Superficially.
But they always presented
"normal" people as
hopeless drek needing
a superhero to fight
their battles for them.
(And let's remember
that "Man of Steel" really meant
ol' Joseph Stalin.)
There has always been
an undertone of "people
are sheep" in comics.
(It's my belief that
"Marvel Comics" was named for
Marvel Parsons, and
that links comics to
a certain group of people
and links them to a
very organized
global movement built around
libertarian
thinking. And this thought --
sometimes -- has as much contempt
for "patriots" as
anyone. I think
the organized comic world
is a strange, strange place...)