The problem I see with a lot of the DC material is that there is a tendency to want to try and humanize the various super heroes being created, without realizing that this defeats the purpose of a "super hero" to begin with. Yet it worked for "Smallville" when it was a relatively new idea, and there is no disputing the "Nolanverse" (which got away with it by pretty much having Batman be the only hero in his universe and taking liberties with pretty much everything else which made them great stand alone movies, but criticized as being fairly bad for establishing any kind of continuity based around Batman and the rest of a super-hero themed universe). I think "Superman Returns" failed on a lot of levels for the same reason, even if "Man Of Steel" did better, because they simply humanized Superman too much and didn't really make him "Super" enough.
That said I think they were on the right track with having him fight an enemy worthy of him rather than pulling out Kryptonite, of course by starting with that, in a franchise it's going to make it less "wow" worthy if they toss out enemies who can fight Superman on equal terms flat out, without having to resort to some obscure trick.
As far as the code vs. killing goes, well they could always say that this is why he has it. As far as which villains he kills and which he doesn't, there is always the question of whether he can kill them. Some of the enemies like Bizzaro arguably have an entire dimension full of themselves, Darkseid is pretty much the easiest character there is to justify regenerating himself (and Superman fighting him one on one is a craps shoot, in some stories he has taken him, but typically Superman needs help, which is kind of the point of Darkseid), Brainiac can always have downloaded himself into something else or simply show up from yet another timeline, and so on. Heck even with General Zod justifying bringing him back isn't all that hard to do.
It will be interesting to see where this goes, but honestly as much as I like Superhero movies, I'm not totally psyched up for them to play "follow the leader" with "The Avengers". Especially seeing as "Avengers" seems to be a victim of it's own success, with the studio complaining about the amount of money needed to pay Robert Downy Jr. due to his contract, and the other actors already demanding bigger paydays in response to what he's getting. I kind of suspect the entire Marvelverse might self destruct because it was successful... and that could very well leak down to tainting the properties. It would be nice to see that not happen with DC.
That said I think they were on the right track with having him fight an enemy worthy of him rather than pulling out Kryptonite, of course by starting with that, in a franchise it's going to make it less "wow" worthy if they toss out enemies who can fight Superman on equal terms flat out, without having to resort to some obscure trick.
As far as the code vs. killing goes, well they could always say that this is why he has it. As far as which villains he kills and which he doesn't, there is always the question of whether he can kill them. Some of the enemies like Bizzaro arguably have an entire dimension full of themselves, Darkseid is pretty much the easiest character there is to justify regenerating himself (and Superman fighting him one on one is a craps shoot, in some stories he has taken him, but typically Superman needs help, which is kind of the point of Darkseid), Brainiac can always have downloaded himself into something else or simply show up from yet another timeline, and so on. Heck even with General Zod justifying bringing him back isn't all that hard to do.
It will be interesting to see where this goes, but honestly as much as I like Superhero movies, I'm not totally psyched up for them to play "follow the leader" with "The Avengers". Especially seeing as "Avengers" seems to be a victim of it's own success, with the studio complaining about the amount of money needed to pay Robert Downy Jr. due to his contract, and the other actors already demanding bigger paydays in response to what he's getting. I kind of suspect the entire Marvelverse might self destruct because it was successful... and that could very well leak down to tainting the properties. It would be nice to see that not happen with DC.