Alan Moore Claims Contemporary Superhero Films Aren’t Impactful For Adult Audiences

As HBO’s hit series “Watchmen” takes flight in both reception and viewership, many fans of the series might be wondering, what is Alan Moore doing now? The original creator for the “Watchmen” comic book has been busy giving his impressions on the impact of contemporary superhero movies.

First revealed in a recently unveiled 2017 interview in Brazil (via BBC), Moore echoes Martin Scorsese’s recent comments on Marvel movies. Specifically, in regards to how adults experience them, the comic book icon believes superhero films of today are ultimately tarnishing and used negatively by older audiences.

In his own words, “I think the impact of superheroes on popular culture is both tremendously embarrassing and not a little worrying.” Adding even more broadly to his ideas, Moore finds that older individuals who take enjoyment in viewing comic book movies can’t seem to leave their “relatively reassuring childhoods” in the past.

He doesn’t stop there, as Moore even blames the creators behind the masked vigilantes as literal perpetrators to this supposed issue. Noting diversity as a main concern, despite the fact that Marvel plans on introducing its first Asian and deaf superheroes in the coming years, Moore deems these heroes as “still very much white supremacist dreams of the master race.”

In a separate Moore interview, divulged back in 2005, the comic writer discusses his opinions on “Watchmen” as a whole, considering it first and foremost a comic, nothing more. In discussing David Hayter’s screenplay for 2008’s “Watchmen,” Moore says: “My book is a comic book. Not a movie, not a novel. A comic book.”

The HBO TV series has invited its own round of “Watchmen” controversy, for which star Regina King has had much to say on the subject. Mirroring that of the original work, the television show invites political interpretations and uses them to bolster its own message.

Moore’s own political views, those being anarchism, speak volumes on his own interpretations of modern pop culture. But, to him, this doesn’t mean no leadership at all, as he puts it in the aforementioned Brazilian interview: “For me, anarchy suggests that to become fully realized as human beings we must each make our own individual peace with the universe…”

As such, to him, superheroes in the guise of films today are disingenuous to older audiences because they don’t allow adults to face their fears. Moore’s message is a reminder to all that Superman still went to work at the Daily Bugle, only in today’s climate it seems, to him, superhero movies are ignoring this idea more and more.