There’s an interview at Mania.com with Alan Moore that’s causing a big stir out there in Geekland. In it, he goes off on his usual anti-comic industry rants. But the controversial thing to me is that a lot of it is right on the money. In a series, we’ll be analyzing some of his points. Second, let’s take a look at his commentary on the “dark hero” trend that he started:
I suppose the thing to say about …Watchmen…is that these books were not meant as the Bible. They were ways in which the superhero could be handled. They weren’t the only way. They weren’t meant as a Bible or a jail sentence. We were trying to have fun. … I think, ultimately, that approach that I brought in—taking previously existing characters and reinterpreting them—has probably led to very grim and very un-enjoyable comic books. … And, it seemed to me that people basically took from it what they were able to take from it—mostly a slightly depressing atmosphere and the idea that everybody had to be a grim, ruthless psychopath.
Amen to that. The trend in the nineties became making every comic all dark and menacing. The days of happy and fun superheroes almost vanished. Fortunately, that trend went out of favor, but the attitude is still there. They’re even talking about making the movie version of Superman dark. Superman has always been a bright, shining light of hope in comics. To make him dark would be like making Batman light. And we all know how that worked out…Batman and Robin, anyone?
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<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="42994 ">1 Comment
The guy is right on the money. it's interesting that he was one of the founders of the "Comic Legion of Doom" and finds the whole movement depressing. It helps to explain his amazingly optimistic run on "Supreme".