OT, but in light of the Authority-bashing...
Just saying this because it needs to be said - I'l take the Authority over the rest of DC's moral-waffling superheroes any day. Because they alone had the guts to go out and finish off the bad guys in suitably gory ways, instead of being so worried about the pristine state of their immortal souls that they let psychopaths go out night after night killing innocents.
Yeah, so tht wasn't most people's idea of superheroes, but I'll take a bunch of people who'll get the job done and make the world a better place by taking out the monsters than a bunch of posers in spandex.
It is also why I loved Jason Todd in "Under the Hood". That guy who said "fuck capes and heroics, the only way to save people is by getting your hands dirty. Later on, the scandalized DC editorial later made it so that this was because Jason was a craji chicken what got bopped on the head and dipped in crazy juice. Actually, he didn't need to be crazy - he just needed to be sensible and realistic.
Regarding the classist issue - I will always maintain that Bruce could have done a hell of a lot more good as a business savvy benevolent Lex Luthor-type of guy than posing as a wastrel and attempting to protect a city of 8 million people by himself. Classic example- the whole No Man's Land fiasco. But then, the comics would have a lot less asskicking.