The future of the future - Alan Moore and the challenge of reimagining culture
Alan Moore has described the current trend of superhero films as a "tsunami" that is "not doing our culture any good at all", "power fantasies" that "refuse to take responsibility" for the current and future world. He also uses the, now very trendy, word "infantilization". When an old man tells other people to "grow up", when they are cranky about someone having fun with comics, superheroes, science fiction and toys, of course it sound like he's just missed to go with the times himself. Eco has labeled this tendency to refuse anything new as "apocalyptic" and Debray has identified is as a form of gatekeeping the cannon, practiced since the very moment when Socrates refuses to use the new medium of writing. Moore, however, does not fit the profile of the apocalyptic. He is rather fond of counterculture and is known first and foremost for his own work on superhero comics. His critique of the genre therefore c...