‘Fandom has toxified the world’: Watchmen author Alan Moore on superheroes, Comicsgate and Trump

I believe that fandom is a wonderful and vital organ of contemporary culture, without which that culture ultimately stagnates, atrophies and dies. At the same time, I’m sure that fandom is sometimes a grotesque blight that poisons the society surrounding it with its mean-spirited obsessions and ridiculous, unearned sense of entitlement.

It can be hard to recognize that Dark Brandon is a fanart trope because most of the participants in the American Politics Extended Universe fandom are reluctant to explicitly admit that they belong to a fandom centered around a prominent entertainment product. But make no mistake: Dark Brandon was developed and shared by people who spend several ho... See more

Our collective weariness towards ever-expanding franchise universes feels potent. There is an excess of worlds to immerse ourselves in, but a dearth of meaningful connection to other humans. Popular franchises might boast massive fandoms, but there is a stark impersonality to their widespread consumption and discussion.

We know that fans and fandom properties that were once on the periphery are now at the cultural center. We have been imbued with power and we have become part of a cultural–and political–war.