From JB's blog:

3. INTRODUCTION

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. When your reader meets any given character for the first time, it is critical to make sure you get the bare bones of your character into his head immediately. By establishing your character firmly, you'll make the whole process of virtual-story-world-creation move more quickly and easily. There are multiple techniques for planning a strong introduction, but I'm only going to hit on the strongest one: CHARACTERISTIC ENTRY ACTION.

A solid CHARACTERISTIC ENTRY ACTION consists of introducing your character to the reader by bringing him into the story in the course of an action which clearly, sharply typifies who and what he is.

Lethal Weapon 2 starts off in the front seat of a stationwagon during a police chase, with Mel Gibson howling in excitement and pounding on the ceiling while Danny Glover fumbles for the siren, tries to talk on the radio, and tries to convince Mel that they don't really need to be doing this. It strongly establishes both characters as cops. It demonstrates Mel's love of wild action, Danny's cautious approach to his work, and the relationship dynamic between the two. (I liked it so much that I borrowed shamelessly from it to start off Grave Peril.)

Every Bond Pic that opens on the "opening mission" template does the same thing: it shows you Bond being a heroic spy and engaging in lots of danger and action.

Your character is a frustrated high school nerd? Then have him come on stage late for his school bus, which promptly drives away even though the driver obviously saw him coming. (IE, Spider-Man.) Your character is a titanic lumberjack? Then start him off towering over the north woods and felling fifty trees with each swing of his axe.

Make the introduction count. This is something you can't afford to screw up.

Thus far I'm finding the tips there very helpful.  And I do realise the reason for the quoted suggestion.  However, I'm curious about what you all think of building a story about a normal person put in an extraordinary situation which compels the normal person to become extraordinary himself.

For example, in Star Wars we have a moisture farmer who initially displays nothing very interesting, apart from a powerful ability to whine a lot.  At the start, there's no flashing special effects, no groovy sword-play, no crushing throats with his mind.  Just a farmer.  He tinkers with some droids, drives a speeder (car), and whines.  Did I mention he whines?  However, he's plunged into an extraordinary situation, and develops into something more than the mundane farmer kid.

So I'm interested in your opinions on two matters here:

1) What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of starting with a mundane character and developing the character through extraordinary adventures, as opposed to plopping an initially interesting character in the reader's lap from the start?

2) If going with a regular person at first, what sorts of things can you suggest to make that regular, normal person worth reading about from the start?