Influential writer Grant Morrison is pretty big on symbolism. He actually believes, to some degree, in magic, and the power of symbols to change the world. On a slightly less nutty level, that mindset seeps into his comic books, and his sincere belief of superheroes as symbols for good and, specifically, as superheroes being the modern equivalent of ancient myths which disseminated lessons of morality, responsibility and empathy. He wrote a whole book, Supergods, about it. Well, about that and the various times he's tripped balls and thought he was speaking to alien beings from the fifth dimension, who told him that life was a lot like comic books, coincidentally. Morrison's celebrated run on the Justice League of America, stylised as JLA, is full of great stories. There was Rock of Ages, where the team struggled against Darkseid's control over the population of Earth; New World Order, where the group's most powerful members were systematically taken out by White Martians, only for the extraterrestrial invaders to be defeated by the powerless Batman; and Strength In Numbers, which introduced new bad guy Prometheus. That is, Prometheus of Greek myth, and the most obvious hint as to what Morrison was doing with the JLA. What he did was take the idea of superheroes as modern myths, and...well, made them just like the Greek pantheon of Gods. There was the classic line-up of Superman (the team's Zeus), Wonder Woman (Hera), Batman (Hades), Flash (Hermes), Aquaman (Poseidon), where the analogues were fairly obvious. Still, he made changes to the team in order to better fit his concept, with the destructive Orion drafted in to play the part of Ares, god of war, and the angelic Zauriel whose feathered wings most closely resembled Eros, better known as Cupid.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
