If you could somehow put a gun to Superman's head and ask him his honest opinion of humans - and everyone involved could somehow ignore the part where he was Superman and everything that went with that - he would nod, say, "Fine, no bullshit," in that iconic deep baritone of sincerity, and then Superman would lay out his essential case against human nature. The truly wicked people, he'd note, were as rare as Superman himself. But the deranged, the ill-coddled, the greedy, the zealots: in short, the true criminals of the world? They were common, and Superman had interviewed countless of them, enough to know that the difference between the most hardened criminal and the most simple, pleasing conversationalist in London was naught but the flip of fate's coin.
And yet, people mostly believed themselves good. When you get into a political system, the good of that system becomes perforce alone the absolute good, and the detriment of that system, in turn, the ultimate evil. A criminal defending his syndicate and the most upstanding soldier defending his noble home country were functionally identical in how they saw their tasks.
Now, Superman was not the only humanoid on Earth out there defending truth or justice or the ways of human conduct he believed to be superior - among them, dignity, self-respect, respect for others, forbearance, mercy, truthfulness, sincerity - but most humans were caught in political systems they were either born into or that presented themselves most directly to people when they were young and impressionable or short of resources. In short, if Superman had been born a man in China, he'd likely have fought for China. If he'd been born a man in the United States? Vice versa. Superman alone could see the totality of the world and act appropriately on his ideals, but that's a luxury not oft-given to mortals.
And yet, for his cynicism about human nature, he would freely admit that - if it came down to saving all other sentient life in the universe or dying intentionally - he wouldn't hesitate to survive. Heroism, he was loath but able to admit, was a luxury at its core, and if the luxury were at the price of his life, he'd not hesitate to give his heroism up. So he didn't give the humans too much grief.
But - faced with these troubling existential questions - Superman left Earth without warning in about 1888, aside from a few people that would safeguard the information carefully. With his superluminal speeds and ageless form, there was no need to dwell on the passage of time, as he would remain himself in the indefinite future. So he carved out a long window of time and sought other planets with intelligent life, and, if some existed, sought to find some kind of technology to elevate one or all of the species to the existence that he currently enjoyed, finding the image of billions of humans flying around and building an Eden beyond his conception to be the only respite from his doubts.
Superman dreamed every night - as he sailed through the air and passed into the ether of cosmic sleep - of the merest possibility of another planet. Humanity couldn't be the only one; they just couldn't.
But for the 125 years since his departure from Earth, he'd searched a spherical area 100 light-years in radius around Earth with the electromagnetic equivalent of a fine-toothed comb. He'd found the ruins of Krypton and the ruins of other civilizations dead only a few millenia, and, from time to time - to his astonishment - he'd even found living life. But little more than cosmic flotsam in a sea of ether were they. He'd done his due reporter's diligence with what he'd found, but his face showed clear disappointment now. Earth was all there was, as far as his superluminal exploration was concerned. If any intelligent life besides Earth remained, none had yet appeared to him. He chuckled darkly as he realized dolphins or apes were not only #2 on Earth, but in general, as far as he could see. He thought of the elephants stomping humans to death by order of other humans - a method of execution that he'd seen in India. The most intelligent species in the effective universe using the fourth-most intelligent species to carry out a humiliating execution to discourage "treason".
And then, with a panic (as he made the rounds, double-checking the last promising extrasolar planet on his list), Superman realized abruptly that five generations of human beings - on the cusp of a second renaissance - could easily have ended it all, especially without his protective presence. He dove as fast as he could towards Earth, realizing what a citadel he must henceforth form to this planet, in the absence of greater alternatives. Would he someday have to move them to yet other planets to terraform? Had they destroyed themselves? Was it too late for Earth? Was Superman to be utterly alone until death, praying for the Tannhauser lizards to evolve and achieve sentience that he might live to see it?
Superman's mind raced almost faster than his superluminal cape with his questions, each question darker and more self-contradictory than the last. As he surveyed where the Solar System ought to be, Superman rejoiced as Sol and its Earth were where they ought to be and, in cosmic terms, pristine. As he made his way to Earth - slowing down to a few thousand miles an hour as he entered the upper atmosphere and started to glide with a geosynchronous speed over the United States - Superman saw life (and intelligent life) everywhere on Earth. Beginning his slow descent, he noticed billboards and people wearing and holding radically advanced technologies. Superman smiled to think that a second Eden might still be in play. Then he grabbed the missile and let it explode in his hands a few thousand feet above the planet, almost embarrassed he'd survived with nary a scratch. His smile disappeared and he shrugged and chased the missile's source.
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