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Narrative
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Yeah... it was kind of like that. Also, why does the Invisible Woman have two navels!?
1993 was the year Superman died and Venom got his own series. Just keep that in mind.
—Marvel Year In Review, 1993
It's time to talk about a period of bleakness, a period of twisted humanoid aberrations and the decay of human morality! This is also known as the Dark Age of Comics.
I tend to think that I've seen a lot of things over the past 15 years that have been a bizarre echo of somebody else's bad mood. It's not even their bad mood, it's mine, but they're still working out the ramifications of me being a bit grumpy 15 years ago.
The Dark Age, also known as the Iron Age, the Rust Age, the Lead Age or the Chrome Age, was the culmination of the move towards an older audience for Comic Books, including superhero books, that had started in the Bronze Age. It was encouraged and supported by the semi-coincidental rise of "direct market"—Alan Moore on what he partially set in motion.
 comic book shops, which were not covered by the Comics Code and thus could sell books that did not have Code approval, and which also served as a convenient gathering place for fans of the medium to meet and discuss them. The Dark Age is a controversial period amongst comic book fans, usually characterized as a Darker And Edgier period with an increased emphasis placed on sex and violence — which was, depending on who you ask, either a welcome breath of fresh air after the medium languishing so long in its own version of the Animation Age Ghetto, or a period of grotesque excess and immaturity. Or both.
The Dark Age is usually agreed to have begun proper in 1986, although some works with Dark Age sensibilities such as Alan Moore's V For Vendetta, and Frank Miller's Ronin had debuted a few years previously. A watershed year in comics, 1986 saw DC Comics produced both Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen, both of which proved to be well-received, notable works which went on to become classics of the genre in their own right, but were particularly seminal inspirations for what followed. The former a return to Batman's roots as a dark and gritty crime-fighter, the latter a deconstruction of the Superhero genre as a whole, both were notable for infusing the genre with increased political, character and thematic complexity which had rarely been seen in previous works, in particular with their implications and depictions of superheroes as being neurotic, psychologically and sexually tormented Anti Heroes whose violent methods masked a whole range of psychological problems. Whilst the Bronze Age had already seen superhero comics become more serious, challenging the restrictions of the Comics Code in the process, these works in particular kick-started a trend for creating superhero-themed comics for a more adult audience than had previously been targeted. 1986 also saw the wholescale rewriting of The DCU following Crisis On Infinite Earths, and as editors began to pick and choose what stayed and what was discarded, it seemed increasingly clear that more of the Lighter And Softer elements were being removed.
In order to do so whilst still nominally keeping their main universes kid-friendly, the main companies began to set-up and use "imprints", sub-publications of a company that specialized in specific content for people with certain interests. One of the most successful imprints was DC's Vertigo Comics, which specialized in a re-imagining of obscure characters from The DCU in Darker And Edgier contexts. Whilst this was nominally to distinguish works aimed for more adult audiences from works which were still aimed at children, the mainstream universes were in many ways also becoming more complex and grown-up.
Also around this time, creator-owned companies began to gain prominence following disputes between creatives and executives over issues such as creators' rights and the restrictions of the Comics Code, the influence of which was steadily weakening. Whilst most were ultimately of little consequence, several would go on to become successful and important to the material that would consequently be produced. Again, in 1986, Mike Richardson formed Dark Horse Comics out of his chain of same-named comicbook stores in Portland, Oregon. Darkhorse would prove to be one of the most versatile comics companies, publishing licensed works such as comics set in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, along side popular and critically acclaimed creator owned comics such as Hellboy and Sin City, Darkhorse was also an early distributor of English translated manga such as Akira. In 1989 Jim Shooter, Marvel's former editor in cheif, and other top writers from Marvel formed Valiant Comics following the failure of The New Universe (itself debuting in, of all years, 1986). Valiant was founded on the same principals as The New Universe, namely, a comic book universe focused on Hard Sci Fi, internal consistency, strong character driven storylines, and a lack of Comic Book Time. These would go on to pave the way for the creation of Image Comics, a key source of the bulk of the Dark Age's most influential and commercially successful content, in 1992 following a dispute between seven of Marvel Comics' top artists over creator's rights. Image, founded on the principles that creators were entirely in control of their own product, were entirely free of the Comics Code and with some of the most popular creators of the time on board, they became known for two things: comics that relied heavily on sex and violence, and comics that sold like wildfire. Naturally, the success of Image prompted the other companies to sit up, take notice, and try their hardest to catch the same lightning.
Meanwhile over at Marvel, the change was more subtle and gradual. A major milestone came in 1990, when Rob Liefeld — a key figure in the Dark Age — began his run on the X-Men Spin Off The New Mutants, which introduced the character of Cable ◊, a major Trope Codifier for the Nineties Anti Hero; originally designed as a villain, Liefeld re-used him to fulfill an editorial mandate calling for the introduction of a "man of action" to act as a foil to Xavier's more gentle style of leadership.
The result of all of this was comics that adopted more adult sensibilities and began to focus on mature themes and content, breaking free both of the old constraints that had held comics back and the age-old stereotype that comic books were a medium solely for children. The nature of this content has been hotly contested by fans with regards to it's quality. Certainly, this age produced a lot of widely-acclaimed and notable works by creators who used the new lack of constraints to transcend the old limitations and develop stories that were interesting, imaginative, complex and mature, embracing the possibilities of the medium and going beyond the traditional literature in the process. Neil Gaiman's The Sandman debuted at Vertigo Comics in 1989 and was widely acclaimed for it's richly imaginative and complex characters and dreamlike narrative, while Grant Morrison was exploring reality, fiction and the difference between the two in works like Doom Patrol and Animal Man. Independent creators were using the freedom given to them to create interesting and exciting new characters without having to tie them to the old corporate universes, such as Todd McFarlane's Spawn and Erik Larsen's The Savage Dragon.
However, some argued that in too many cases "mature" content was actually closer to "adolescent"; while many creators were taking inspiration from The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, many had completely missed the point, focussing merely on the surface details in order to Follow The Leader without coupling them with the depth of narrative and the thematic and psychological complexity that had made these works unique and well received. Many of the characters introduced in the period seemed to be deeply disturbed and unpleasant 'heroes' who were frequently accused of being (and in several cases actually appeared to be) little more than psychotic thugs. More than a few of these works were poorly-written or -drawn; this was perhaps connected to the popularity of the work of Rob Liefeld during this time, who was so frequently imitated that even his shortcomings as an artist began to appear in the work of other creators. The characterisation and physical depictions of women, rarely at their most mature to begin with in this genre, began to plunge to ever more absurd depths, frequently making the works look immature or even misogynistic in the process. Even the mood of the books began to sour as creators overtly rejected the more cheerful and optimistic tone of previous ages to make the works darker and bleaker, even in works which such a Darker And Edgier tone was completely unsuitable for. While not always a deconstruction of the Silver Age, it was certainly a deliberate opposition, and although touted as being more adult and mature, in too many cases the works produced during the age were no more sophisticated than or superior to earlier, 'immature' works — merely nastier.
This was also the age of the Big Event and the Crisis Crossover, wherein the characters were frequently brought together in order to boost sales and reconstruction of the status quo, usually making things Darker And Edgier in the process. The age saw big events such as Superman dying and being replaced by feuding alternatives, Batman having his back broken and replaced by a considerably more psychotic individual, the Silver Age Green Lantern turning evil and Spider-Man being replaced by a clone. Even Wonder Woman and the Flash were briefly replaced by darker doppelgangers, and Aquaman lost a hand and grew a beard. However, many of these events were poorly received by fans, who didn't appreciate their favourite characters being altered beyond recognition, and the constant crossovers tended to interrupt the flow of stories in individual titles (thus making a jumbled mess of ongoing storylines), requiring readers to purchase numerous different books — including titles they may not particularly like or usually read — in order to follow the narrative.
While the content of the Age would itself generate great controversy, outside forces would also have a significant impact on the comics of this era and the industry as a whole. The Dark Age is also notable as having coincided the age of the comic collector boom, which would have drastic impact on the industry. Over time, the earliest published comics had appreciated considerably in value, as those who had read the material disposed of the bulk of it, leaving only a few rare copies in existence. Selling rare comics to collectors had been around for decades, but suddenly, mainstream attention began to focus on the profit potential of it.
And the industry soaked it up — numerous marketing tactics designed expressly to appeal to this collector's market began to appear. Series were relaunched with new #1s. Issues were printed with multiple variant covers so that completists would buy multiple copies of a single issue. Some issues came bagged in mylar, so that one could either read the comic or keep it pristine. Gimmicks like trading cards and holofoil covers would appear whenever the editor thought a series needed a sales boost — indeed, the latter gimmick was so common that some refer to this as the Chrome Age. Alternate covers began to appear on some books to encourage collectors to buy one of each — or two of each, so that they had one of each to collect and one of each to read.
Unfortunately, this was only a short-term benefit, which ignored one basic economic fact: the old comics were only selling for such high prices in the first place because they were difficult to get a hold of, being extremely rare. Conversely, the new "collectibles" were being churned out by the truckload. Millions of people had bought comics like X-Men #1 in hopes it would become a rare collectible, but since there were millions of copies floating around, it naturally wasn't rare at all, and anyone who wanted to collect it could get it for a song. And to make matters worse, a lot of the material that was trying to become collectible using these gimmicks was the kind of poorly-written rubbish that few believed worth collecting in the first place.
When the public realized this, the bottom fell out, and the market collapsed. Many of the smaller publishers went bust or were bought out (including Valiant Comics), and two-thirds of all direct market comic book stores went out of business. Even Marvel, one of the big two, wasn't immune, and filed for bankruptcy protection in 1997; whilst the comics crash was certainly a key element in this, they had also lost many of their top talents to Valiant and Image, resulting in the ill-conceived Onslaught, Heroes Reborn, and Clone Saga storylines. The marketing department being given editorial control and the suggestions that then-owner Ron Perelman acquired the company through junk bonds and dummy corporations and then ransacked the company for the purpose of lining his pockets probably didn't help matters either.
As well as the material being produced and the nature of the industry, all of this also impacted the consumer base of the medium, which moved increasingly from the mainstream public to a smaller niche market of fans and collectors. The dominant stereotypes of the readers of this Age, fair or otherwise, are of the "comic book teenager", an insecure fan who hated any hint of 'silliness' in his comics and demanded that they be "adult" and taken seriously, even though the shocking content of said comics only implied immaturity; and the "collector" who obsessively and joylessly maintained his collection in pristine condition, with little or no interest in the actual content. Ultimately, the recurring theme of this Age seems to be short-term gains that lead to long-term harm for the series, company or even industry.
Opinion is divided on when — or even if — the Dark Age ended. At earliest, the Modern Age is said to have begun in the mid 1990s, with the release of the critically-acclaimed love-letter-to-the-Silver Age Astro City in 1995; the release of Kingdom Come, a brutal barefisted deconstruction of the direction that comics had been going in for the past 10 years, in 1996; and the debut of a new version of the Justice League Of America in 1997, with a line-up that echoed the best parts of the Silver Age and the Bronze Age. Later estimates place it at the turn of the millennium, with the introduction of Ultimate Marvel via Ultimate Spider-Man, offering a fresh take on the Marvel Universe unfettered by decades of continuity and modernized takes on old stories and characters.
However, while the extremes and excesses of the era have largely disappeared except for the purposes of parody, deconstruction or reinvention, many note that a Darker And Edgier atmosphere continues to permeate and even dominate comics: characters and works with Dark Age themes continued to be released after 1997 (including Marvel Zombies, Captain America: Truth, Winter Soldier, X-23, Spiderman: The Other, House Of M, Decimation, and most notoriously Civil War), and in 2005 DC’s Infinite Crisis was intended to partly undo some of the trends described here (such as Batman being too obsessed and grim), which indicates that some writers thought there was something left to be undone. The Big Event and Crisis Crossover certainly haven't faded away, either.
As for the men who arguably started it all, at least one later appeared less-than-impressed by what followed. Alan Moore became one of the era’s most outspoken critics, revamping Supreme — originally a standard grimdark Superman clone — into an in-depth exploration of the Superman myth and what made it work, and many of his works for his America’s Best Comics line, such as Tom Strong, display a notable Lighter And Softer tone in order to balance the extremes of this era. The other, Frank Miller, seems to be more on the fence, with his later works, including The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All Star Batman And Robin either openly making fun of his own earlier work or providing a terrible example of its worst excesses, depending on who you talk to.
Meanwhile, if the movies are anything to go by, then we may not have seen the last of the Dark Age. Back in The Nineties, even as comics were getting Darker And Edgier, the films based on them were getting Lighter And Softer; witness how Tim Burton's dark Batman Returns was followed up with Joel Schumacher's lighter Batman Forever. With few exceptions (Blade, Spawn), the big comic book movies of the late '90s and the Turn Of The Millennium were comparatively family-friendly fare like X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man. Then came the release of The Dark Knight in 2008 and The Movie of Watchmen in 2009, both of which brought a much darker take on superheroes. (Rather fitting, knowing what comics kicked off the original Dark Age.) Already, adaptations of Jonah Hex, Lobo and Witchblade are in the works, a Darker And Edgier undercurrent seems to have infused the recent X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Iron Man 2 will apparently emphasize Tony Stark's alcoholism.
See also Nineties Anti Hero and Dark Age Of Supernames. Do not confuse with Dork Age (although, in the minds of some fans, a lot of material produced in this era belongs there as well; Your Mileage May Vary).
Notable series of the Dark Age:
Usually accepted as lasting from the publishing of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns to the publishing of Kingdom Come 1986-up |
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