In an interview with Wired, comic book writer Alan Moore writes:
Perhaps it has something to do with Picabia's remark about "Dada not being able to survive in America because America is already Dada." The spectacle being so overwhelming in New York (because most superheroes appear in New York or stand-ins for New York), the ridiculousness of superheroes seems quaint. Now try to imagine a superhero full of primary colors appearing in Reims or (God forbid) Watford. Yup, pretty silly.
It has occurred to me that the superhero really only originates in America. That seems to be the only country that has produced this phenomenon. Yes, we have had knockoffs of American superheroes originating in this country and presumably in other parts of the world, but they're not natural to this environment. They're an alien species. And I've thought about it and wondered why that was. And I wonder—perhaps this is being too simplistic, I don't know, but I wonder if the root of the emergence of the superhero in American culture might have something to do with a kind of an ingrained American reluctance to engage in confrontation without massive tactical superiority. I mean—does the term 7/7 mean anything to you at all?
Perhaps it has something to do with Picabia's remark about "Dada not being able to survive in America because America is already Dada." The spectacle being so overwhelming in New York (because most superheroes appear in New York or stand-ins for New York), the ridiculousness of superheroes seems quaint. Now try to imagine a superhero full of primary colors appearing in Reims or (God forbid) Watford. Yup, pretty silly.
Comments
The new Batman movie features the Joker as mad Anarchist, pitting organized crime against organized Statism in favor of what he deems 'Chaos' and 'Anarchy'.
Useful here a sort of Nietzschean dichotomy btwn positive and negative nihilism or, in this case, Anarchism. The Spectacle in which Batman participates, both as the Dada figure and as the Millionaire, is the positive Anarchy of free flowing markets and guru communications skills. The Jokeresque situation is the negative Anarchism of decadence and carnivalesque violence.