And then you meet
Kid Miracleman, Miracelman's former sidekick in all corny ways of what a sidekick can be, and any ideas about friendly metaphors and dispassionately literate ideas go out the window because the most purely evil supervillain ever has upended any notion of this being some cutesy version of a prequel to the idea of deconstructing superheroes.
Oh my god I'm glad I'm rereading Miracleman.