In a 2017 interview with Brazilian outlet Folha de São Paulo's Raphael Sassaki, Watchmen creator Alan Moore had said that the impact of superheroes on popular culture is both tremendously embarrassing and not a little worrying. The 2017 interview has resurfaced and was republished in English on Alan Moore World blog on Monday, on the occasion of his birthday.
According to the blogpost, Moore said that the comic book movies “seem to be serving some kind of different function, and fulfilling different needs,” to that beyond their original intent of “stimulating the imaginations of their 12 or 13-year-old audience.”
According to the watchmen creator, “mass-market superhero movies seem to be abetting an audience who do not wish to relinquish their grip on (a) their relatively reassuring childhoods, or (b) the relatively reassuring 20th century."
He further added that the popularity of the movies, suggested to him, "some kind of deliberate, self-imposed state of emotional arrest, combined with a numbing condition of cultural stasis that can be witnessed in comics, movies, popular music and, indeed, right across the cultural spectrum."
According to Moore, apart from a few non-white characters, the "iconic characters" are mostly "white supremacist dreams of the master race."
Needless to say, Moore’s comments seem to have sparked a huge debate online, with people giving polar opposite views to Moore’s belief.
While one Twitter user pointed out that she "don't agree with everything he says," adding that it is exclaimed, that an "analysis like this will never be intelligently considered by lovers of Marvel."
A third user pointed out, "Had he seen Avengers: Endgame I'm sure he woulda changed his mind."
Here's what they wrote:
Alan Moore, never one to mince words. HBD Uncle Alan! h/t: https://t.co/ZXsXXuq3l5 pic.twitter.com/jpRc13FXqh— Kyle (@kylepinion) November 18, 2019
The critique that Moore lays out here is very much in keeping with the themes and ideas that run through his superhero stories. https://t.co/54Ymh1wVML— Jacob Brogan (@Jacob_Brogan) November 18, 2019
Intriguing. I don't agree with everything he says, but it's an interesting read for both concepts and use of language. https://t.co/AL60Xwz5l5— Christy Marx (@christymarx) November 18, 2019
But I also think this makes contemporary American superheroes more exceptional than they are: they're just our new mythology, akin to the tales of gods and goddesses told by cultures across the world, across time. These "heroes" always reflect the society that's created them.— Aaron Freedman???? (@freedaaron) November 18, 2019
He probably just hasn't seen SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME yet. That'll change his mind, I bet. https://t.co/LLoSbhHcmN— Aaron Starmer (@AaronStarmer) November 18, 2019
An analysis like this will never be intelligently considered by lovers of Marvel, for the simple reason that these movies do not inspire or even endorse self-inventory, adult introspection, and intellectual rigor. They're pure escapism, with all the fun and folly that implies. https://t.co/Tf3jElZRuk— Allison Burnett (@Allison_Burnett) November 18, 2019
Had he seen Endgame I'm sure he woulda changed his mind— Thomas Marchant (@hippopothomasj) November 18, 2019
The revival of Moore's earlier interview comes close at the heels of Martin Scorsese's recent statements that criticise superhero movies. During a recent interview with Empire magazine, he had said he did not think of Marvel films as cinema and compared them to “theme parks.”
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