Superman never succeeded IMO because the original tv series and George Reeves was so hard to live up to. Superheroes can never appear stupid and bumbling, like Christopher Reeves did when playing Clark Kent.
They also keep rebooting it.
The way Reeve did it was brilliant. He's just a very hard guy to live up to.
Even superman returns tho, the problem was bad writing. Routh was a worthy either to the cape imo. But that script was just so bad that reeve himself couldn't save it.
It's very hard to write good superman stuff because he is the best at what he does. It's a fine line between him and needing the justice league.
For example, darkseid is a superman baddy who he has beaten before by himself, but the main justice league baddy is one of darkseid's lackeys.
I wish they did a cool braniac story. Or Metallo. But they gotta amp up the baddies. And never ever mention parasite again.