There's also the possibility that people are projecting deeper meanings onto this thing than are actually there.

People don't need explaining on the Martha thing. People understood it, it was just executed in a dumb way. It is not believable that Superman would say "Martha" instead of the much more realistic "please save my mother." Batman uses some TDKR lines earlier in the fight indicating that he knows Superman has parents, and then is dumbfounded that Superman has a mother? If it's because she has the same as his, then the World's Greatest Detective didn't realize that Martha is a common name and other women would share the same name as his mother. His OTT reaction makes the whole thing unintentionally hilarious.