Something I was told WAY back in the day from the purported "insiders" of the newsculpt era (which has largely borne out over the years) was that the Joe team was largely taking a "Superheroes without super powers" angle with GI Joe. That's why, if you look at the 2002-2006 figures, the design aesthetic was more eclectic and not just variations of military/tactical uniforms the Modern Era figures devolved into by the end of that run, especially when you consider the "core characters" of the era.Your superhero parallel works, though. I saw an article at one point where Hasbro wanted to re-work the Joe team and basically use specific superheroes as the template for each character. ( . . . and this looks like a whole "he tell me" thing, but I can't find the article now.)
I'm sure I've repeated that stuff enough over the years that it has become reinterpretted as coming from Hasbro simply because it gets repeated so much.