superman to be uninteresting. I wasn’t able to nail it down as to why until his Death/Rebirth. At the time I didn’t quite understand how a man who’s only weakness is space rock was killed buy someone with no space rock on him. Someone informed me that Doomsday and Superman just beat each other to pseudo-death. That’s when it clicked. With Spider-Man a stray bullet that he doesn’t react to in time will kill him. Same goes with Batman or The Flash or Daredevil. That’s what made Superman so boring to me.
This article explains in depth why “Superman sucks”. But it also goes on to say that he can never be interesting. I’d like to disagree but I’m finding it hard to find an agreement. Towards the end he says
Superman represents hope and indefatigable strength, and any attempt to complicate these issues would no longer make him Superman. By definition, Superman has to be boring and morally absolute because if he isn’t, he ain’t Superman.
Which I can agree with. But why not have a story where he has to decide if he should stop a village from being swallowed by an earthquake or stopping a small child from being murdered. One of those events would happen and he has to deal with decision he made. (I believe this scenario was played out in Captain Marvel, but it made a nice example).
I guess having a flawed Superman would be like having your hopes dashed every month.