" With the benefit of hindsight and a greater understanding of anthropoid behavior patterns, science fiction author Philip José Farmer was able to demonstrate quite credibly that the young Tarzan would almost certainly have indulged in sexual experimentation with chimpanzees and that he would just surely have had none of the aversion to eating human flesh that Edgar Rice Burroughs attributed to him. As our political and social consciousness continues to evolve, Allan Quartermain stands revealed as just another white imperialist out to exploit the natives and we begin to see that the overriding factor in James Bond's psychological makeup is his utter hatred and contempt for women. Whether most of us would prefer to enjoy the above-mentioned gentlemen's adventures without spoiling things by considering the social implications is beside the point. The fact remains that we have changed, along with our society, and that were such characters created today they would be subject to the most extreme suspicion and criticism."
— Alan Moore The Mark of Batman Introduction to Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns anticipating many of the themes he would tackle in the League.
"I got quite a bit of criticism for that. I know that people were saying after reading the third book, that it was my equivalent of saying, "It were old fields around here once" which it wasn't, that wasn't what I was saying. What I was saying was that — I don't think it was unfair to choose [The Threepenny Opera] as representing a big important cultural event of 1910. I don't think it was unfair choosing Donald Cammell's Performance as representing a big important cultural event in 1969 and I don't think it was unfair choosing J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter as representing a big cultural event in the early 21st Century. I would say that it you were to plot those things along the graph — the line isn't going up. I think that it's a fair comment that our approach to culture -- in the mainstream -- has degenerated ... In Century, it was using the League to look at the 21st Century from the point of view of 21st Century culture, to draw conclusions that seemed accurate. I wasn't saying that all culture in the late 21st Century was rubbish or I wasn't saying that culture was doomed. I was saying that mainstream culture was becoming repetitive, was not having original ideas, would no longer be capable of coming up with a Performance, leave alone a Threepenny Opera."
— Alan Moore, Interview with John Higgs
, Author of Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century
, Author of Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century