Would you say these are the primary qualities that make his character so appealing?
For television yes. It's interesting. I don't know if anyone listens to Tool but in the song "vicarious" he outlines (quite incisively in my opinion) that people live the dangerous parts of their lives through television. I think it's a little more broad than that. Comic books and movies should definitely be included. I don't know if there are any empirical studies done on this, (which is why I say his incisiveness is opinionated) but I think it's true. People invest themselves in TV shows that include adverse or overly heroic character because they get to experience the "wildly-intelligent, wildly-mean wildly wild wildly-whatever" parts of life that they're too scared to go out and try for themselves. Musing at it as it flashes across the screen is enough for these people. It's just enough to keep them satisfied, which keeps them showing up at their jobs.
Call me a conspiracy theorist (really I don't mind) but I'd put money on the business owners having undisclosed psychological studies showing that people are more likely to be obedient if they have some outlet where they can get their "wild-side" through. It would certainly explain the recent influx of such shows as survivor, survivorman, mythbusters... all the other reality shows... anything where danger is involved. Pretending is close enough to experimentation for most people, and I'd bet at least SOME of what is going on on TV lately is thanks to someone capitalizing on that aspect of psychology. Keep's them showing up at their jobs.
Unfortunately, these shows cause people's experimenting ability and drive flushes it down the toilet like it were mini wheats or something. It's where this hypochondriac mentality came from. Now everyone stays at home for a quiet evening in, or a safe drug free night out, (which isn't bad in and of itself) because of stifled desire for new experience. Humans are naturally timid creatures (thank you, evolution). This shit just makes it worse.
But who am I to critique the system? I participate. Though, because of my awareness of the above, I try to avoid the suppressing effect these shows might have on my curiosity.