There is room for a successful argument that mainstream comic book superheroes have never been heroes and have always been champions of the status quo. I get this argument and can even see its merit. This is not my argument however.
My argument is that once Miller’s Dark Knight stuff broke all sales records there has been a constant downward spiral of even this level of “heroism” and that post-Miller mainstream superheroes are today essentially just sociopathic costumed clowns.
I like the comic about Lex Luthor. If I was a regular human in the DC universe I would side with Luthor. Superman is an all powerful alien who has showed up to earth and is meddling and telling humans what they are allowed to do and not do. If Lex Luthor is powerful enough to conquer earth, Superman has no right to stop him. If Superman had landed in ancient times, would he have stopped Alexander? Would he have stopped Caesar from crossing the Rubicon? What right does Superman have to stop the mightiest human from ruling over humans?
Anyways, after that comic I started to see Superman and the Justice League the way Vaught is in the boys, just a corporation of gods, and us little people just have to accept them and their constant destructive feuds, and hope they don’t squish us.