Uk edingurgh writers attend edinburgh international book festival
Photo Credit: Colin McPherson/Corbis via Getty Images
Photo Credit: Colin McPherson/Corbis via Getty Images
An Alan Moore fansite published English transcripts of a 2016 interview with the mysterious author.
The pushback against superhero cinema is reaching critical mass. Weeks after Martin Scorsese critiqued the Marvel Cinematic Universe, deeper critique from Watchmen creator Alan Moore has gone viral.
In 2016, Moore did an interview with Brazilian magazine Folha de São Paulo. In the interview, writer Raphael Sassaki asked Moore about the impact of comic book heroes on culture. Moore replied that the impact of superheroes on pop culture was "tremendously embarrassing and worrying."
READ: HBO's Watchmen Premiere Is Centered On One Of The Worst Race Massacres In US History
"Primarily," Moore continued, "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. The continuing popularity of these movies to me suggests some kind of deliberate, self-imposed state of emotional arrest, combined with a numbing condition of cultural stasis." He argues that similar trends can be seen in movies and popular music.
Additionally, Moore questioned the morals of comic book writers. He argues that aside from non-white superheroes, many iconic characters are "white supremacist dreams of the master race." Subsequently, he proposes the case that D.W. Griffith's infamous Birth of a Nation could be the first American superhero movie. Given the comic's content, the comments shouldn't come as a surprise.
Read the full interview here.
H/T: ScreenCrush
