As far as I can tell these themes have a deeper roots in Alan Moore’s Watchmen and in particular his Miracle Man series also. The deconstruction of superheroes and exploration of what would really happen if these beings existed in real life.

Also, I would bet that the boys is also heavily inspired by the brat pack that was a “mature” deconstructed take on the messed up lives of super hero sidekicks.
Where you have the superhero’s seemingly good but exploit their sidekicks in many ways.