Since you asked about Benelli, I'll cast my vote in their favor.

I bought my first Benelli Super Nova in 2007 when I was out of town for a buddy's bachelor party and we decided to shoot some skeet. I just needed something affordable that I thought would resell well if I didn't like it. They had a Super Nova on sale for $300, only 870 they had was an express for $330. I'm not really a lover of camo guns, but I took a shot. One round of skeet and I was sold on it! I have 5 Super Novas now, and have weeded all but a couple 870's and one 1300 out of my safe.

Although it's about the same weight as an 870, it feels lighter in my hand, but it still FEELS like it recoils considerably less. The camo wrap isn't for everybody, and some folks don't like the polymer stocks and the space-movie-esque ribs on the pistol grip and forend/slide, but they don't bother me at all.

The adjustability of the "comfor-tech stock is actually quite nice. It's very simple to adjust the drop and cast on the stock to fit different shooters. My wife is 5'3" tall, I'm 5'10" with a 6'1" wingspan, which ends up that our cheekweld and eye position lands very differently from each other on the same stock, so we have to shoot different stocks. Her SuperNova stock is angled differently than mine, but it didn't cost anything extra to make that adjustment (adjustment as opposed to alteration). The longer forend on the supernova helps with her slide reach also.

Also, the cycle-assist benelli action is fast fast fast.

It's pretty hard to screw up a pump shotgun, so it's really hard to say that the Super Nova really does anything that an 870, 500, or 1300 doesn't do, but I do think that it does a lot of things just a little better than the others.