Suddenly, Supers!

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

That's the reason why, in Wearing the Cape, the protagonist's team did initially decide to model themselves on comic book superheroes. Not only did the merchandising make it a good living, but it mean they could manage their public image in a way that would protect them from being "interned" or "drafted" or whatever.

It's also been retconned as part of the reason Reed Richards had the Fantastic Four present themselves as adventurers and superheroes... he figured that they needed to take control of the narrative before being branded as dangerous freaks themselves, and one way of doing that was to be seen as celebrity adventurers taking care of real problems like the Mole Man.