History DarkerAndEdgier / ComicBooks

* ''Franchise/ArchieComics'', surprisingly enough, has done this several times:

** In ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'', however, Penance has come to terms with the Stamford incident not being his fault. [[BatmanGambit He reveals to Nitro the real reason for the suit.]] [[spoiler:The suit wasn't for Robbie, although his survivor's guilt led him to wear it [[{{Angst}} as a form of cutting]], it was for Nitro. Robbie captured Nitro in Latveria to punish him for the Stamford incident, put him in the suit and proceeded to beat the CRAP out of him, after which he removes the last spike from his own chest to symbolize that he's freed himself of guilt.]]

* DC's Creator/{{Vertigo|Comics}} imprint revolves around material intended for mature audiences. After the success of ''Comicbook/SwampThing'', ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'', ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'', ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'', and ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'', all of which starred fairly obscure characters from established DC canon, there were a few misfires - up to and including a brooding, psychological take on ''Brother Power, the Geek''. For the uninitiated, Brother Power is a human-sized hippie rag doll given life and super strength by magic sunshine who once ran for a U.S. congressional seat and was last seen orbiting the Earth. Someone tried to make ''that'' serious.
** Similarly, Creator/GrantMorrison himself tried to revive ''Kid Eternity'' in a darker and edgier fashion. Kid Eternity was a demi-angel who could summon the spirits of dead famous people. All told, it actually worked out surprisingly well; the miniseries sparked a (short-lived, but still) ongoing by Ann Nocenti, if that's any indication.

* Franchise/TheDCU's ComicBook/PostCrisis universe was so grim, it supposedly drove UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}-inspired SelfDemonstrating/SuperboyPrime crazy -- causing him to become a mass-murdering fanatic and perhaps the darkest and edgiest DC character of all time.
** One of the flashpoint events leading to this was Franchise/WonderWoman's killing of BigBad Maxwell Lord.
** The Superboy-Prime saga, which climaxed in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', was followed by an even darker and edger storyline called ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', and also saw the relaunching of numerous series with a generally darker tone. A prime example is ''ComicBook/{{Checkmate}}''; issue #1 featured a team of superpowered spies infiltrating a Kobra base and leaving no survivors (with the badass heroine of the series, Sasha Bordeaux, shooting the Kobra BigBad dead, execution style). The series muted its violence considerably after the first half-dozen issues.

** While not generally darker and edgier as a whole, the ComicBook/{{New 52}} titles are divided into groups, such as "Batman", "Superman", "Justice League", etc. Two of the groups are known as "The Dark" (supernatural titles) and "The Edge" (titles about anti-heroes).

*** This ultimately is brought in for a {{Deconstruction}}, courtesy of Creator/GeoffJohns and ''DC Universe: Rebirth'' #1, who shows that no one likes a world filled with DarkerAndEdgier ideas, especially when it's the heroes who are hit with this. This is driven home with the revelation that [[spoiler:Dr. Manhattan of ''Watchmen'' is the cause of all of this, having turned the pre-''Flashpoint'' universe into the New 52 universe and seems utterly confused as to why it isn't working.]] It also serves as a TakeThat to those who use the spoilered title as a manifesto to writing comics and not getting the message it was giving out.

* ComicBook/XMen were always one of the darker comic books since the 80s, what with their focus on a discriminated minority group who often fought against extremists and genocidal bigots who were ANaziByAnyOtherName, and storylines such as the ''Morlock Massacre''. But in the 2000s, after ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' came the ''Decimation'', where mutant numbers were dropped down to barely past 300, many of whom were immediately murdered, forcing the X-Men to abandon traditional heroics and move towards a more pragmatic, militarised and compartmentalised structure. Not helped was that shortly before this saw ComicBook/JeanGrey, arguably TheHeart of the X-Men, be KilledOffForReal[[note]]under the belief that her death would make Cyclops 'more interesting', and also because those RunningTheAsylum apparently didn't like her original resurrection[[/note]] and her place as the main female lead being replaced by Emma Frost, who functioned as an AntiHeroReplacement for Jean.

* Said Ultimate Universe spread to the 616-universe, as far as evil ComicBook/IronMan and Reed Richards and Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} expelling Xavier from the ComicBook/XMen (even though Cyclops utterly bombed as Top Guy at the school as far as Xavier saving the X-Men's asses during the Messiah Complex X-Over) and starting his own murder squad, a move even ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'' found distasteful and only agreed to lead to try and keep Scott from turning Wolfsbane, ComicBook/{{X 23}}, and Warpath into soulless murderers.

** This all came to a head with the finale of ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', where Cyclops snapped and killed the Professor while possessed by the Phoenix Force. Now he's on the run with his own team of outlaw X-Men, and has already clashed with the Avengers and his former friends. Fittingly, he and Emma Frost have ditched their old costumes for black leather duds. The ultimate irony is that now Wolverine is the more passive of the two. He's disbanded the X-Force and now runs the Jean Grey School for High Learning, where he trains the next generation of mutants. He's also being depicted as a more traditional superhero in ''ComicBook/UncannyAvengers''.
*** The current example is somewhat zig-zagged, however, as Cyclops' team has arguably returned to the old 'hated and feared' roots and Wolverine regularly comes off as thoroughly sanctimonious and holier-than-thou, which, considering his past, is more than a little hypocritical. He's not alone in it either, something which, after Battle of the Atom, Kitty Pryde, moral centre of the X-Men, calls them out for. Indeed, Cyclops' team is arguably still fairly idealistic - specifically, when Magneto reprimands Teen Jean for [[spoiler: trying to mind control Teen Angel into staying with the O5]], he says, "That is not what Charles Xavier taught you, young lady!"
*** And then there was the whole Terrigen Cloud/M-Pox plot, which led to ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen''.
*** Following ''{{ComicBook/ResurrXion}}'', however, there's been a decided swing to the LighterAndSofter end, with the X-Men being more traditionally heroic.

* A lot of Disney comics are often this. ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' and ''Disney/TheLionKing'' have quite a few dark examples. For example, ''The Little Mermaid'' comic "Serpent Teen" has Ariel meeting a race called the Moray. They thought that mermaids wee a myth and consider them dangerous. The princess ends up keeping Ariel as a pet, and when Ariel's older sister Aquata arrives to help her she's almost eaten by a monster. Ariel ends up revealing she's a princess and is held hostage. The king of the Moray wants to kill all the merpeople however when Triton appears he destroys a lot of their town to get his daughters back.
* ''ComicBook/JemAndTheHolograms'':

*** The comic started out as a GagSeries similar to ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''. Around issue 20 or so, it shifted to a more serious, interconnected tone similar to ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM''. The Endgame arc (where Sonic becomes a fugitive after being accused of killing Princess Sally, and Robotnik is KilledOffForReal) is where it dove off the deep end, and established itself as one of the darkest incarnations of Sonic, dealing with themes such as abusive relationships, birth out of wedlock, drugs, genocide, and bigotry. It stayed that way for 10 years or so, before Creator/IanFlynn took over as writer and returned the comic to a lighter tone, though still not ''as'' light as the recent games.

** ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' is this to the games at the time it was being produced. The most well-known aspect is that Super Sonic is a SuperpoweredEvilSide who eventually splits up from Sonic and becomes basically a physical god. Sonic once believed he killed his friends and fell into a HeroicBSOD.

* Marvel as much as said at the time that the thinking behind [=USAgent=], Comicbook/WarMachine, and Thunderstrike was to have Darker And Edgier versions of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, ComicBook/IronMan, and ComicBook/TheMightyThor, without losing the originals. There's even a famous ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' cover of the two versions facing off. Though created prior to the decade, they would see their heyday as {{Nineties Anti Hero}}es.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'' (her Post-Crisis title) Is darker than even the most envelope-pushing of her pre-Crisis stories - [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools sometimes to the title's benefit]], [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools sometimes not]]. The ''very first issue'' begins with [[AnArmAndALeg a dismembered caveman]] [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence killing his mate]], to set up the new concept of all the Amazons (including Diana) as reincarnated souls of women who'd died from DomesticAbuse.

[[quoteright:250:[[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/untitled-11_2962.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[-[[SelfParody "Why don't you, like, you know, have the druid inventing modern gadgets?"]]-] ]]

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'' (her Post-Crisis title) Is darker than even the most envelope-pushing of her pre-Crisis stories - [[TropesAreNotBad sometimes to the title's benefit]], [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools sometimes not]]. The ''very first issue'' begins with [[AnArmAndALeg a dismembered caveman]] [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence killing his mate]], to set up the new concept of all the Amazons (including Diana) as reincarnated souls of women who'd died from DomesticAbuse.

* In comics, this move is most famous for Franchise/{{Batman}}. After the end of the ''Series/{{Batman}}'' TV series, it became apparent the campy tone had burnt out, and DC realized a change was needed quickly. With Denny O'Neil's writing and predominantly Neal Adams's gothic and realistic art, Batman was made a darkly fearsome night stalker much like he was in the original stories before he was softened for kids. Later, in the mid-80s, Creator/FrankMiller's ''Comicbook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' overclocked this to dangerous levels.

* Much of Marvel's [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate Universe]] runs in this vein. A stunning amount of the process of its "updating" traditional Marvel characters for the modern era has involved inflating the sex and violence content (e.g. [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]] isn't merely violent or even murderous, but is also [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]]; Quicksilver isn't just [[BigBrotherInstinct very protective]] of his sister the ComicBook/ScarletWitch, but is in a [[BrotherSisterIncest sexual relationship]] with her; [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] is a genius as expected -- due to a painful cancer-like affliction which has spread brain matter throughout his body and will soon kill him). "Updating" personalities means [[AdaptationalJerkass turning everyone into a complete and utter jerkass]]. ComicBook/SpiderMan largely escaped.
** The biggest example of this in the UltimateUniverse is ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, who in the 616-universe is the embodiment of American ideals and values, including but not limited to equality, openness to political discourse, and dedication to international harmony. Ultimate Cap is a sexist hardliner who calls the French cowards. His characterization is more of a {{Deconstruction}} of the original idea: a man who's been frozen in ice since the 1940s and yet ''has'' to be the quintessential American hero for today, despite ''being'' the hero of (and thus holding ideals from) yesterday. Or rather misshapen approximations of the ideals of yesterday, since the whole 'the French are cowards' concept didn't enter popular American consciousness until after WWII and a man from the forties who fought alongside French resistance fighters shouldn't hold that idea. Given that anti-French sentiment in the US hit a peak after 9/11, it's more like he had ideals of a modern subgroup of the populace.
** Captain's America's enemy, the Red Skull, who was arguably already the most evil character in all of comic books is even ''worse''. He began his career by killing 200 of his own men and cutting off his face. He forced a woman to kill her husband or else he would kill their baby. He kills the baby ''anyway''. '''He then has his men rape her.''' And he's ''Captain America's SON''.
** In ''[[ComicBook/CataclysmTheUltimatesLastStand Cataclysm]]'', it's even lampshaded; with Vision noting the bleaker tone of the Marvel Universe when compared to the 616. [[BigBad Galactus]] also notices it.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'' (her Post-Crisis title) Is darker than even the most envelope-pushing of her pre-Crisis stories - [[TropesAreNotBad sometimes to the title's benefit]], [[TropesAreNotGood sometimes not]]. The ''very first issue'' begins with [[AnArmAndALeg a dismembered caveman]] [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence killing his mate]], to set up the new concept of all the Amazons (including Diana) as reincarnated souls of women who'd died from DomesticAbuse.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' is this to the games at the time it was being produced (and ''Webcomic/SonicTheComicOnline'' is this to the source comic). The most well-known aspect is that Super Sonic is a SuperpoweredEvilSide who eventually splits up from Sonic and becomes basically a physical god. Sonic once believed he killed his friends and fell into a HeroicBSOD.
* ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'':
** The comic started out as a GagSeries similar to ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''. Around issue 20 or so, it shifted to a more serious, interconnected tone similar to ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM''. The Endgame arc (where Sonic becomes a fugitive after being accused of killing Princess Sally, and Robotnik is KilledOffForReal) is where it dove off the deep end, and established itself as one of the darkest incarnations of Sonic, dealing with themes such as abusive relationships, birth out of wedlock, drugs, genocide, and bigotry. It stayed that way for 10 years or so, before Ian Flynn took over as writer and returned the comic to a lighter tone, though still not ''as'' light as the recent games. Coincidentally, the darker period from issue 50 to 160 is widely regarded as the series' DorkAge, providing an example of TropesAreNotGood.
** Way back when the comic was humor-oriented, the cover for issue #4 parodied this by promising an "all-new, darker, grittier" Sonic. Turned out he was just covered in dark grit from cleaning the chimney.

*** ComicBook/WonderWoman's increasing willingness to kill since her aforementioned offing of Maxwell Lord reaches an extreme with her becoming a proud warrior who casually and proudly murders criminals and boasting about it. This was especially jarring given attempts to hang onto her status as an AllLovingHero, which dates back to the days when she was the DC hero most consistently and vocally ''opposed to killing''.

** Captain's America's enemy, the Red Skull, who was arguably already the most evil character in all of comic books is even ''worse''. He began his career by killing 200 of his own men and cutting off his face. He forced a woman to kill her husband or else he would kill their baby. He kills the baby ''anyway''. And he's ''Captain America's SON''.

*** A literal version shows in ''Franchise/TeenTitans'', with the character Solstice. Prior to the New 52, she was a cheerful girl with [[LightEmUp light powers]]. Afterwards, she had a permanently inhuman appearance and [[CastingAShadow shadow powers]]. In addition, [[spoiler:Kid Flash has become a murderous rebel leader from the future, Raven is secretly working for her demon father, Wonder Girl now gets her powers from an ArtifactOfDoom, and Superboy is the clone of Superman and Lois Lane's evil son from the future - though in his own series, the latter became very much a traditional hero]].

* Much of Marvel's [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate Universe]] runs in this vein. A stunning amount of the process of its "updating" traditional Marvel characters for the modern era has involved inflating the sex and violence content (e.g. [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]] isn't merely violent or even murderous, but is also [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]]; Quicksilver isn't just [[BigBrotherInstinct very protective]] of his sister the ComicBook/ScarletWitch, but is in a [[BrotherSisterIncest sexual relationship]] with her; [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] is a genius as expected -- due to a painful cancer-like affliction which has spread brain matter throughout his body and will soon kill him). "Updating" personalities means turning everyone into a complete and utter {{Jerkass}}. ComicBook/SpiderMan largely escaped.

* Since his debut Frank Castle, ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' had held the rank of Captain of the Dark Age of Comic Books. Then he was the tip of the spear of a darker, gritter run, ''ComicBook/MarvelKnights'' that took him and other "heroes" into their own Darker, Edgier works. Then Castle was promoted to full Dark Lord with ''ComicBook/PunisherMax'' which was a run where, hmm, most may know Jean Grey, she had a Max run that was boarderline lesbian erotica. Now take the Punisher as he was and remove any limits of violence, language, and vigilante gore. Numerous examples were put up as the image source for PayEvilOntoEvil and they were all deemed far too graphic.

** A lot of publishers/writers noticed that ''Watchmen'' and ''The Dark Knight Returns'' were both dark and popular and apparently concluding that they were popular ''because'' they were dark. The resultant flood of titles which were dark without also being ''good'' is a large part of how the Fan Nickname "the Dork Age" for this era got started.