History Main / SuperheroPrevalenceStages

*** From the late-1980s onwards, at least a villain team is introduced ''per year'': Alliance of Evil and the Marauders (1986); the Horsemen of Apocalypse and the mutant-hunting cyborg Reavers (in 1987); the Mutant Liberation Front (in 1990); the Acolytes and the Upstarts in the main X-books (in 1991); the Dark Riders in pre-Peter David's ''X-Factor'' and Nasty Boys in Peter David's ''X-Factor'' (in 1991); the Morlock offshoot Gene Nation (in 1995).

** In ''Uncanny X-Men'' #199 (1985), Mystique meets Valerie Cooper and suggests she takes Mystique's incarnation of the Brotherhood of (Evil) Mutants under the American government's payroll, since the times are dire for mutants and Mystique is a pragmatic person, after all. The Brotherhood is renamed as Freedom Force and some of its official missions are Magneto's apprehension (''Uncanny X-Men'' #210), fugitive mutant Rusty Collins's apprehension (''X-Factor'' #8-9), fighting the Reavers on Muir Island (''Uncanny X-Men'' #254-255) and their last disastrous mission in the Arabian Gulf (in the 1991 crossover ''The Killing Stroke'').

** After the failure and dismantling of Freedom Force in the 1991 crossover ''The Killing Stroke'', government mutant liaison (human) Valerie Cooper suggests they form a second government-sanctioned mutant team, ''[[ComicBook/{{XFactor}} X-Factor]]'', this time with heroic mutants. The original lineup consisted of former X-Men Havok (Cyclops's brother) and Polaris (Magneto's daughter), Quicksilver (Magneto's son and former Avenger), and X-franchise C-Listers Wolfsbane, Strong Guy and Multiple Man.

* The Early Stage roughly coincides with UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks
* The Middle Stage roughly coincides with UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks
* The Late Stage roughly coincides with UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks.

* The early ''ComicBook/XMen'' comics (1963-1966) can arguably fit in this stage:

* ''ComicBook/UntoldTalesOfSpiderMan'' is a good representative of the Early Stage:

** Finally the ''Big Game'' crossover series has the Fraternity deciding to get rid of these new superheroes to stop the world from becoming a Later Stage again.

* [[Creator/MarkMillar Mark Millar's]] ''Millarworld'' setting is a case where a CosmicRetcon in the backstory turned a Late Stage into an Early Stage:

* Creator [[Creator/{{ImageComics}} Image Comics]]'s ''ComicBook/{{Youngblood}}'', debuting in 1992, begins as the Middle Stage: the titular Youngblood is a government sanctioned group, with an A-team and a B-team. Their first issue's flipside story involves the B-team going to the Middle East to oust a Saddam Hussein stand-in. The A-team's story in the next issues deal with typical action-y superhero stuff, as well as PR/merchandising issues, and White House interference.

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' never got past this stage with superheroes being seen as a fad and being made illegal after a few years. Supervillains were just regular criminals who wore costumes while it was trendy before going back to normal. Thanks to the one superpowers hero, Doctor Manhattan and retired genius, Ozymandias, the setting has enough technological advancements to become an AlternateHistory.

* ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' falls at the upper edge of the middle stage. Superheroes are starting to become a fact of life, although villains are rare enough that the only team up thus far is between Loki and his [[TheManBehindTheMan mysterious benefactor]], neither of whom are from Earth. The relatively small number of superheroes means that, for now, the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse is still middle stage, but it looks like future films are slowly going to transition into late stage.

* ''The Avengers'' may have still qualified as a middle stage work, but it looks like future Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse works will make the transition into late stage. The series ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' deals with the resurgence in appearances of technologies used to make superheroes and follow the way SHIELD and the world copes with this. ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' firmly sets the series in this, with the governments of the world finally moving (and failing) to take control of the Avengers. By the finale of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', there's a veritable ''army'' of superheroes and their allies assembled to oppose the forces of Thanos.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Spidey's early storylines can roughly fall under the Early Stage (his solo title "The Amazing Spider-Man" (1963-1970)), with ''ComicBook/MarvelTeamUp'' (1972-1985) making a good watershed moment, since the latter had Spider-Man team up with other Marvel heroes ''monthly'', instead of sporadically. To wit:

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' Peter seems to be the only superhero, with "super-criminals" being a new phenomenon [[SuperheroParadox mostly created to fight him specifically]]. WordOfGod says that this is because Sony only had the rights to use Franchise/SpiderMan characters; if given greater freedom more heroes would have appeared. It has also said however that the other features of the Marvel universe ca. 1962 exist, they just aren't acknowledged in the show proper. The Comicbook/FantasticFour are around, [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] is in captivity, while the ComicBook/XMen and ComicBook/AntMan are active but under the public's radar, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica is frozen in ice, [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Don Blake]] has not gone on vacation in Norway yet, and [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk the Hulk]] is considered an urban legend.

This correlation shows itself clearest in newly created superhero universes of each era. The [[Creator/CharltonComics Charlton Universe]] (1960) and the Lee-Kirby-Ditko MarvelUniverse (1961) both began in the Early Stage and progressed to the Middle Stage within a year or so of publishing. Similarly, the [[Creator/ImageComics Image Universe]] (1992) began as a Middle Stage universe and rapidly progressed to Late Stage. (The only reason Image took any time at all to progress from Middle to Late was the necessary time to introduce a sufficiently large number of characters.)

** Some of his major enemies at this time are mobsters like the Enforcers, the Crime Master and the Kingpin (who outr of the three had lasting impact and relevance to the larger Marvel Universe). Another criminal is the Sandman, a small time crook that gains sand powers in a freak accident.