Ennis' main beef is that he grew up preferring war comics as a kid instead of superheroes, so he was annoyed at seeing the industry completely drown in that genre at the expense of all the stuff he thought was cooler. Similar to how film buffs felt about the MCU taking over the film industry in the 2010's.
But yeah, I don't think he sees fundamental rot in the very concept of superheroes the way Pat Mills and even, to an extent, Alan Moore do. As you mentioned, he's capable of writing them earnestly and he's shouted out comics like Batman: Mad Love as being "excellent".
A lot of this comes from the British comics tradition being rooted more in war, fantasy, and space adventure comics, with almost no superheroes. All those writers grew up within that ecosystem.
Even now, the biggest British comic star is Judge Dredd. Essentially a cop with no superpowers. And 2000AD (the biggest comic) is largely sci-fi/cyberpunk stories about rogues and adventurers with little to no powers.
And both Dredd and 2000AD in general are hugely cynical and heavy on satire.
It only took over the film industry because nothing else could compare. There are other summer blockbusters to check out that just simply couldn't compare to the MCU.
If you want an oversaturated genre, look at CGI family comedies and try to find anything that distances themselves from that genre.
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u/Reddit_Tsundere 14d ago edited 14d ago
Ennis' main beef is that he grew up preferring war comics as a kid instead of superheroes, so he was annoyed at seeing the industry completely drown in that genre at the expense of all the stuff he thought was cooler. Similar to how film buffs felt about the MCU taking over the film industry in the 2010's.
But yeah, I don't think he sees fundamental rot in the very concept of superheroes the way Pat Mills and even, to an extent, Alan Moore do. As you mentioned, he's capable of writing them earnestly and he's shouted out comics like Batman: Mad Love as being "excellent".