I find it interesting that the super powered individual has become society's new "special" person. Before it was stories about detectives or astronauts or fighter pilots or the occasional barbarian or gun slinger. I can't tell you why this has happened, but it clearly has - look at the latest movies Iron Man, Dark Knight, and popular tv shows like Heroes, etc. Stories have always been about archtypes, and the Union Dues stories are just further examples of this latest trend (and believe me there are a lot more) to use super people in this way.
There was a time when superheroes were a childish niche of fiction. Considered two dimensional characters that had straighforward almost boring stories. Serious writers wrote books - typed actual words on to pages to read by adults. Then some of the best creators of our time go ahold of the comic book medium and started doing some fantastic stories (for me it was the late seventies and eighties with people like Denny O'Neil, George Perez, Neal Adams, Len Wein, Curt Swan,Dick Giordano, Paul Levitz and others (note I've included writers and artists)).
Not to take anything away from Mr. DeRego's obvious skill, but it's worth noting that these concepts of "superheroes behind the scenes" have been explored already in great depth in such titles as Watchmen, Marvels, and Astro City to name a few.
I'm glad to see others enjoying the same types of stoies I do, but if I'm being honest, I have to say I'm a little miffed too - it's like being a fan of an underground band for years or more accurately, a particular style of music(like grunge or ska) and then it becomes really, really popular. And now you have what feels like 100's of new-commers and they put their own "mainstream" twist on it - going over territory that seems new, but isn't, and, it feels like, making it harder to find the great stuff - having to wade through more.
I know it's a good thing, but still, it feels like I lost something, a part of my identity, I guess. I have a t-shirt with the Flash symbol on it that is older than my oldest child (my daughter is 15, the shirt is 18) - it's faded and worn in a few places. It is actually in style now - it has the "distressed" look and everything - go figure.