Alan Moore revealed why he suspected that DC was keeping him away from its flagship characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The creator has had a hand in making stories for these characters but was initially given DC’s C-tier and D-tier pantheon to work with. The reason for this came to light when Alan Morre talked about some of his other works, which may have caused DC not to give the creator particular characters from the A-list.
While Alan Moore has done some of his best work with characters like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, fans of his work will know the somber and gloomy nature of his creations that makes them very difficult to consume for the wider audience. However, the creator believed that the very reason that he was kept away from some of DC’s more popular characters was because of his work on a hero most people today have forgotten: Miracleman.
Miracleman was Alan Moore’s first attempt at a different kind of superhero story
Alan Moore‘s most well-known work is The Watchmen, which takes a novel approach to superheroes, but this is hardly the first time the creator played around with the superhero genre. Before he constructed the world of The Watchmen, Moore had a similar dark and twisted stint with Marvelman, who was renamed Miracleman by Moore. Speaking with Comic Book Artist, the author: revealed:
Like I said, Marvelman—later Miracleman—had been my first attempt to restructure the super-hero, and to do something that was very adult and quite strong in places.
Although they admired Marvelman, and it was obvious I could do a good super-hero-type story, when DC first brought me over, I think the reason they gave me Swamp Thing was probably because they might have been a little reticent to actually turn me loose upon one of their traditional characters, for fear it might end up like Marvelman, with strong language and childbirth all over the place.
Moore would, of course, go on to pen some of DC’s best stories about their flagship Trinity, such as The Killing Joke, and The Man Who Has Everything. While DC’s initial skepticism about the creator might be well founded, given the twisted tone he would take with the superhero genre, it is safe to say that when he did get his hands on some of DC’s most iconic characters, he ended up doing them justice.
DC thought Alan Moore would do well with Swamp Thing
Swamp Thing was one of DC’s more horror-oriented, adult-leaning characters that they assumed would work better with Alan Moore. Moore revealed:
DC felt that, with Swamp Thing, I would work out fine, because it was a horror strip anyway with a more adult aura around it.
Moore’s run on Swamp Thing was well received, which allowed him to move up the DC hierarchy of characters, eventually trying his hand at characters like Batman and Superman with stories like The Killing Joke and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
Moore would reinvent the superhero genre a few times, sometimes playing it straight and other times taking bold new steps into the genre, with works like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Watchmen.
