Post by AQUA JAR!™ on Oct 11, 2022 19:16:50 GMT 1
Alan Moore On Infantile Superhero Movies
By Garth Franklin
Monday, October 10th 2022 12:52 pm
Every now and then Alan Moore – the legendary British writer and creator of works like “Watchmen,” “V for Vendetta,” “From Hell” and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” – voices displeasure with pop culture.
The man, who famously called superhero movies a “blight” to both cinema and culture, has now turned his sights to not just the films but the culture that supports them.
Speaking with The Guardian recently, Moore describes the continued love of superhero movies by adults not just an ‘infantilization’ but a precursor to something more dangerous:
“Hundreds of thousands of adults [are] lining up to see characters and situations that had been created to entertain the 12-year-old boys – and it was always boys – of 50 years ago. I didn’t really think that superheroes were adult fare.
I think that this was a misunderstanding born of what happened in the 1980s – to which I must put my hand up to a considerable share of the blame, though it was not intentional – when things like Watchmen were first appearing. There were an awful lot of headlines saying ‘Comics Have Grown Up’.
I tend to think that, no, comics hadn’t grown up. There were a few titles that were more adult than people were used to. But the majority of comics titles were pretty much the same as they’d ever been. It wasn’t comics growing up. I think it was more comics meeting the emotional age of the audience coming the other way.
I said round about 2011 that I thought that it had serious and worrying implications for the future if millions of adults were queueing up to see ‘Batman’ movies. Because that kind of infantilization – that urge towards simpler times, simpler realities – that can very often be a precursor to fascism."
By Garth Franklin
Monday, October 10th 2022 12:52 pm
Every now and then Alan Moore – the legendary British writer and creator of works like “Watchmen,” “V for Vendetta,” “From Hell” and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” – voices displeasure with pop culture.
The man, who famously called superhero movies a “blight” to both cinema and culture, has now turned his sights to not just the films but the culture that supports them.
Speaking with The Guardian recently, Moore describes the continued love of superhero movies by adults not just an ‘infantilization’ but a precursor to something more dangerous:
“Hundreds of thousands of adults [are] lining up to see characters and situations that had been created to entertain the 12-year-old boys – and it was always boys – of 50 years ago. I didn’t really think that superheroes were adult fare.
I think that this was a misunderstanding born of what happened in the 1980s – to which I must put my hand up to a considerable share of the blame, though it was not intentional – when things like Watchmen were first appearing. There were an awful lot of headlines saying ‘Comics Have Grown Up’.
I tend to think that, no, comics hadn’t grown up. There were a few titles that were more adult than people were used to. But the majority of comics titles were pretty much the same as they’d ever been. It wasn’t comics growing up. I think it was more comics meeting the emotional age of the audience coming the other way.
I said round about 2011 that I thought that it had serious and worrying implications for the future if millions of adults were queueing up to see ‘Batman’ movies. Because that kind of infantilization – that urge towards simpler times, simpler realities – that can very often be a precursor to fascism."