I have been reading a lot of Marvel comic books from a time period called the "Dark Reign" lately.  The Dark Reign takes place when Norman Osborn gets a powerful seat in the government.  Once he gets this seat, he starts bending everything to his will.  Everythisg begins to get corrupted.  "Superheroes" that aren't on the run are all ex-convicts.  Not many people can be trusted.  This got me thinking.  I feel that comics often reflect modern day society.  Given that, I began to wonder what that era was trying to say.
                 Was that a reflection on  what they thought of the government at the time or was it a prediction.  Maybe I'm just looking at this like a crazy person and it was just supposed to be interesting.  Anyway, the man on top- Norman Osborn was a corrupted man corrupting the world.  Maybe this wasn't talking about the American Government specifically but how world relations were.  This took place from 2008-2009 bet those do not feel like particularly bad times.  That leads me to believe this was trying to talk about where things were going.
                  The era  could be speaking in terms of how we were interacting with other coutries. Maybe about how they were interacting with us.  This could also be a way to show things about the transition of what things would be like with America's presidents.  Because George Bush was leaving offiice and Obama was taking his place, it could be symbolizing that.  The era ended in 2009 which could easily be an opinion about how much better the world would become.  This could be interpreted in many different ways but I believe it was about what relations and politics would be like with change.