Alan Moore has been talking about the state of superhero comics and films in the 21st century, stating that he no longer likes the genre, and saying that he finds audiences going to see The Avengers in their droves “alarming.”

"I haven't read any superhero comics since I finished with Watchmen,” the writer told The Guardian while promoting his latest work, Fashion Beast. “I hate superheroes. I think they're abominations. They don't mean what they used to mean. They were originally in the hands of writers who would actively expand the imagination of their nine-to-13-year-old audience. That was completely what they were meant to do and they were doing it excellently.

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“These days, superhero comics think the audience is certainly not nine to 13, it's nothing to do with them. It's an audience largely of 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-year old men, usually men. Someone came up with the term graphic novel. These readers latched on to it; they were simply interested in a way that could validate their continued love of Green Lantern or Spider-Man without appearing in some way emotionally subnormal.“This is a significant rump of the superhero-addicted, mainstream-addicted audience. I don't think the superhero stands for anything good. I think it's a rather alarming sign if we've got audiences of adults going to see the Avengers movie and delighting in concepts and characters meant to entertain the 12-year-old boys of the 1950s."So what do you think of Alan Moore’s opinions? Let us know in the comments below.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN in the UK and loves it when Alan Moore attacks. He can be found talking nonsense on both Twitter and MyIGN