virtue is supposed to be it's own reward but that's not usually how things played out in the d.s. universe.
Not at all. The virtuous generally have nothing to look forward to except misery and sometimes even tragic death. And while it's not the case that the wicked ever really triumph because they almost always get their comeuppance in the end, the mayhem they cause quite often manages to take at least a few of the virtuous down along the way. In other words, it's a rarity on DS when anyone ever really wins and comes out the other side unscathed.