It's common to portray heroes as gods with some sort of king-type relationship with a certain flock. Of course they're not all celebrities. The ones who deal in fear are nightmares, whose rules are made clear. Deal in crime, and you're prey. The innocent are protected.
Startlingly enough, this notion occurs often in descriptions of faerie-types. They're either vindictive toward evil or carelessly cruel. Both of which sound like superheroes and villains.
DeMatteis is a good writer, but I find that you always get more out of his stuff if you know the background he's working with.