History MediaNotes / TheIronAgeOfComicBooks

* ''ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime'': A 1994 CrisisCrossover from Creator/DCComics. Relatively tame by this page's standards, it was nonetheless about a [[MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] hero's descent into madness, forcing his friends to fight and apparently kill him. Also featured the deaths of many surviving GoldenAge ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica characters in a brutally quick and dismissive fashion.
* ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' Began in 1989, ended in 1996. One of the most successful and critically acclaimed comic series of TheNineties.

* ''Comicbook/{{Starman|DC Comics}}'', which started out as a spinoff of ''ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime'' but surpassed its originator in terms of quality. A thorough exploration of the LegacyCharacter concept that delved into DC's rich history like few comics before it and helped lead the way to MediaNotes/{{the Modern Age|of Comic Books}}.
* Perhaps the best remembered CrisisCrossover of TheNineties, the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' 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.

The Iron Age of Comic Books is a different interpretation of comic history that sees UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks and UsefulNotes/TheModernAgeOfComicBooks as one period. This age can be defined with its {{Retcon}}s, [[ContinuityReboot Reboots]], {{Retool}}s and {{Alternate Universe}}s that were deemed necessary after about fifty years of accumulated continuity threatening to create a ContinuityLockOut to new readers.

Franchise/TheDCU released ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths in 1985, a CrisisCrossover that created the ComicBook/PostCrisis universe that removed [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks the Silver Age's]] [[ShooOutTheClowns excesses]], in an attempt to make the stories more serious and plausible. Creator/JimShooter tried to mirror a move to realistic seriousness in Creator/MarvelComics with ComicBook/TheNewUniverse imprint, but this did not have good critical reaction at the time and thus Marvel would have to try again later. They did put in their effort, the ComicBook/NewMutants, as a part of the cultural atmosphere of the time, but this was not nearly as ground breaking of an effort as ComicBook/TheNewUniverse was.

Perhaps because of the new blank slate attitude that prevailed ComicBook/PostCrisis, new comic book companies remerged, like Creator/DarkHorseComics in 1986 and Creator/ValiantComics in 1989. They published such acclaimed works as ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'' and ''ComicBook/SinCity'', as well as releasing works like ''Manga/{{Akira}}'', perhaps because this tone of serious and plausible now matched Japan's similar sense of serious and plausible, not to mention [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld the economic success of Japan at the time as well.]] Other new companies include Creator/ImageComics founded in 1992, which was a major TropeCodifier for the NinetiesAntiHero, in ComicBook/{{Spawn}} and most of Rob Liefeld's work. However these excesses quickly collapsed somewhere around 1996 due in part to the UsefulNotes/TheGreatComicsCrashOf1996.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'': Debuted in 1994. [[LegionsOfHell A half-demon]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt who is destined to bring about the apocalypse]] fights Nazis and Lovecraftian abominations with [[{{BFG}} a huge gun]] and the title character himself is a huge mass of psychological issues. The premise itself ''sounds'' very [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark Age]], but actually isn't at all, instead being a brainy and sincere LoveLetter to [[CosmicHorrorStory Weird Fiction]], Creator/JackKirby and other things the writer loves that has gone on to become one of the most successful and acclaimed creator-owned comics.

* ''ComicBook/{{Deathmate}}'', the crossover that is often blamed for [[UsefulNotes/TheGreatComicsCrashOf1996 the comics crash.]]
* ''ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime'': A 1994 CrisisCrossover from Creator/DCComics. Relatively tame by this page's standards, it was nonetheless about a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] hero's descent into madness, forcing his friends to fight and apparently kill him. Also featured the deaths of many surviving GoldenAge ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica characters in a brutally quick and dismissive fashion.

* ''Comicbook/{{Starman|DC Comics}}'', which started out as a spinoff of ''ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime'' but surpassed its originator in terms of quality. A thorough exploration of the LegacyCharacter concept that delved into DC's rich history like few comics before it and helped lead the way to UsefulNotes/{{the Modern Age|of Comic Books}}.

* ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'', probably the most successful indie hero of recent years. It starts with [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] four-color heroics, subverts them with PlotTwist reveals, reconstructs them in a post-modern setting, as well as having a great deal of incredibly graphic violence showing the effects of superheroes not holding back against their opponents.

Franchise/TheDCU released ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths in 1985, a CrisisCrossover that created the ComicBook/PostCrisis universe that removed [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks the Silver Age's]] [[ShooOutTheClowns excesses]], in an attempt to make the stories more serious and plausible now given the opportunity to do so. Creator/JimShooter tried to mirror a move to realistic seriousness in Creator/MarvelComics with ComicBook/TheNewUniverse imprint, but this did not have good critical reaction at the time and thus Marvel would have to try again later. They did put in their effort, the ComicBook/NewMutants, as a part of the cultural atmosphere of the time, but this was not nearly as ground breaking of an effort as ComicBook/TheNewUniverse was.