Superman!

Check out The Superman Action Comics Archives Volume 1. Please. It's quite simply the most amazing thing I've ever read, ever. Superman is depicted as a maverick social equaliser rather than a heaven sent do-gooder. If you haven't had the pleasure, in only the first strip Superman indulges himself in the following:

1. Bulldozes his way into a sleeping governor's house! His agenda? To have pardoned a seconds-away-from-electrical-execution innocent woman. Superman pummels the governor's obstinate trigger-happy butler, and leaves the tussled up dame who actually committed the crime for the governor to deal with - presumably to be exterminated herself. TAKE THAT GUILTY DAME!

2. A nightclub hoodlum hassles Lois Lane, currently Clark's squeeze. Lois throws a strop when Clark does not bash his face in. Sneaky Clark exits and gets his Supes on, meanwhile Lois is kidnapped by the very same pushy sleaze. Zoot alores! Superman tracks the fleeing car down, picks it up, shakes Lois and the creep out, then twats it against rocks till it's scrap! TAKE THAT HENRY FORD!

3. Superman kidnaps a corrupt, slimy senate lobbyist. Superman decides to torture him by running along telephone wires, dangling the politico scumbag dangerously close to the offending electric talk strings: "Stop! Stop! We'll be electrocuted!" screams the terrified prisoner. Superman just laughs the pleas off and continues: "Oops! Almost touched that pole!" SUPERMAN’S HAVING A JOLLY GOOD TIME!

4. Working from a phoned-in tip-off at his workplace: The Daily Star (seriously), Clark tracks down a wife beater. Busting in as The Man of Steel to find the nasty chap taking his belt to the missus, Superman picks the rotter up and starts repeatedly smashing him into a wall screaming: "YOU'RE NOT FIGHTING A WOMAN NOW!"