The people who made the cave paintings were using the most advanced technology available to them to contact the most people that they could. Similarly, the story of Heracles was also related on the most advanced medium that the story teller could use to relate to their audience.
Please define the "contemporary issues". Do these issues involve the glorification of Murder?
Sex? (see previous cave painting)
How about drug use...
http://leda.lycaeum.org/?ID=10483
I guess I'm just not seeing the difference between "the issues" but rather a revamping of issues that are common to the human experience. Furthermore, the expressions of storylines related to such human experiences are also very normative. We live in a society with advanced technology that allows us to look down upon the succession that came before us. Don't you think that it's possible that we're just repeating what comes naturally? That we as humans relate to certain ideas -and that our societies will continue to relate to those ideas regardless of the technology that we utilize.