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Narrative
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Yeah... it was kind of like that.
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.
The Dark Age was the culmination of a gradual move towards an older audience for Comic Books, particularly those featuring superheroes, that had started in the Bronze Age. Usually characterized as a Darker And Edgier period featuring an increased focus on sex, violence and dark, gritty portrayals of the characters involved, much of the content produced during this era is greatly controversial amongst comic book fans and is usually (depending on who you ask) considered either 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 generally agreed to have begun in 1986 — a watershed year in comics, seeing the publication of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen. Whilst works both by these authors and others in the field had also displayed Dark Age sensibilities prior to these such as Alan Moore's V For Vendetta(1982), and Frank Miller's Ronin (1983), Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns were the two works which provided much of the direct inspiration for what followed. Both were dark, gritty and complex works which took the superhero genre and deconstructed it, infusing it with greater political and psychological complexity and a greater amount of graphic sexual and violent content than had been seen previously. They also kick-started a trend for portraying superheroes not as the whiter-than-whitebread heroes of pure moral standing that had been the common default prior to these works, but as neurotic, tormented and at times borderline-fascistic Anti Heroes whose violent methods masked a whole range of psychological and sexual issues.
1986 also saw the wholescale rewriting of The DCU following Crisis On Infinite Earths, which would itself be incredibly influential on what followed for numerous reasons. Firstly, it was the first Crisis Crossover, and its success paved the way for more Big Events over the decade. Secondly, the reboot itself was important in setting the overall tone of the comics that would follow 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 as a more mature audience was being catered towards.
In order to draw in more adult readers whilst still keeping their main universes at least nominally family-friendly, the main publishers 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.
Also around this time, creator-owned companies such as Dark Horse Comics (founded in 1986) and Valiant Comics (founded in 1989) 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. Like the imprints of the main publishers, these smaller companies often specialised in material aimed at more adult readers than previously, and which continued the process of deconstructing established tropes of the superhero genre. Dark Horse Comics, Founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson out of his chain of same named comic shops, still exists to this day, and is well known for being versatile. It published such critically acclaimed creator owned series as Hellboy and Sin City, as well as licensed works, such as comics set the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and was even an early source for translated Manga (itself a growing cultural force) such as Akira. Valiant Comics was founded in 1989 by former Marvel Comics Editor in chief Jim Shooter. In 1986, Shooter spearheaded the short lived New Universe imprint, with the idea of creating a new "more realistic" approach to traditional superhero tropes. Its failure inspired him to leave and try the same thing again with a new company. Valiant Comics attempted to create a hard Sci Fi superhero universe without Comic Book Time, with events happening in the same time frame as the publication schedule. Valiant achieved a lot of early success, briefly becoming a legitimate competitor to the Big two, and producing such critically acclaimed works as Harbinger and Solar Man Of The Atom, and still has a small, but devoted following of fans.
Whilst the groundwork had been laid during the eighties, the Dark Age reached its peak in the early 90s the same period that spawned the Mortal Kombat and Grunge rock, and no, this is not a coincidence; all had their roots in the same jaded, cynical, Gen X attitude that was common at the time. In fact many key figures of the Dark Age, such as Rob Liefeld, were of the right age to have gone to high school with Kurt Cobain (both being born in 1967).
Liefeld, one of the most popular creators of the time, influenced the Age in three main ways. Firstly, the characters he devised acted as central Trope Codifiers for the Nineties Anti Hero, the primary character archetype of the period. The character of Cable, introduced by Liefeld as leader of Marvel’s X-Men Spin Off The New Mutants, was a particularly important one; although initially a villain, his character was used to fill an editorial mandate calling for a "man of action" to act as a foil to Xavier's more gentle style of leadership. Secondly, Liefeld’s artwork — dark, gritty and angular — was perfect for the darker tone of comic books of the day, and began to be widely imitated — to the extent that even Liefeld’s flaws (largely a result of his being a self-taught artist) began to be widely imitated.
The third influence Liefeld had was through Image Comics, a key source of some of the Age’s most influential content. Founded in 1992 following a dispute between seven of Marvel Comics' top artists (including Liefeld) 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.
The resulting material has been hotly contested by fans with regards to it’s quality. Certainly, the age produced a lot of widely-acclaimed and notable works, both affiliated with the mainstream universes and the independents — such as Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, Grant Morrison’s runs on Doom Patrol and Animal Man, Todd McFarlane's Spawn and Erik Larsen's The Savage Dragon. At their best, creators were using 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. Many genuine classics have their origins in the moods and tones of the era.
However, at the other end of the scale, the Age has been accused by a number of critics who argue 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. Common accusations centre around a deluge of deeply disturbed and unpleasant 'heroes' who were frequently accused of being little more than psychotic thugs cut from the same template.
The portrayal of women — rarely at its most mature to begin with in this genre — plunging to ever more absurd depths at times bordering on outright misogyny. For example, during the Dark Age an entire sub-genre of "Bad Girls" comics started to appear, featuring female characters (usually Witches, Demons, Vampires, etc) in highly Stripperific outfits in Supernaturally themed, borderline pornographic storylines. An early Trope Codifier for this was Lady Death. There was a time when this kind of material made up 90% of the material produced by Avatar Press. The "Bad Girls" genre has more or less died out, however some of series like this (Most notably Tarot Witch Of The Black Rose) are still around, and even Alan Moore's Post Modern fantasy series Promethia has elements of this.
An overly dark, cynical tone appearing even in works which such a tone was 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 accused of being no more sophisticated than or superior to earlier, 'immature' works — merely nastier.
Big Events and Crisis Crossovers were also immensely common by this point, with 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.
Opinion is divided on when — or even if — the Dark Age ended. Earliest estimates put it in the mid-to-late 1990s. In 1995, the cricitally acclaimed love letter to super-heroes Astro City debuted. 1996 saw the publishing of Kingdom Come, a brutal, barefisted Deconstruction of the direction comics had been going in for the past ten years. 1996 also saw the end of The Sandman and The Great Comics Crash Of 1996. 1997 saw Grant Morrison's celebrated run on JLA, which did more to Reconstruct the main DCU than anything else. 1997 was also when Marvel filed for bankruptcy (See The Great Comics Crash Of 1996 for more details). The late 90s saw Warren Ellis gaining prominence with works such as Transmetropolitian (1997) and Planetary (1999), as well as DC's accusition of Wildstorm, and is thus often tied into the Modern Age. Later estimates put 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. Yet more critics note that whilst the excesses of the Dark Age have by-and-large disappeared, comics today are nevertheless still notably dominated by a Darker And Edgier mindset which indicates that it might be around for a while.
In at least one medium, the Dark Age is still going strong; superhero movies have been increasingly focussing on much darker takes on superheroes, primarily represented by 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.) Ironically, during the Dark Age in comics, superhero movies had actually been a lot Lighter And Softer than the material they were taking inspiration from.
Notable series of the Dark Age:
Usually accepted as beginning with the publishing of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. Alternatively described as lasting until either the publishing of Kingdom Come (1986-1996), the publishing of Ultimate Spiderman #1 (1986-2000), or not ending at all. (1986- )
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