This article aims to present the contemporary production of superhero comics showing how it is now based on self-reflexivity on a massive scale. To this end we will show how the genre now consistently unfurls a variety of alternative universes that constantly confront superheroes to increasingly subversive counterparts. Based on this observation, we will see how reflexivity, having established itself within comic book plots, has also been turned into a promotional strategy by the comic book industry and its publishers. This will lead us to question the role of metatextuality in comic book culture – an important contemporary popular culture industry – as a means to identify the contours of geek culture (to which it belongs) and simultaneously revitalize the counter-cultural nature of comic books.