There are certain themes in myths that seem universal, that just keep recurring no matter the culture.
My high school humanities teacher referred to this as the "Crazy archetype cycle." You start with a golden age of peace and paradise, there's a fall and a release of sin into the world, an age of evil, a cataclysmic extinction event, a slow return to a near-golden age, and the whole thing starts all over. A culture's myths tell you a lot about where in that cycle it perceives itself to be. Which is a really interesting way to look at popular media; comics certainly seem to think we're in a golden age, between the valorization inherent to the superhero genre and the obsessive concern of GRIMDARK comics with the inevitable fall.
Also, I realize I'm repeating both myself and you, but damn I wish more comics were this dense and plotty. The return on investment is so incredible with this stuff - I've read Perez' run the whole way through three or four times now, and I still pick up something new every time. It really does feel very different from mainstream DCU - from the contemporary mainstream DCU, even, much less mainstream DC now.