Watchmen author criticises ‘infantile’ adults for loving superhero films, says it’s a ‘precursor to fascism’

‘I didn’t really think that superheroes were adult fare,’ Alan Moore said

Alan Moore has hit out at “infantile” adults who are fans of superhero movies, warning that it can often lead to “fascism”.

The British author and creator of DC’s Watchmen comic book series has long been vocal about his disdain for superhero films, once labelling them as a “blight” to cinema.

Now, in a new interview with The Guardian, Moore has gone a step further to specifically criticise older fans of the genre.

“I said ’round about 2011 that I thought that it had serious and worrying implications for the future if millions of adults were queueing up to see Batman movies,” he recalled.

“Because that kind of infantilisation – that urge towards simpler times, simpler realities – that can very often be a precursor to fascism.”

Moore argued that during former US President Donald Trump’s 2016 election, and “when we ourselves took a bit of a strange detour in our politics”, a majority of the most popular movies were superhero films.

Currently working on Long London, a five-volume fantasy series, and a collection of short stories, Moore confirmed that he’s “definitely done with comics”.

Crudup as a philosophical superhero in ‘Watchmen’ (Moviestore/Shutterstock)

“I will always love and adore the comics medium but the comics industry and all of the stuff attached to it just became unbearable,” he continued.

“Hundreds of thousands of adults [are] lining up to see characters and situations that had been created to entertain the 12-year-old boys – and it was always boys – of 50 years ago. I didn’t really think that superheroes were adult fare.”

Moore added: “I think that this was a misunderstanding born of what happened in the 1980s – to which I must put my hand up to a considerable share of the blame, though it was not intentional – when things like Watchmen were first appearing.

“There were an awful lot of headlines saying ‘Comics Have Grown Up’. I tend to think that, no, comics hadn’t grown up. There were a few titles that were more adult than people were used to,” the 68-year-old explained.

“But the majority of comics titles were pretty much the same as they’d ever been. It wasn’t comics growing up. I think it was more comics meeting the emotional age of the audience coming the other way.”

The first volume of Long London comes out in 2024.