Alan Moore is a legend in the comic industry. Moore came into a comic industry that was beginning to grow past its simplistic morality plays, and gave it the push it needed to truly reach the heights of storytelling of mediums like novels or films. Moore showed the world what comics could be when the creators involved wanted to go beyond the dominant paradigm. Swamp Thing is a masterpiece, and it led comics into a new dawn. Books like Watchmen came next and some of Moore’s classics from British comics like Miracleman — known as Marvelman in the UK — and V for Vendetta were brought across the Atlantic, telling deep stories that used the trappings of superhero comics to take them to new places. Moore became a legendary figure with his work at DC , but unfortunately, the company wasn’t worthy of his trust. This led to Moore’s falling out with mainstream, changing his view of comics forever.
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In the ensuing years, Moore has gotten a reputation for being comics’ greatest curmudgeon, giving scathing takes on the comic industry that have only intensified by Moore leaving comics altogether. This led to one of his most controversial statements on the nature of superheroes ever. Moore said that comics were a road to fascism. Now, I’m a huge superhero fan, so this stung a lot. As someone who is very much anti-fascist, I never really thought about superheroes that way. However, the more I think about it, the more I see that Moore is right. That said, just because he’s right doesn’t mean that this opinion of has to be the final word.
Superheroes At Their Core Reveal a Disturbing Tendency
Superheroes, at their core, are about one strong person standing against the chaos of the world, trying to recapture something that’s actually never existed — a world of peace and plenty for all. When read like that, it’s easy to see the parallels between superheroes and fascism. Fascist ideology presents its adherents with a view of a perfect world, one where the problems of today are fixed and brought back to an idyllic past that they create for their supporters. The German paradise that Nazi Germany talked about was a thing of fiction, just like any of the “storied pasts” that fascists like to trot out. They use a childlike view of the world — children don’t notice the horrors of adulthood, only seeing the fun — to ensnare people into their monstrous web.
Superheroes are a child’s idea of how to save the world. These strong men and women stand as a bulwark against the encroaching darkness of the world, able to solve the little problems of society, but never touching the big ones. This is another key part of fascism; fascists never actually fix the problems that affect society, instead focusing on an enemy that the people can hate. Fascist governments do everything they accuse their enemies of, and superheroes also do the same. Someone like Batman or the Punisher uses the weapons of the enemy to fight them. Both create a self-sustaining cycle, one that always fights the “symptoms” but never actually solves the problems. In fact, they often create even more problems.
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However, there’s a fundamental difference between fascism and superheroes, and ironically that difference comes from creators like Moore. Fiction influences all of us; it’s why books get banned. Moore’s work has always been anti-fascist. Reading his stories shows the myriad ways that we can fight against the worst in the world. Moore isn’t alone in this either. Creators like Grant Morrison also tell stories that are fundamentally anti-fascist. Creators like Moore and Morrison take the horrors of fascism and show them to the audience, all while also showing us how to fight them.
This is the glory of superheroes. They can be simple and take readers down dangerous roads — worship of the strong and the return of the illustrious, perfect past — but they can also show readers how to fight against that past. Superheroes have another core, and it’s one that is obvious when people look at heroes like Superman. Superman was created as a socialist icon, doing his best to fight the corrupt powers that victimized the people. Superman in the Golden Age was meant to be an example, a cure to the encroaching far right belief systems that were all the rage back then. It’s only as time went on that Superman became an agent of the status quo, forgetting to fight the root causes of societal rot. Superheroes can be more than just fascist wish fulfillment, but the creators have to do the work.
Moore Ignores How Works Like His Own Have Helped Fight Against Superheroes’ Inherent Fascism
Moore is correct that superheroes can be a road to fascism. The desire for a strong person to tell everyone what to do and to “fix” the problems of society is near inescapable — just look at the current political situation of the United States — and fiction has helped that along. Fiction is a wild landscape of creativity, yet it’s also a form of societal control. Feed people the stories of strong leaders fighting against the darkness of the world, or what the audience perceives as the darkness, and you’ll get people who will often look to fascism for a solution.
However, Moore ignores the power of his own work. Take Miracleman. The story ends with the superheroes taking control of the world, enforcing a perfect world on the people of Earth. This world is objectively good for everyone, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a world that is bound by the will of its leader. Moore shows readers the “utopia” that Miracleman created, but there’s always the idea that this is wrong. It’s taking away human destiny. Moore’s work has always been like this: intelligent and political, fighting against the ideas that poison the mind of the audience. There’s an antidote for the inherent fascism of superheroes and it comes from creators as passionate as Moore himself who dare to show that superheroes can be more.
