DC to publish Alan Moore's "Twilight of the Superheroes" proposal

[kingaliencracker]

Surprised this hasn't been talked about yet...

https://www.cbr.com/dc-through-the-8...ight-proposal/

[Vakanai]

A little misleading, seems it'll just be the full text in the DC Though the 80s book. They're not going to make it some complete mini or OGN with art.

[kcekada]

That used to be available online. I printed it years ago -- and have it somewhere in storage. I think DC was right to squash it. It's was too dark, and actually a bit creepy.

[Adekis]

Printing a pitch from the '80s which is publicly available online just seems like a waste of time. I don't know who this is for, or why DC decided to print it.

My only idea: that DC hopes it'll drum up enough fan interest to be worth Geoff Johns or someone writing an adaptation of Moore's pitch into a real comic, and I'm not going to assume that to be their goal.

As for whether Twilight of the Superheroes should be considered too dark...

I have to say, I can't think of another comic with a comparably horrific element to Billy Batson, eternally childlike BDSM addict in an incestuous marriage, being murdered by J'onn J'onzz so he can impersonate Captain Marvel for the next twenty years.

I bet it would have been well written. Alan Moore would have been the writer, after all. Still though. Gross.

[Gaius]

Billy Batson dying a via Martian Manhunter disguised as a prostitute is one of the most Alan Moore things I've read.

[Lee Stone]

That used to be available online. I printed it years ago -- and have it somewhere in storage. I think DC was right to squash it. It's was too dark, and actually a bit creepy.

Meaning it would likely fit in perfectly now.

[Vakanai]

Meaning it would likely fit in perfectly now.

Huh, Moore was ahead of his time. Like most visionaries.

[Lee Stone]

Huh, Moore was ahead of his time. Like most visionaries.

Or in DC's case, a 'self-fulfilling prophecy'.

[Mr.B]

Some of the elements have already been used in other works. In DC and non DC books.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Even Moore has dismissed this stuff as not particularly good comics. He said that he felt bad that he derailed superhero comics because he was in a really bad mood.

Twilight of the Superheroes is pretty much exactly that--a bunch of dumb American superheroes making a mess of the world so a smartass British Mary Sue can come in and fix it all. If it had been anyone else but Moore, this would have been rightfully mocked as the B-level fan fic it was.

[iron chimp]

What did brits have against crisis. Both this (from snyopsis - i havent read it) and morrisons animal man are critical of crisis.

I always thought it was cool DC printed those animal man issues

[Agent Z]

Even Moore has dismissed this stuff as not particularly good comics. He said that he felt bad that he derailed superhero comics because he was in a really bad mood.

Twilight of the Superheroes is pretty much exactly that--a bunch of dumb American superheroes making a mess of the world so a smartass British Mary Sue can come in and fix it all. If it had been anyone else but Moore, this would have been rightfully mocked as the B-level fan fic it was.

Did Moore specifically say that about Twilight of the Superheroes? I've only heard about him disliking Watchmen and The Killing Joke.

[manwhohaseverything]

Even Moore has dismissed this stuff as not particularly good comics. He said that he felt bad that he derailed superhero comics because he was in a really bad mood.

Doesn't moore say that for everything he wrote? He liked watchmen cartoon series though. As for being in bad moods and derailing things. I can empathise.

[kjn]

I did some digging and found Moore's original proposal.

His long introduction is a really interesting read. He accurately describes the various issues around continuity, narrative, and readership that has been plaguing DC (and Marvel) since the late 80s. At the same time, Moore's proposal was arguably even more bleak and grimdark than DKR or Watchmen, and dependant on not only lots of moving parts but also pulling out a huge number of reveals and counter-reveals, like infinite gimmicks of Batman's utility belt.

I also think that Moore did a mistake in grounding the proposal in Ragnarök. Not all myths or mythical characters follow that template of describing a death or an end state for the characters. Greek or Roman myth doesn't have an equivalent for their gods, and it's not like Robin Hood's or Arthur's final fates are relevant for the myths around them.

But I predict that the story would have been a narrative disaster, simply because it would be dependant on time travel at its core, and time travel fundamentally breaks narrative causality. And the ending of the story would basically have Alan Moore pop the bubble he carefully had inflated.

[Adekis]

Even Moore has dismissed this stuff as not particularly good comics. He said that he felt bad that he derailed superhero comics because he was in a really bad mood.

Yeah, didn't he start writing the likes of Tom Strong and Supreme basically as an apology to the genre for messing up super-heroes so badly?



Gotta be one of my favorite things Moore ever wrote - for all the reasons that it isn't really much like most of his famous stuff, to be honest.