The Dark Age of Comic Books 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 of Comic Books. Sometimes, to follow the Gold/Silver/Bronze progression, the Dark Age is folded in with the Modern Age and called The Iron Age of Comic Books, and at other times it is jokingly called "the Chrome Age", owing to the frequency of publishers selling comics with holofoil covers as a marketing gimmick during the period, but "Dark Age" is the much more common and accepted term. Usually characterized by an increased focus on sex, violence, and dark, gritty portrayals of the characters involved, much of the content produced during this era is very controversial among comic book fans and is (depending on whom you ask) regarded as either a welcome breath of fresh air after the medium languished for so long in its own version of the Animation Age Ghetto, or a period of grotesque excess and immaturity... or maybe a little of both.
The era was arguably prefigured in the late 70s and early 80s by iconic stories like The Dark Phoenix Saga, God Loves, Man Kills, The Night Gwen Stacy Died, and The Judas Contract. However, the Dark Age is generally agreed to have begun in 1986 — a watershed year in comics, seeing the publication of Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen. While works both by these authors and others in the field had also displayed Dark Age sensibilities prior to these such as Moore's V for Vendetta and Miracleman (both 1982), and 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. Superhero teams would often be made of a human leader, a big guy (most likely a robot or monster), a woman dressed in something skimpy, a Wolverine Wannabe and another character. They also achieved widespread mainstream attention, and acclaim within intellectual circles, something unheard in the industry before, marking the origin of the '90s Anti-Hero. This had the effect of briefly turning comics into a "hip" and "rebellious" medium.
1986 also saw the wholesale 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 (while Secret Wars (1984) was published first, it was only in response to Crisis, which was already on the planning table, and led Marvel to panic and rush it out before Crisis), 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 comics were beginning to cater to a more mature audience.
In order to draw in more adult readers while 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 specialized in material aimed at more adult readers than previously, and which continued the process of deconstructing established tropes of the superhero genre. Dark Horse, founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson out of his chain of comic shops of the same name, 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 in the Alien, Predator, and Star Wars Expanded Universes, and was even an early source for translated manga (itself a growing cultural force) such as AKIRA. Valiant was founded in 1989 by former Marvel Comics editor in chief Jim Shooter.note In 1986, Shooter spearheaded the short lived The 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 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.
While the groundwork had been laid during the eighties, the Dark Age reached its peak in the early 90s, the same period that spawned Mortal Kombat and Grunge rock. 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, a key figure of the Dark Age, Rob Liefeld, was even the same age as 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 '90s 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 his flaws were emulated by other artists.
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's top artists (including Liefeld) over creator's rights. Image, founded on the principle that creators were entirely in control of their own product, was 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 (they soon became known for a third thing, books which where chronically late, which again will become important in the next phase). Naturally, the success of Image prompted the other companies to sit up, take notice, and try their hardest to catch the same lightning.
Marvel was also actively trying out new concepts and characters, giving them their own series, including New Warriors, Sleepwalker, Slingers, Darkhawk, and Thunderstrike. Sadly, all of these titles would eventually be canceled, although they all had their own merits and cult followings.
The decade and the resulting material has been hotly contested by fans with regards to its quality. Certainly, the age produced a lot of widely-acclaimed and notable works, both affiliated with the mainstream universes and the independents — such as The Maxx, The Infinity Gauntlet, Hellboy, etc. 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, a number of critics argue that in many cases, "mature" content was actually closer to "adolescent"; while creators were taking inspiration from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, many had completely missed the point, focusing 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. Complaints center around a crowd of deeply disturbed and unpleasant 'heroes' who were quite frequently little more than psychotic thugs cut from the same template who only qualified as heroes because of who they targeted.
The portrayal of women – something the genre had already struggled with at times – evolved with results going from debatable to at times bordering on outright misogyny (except for Wonder Woman under George Pérez, which is actually considered one of the best runs on the character). The darker storylines engaged frequently in having disposable women who existed only to be abused or killed to add drama and give motivation to the main male characters, to the point that "fridging" became a popular term to indicate cases of women killed in shocking manner (literally stuffed into a fridge) purely for shock value and an attempt at grittiness.
On a more mixed note, during the Dark Age the entire Sub-Genre of "Bad Girls" comics started to appear. They featured female main characters (usually witches, demons, vampires, etc) that were frequently portrayed in highly Stripperific outfits and supernatural storylines with sexually suggestive tones, but were also deadly and morally ambiguous protagonists who didn't have to rely on men to achieve their goals, possibly explaining how the genre gained a surprisingly diverse audience and cosplay scene at its peak. 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 declined after the '90s but has since stabilized as its own niche, with series like Lady Death, Vampirella (who is much older, but saw a revival during this period) and Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose continuing to this day, while the genre influenced the modern portrayals of popular characters like Harley Quinn, Catwoman and Poison Ivy, even if in a Lighter and Softer way.
An overly dark, cynical tone appeared even in works for which such a tone was unsuitable. While not always a deconstruction of The Silver Age of Comic Books, 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 is Alan Moore's big complaint about the era).
Sex and violence are two other big contentions among comics fans in regards to the Dark Age. While some used the relaxed Comics Code (or published comics unregulated by it) to add sexuality, nudity, and graphic violence in pursuit of telling good stories, others saw relaxed or nonexistent restrictions as permission to indulge in drawing copious amounts of blood and/or bare breasts. This leads to criticism of the Dark Age as "juvenile" instead of "mature" — ultraviolence, sex, sexy ultraviolence and ultraviolent sex are perceived as existing for their own sake, not to support an engaging narrative.
Keep in mind that the above paragraphs primarily describe the output from Image Comics, which specialized in overly dark, incredibly cynical works. One of which was even titled Bloodstrike and had a first issue with a blood filled cover. While this may seem like only one company, Image was absolutely huge at the time to the point where most people's image of 90s comics is ripped directly from Image's output, which was not approved by any regulatory board, and thus was able to get away with far more extreme content than either Marvel or DC were ever willing or able to publish at the time. While allowing for new boundaries to be broken in the medium, Image's work in retrospect is often viewed as tacky. Thankfully, the company has Growing the Beard in The Modern Age of Comic Books, while a Marvel and DC who are now both free of the Comics Code are both showing more sophistication and restraint than 90s Image ever did.
Big Events and Crisis Crossovers were also immensely common by this point, frequently as an excuse to replace an established "old fashioned" character with an Anti-Hero Substitute, 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 clonenote . 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 favorite 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 critically acclaimed Astro City, a love letter to super-heroes of the Silver Age style debuted. 1996 saw the publishing of Kingdom Come, a Deconstruction of the direction comics had been going in for the past ten years. 1996 also saw the end of The Sandman, Valiant Comics being bought out, and The Great Comics Crash of 1996. It's also worth noting that DC's Crisis Crossover for 1996 was Final Night, which undid Hal Jordan's Face–Heel Turn through his Heroic Sacrifice to re-ignite the sun. 1997 saw Grant Morrison's celebrated run on JLA (1997), which did more to Reconstruct the main DCU than anything else. 1997 was also when Marvel filed for bankruptcy. The late '90s saw Warren Ellis gaining prominence with works such as Transmetropolitan (1997) and Planetary (1999), as well as DC's acquisition of Wildstorm, and is thus often tied into The Modern Age of Comic Books. Later estimates put it at the turn of the millennium, with the introduction of Ultimate Marvel via Ultimate Spider-Man (2000), offering a fresh take on the Marvel Universe unfettered by decades of continuity and modernized takes on old stories and characters (though while The Ultimates was a parody of the Dark Age and a merciless critique of turn of the millennium US imperialism by Mark Millar, far too many people took it at face value). Still others argue that while 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 - and Big Events and Crisis Crossovers are even more commonplace.
In at least one medium, the Dark Age is still going strong; the number of comic book movies has increased in recent decades, and these tend to have darker takes on superheroes and other comics material. Arguably, this started with Batman (1989), which sharply contrasted with the Adam West TV show. Batman was followed by the even darker Batman Returns (1992). The following two films were relatively Lighter and Softer, but the series returned to a darker mood with the reboot Batman Begins (2005) and its sequels, The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Blade (1998) and X-Men (2000) and their sequels were dark and serious to begin with, and continued the trend of movie superheroes wearing black. Frank Miller's Sin City and 300 were adapted into films in 2005 and 2006. The Movie of Alan Moore's Watchmen came in 2009. The latest Superman movies have also reflected the trend: 2006's Superman Returns was a sequel and deliberate homage to the 70s-80s ones while also questioning his 21st century relevance, making him a parent out of wedlock and brutally sending him to death's door, and 2013's Man of Steel was a Continuity Reboot eschewing camp for a more serious and deconstructive take on his origin story. By the mid-2010s, however, this tendency was declining - the Marvel Cinematic Universe films showed a more generally optimistic and positive mood, and virulently hostile fan and generalist-critic reactions to to the grimness and graphic violence of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice frightened Warner Bros. into promising that later films in the DC universe would move in a lighter direction, which began with Wonder Woman (2017) (to much relief and acclaim) and continued with Justice League (2017) (to considerably less acclaim due to being obviously retooled).
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. So far, however, the Hollywood Dark Age is taking a much more nuanced approach than the comic one. Whereas the comics, for the most part, crammed as much sex and gore as humanly possible into the pages they were given, the movies are taking a less bloody approach (except when justified); The Dark Knight relies on Bloodless Carnage like no other, and Watchmen is gory but doesn't rely on the gore to tell a story (in fact, the climax is less gory in the movie than it was in the comic). For all we know, this could change in the future, just like how Alan Moore and Frank Miller gave way to Todd Mc Farlane and Rob Liefeld, although Hollywood's desire to attract wide audiences for their blockbusters will most likely keep things PG-13 such as with the 2012 mega-smash The Avengers that seems to balance light stuff with dark. But then, there's 2010's Kick-Ass and 2016's Deadpool (2016).
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 & Robin, the Boy Wonder either openly making fun of his own earlier work or providing a terrible example of its worst excesses, depending on who you talk to.
This divergence was reflected even in more mainstream fare like Captain America in the 1980s and Batman in the 1990s when they were each replaced by Darker and Edgier Anti-Hero Substitute imitators who sneer at the original's "old fashioned" valuesnote . However, the upstarts learn that while they have emulated the surface trappings of the iconic originals, they ultimately cannot match their true might combined with the heroic ideals and principles that Steve Rogers and Bruce Wayne have in their spirits to make the superheroes legends, as evidenced when the originals take back their callings with irresistible force.
See also '90s Anti-Hero and Dark Age of Supernames. See The Great Comics Crash of 1996 for what was happening during this Age outside of the content.
Notable series & Events of the Dark Age:
- DC Comics
- Batman:
- Batman: Year One (went hand-in-hand with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in defining Frank Miller's vision of the Caped Crusader).
- Other notable Dark Age stories include The Killing Joke, A Death in the Family, The Long Halloween, and Knightfall. The first modern Batman movie also came out during this era.
- The Huntress was originally introduced in the seventies as an alternate-universe version of Batgirl, and as such was basically a girl scout. Post-Crisis, the Huntress was recreated as an antiheroic vigilante who often had to be restrained from killing crimimals, and would do so if somebody wasn't there to stop her.
- The mega arc Knightfall: akin to The Death of Superman, it introduced a behemoth of a villain who temporarily incapacitated Batman, setting a storyline in which the latter is replaced by a more violent vigilante under the cowl, called Azrael.
- Superman:
- The Death of Superman, one of the "big events" of the Dark Age (which was conceived to delay Superman and Lois' marriage in order to coincide with the then-current Lois & Clark series.) The character's inevitable return introduced four characters who attempted to replace him, each being a pastiche of a Dark Age trend. One, Steel, was classically heroic to begin with, another, Superboy, became much more classically heroic, while the Eradicator became a "mild" Anti-Hero and Cyborg Superman was revealed as a villain.
- Justice League of America:
- The Justice League, historically famous for being one of, if not the most straightforwardly white-hatted superhero team, went in an enormously dark turn. The League was taken over by an unethical, self-promoting businessman, who changed the League from an independent superhero team into a tool of world governments, and who later used his mental manipulation powers on League members, using his telepathic manipulation to force someone to join the League against her will. At least two of the League's members were out-and-out psychopaths. Another two were con-men who embezzled millions from the League to fund a get-rich-quick scheme. Half of the League was under the direct command of a government agent who was masquerading as a superhero to spy on the actual superheroes. The League, for the only time in its history, made a non-aggression pact with a supervillain, leaving her in control of an entire country, and of a fellow superhero team, the Global Guardians, whom she had mind-controlled. Another superhero whom she had mind-controlled was killed by a Leaguer without any attempt to take him alive, despite the fact that it was obvious that he was being mind-controlled. Many classic Justice League villains returned in far deadlier incarnations, and, for the first time, a Leaguer's entire family was murdered by a villain. In short, this was by far the darkest incarnation of what has otherwise been one of the lightest comics in history. That being said, it is frequently overlooked as an exemplar of the Dark Age because it was so funny that it was all to easy not to notice how dark it was.
- The Justice League section of the DC Universe had two other titles that followed the trends of the period: Justice League Task Force, a Martian Manhunter-led wing of the Justice League especialized in "covert, unsanctioned missions", and Extreme Justice, a more radical, proactive team led by Captain Atom.
- Other heroes:
- Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, long-standing Green Lantern who debuted during the Silver Age of Comics, has a Face–Heel Turn after the tragedy of his home town of Coast City and becomes villain Parallax (as depicted in the Green Lantern (1990) storyline Emerald Twilight).
- Lobo, though a character and not a series, was reimagined as a parody of this kind of hero, and quickly gained popularity as one.
- The Sandman began in 1989, ended in 1996. One of the most successful and critically acclaimed comic series of The '90s, and arguably of all time, second only to Watchmen.
- The Power of Shazam! subverted this, keeping an optimistic approach in the Dark Age.
- Starman, which started out as a spinoff of Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! but surpassed its originator in terms of quality. A thorough exploration of the Legacy Character concept that delved into DC's rich history like few comics before it and helped lead the way to The Modern Age of Comic Books.
- Watchmen (along with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, one of the kickoff series of the Age).
- Wonder Woman (Vol 2) Which rebooted Diana and the Amazons as a more warrior driven society protecting the earth from the horrors beyond Doom's Doorway, and changed the Amazons from women who'd chosen to become Amazons after arriving on the island to reincarnations of women murdered by men. The volume also eventually did away with Diana's long standing no killing stance which she'd had since her introduction.
- Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!: A 1994 Crisis Crossover from DC Comics. Relatively tame by this page's standards, it was nonetheless about a Silver Age hero's descent into madness, forcing his friends to fight and apparently kill him. Also featured the deaths of many surviving Golden Age Justice Society of America characters in a brutally quick and dismissive fashion.
- Batman:
- Marvel Universe:
- The Avengers
- Force Works, the Sequel Series to West Coast Avengers, following its cancellation. The title dealt with Iron Man gathering the remaining members of the WCA and creating a more "proactive" Avengers team.
- The Crossing, which is a thoroughly hated and infamous Avengers event which came out of an Audience-Alienating Era after Operation: Galactic Storm where most of the popular characters were no longer part of the team. The solution was to kill the entire team with only a handful of exceptions in Onslaught that led into the widely despised Heroes Reborn crossover which drove Marvel into bankruptcy.
- Heroes Return, which is regarded as one of the best comic series of the Dark Age that included Kurt Busiek on Iron Man and The Avengers, Christopher Priest on Black Panther, Kevin Smith on Daredevil, Dan Jurgens on Thor, Joe Kelly on Deadpool and Mark Waid on Captain America. All of which are considered to be among Marvel's best output of all time, let alone the Dark Age.
- Spider-Man:
- Venom went from being an evil version of Spider-Man (from his début in 1988), to an Anti-Hero, to a '90s Anti-Hero with his own book ("Venom: Lethal Protector", and a subsequent glut of mini-series, from 1993 onwards). During this transition, his symbiote reproduced and its offspring bonded to an Ax-Crazy Serial Killer, creating Carnage, an evil(er) version of Venom.
- X-Men
- Perhaps the best remembered Crisis Crossover of The '90s, the Age of Apocalypse event which had all X-Men comics put on hold for several months so as to explore a dystopian alternate timeline where the X-Men never existed.
- Spinning out of the Age of Apocalypse came Nate Grey a.k.a. X-Man, the AoA version of Cable, a teenager artificially created by Sinister from the DNA of Scott Summers and Jean Grey to destroy Apocalypse because the world was getting too awful for even Sinister to stomach. Nate, with all the vast Psychic Powers that Cable was usually denied, but with his own internal time-bomb (Sinister didn't want his Living Weapon sticking around after destroying Apocalypse), left Apocalypse as a beaten ruin for Magneto to finish off, and ended up being warped to the main Marvel Universe. He was popular enough to then get a six year solo series, crossing over with Cable and being heavily and unwillingly involved in The Onslaught Saga. Surprisingly, despite various textbook Dark Age attributes such as raw power, temperamental impetuousness/lack of life experience, excessive Heroic Build for a 17 year old (the art varied, with some being more realistic, but most artists drew him as being built just like Cable), occasional ruthlessness in pursuit of his goal of preventing the main MU from becoming another AoA, and the fact that both main female supporting characters (Threnody, a life-drinking empath, and Maddie Pryor, a Not Quite Dead spirit entity that Nate accidentally resurrected) were morally ambiguous at best, firmly bucked the trend. Instead, Nate spent most of his series being caught between his competing impulses to try and have a quiet life, and to help people (under the partial mentorship of Spider-Man), before, under the direction of Warren Ellis as part of the Counter-X initiative, becoming Earth's multiversal protector, and ultimately sacrificing himself to save the Earth from an alien attack.
- Excalibur, Britain's X-Men/Avengers counterpart actually averted the trend, for the most part. While it starred Peter Wisdom, an Anti-Hero and member of the Trench Coat Brigade in the mold of John Constantine, and Rachel Grey, fresh from the horrific dystopia of Days of Future Past and prone to Stripperiffic outfits, it also starred Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde and later on, Colossus, as well as Meggan Puceanu and Brian Braddock. Colossus' bout of jealousy towards Wisdom over his relationship with Kitty notwithstanding, between them they lightened the darker characters. While the book was eventually cancelled in 1998, it lasted ten years and developed a significant enough cult following that it was resurrected as New Excalibur in 2005, minus the X-Men affiliated characters, then as Captain Britain and MI13, which garnered a reputation for popularising characters that were nominal C-List Fodder and ended with the critically acclaimed Vampire State, which was nominated for a Hugo Award.
- Wolverine, like the Punisher and Batman, was a preexisting hero who attained new heights of popularity because he fit the grim and gritty trend; his regular series began in 1988, and Wolverine Publicity spread like Kudzu.
- X-Force (1991), the X-Men spin-off that gave the world Cable, Deadpool, and, for better or worse, launched the career of Rob Liefeld. However, once Liefeld left the book, Greg Capullo took over on art which is nearly unanimously praised and remains so to this day with his work on Batman.
- Other heroes:
- Darkhawk seemingly had his cake and ate it too. He looked dark and brooding and had a cool name that didn't really match the character (he had a dark costume, but there was no hawk motif). Despite that, he was a pretty normal teenager that wasn't very violent.
- Death's Head II, a sequel In Name Only to Marvel UK's Death's Head. At his peak, he was as popular in the UK as Wolverine was in the US, including cameos out the wazoo.
- Ghost Rider got a new ongoing, beginning in 1990, and a second title named Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance in 1993. Around the same time, both titles - part of the "Marvel Edge" brand at the time - carved their own niche called Midnight Sons, with other supernatural comic book characters, like vampire Morbius and vampire hunter Blade.
- The Punisher was a pre-existing ultra-violent Anti-Hero Vigilante Man, created in the mid-1970s. Starting in the late-1980s, his stock went way, way up, even helming three titles during this period: The Punisher, The Punisher: War Journal and The Punisher: War Zone.
- The Avengers
- Image Comics:
- The Maxx came out of this era, and while the series was published by Image Comics and the titular character may look the part, the series itself is far stranger, more metaphorical, and a good deal smarter than the other stuff that came out around this time. Thus it receives a far better reputation than many of its contemporaries nowadays.
- Shadowhawk
- Spawn (The scion of Image Comics and the model for its many imitators)
- Youngblood (Image Comics), the most infamous of the original Image Comics titles, often considered to be the epitome of everything bad about the era and not only one of the worst works of Rob Liefeld, but one of the worst comics period.
- Liefeld's creation become something of a mini-franchise for a time during the time period: apart from the short-lived main title Youngblood (11 issues, from #0 to 10), there were also the equally short-lived Youngblood Vol. 2 (issues #1-10 and #14), and satellite books like the longer-lived Team Youngblood (lasting 22 issues), Youngblood: Strikefiles (with meagre 11 issues), and specials/one-shots Youngblood Yearbook and Youngblood Battlezone.
- Youngblood members Badrock and Vogue had mini-series focused on them, released around the height of Youngblood's popularity: Violator Vs. Badrock and Badrock & Company, and self-titled Vogue mini-series, respectively.
- Top Cow Productions:
- The Darkness, about a mafia hitman with demonic powers - it's in the name
- Witchblade, one of the few long-lasting books of that time period, which spawned a TV show, anime, and manga, with an upcoming movie.
- Malibu Comics:
- The Malibu Comics flagship title Prime was created with the "What if Superman was a huge jerk" premise and ended up being a deconstruction of the era once that company folded and sold all their assets to Marvel.
- Street Fighter (Malibu Comics) debuted in this era and by the 2nd issue killed off Ken Masters. Not surprisingly, the book was cancelled after the 3rd issue, and it's considered bottom of the barrel by fans.
- Hellboy debuted in 1994. A demon who is destined to bring about the apocalypse fights Nazis and Lovecraftian abominations with a huge gun, and the title character himself is a huge mass of psychological issues. Though the premise itself sounds very Dark Age, the series could actually be considered a subverted or downplayed example. Hellboy is shown to give very good advice, enjoys pancakes, and adores kittens, on top of being a Deadpan Snarker. With its cast of strange characters and plots, the series can come off as being more weird than grimdark.
- Clive Barker's multi-media Hellraiser franchise is awfully dark. The comic book version of Clive Barker's Hellraiser debuted during 1989. Other Hellraiser series were released during this age, such as Clive Barkers Book Of The Damned A Hellraiser Companion during 1991.
- Another dark Clive Barker franchise debuted during 1990, Clive Barker's Night Breed.
- The one-off comic adaptation of Doom wasn't exactly notable, but it perfectly illustrates the excesses of the age. Bonus points for directly ripping the "there's nothing wrong with you I can't fix with my hands" line from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in the first page.
- Marshal Law was also a parody of this era's excesses, although it actually started before the main era.
- Judge Dredd was another example of Misaimed Fandom on a pre-existing character. Unfortunately, the U.S. fans and Hollywood misinterpreted what was blatant to the original 2000 AD readers: that Dredd was a rare satirical character played straight instead of for humour.
- Supreme started out as a straight example about "What if Superman was a huge jerk", but when Alan Moore came on, this trend was parodied with "Grim 80s Supreme" as one of the previous incarnations living in the Supremacy. Later they would introduce his archenemy Grim 80s Demented Tittering Transvestite Serial Killer Darius Dax (Dax is normally Lex Luthor with hair, so you can tell how big a stretch that characterization is) and Grim 80s Traumatized Diana Dane.
- Deathmate, the crossover that is often blamed for the comics crash.
- Body Bags, which like the above mentioned Doom comic is notable only because it perfectly illustrates the excesses of the age. An indie comic about an estranged father/daughter assassin team, and how they grow to tolerate one another. The story starts with people getting ventilated and Clownface (the father) sticking a knife into the abdomen of a pregnant crackhead and joking about it, and goes from there. Oh, and the daughter, Panda, is a 14-year old with unusually large breasts, constantly wears a cheerleader uniform, and spends most of each issue bent over or spread-eagled.
- Transformers: Generation 2 actually took this time in its stride, further deepening the series mythos and taking full advantage of Anyone Can Die. It mostly failed due to the unrealistic sales expectations being placed upon the series. (It actually sold better than some titles that are considered quite successful.)
- Joe Madureira, whose work ushered in the ultra-saturated, hypershaded manga-influenced look that defined the mid-90s though the mid-2000s. His art was incredibly stylized, cartoonish and helped the medium grow out of the dark and gritty style that was popular in the late 80s and early '90s while keeping the impossibly large muscles and exaggerated poses which were popular at the time. His work has even influenced artists today like Sean Chen and Humberto Ramos while also opening western markets to Japanese Manga (Adam Warren's infamous "Amerimanga" came first, and AKIRA arrived way before Madureira debuted as pro artist).
- The Crow, first published in 1989, is about a brooding pretty boy goth who comes back from the dead to take revenge on the gang that murdered him and his girlfriend by killing them in brutal and symbolic ways. It spawned a TV Show and a few movies, briefly becoming a Gothic icon.
- Joe Martin did a Deconstructive Parody of this in the one-shot comic book, Boffo in Hell, starring the two main characters from his newspaper comic strip, Mister Boffo (although everyone and everything except these two were drawn in a more-realistic, superhero style); the title was a reference to Spawn. In it, the government suspects that people are mean and violent because of self-esteem issues. As an experiment, they take a bunch of psychotics, give them a bunch of super-powers so that they'll feel "special" and then have them do community service among the public. Needless to say, it doesn't go as they planned. Earl Boffo, the dim-witted title character, winds up gaining super-powers of his own (with a Spawn-like appearance to match) and - completely by accident - manages to subdue and kill the murderous anti-heroes.
- Believe it or not, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were originally intended to be a parody of this era of comic books. Splinter's name is a reference to Stick, and the Foot Clan were based on the Hand. And the original versions' origin hints that the accident with the spilled chemicals that mutated the turtles was the same accident that blinded a certain young man...
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) started in 1993, the height of this era. Early issues even took time to parody the excesses of the period. Ironically, the comic dove into its own Dark Age at the same time mainstream comics were finally lightening up, even doing a crossover with Image Comics. It would suffer years of mixed characters, confusing plotlines, varying artistry and one of its writers trying fervently to gain control of his characters for royalties even if he had to take down the entire comic with him. This would result in a reboot that wiped almost all of that writer's characters, but it was not enough to keep the comic from getting its plug pulled in 2017. The licence would quickly be handed over to IDW, where the series would start anew, taking place in the game continuity after Sonic Forces.
- Fleetway's Sonic the Comic also began here. While nowhere near as popular or successful as the Archie comics up above, it nevertheless got a fervant fan following, as well as a fan-made online continuation known as Sonic the Comic Online
. It’s best known for changing Super Sonic from a Super Mode to a Superpowered Evil Side.
- The Argentine comic book Cazador.
- Stuck Rubber Baby
- Comics' Greatest World was the Dark Horse attempt to create their own Shared Universe as The DCU and Marvel Universe. Created in 1993 but planned since 1990, CGW is focused on four different cities, each one with their own settings, superheroes and villains. The '90s Anti-Hero characters X (Dark Horse Comics), Ghost and Barb Wire are the best remembered characters.
- Paperinik New Adventures was a Darker and Edgier reboot of Italian Donald Duck's superhero persona Paperinik (AKA Duck Avenger), who was originally a Gentleman Thief who turned into a Batman pastiche, that came out in the tail end of the era (1996-2000) and was modelled on American comics of the time. The series contains such villains as a genocidal empire of Emotion Eater aliens, major character deaths that stick (as opposed to the company's usual approach to mortality), and two of the female leads being a fanservicey news reporter Robot Girl from the future and a superpowered alien Action Girl out for revenge after the aformentioned empire destroyed her planet. Many non-Italians are surprised to learn this is an actual Disney product.
- Wildstar
- An odd subversion with Milestone Comics, in which all of their #1 issues went with hardcore imagery, including Static (!), but subsequent comics were more idealistic and pensive.
