I'm a big fan of the Jack Kirby's "Fourth World" stories from the 70s. They're possibly the best DC stories ever and pretty much the defining moments of DC universe mythos since they're still retelling the same basic story of Darkseid vs Metron/Orion/Superman et al when they're out to make a big multiverse-spanning epic (Final Crisis was the last one). But one thing is reading about a world called Apokolips and its ruler Darkseid, another is asking actual actors to say it out loud.
I think that's one of the reasons we will probably never see a truly good Superman film. Superman 1 was decent, 2 is slightly better, but none of them come close to what's so good about stories like All-Star Superman, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, the Fourth World stories or even old-school Brainiac fare. There's a pathos to the classic Superman stories that's hard to pin down in films, and no one has really tried (except, strangely, Bryan Singer (who tried, but failed miserably)). It's supposed to be silly, but not necessarily camp. It's full of pathos, but not really all that sentimental. It's supposed to be religious, but only implied. It's supposed to have weird, but extremely consistent character motivations. Superman should be Clark Kent as much as Kal-El. But most importantly a truly good Supes film has to be super-silly whilst believing that silliness to be the most important thing in the world.
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see the Nolans getting any of this. Except the pathos; they do pathos well (Alfred burning the letter was the highlight of The Dark Knight for me).