Well, the first comic I ever had in my hands is MOS. And I still love every page of it. I have no sense of Bryne destroying something, because his Superman is The Superman I've been exposed to. It's possible that the Hungarian translation that I've read it with was better than the original but I don't really feel the lameness of the dialogue. On the contrary.
I avoided comic books before then (and I was like eleven). But then reading about an ordinary man, who happens to have enough power to change the world, and become a global factor in world politics and all was just really appealing. I expected to see the bumbling moron Clark and idiot Lex of the movies, and It was such an awsome thing to realize: Superman and superheroes in general are not always goddamn jokes. That's how I started to read comic books.
I think MOS nailed Smallville Clark, the Clark-Lois relationship, and especially the Clark-Lex relationship (with Clark representing free will and all, and making him fight AGAINST the status quo and not for it).
You have an interesting sci-fi Krypton, with a believable destruction, then thrilling, yet realistic and well built up superheroics against Metallo, then some thrillerish, hopeless fight against Lex, which is more about will power, than actual power, and you have the romantic sparks with Lois.
Honestly, what's to hate that much.
From time to time I try to imagine myself in the place of MOS haters, who didn't have the same uniqe exposure to his work as I had, but it seems to me like it's an internet fad to hate on John Bryne, who is twice the fool it takes to say and do things that turns the internet against him. But I still can't see what's so horrible about MOS. It's seems like hate for the sake of hating.
And it certainly doesn't help that most MOS haters posts are like
(how I hate the
smiley)
And please don't take it personally I'm talking about something I experienced all over the net.