You know this has been on my mind ever since I first heard about Project Superman, but I think I finally understand why I don't follow Superman comics. It isn't like I dislike the character. While I never really got into the movies as a kid I loved re-runs of The Adventures of Superman and looked forward to Lois and Clark the New Adventures of Superman every week to say nothing of STAS.
I think my problem is that every time I look at one of his titles it is always has the author either trying nerf his powers or come up with some new outlandish villain that is a match for the Man of Steel. The thing is this Superman he is always going to win out I never have any doubt about that, there is no suspense. And more often then not it seems the solution to his problem ends up being him punching someone. I would love it if more stories where about him finding a clever solution instead of him just using brute force. I think one of the few recent authors that got was Joe Kelly (I really want to start to track down his run on Action). I think if any character needs to evolve beyond the current superhero model it needs to be Superman, he was the first and should continue to lead the charge.
The next matter is why I like Batman books over Superman books. I say books and not characters for a reason. I like the idea of Batman books more because of Gotham City. I think DC has done a big disservice to Superman by not building up Metropolis as much as Gotham. While Metropolis does have certain features it just seems to lack any real character of it's own, you can point out landmarks but you can't really describe the city. And it is a reason I think Superman books have never really taken off like the Batman books, it is much harder to ground a spin-off when it lacks a unifying element. The various Bat books have such a great leg up, Gotham provides a basic setting and mood that all the various can share (like Marvel had with the X-Men). I think while still do it do they really need to push the fact that Metropolis is a city full of science. I mean the one character that ever really did anything with that was Steel.