My Grumpypants, AKA Alan Moore, won’t be doing anymore interviews, and he thinks superheroes are a cultural catastrophe.  If he hadn’t done one of the single most important works in the comic world, I might ignore his sentiments.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/21/superheroes-cultural-catastrophe-alan-moore-comics-watchmen

A friend sent the link. I read it.

I completely agree, but I don’t think we’ve *chosen* superheroes to fill that cultural void. I think they just filled the gap. Remakes were already happening by the mid-nineties, and horror films had been doing reboots. I’m pretty sure there was a writing and imagination void by that point, and superheroes were simply a Hundred Years of narrative that we could tap into. Studio executives were clamoring for movies that would be the powerhouse universes like Star Wars or Indiana Jones.

What’s more, superheroes have a legacy in human civilization that goes back well before the 20th century comic books, that tap into warriors, heroes, leaders, good vs bad, altruism vs mitigated evil, etc. There are Babylonian, Native American and Aboriginal and other stories that have been orally passed down for scores of generations that form the template for the superhero. Am I going to cite any, today? No. But just start with Hawaiian legend & lore. Okay, I cited one.

I do think in the last 2 years, this explosion of superhero juju is definitely a diversion, or there’s a bubble… But apparently Antman did OK this weekend.

However it’s also very convenient for him to be able to talk about that after he’s made his living doing it, and at the end of his career. The fact that he probably made the most important work in comic book history does help his case. 90 percent of our superhero culture is vacuous and meaningless men in tights.

But I think Comic Con this year must have had some darker mob mentality than normal. because a few famous people have said it was a terrible experience.

Also that George RR Martin guy who writes Game of Thrones had to defend himself in almost the identical way, about sexual violence towards women. I agree with both their sentiments. There’s actually more sexual violence then there is murder. So why should murder take up most of the pages of any given comic book versus the reality it is written from (if you are basing the narrative in metaphor for the readers real world. Some comics really have no subtext and are just about a stretchy guy in spandex).

About Uncle Fishbits

I'm.. just this guy, you know?

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