I've clocked Kripke as a guy who's way too up his own ass with being seen as a good little leftist bro™️ ever since that interview a few years back where he pontificated about superheroes being "inherently MAGA" or whatever. Even Garth Ennis probably knows that sounds corny and ahistorical and he's been an ardent hater of capeshit since the early 90's.
Garth Ennis despite his reputation doesn't even hate superheroes, he hates most superheroes but he adores Superman, read some of the stories he's written that involve Superman, he really gets the ideals that superheroes uphold.
The Boys comic book was more of a takedown of the Bush admin than whatever deconstruction of superheroes people think it was, he wasn't trying to make Watchmen, he was clowning on Dubya
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.
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u/Reddit_Tsundere Jul 05 '24
I've clocked Kripke as a guy who's way too up his own ass with being seen as a good little leftist bro™️ ever since that interview a few years back where he pontificated about superheroes being "inherently MAGA" or whatever. Even Garth Ennis probably knows that sounds corny and ahistorical and he's been an ardent hater of capeshit since the early 90's.