It's something that goes back a long way in DC comics - they have (or had) the idea that heroes would be honoured by this sort of event, being given the keys to the city, having special museum to celebrate their achievements, etc. They did stories along those lines back to the fifties and probably earlier.
There was something like this in the JLA animated series about ten years ago - a special Flash museum opens and four rogues attack it - and that was based on much earlier comics.
