The “pop culture” idea of Superman is a mix of Silver Age Superman and Byrne Superman. He is literally invincible and can pull new powers out at will, he’s always morally in the right (even if he does some messed up things now and again), the Kents are alive (I find this one kind of funny and a testament to the influence of outside media), and “Superman is what I can do, Clark is who I am” is his outlook on his identities.
In reality these are kind of outdated views. He’s been significantly powered down, he’s been repeatedly called out on the morality of everything from his no kill code to his secret identity to his “ability to inspire”, the Kents have been dead longer than they’ve been alive, and as someone working his way through Post Crisis Supes right now, he’s not really that different from early New 52 Supes. People forget that Byrne was also trying to channel Golden Age Supes in his reinvention, but it was channeled through the culture of Reagan’s America. Byrne Supes could be a cocky guy in his early years too, see his team up with Batman for proof. And for all the edgy accusations against New 52 Supes, Byrne Supes actually had a higher kill count. He killed Zod and the alternate world Kryptonians, and Doomsday. New 52 Supes killed Doomsday but he only killed Dr. Light because Atomica jabbed Kryptonite in his brain and otherwise he never deliberately took a life as far as I recall.
That said DC did Nuperman no favors with their godawful marketing and crappy new costume design. I’m content with the new Reborn version of Supes that we have. He hasn’t totally lost his edge and he seems like a good middle ground between Post Crisis and New 52. You should check out Dispenser of Truth’s Superman Masterposts on his Tumblr OP, he goes into detail on the reasons why New 52 Supes failed and the pros and cons of different Superman eras:
http://davidmann95.tumblr.com/post/1...ill-off-new-52 I found his Byrne analysis really interesting. Don’t agree with all his opinions but he argues his point well.
Zack Snyder was perfectly positioned to change the way the world viewed Superman. People were hyped as hell for MoS and if it had had a better writer and director I think we could’ve had a new Golden Age for Supes. But he blew it and for the moment Supes is deep in the hole until WB decides to try again. Least we have the animated movies!