In his very earliest appearances Superman, whose powers were much weaker than his later near-godly abilities, worked to protect the “little guy” from corrupt officials and the like. The Black Condor (whose secret identity was a US senator!) did some of that, too. This sort of thing was soon shelved in favor of fighting supervillains and Nazis.
In Philip Wylie’s Gladiator, the novel that was a major inspiration for Superman, Hugo Danner tried fighting gangsters and doing other public-spirited things without success. Basically all he was good for was smashing stuff. He eventually gave up.
