I share your opinion on Alan Moore to a degree, but I would argue comics have more to offer. I've been been getting into them more recently as its easier to read them while I watch my 1.5 year old daughter than read some dense novel.
To me part of the Watchmen is kind of about a certain loss of innocence. Superheroes are the perfect metaphor for that because superheroes are a childhood and adolescent thing for most people. Especially when the Watchmen came out.
The backdrop is also the battle between supposed good and evil that was the cold war ending. America sitting as a hegemonic power. Yet despite this end struggle doesn't end, the old resentments are pushing the world towards nuclear annihilation and the US is in cultural and moral decline. There are no heroes there to save anyone. There never really were.
Moore was like every comic artist and writer a massive fan of comics and superheroes growing up. However he realized that the genre had gotten stale and formulaic, he also questioned the morality of such powerful vigilantes and how the entire genre effected people like himself.
So in a way the Watchmen is a sad reflection about growing up and becoming more cynical and critical. So obviously it can resonate with people like yourself and myself who may have kind of become sour on a lot of popular culture grew up with for many reasons. In a sense getting older coincides with compounding grief.
On a more optimistic note Alan Moore accidentally set off a Renaissance of new ideas in the comic book world with the Watchmen that go way beyond the super hero genre. The acclaim he got and the fact that something like the Watchmen could be commercially viable set off a wave excellent adult comics that deal with and don't deal with Superheroes. The fact that great works like the Watchmen and rivaling the Watchmen can sprout out of a dying medium due to the genius of Moore is actually quite uplifting.
Unexpectedly depressing.
I share your opinion on Alan Moore to a degree, but I would argue comics have more to offer. I've been been getting into them more recently as its easier to read them while I watch my 1.5 year old daughter than read some dense novel.
To me part of the Watchmen is kind of about a certain loss of innocence. Superheroes are the perfect metaphor for that because superheroes are a childhood and adolescent thing for most people. Especially when the Watchmen came out.
The backdrop is also the battle between supposed good and evil that was the cold war ending. America sitting as a hegemonic power. Yet despite this end struggle doesn't end, the old resentments are pushing the world towards nuclear annihilation and the US is in cultural and moral decline. There are no heroes there to save anyone. There never really were.
Moore was like every comic artist and writer a massive fan of comics and superheroes growing up. However he realized that the genre had gotten stale and formulaic, he also questioned the morality of such powerful vigilantes and how the entire genre effected people like himself.
So in a way the Watchmen is a sad reflection about growing up and becoming more cynical and critical. So obviously it can resonate with people like yourself and myself who may have kind of become sour on a lot of popular culture grew up with for many reasons. In a sense getting older coincides with compounding grief.
On a more optimistic note Alan Moore accidentally set off a Renaissance of new ideas in the comic book world with the Watchmen that go way beyond the super hero genre. The acclaim he got and the fact that something like the Watchmen could be commercially viable set off a wave excellent adult comics that deal with and don't deal with Superheroes. The fact that great works like the Watchmen and rivaling the Watchmen can sprout out of a dying medium due to the genius of Moore is actually quite uplifting.