Alan Moore Against Superheroes
What happens when one of the greatest geniuses of graphic narrative renounces the genre that catapulted him to fame? The Alan Moore phenomenon not only forever transformed our perception of superheroes but ironically ended up hating what his own legacy unleashed in the industry. In this journey through the brilliant and contradictory mind of the wizard of Northampton, we’ll discover how his innovative ideas ended up becoming victims of their own success.
The Alchemist Who Transformed Superhero Comics
When we talk about comics, the author who cannot be missed in any way is Alan Moore. And this is due to several reasons. First, his works meant a complete turn in the way of thinking about and creating these works. So much so that he managed to change our vision of superheroes, question their morality, and give them a depth that, until then, had not been proposed before. In other words, he questioned the very figure of the superhero by putting on the table their political, social, and cultural implications to the point of establishing their similarities with the antagonists.
His importance, likewise, does not remain only in the narrative plane but also reaches the editorial field. His public figure does not go unnoticed, whether for his strong political positioning or for the harsh criticisms he raises around the comics market. For this reason, he threw a bucket of cold water on us when he declared:
“I’ve definitely finished with comics (…) I will always love and adore the comics medium, but the industry and everything attached to it became unbearable.”
This statement is not surprising coming from someone who has always swum against the current. The evolution of the comic world over decades has been shaping different styles and narrative techniques, but few have had the revolutionary impact that Moore brought. Explore here new perspectives to develop your own graphic narrative style, something that Moore always defended against the homogenization of the industry.
From British Underground to American Revolution
Alan Moore doesn’t mince words and has known how to stand out as one of the most important artists of all time, creating a true school of thought. Born in 1953 in Northampton, England, this bearded author is recognized for his work in comics and literature, especially in the genres of science fiction, horror, and superheroes. His career began on the margins of the industry, occupying the space of underground fanzines in the 70s, using pseudonyms such as Curt Vile, Jill de Ray, Translucia Baboon, Brilburn Logue, and some of his works were attributed to “The Original Writer” when he didn’t want to see his name printed on them.
This humble but rebellious start set the tone for his entire career. Later, he achieved unprecedented recognition in the United States publishing market, becoming the first British comic book writer to be highlighted there. This is not a minor fact since we know that Americans tend to consume works, for the most part, from their own national production.
The leap to the American market came accompanied by narrative proposals that broke with established schemes. Moore introduced complex narrative techniques, literary and philosophical references, and a level of psychological introspection that superhero comics had rarely explored. His way of structuring panels and using visual language revolutionized the way we understand graphic narrative.
This innovative approach to storytelling has influenced generations of artists and writers. If you want to better understand how to build impactful visual narratives like Moore’s, discover here advanced graphic narrative methods that will enhance your creativity.
The Moore Paradox: Revolutionizing What He Detested
For all this and more, Moore’s career never ceases to be striking since he has worked for Batman and Superman and, in the same period, was carrying out Watchmen. However, the man laments that publication for children has decreased:
“I have no interest in superheroes, they were something invented in the late 30s for children, and they are perfectly good as children’s entertainment. But if you try to make them for the adult world, I think it becomes kind of grotesque.”
This contradiction between what Moore created and what he really thought about the genre became more pronounced over time. The author saw comics as a medium with unlimited artistic potential, but felt increasingly frustrated to see how it was mainly limited to superhero stories, especially those that tried to emulate the darkness and moral complexity that he himself had introduced.
The production of comics and cinematography by DC and Marvel that has increased considerably in recent years is conflicting for Alan Moore because he believes it is capable of generating problematic political visions in current constructions and, in his words, addictive. According to him, they invigorate the rise of the Alt-Right and, exactly for that reason, the figure of the superhero as a leader who can solve everything individually seems “horrifying and grotesque” to him. The author explains:
“When you see this actually manifesting in people’s political thinking, you get something like QAnon. You get a completely made-up and imaginary threat from which we can only be saved by a completely made-up and imaginary hero. It’s when the thinking that permeates third-rate superhero comics is allowed to govern consensual reality, the one in which we all have to live, that’s when you get things like the Capitol invasion of January 6, you know?”
The Darkness That Transformed Batman: The Killing Joke
While he has worked within the superhero industry, specifically for DC, writing stories such as The Killing Joke (1988) for Batman, and For the Man Who Has Everything (1985) and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (1986) for Superman, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t seen from the inside the problems of posing societies marked by authoritarianism and vigilantism. In fact, we attribute to him the granting of darkness, realistic graphic violence, and ambivalence to the world of superheroes to bring it closer to adult consumption, as we can remember from such a violent Batman storyline as The Killing Joke.
In The Killing Joke, Moore and illustrator Brian Bolland created a work that would forever change the perception of the Joker and his relationship with Batman. The story makes disturbing psychological and sexual references that ended up setting the trend for the tone of the new wave of storylines. This is one of the works acclaimed as one of Batman’s best for its great violence and its ambiguous ending with that laugh that indicates the real closeness that exists between its antagonists at the limits of sanity, completely deconstructing the vision we had until then of the bat.
Moore’s script explored the fine line between sanity and madness, suggesting that Batman and Joker are two sides of the same coin. The story includes one of the most controversial scenes in mainstream comic history: the shooting and subsequent abuse of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) by the Joker, which left her paralyzed. This act of gratuitous violence generated debates that continue to this day about the representation of violence against women in comics.
In this way, the aim was to achieve a more realistic emotional instability, far from the moral perfection that had characterized our favorite characters until then. But from the impact achieved by the British author, this resource became a style and a model to follow when writing and representing them. This is why we find one of the greatest representatives of the comic universe saying “The Killing Joke is one of the worst things I’ve ever written”. He wasn’t trying to revitalize the genre that caused him rejection but to review it.
The mastery of visual composition and sequential narrative that Moore exhibited in The Killing Joke demonstrates his mastery of the medium. The use of visual parallels, symbolism, and visual metaphors created layers of meaning that transcended simple entertainment. The study of these techniques is fundamental for any graphic artist. Click here to delve into the art of visual narrative composition and discover how you can apply these powerful tools in your own creations.
What Moore didn’t know was that he was opening the doors for new generations to encounter more representations with the tropes he had thought of and, thus, give a new and somber breath to the industry. His narrative innovations, which included non-linear flashbacks, unreliable narrators, and a deep psychological exploration of the characters, became the standard that many would try to replicate in the following decades.
Watchmen and V for Vendetta: The Definitive Deconstruction of the Superhero
By that time, his works Watchmen (1986-1988) and V for Vendetta (with several back and forth, it was published between 1982 and 1989) gained a lot of relevance. These works not only consolidated Moore as a revolutionary author but changed the comic landscape forever.
In Watchmen, collaborating with artist Dave Gibbons, Moore worked with a dystopia in which vigilantism endorses the growth of a “perfect hero” who under his facade hides the worst crimes and psychopathic intentions. The work is considered by many critics as the most important graphic novel ever written, and was the only one included in Time’s list of the 100 best novels since 1923.
The narrative structure of Watchmen is incredibly complex, with multiple timelines, parallel stories, and fictional documents interspersed between the chapters. Moore used a “clock” structure of 12 hours/chapters, with visual symmetry between opposite chapters. The use of visual repetition, recurring motifs like the bloodied smiley, and cinematic techniques adapted to comics demonstrated that the medium could reach levels of sophistication comparable to “serious” literature.
On the other hand, V for Vendetta, illustrated by David Lloyd, presented a dystopian Great Britain ruled by a fascist regime after a nuclear war. The protagonist, V, a masked anarchist, seeks to overthrow the government through calculated terrorist acts and educate the population about the importance of individual freedom. The Guy Fawkes mask worn by V has become a symbol of resistance in the real world, adopted by groups such as Anonymous.
Both works share a deep exploration of the ethics of vigilantism and a deconstruction of the very idea of the superhero. While traditional comics presented good and evil in simplistic terms, Moore presented complex moral dilemmas with no easy answers.
If you’re fascinated by the way Moore builds complex worlds and characters with multiple dimensions, visit our platform to discover resources that will help you create memorable characters with the psychological depth that characterizes the best works of the ninth art.
The Innovator’s Curse: When Revolution Becomes Mainstream
Nevertheless, the success of Watchmen drove the industry to explore and exploit this new perspective to the point of exhaustion, according to Moore himself:
“It was a disappointment to me how Watchmen was absorbed by the mainstream. It had originally been intended as an indication of what people could do that was new. I originally thought that with works like Watchmen and Marvelman, I could say: ‘Look, this is what you can do with these old worn-out concepts. You can turn them upside down. You can really wake them up. Don’t be so limited in your thinking. Use your imagination’. And, naively, I expected there to be a rush of fresh, original work from people putting forward their own ideas. But, as I said, it was meant to be something that would liberate comics. Instead, it became this huge stumbling block that comics don’t even seem able to get past to this day. They’ve lost much of their original innocence, and they can’t get it back. And they’re stuck, it seems, in this kind of depressive ghetto of grimness and psychosis. I’m not too proud of being the author of that regrettable trend.”
This confession reveals the tragic irony in Moore’s career: his revolutionary works, which aimed to free the medium from its limitations, ended up establishing new limits. Instead of inspiring originality, they created a mold that many imitated without understanding its original purpose.
The phenomenon was not limited to comics. Film adaptations of Moore’s works, from “From Hell” to “Watchmen” and “V for Vendetta,” have contributed to the expansion of his influence beyond paper. However, Moore has disowned all of them, even refusing to have his name appear in the credits. For him, these adaptations represent another way in which the industry commercializes and dilutes the original message of his works.
The comic industry went from one extreme to the other: from the perfectly moral superheroes of the golden and silver age to the tortured and morally ambiguous antiheroes that flooded the market in the 90s, largely inspired by Moore’s work. Characters like Deadpool, The Punisher, Spawn, and many others owe much to Moore’s deconstruction of the superhero archetype.
This evolution of narrative and visual styles in comics demonstrates how even the most revolutionary ideas can be absorbed by the mainstream and lose their critical edge. For those who wish to keep alive the innovative spirit that Moore tried to promote, we invite you to explore tools that will help you develop your unique voice as a graphic artist, avoiding falling into the repetition of established formulas.
The Conflicting Legacy: Between Admiration and Rejection
Alan Moore, the man who revolutionized the history of comics, is not interested in being remembered for his contributions to superhero stories nor does he even want to see or know that multiple adaptations of his works are being carried out. In each of his words, we can find the disillusionment and anger of someone who intended to show the paths of originality and innovation and ended up laying the foundations for copying and mass reproduction. While we cannot, in any way, deny his brilliant mind when writing, neither should we forget his sorrow for being part of the most homogenizing and dangerous strategy of the capitalist market.
Moore has increasingly distanced himself from the mainstream comic industry. In 2016, he announced his retirement from comics after completing “The Tempest,” the final volume of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” Since then, he has focused his creative energy on literary projects, music, and his practice as a ceremonial magician (a less known but fundamental facet in his life).
His legacy remains contradictory: on one hand, he is venerated as one of the greatest comic writers of all time; on the other, many of his contributions have been misinterpreted and commercialized in ways that he considers destructive to the medium.
Moore’s rejection of the industry that celebrates him raises important questions about the relationship between creators and the corporations that own their works. His disputes with DC Comics over the rights to Watchmen and other creations highlight the tensions inherent in artistic creation within a commercial system.
Despite everything, Moore’s influence remains immense. His focus on complex narrative, multidimensional characters, and philosophical themes has elevated the possibilities of comics as an art form. His innovative techniques of visual storytelling and his close collaboration with artists such as Dave Gibbons, David Lloyd, and Eddie Campbell established new standards for collaboration between writers and artists.
Beyond Superheroes: Moore’s True Legacy
Although Moore is primarily known for his works in the superhero genre, his work is much broader and more diverse. “From Hell,” his meticulous exploration of Jack the Ripper murders, demonstrates his mastery of historical research and his ability to weave complex narratives. “Lost Girls,” his collaboration with Melinda Gebbie, challenges conventions about sexuality and eroticism in comics.
His most recent projects, such as “Jerusalem” (a novel of more than a million words set in his native Northampton) and “The Show” (a film set in the universe of his comics “Show Pieces”), demonstrate that his creativity remains unstoppable, even as he moves away from the medium that made him famous.
Perhaps Moore’s true legacy is not so much his specific stories as his demonstration that comics can be as sophisticated, complex, and meaningful as any other art form. His work opened doors for creators who wanted to explore adult themes and innovative narrative techniques without abandoning the comic medium.
For those inspired by Moore’s creative diversity and his ability to master multiple genres and narrative styles, bring your own unique stories to life by accessing our specialized resources that will help you expand your creative horizons beyond established conventions.
The Final Paradox: A Revolutionary Trapped by His Own Revolution
The story of Alan Moore in comics is, ultimately, a fascinating paradox. A man who wanted to free the medium unwittingly ended up establishing new conventions. A writer who sought to elevate the artistic level of comics ended up seeing how his innovations were diluted and commercialized. A critic of corporate capitalism whose characters and ideas have been merchandised to satiety.
And yet, despite his conflicts with the industry and his disillusionment with the direction superhero comics have taken, Moore remains an indispensable figure in the history of the medium. His work has inspired generations of creators, not only in comics but also in film, television, and literature.
Perhaps the most valuable lesson we can draw from Moore’s trajectory is not simply to admire his narrative genius, but to understand his critical stance. In a world where pop culture is dominated by increasingly commercialized superheroes, Moore’s warnings about the political and social implications of these modern myths seem more relevant than ever.
While the entertainment industry continues to extract value from the revolutionary ideas that Moore introduced decades ago, his words remind us that we must constantly question dominant narratives and seek new forms of expression that challenge established conventions. Only in this way can we truly honor the rebellious and innovative spirit that characterized his best works.
In the end, perhaps what Moore teaches us is that true creativity does not consist of following established formulas, but in daring to imagine new possibilities. Are you ready to break molds and create works that challenge expectations? Discover how to enhance your creativity here.
