Yeah but I think it's because it was supposed to be a symbolism about "rising from the bottom" but literal because you see, they live in a literal hole.

But in the comics, the bad guys is this gang of teens known as the "Mutants" (no relation) who are pretty obviously coded as an inner city punk gang filled with sadistic, illiterate kids who the comics repeatedly underlines cannot be rehabilitated. The comic would have these little tidbits of in-universe tv debate between Lana Lang (yes the same one) whos stance boils down EXTERMINATE THE BRUTES versus this strawman progressive bleeding heart who's a big poopy head because thinks that extrajudicial murder is bad. Of course in the context of the comic he's wrong because he lives in a murderous fictional hellworld, but the rehabilitationist are written in a realistic way, as in they advocates actual points about criminal rehabilitation, that the comic's negative depiction of them feels strongly like a propaganda hit piece.