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It sounds like Alan Moore has had enough of the media and journalists. Well meaning that they may be individually they are collectively like a passive-aggressiv

It sounds like Alan Moore has had enough of the media and journalists. Well meaning that they may be individually they are collectively like a passive-aggressive narcissist eager to latch on to the slightest thing to bring the man down. It sounds to me that he just wants to get out of this abusive relationship and get on with his life. The point of the article - that there is something weird about grown adults and their willingness to live in the comicbook rather than real world - is a fair point. At some stage we crossed over from only seeing 'comic' based movies as kids where adults would only go to escort their children to what we have now. Now grown ups with no children of their own or signs of learning disabilities can go and watch this comic-superhero rewrites on the big screen and talk about how great the acting, story and everything else was, as if it was serious art that they had seen. There have been too many occasions over the last few years where it has been much too easy to hide away and watch these comic super-hero movies than endure what has been going on in the world. Times like when Iraq was being bombed to pieces, why engage with that when you can spend all week thinking about some make-believe movie? This is not to dismiss the craft, dedication, skill and effort that goes into these movies or to deny the pleasure that they do bring to people. However, how did it happen that movies for kids became movies for grown ups?

simonbarker87 9y ago
Could it be because the kids who these stories were initially aimed at, grew up and became adults, DC/Marvel realised they could “adultify” the plots and appeal to the same audience now 20-30 years older to expand their demographic leveraging nostalgia and thus make more money?
- remir 9y ago
  Yep. It is quite apparent in the latest Batman vs Superman movie.
- CommentCard 9y ago
  I'd argue that the vast majority of superhero movies are engineered through focus-group testing to be as palatable to as many people as possible that they become bland. Logan was the only genre movie in recent memory that eschewed this formula and confronted the messy topic of the senescence of the age of the superhero.
  - ThatGeoGuy 9y ago
    Which is an interesting counter-point to Alan Moore: just because a (sizable) portion of superhero movies aren't thrusting culture forward, doesn't mean that they have to be. Having familiar characters in a known environment can certainly help pick the audience up to get them to a point where more complex topics become palatable. The fact that these characters are "superheroes" is incidental, and not terribly important to the overall plot of the movie.
    - CommentCard 9y ago
      That's a fair analysis. They are blockbusters first, and superhero movies second. I do hope that the genre will evolve towards more interesting topics beyond Good vs. Evil. The Dark Knight showed a nuanced view of how one cannot exist without the other, even within one hero's mythos itself. Unfortunately movies like The Dark Knight and Logan that are willing and capable of tackling nuance and complexity in a feature film aren't common for the genre.
jonathantm 9y ago
Bread and circuses. Think about who can partake in Fandom. What an elevated position they're in, globally. What a luxury such indulgence is.
Mediterraneo10 9y ago
"Now grown ups ... can go and watch this comic-superhero rewrites on the big screen and talk about how great the acting, story and everything else was, as if it was serious art that they had seen." How is this any different from e.g. Kyrgyz nomads listening to a bard recite the Manas, in which the eponymous hero shows veritably superheroic strength in battle? Indeed, if you are an ordinary man barely making ends meet and the politics of the world are rough, the make-believe of an epic tale where your people are depicted as great and once capable of great deeds, can be a great consolation. Now, the reason that the Manas and similar folk epics have been acclaimed as masterpieces of intangible culture is that the bard is expected to improvise much of it, and Western superhero stories might not show that particular kind of skill. But in terms of the subject matter, the contemporary superhero obsession isn’t all that different from previous genres worldwide.
brad0 9y ago
I agree with your points. Our modern society is so complex that for a lot of people it is easier to use escapism as a form of relief. While I agree that all people should be learning and growing I would have to argue that if someone is truly motivated by hiding away I say let them. The people who do this do not have the capacity to expose themselves to reality IMO. Being forced to do it is just like when you were forced to do something you didn't want to as a child (fitting that we're talking about super heroes). Later on they might look up and decide to change. I know I did. Until then you just have to let them make their own decisions.
- agumonkey 9y ago
  It's complex but also nonsensical. Lots of young adults report scam jobs as reason why they don't work (not slacker kind of avoidance). It's a bit a cancerous era IMO. Too many uncertainties, too many technical possibilities, not enough social tissue.
  - brad0 9y ago
    > not enough social tissue Bang on. I think technology (not just the internet kind) has advanced so quickly that none of our social conventions have been able to keep up to help people. I believe both the democrats and republicans have lost their way a bit - they'll both be spending their time playing big-data social media games to get in power rather than actually trying to give things people want and need. > scam jobs While I do believe that this is true, I wonder how much of this is caused because after college is the first time these kids are exposed to the "real world". They've been so insulated their entire life that the older adults see that they can easily manipulate them.
    - agumonkey 9y ago
      It's a plausible factor. I know I'm not adjusted to the mess of the real world. But the documentary I watched talked about actively toying on elders fears and limits to sell them anything; with malevolent manager pressure.
insickness 9y ago
> it has been much too easy to hide away and watch these comic super-hero movies than endure what has been going on in the world. The same could be said of literally any fantasy fiction. We love it precisely because it is an escape from reality.
- endgame 9y ago
  And sometimes also because it can cut away reality, help people see the crux of a situation or debate and take that perspective back into the real world.
jv22222 9y ago
> talk about how great the acting, story and everything else was, as if it was serious art that they had seen. IMHO Luke Cage and Jessica Jones by Marvel on Netflix are very well done on every level and compare well to other high quality drama series.
- humanrebar 9y ago
  I think you're overselling Luke Cage, but I guess most of the dramas cranked out these days are pretty cheesy. Luke Cage did have its moments and good aspects, but the second half of the season was a huge mess.
syntheticnature 9y ago
> Now grown ups with no children of their own or signs of learning disabilities can go and watch this comic-superhero rewrites on the big screen and talk about how great the acting, story and everything else was, as if it was serious art that they had seen. As opposed to any given non-comic-derived action, comedy, romance, or horror movie? I didn't know that something has to be "serious art" to comment about the acting or the story. Moreover, given box office results, it's rare that any movie considered to be art is all that popular.
taneq 9y ago
> as if it was serious art When you start talking about whether things are "serious" or "real" art or not, you've lost sight of what art really is.
- remarkEon 9y ago
  What absolute nonsense. It's pretty easy to identify serious vs. non-serious art, and we'd been doing it for thousands of years. Great epics in music and poetry, literature and painting are great because they are serious. What's happened now is that if you level the critique the parent did, we get your reaction - a subtle insistence that we must consider all art serious, no matter how lazy it is.
  - Mediterraneo10 9y ago
    > Great epics in music and poetry, literature and painting are great because they are serious. That is a difficult claim to back up if you look at the literature from Greece and Rome that was thought worth preserving over the centuries. A lot of plays by Plautus, for example, are pretty low comedy comparable to our low comedy today, but they nonetheless entered the canon of “great art”.

simonbarker87 9y ago

Could it be because the kids who these stories were initially aimed at, grew up and became adults, DC/Marvel realised they could “adultify” the plots and appeal to the same audience now 20-30 years older to expand their demographic leveraging nostalgia and thus make more money?

remir 9y ago
Yep. It is quite apparent in the latest Batman vs Superman movie.
CommentCard 9y ago
I'd argue that the vast majority of superhero movies are engineered through focus-group testing to be as palatable to as many people as possible that they become bland. Logan was the only genre movie in recent memory that eschewed this formula and confronted the messy topic of the senescence of the age of the superhero.
- ThatGeoGuy 9y ago
  Which is an interesting counter-point to Alan Moore: just because a (sizable) portion of superhero movies aren't thrusting culture forward, doesn't mean that they have to be. Having familiar characters in a known environment can certainly help pick the audience up to get them to a point where more complex topics become palatable. The fact that these characters are "superheroes" is incidental, and not terribly important to the overall plot of the movie.
  - CommentCard 9y ago
    That's a fair analysis. They are blockbusters first, and superhero movies second. I do hope that the genre will evolve towards more interesting topics beyond Good vs. Evil. The Dark Knight showed a nuanced view of how one cannot exist without the other, even within one hero's mythos itself. Unfortunately movies like The Dark Knight and Logan that are willing and capable of tackling nuance and complexity in a feature film aren't common for the genre.

jonathantm 9y ago

Bread and circuses. Think about who can partake in Fandom. What an elevated position they're in, globally. What a luxury such indulgence is.

Mediterraneo10 9y ago

"Now grown ups ... can go and watch this comic-superhero rewrites on the big screen and talk about how great the acting, story and everything else was, as if it was serious art that they had seen." How is this any different from e.g. Kyrgyz nomads listening to a bard recite the Manas, in which the eponymous hero shows veritably superheroic strength in battle? Indeed, if you are an ordinary man barely making ends meet and the politics of the world are rough, the make-believe of an epic tale where your people are depicted as great and once capable of great deeds, can be a great consolation. Now, the reason that the Manas and similar folk epics have been acclaimed as masterpieces of intangible culture is that the bard is expected to improvise much of it, and Western superhero stories might not show that particular kind of skill. But in terms of the subject matter, the contemporary superhero obsession isn’t all that different from previous genres worldwide.

brad0 9y ago

I agree with your points. Our modern society is so complex that for a lot of people it is easier to use escapism as a form of relief. While I agree that all people should be learning and growing I would have to argue that if someone is truly motivated by hiding away I say let them. The people who do this do not have the capacity to expose themselves to reality IMO. Being forced to do it is just like when you were forced to do something you didn't want to as a child (fitting that we're talking about super heroes). Later on they might look up and decide to change. I know I did. Until then you just have to let them make their own decisions.

agumonkey 9y ago
It's complex but also nonsensical. Lots of young adults report scam jobs as reason why they don't work (not slacker kind of avoidance). It's a bit a cancerous era IMO. Too many uncertainties, too many technical possibilities, not enough social tissue.
- brad0 9y ago
  > not enough social tissue Bang on. I think technology (not just the internet kind) has advanced so quickly that none of our social conventions have been able to keep up to help people. I believe both the democrats and republicans have lost their way a bit - they'll both be spending their time playing big-data social media games to get in power rather than actually trying to give things people want and need. > scam jobs While I do believe that this is true, I wonder how much of this is caused because after college is the first time these kids are exposed to the "real world". They've been so insulated their entire life that the older adults see that they can easily manipulate them.
  - agumonkey 9y ago
    It's a plausible factor. I know I'm not adjusted to the mess of the real world. But the documentary I watched talked about actively toying on elders fears and limits to sell them anything; with malevolent manager pressure.

insickness 9y ago

> it has been much too easy to hide away and watch these comic super-hero movies than endure what has been going on in the world. The same could be said of literally any fantasy fiction. We love it precisely because it is an escape from reality.

endgame 9y ago
And sometimes also because it can cut away reality, help people see the crux of a situation or debate and take that perspective back into the real world.

jv22222 9y ago

> talk about how great the acting, story and everything else was, as if it was serious art that they had seen. IMHO Luke Cage and Jessica Jones by Marvel on Netflix are very well done on every level and compare well to other high quality drama series.

humanrebar 9y ago
I think you're overselling Luke Cage, but I guess most of the dramas cranked out these days are pretty cheesy. Luke Cage did have its moments and good aspects, but the second half of the season was a huge mess.

syntheticnature 9y ago

> Now grown ups with no children of their own or signs of learning disabilities can go and watch this comic-superhero rewrites on the big screen and talk about how great the acting, story and everything else was, as if it was serious art that they had seen. As opposed to any given non-comic-derived action, comedy, romance, or horror movie? I didn't know that something has to be "serious art" to comment about the acting or the story. Moreover, given box office results, it's rare that any movie considered to be art is all that popular.

taneq 9y ago

> as if it was serious art When you start talking about whether things are "serious" or "real" art or not, you've lost sight of what art really is.

remarkEon 9y ago
What absolute nonsense. It's pretty easy to identify serious vs. non-serious art, and we'd been doing it for thousands of years. Great epics in music and poetry, literature and painting are great because they are serious. What's happened now is that if you level the critique the parent did, we get your reaction - a subtle insistence that we must consider all art serious, no matter how lazy it is.
- Mediterraneo10 9y ago
  > Great epics in music and poetry, literature and painting are great because they are serious. That is a difficult claim to back up if you look at the literature from Greece and Rome that was thought worth preserving over the centuries. A lot of plays by Plautus, for example, are pretty low comedy comparable to our low comedy today, but they nonetheless entered the canon of “great art”.