Hey, kids -- now more than ever, we could sure use some super heroes to save the day, don't you think? Despite the controversial subplots that revealed the vulnerability of certain characters beginning with Denny O'Neil's Green Arrow story (GREEN LANTERN #'s 85-86, 1971) which exploited the weakness of heroin addiction, super heroes have by and large, unabashedly represented "truth, justice and the American Way".
Revisionist writing has more than once attempted to obfuscate the clearer purpose of super heroes in order to make them more "relevant", but that doesn't always translate into "readable", or "sellable", for that matter. I mean, how in the world do we expect Wonder Woman to save the world when she's given up her powers (late 1960's)? And how, more recently, in any traditional sense of the word, is Thor, God of Thunder, a woman?
Before all this, super heroes were pretty much straightforward good against evil, law against crime. In Warren's October 1966 one-shot, ON THE SCENE PRESENTS SUPER HEROES several characters including Bat Man, Superman, Flash Gordon, The Phantom and others are featured as they appeared at that time in popular culture. A look back at the good 'ol days, one might say.
