The history of American comic books is inextricable from the history of the Superhero genre. If you walk into almost any comics store today, somewhere between 75 and 95 percent of books on shelves are likely to be superhero comics.
Since the 1960s, comics collectors have divided comics into different eras, characterised by differing trends and shifts in the genre; the most widely-agreed on are the Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages, named after the Ages of Man
from Classical Mythology. Of course, such divisions tend to be subjective; what actually "counts" as its own age is an eternal debate among comics fandom. More recent eras tend to be "longer" than historical ones; as Time Marches On, it becomes easier to see the dividing points. If you want a useful rule of thumb, eras in comic books tend to last somewhere between 10 and 15 years.
Eras with their own pages on this site:
- The Golden Age of Comic Books (1938-1945)
- The Interregnum (1945-1956)
- The Silver Age of Comic Books (1956-1971)
- The Bronze Age of Comic Books (1971-1986)
- The Dark Age of Comic Books (1986-1996)
- The Great Comics Crash of 1996
- The Renaissance Age of Comic Books (1996-2011)
- The Blue Age of Comic Books (2011-present)
Early Era
Before there were superheroes, there were these. Heavily influenced by both European comics and pulp magazines, they would be near-unrecognizable to any modern comics reader, but formed the baseline that the Golden Age would be built on.The Victorian Age of Comic Books (mid-late 19th century)
Rodolphe TöpfferThe Platinum Age of Comic Books (early 20th century)
The immediate predecessor to the comic book was the newspaper Comic Strip; The Yellow Kid was the Trope Codifier for many aspects of the comic strip that comic books would go on to adopt, most notably the word balloon.The first individually-released comic book was 1934's Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics
, an anthology of comic strips previously published in newspapers; the next year, National Allied Publications—one of the companies that would become DC Comics—brought out New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine
, the first comic book including all-new content. And then, in 1938, National Allied Publications followed up with the first issue of Action Comics...
Classic Era
This was when things really began. The Golden through Bronze Ages are the era when the "Big Two" of Marvel Comics and DC Comics rose to dominate the comics industry, when the public perception of what "comic books" were crystallized, and when the first film serials and television shows adapted from comic books began to be released.The Golden Age of Comic Books (1938-1946)
Aka: The First Heroic Age
Of all the ages of comic book history, the Golden Age might be the only one with a truly universally agreed-upon starting point: June 1938, with the publication of Action Comics #1 and the debut of Superman. While similar heroes had existed long before this, the specific combination of a character with incredible powers, a distinctive costume, and a Secret Identity who did good for its own sake took newsstands by storm, igniting the imagination of kids across America.While other genres remained popular, more and more superhero comics were quickly released, many of them direct knock-offs of Superman; the most prominent and popular of these, even moreso himself, was Captain Marvel, which led to National Comics taking Captain Marvel's publisher Fawcett Comics to court over it.
Most comics of this era were Genre Anthology series; though publications centered on a single character weren't unheard of, it was more common to have multiple unrelated stories in a single title. Characteristics of this era include Two-Fisted Tales with a gritty edge and plenty of death, Patriotic Fervor reflecting the looming start of World War II, and more than a few unpleasant stereotypes.
The Interregnum (1946-1956)
Aka: The Atomic Age
Often considered part of the Golden Age, this was the time after World War II when superheroes fell out of favor with the general public. In their place, other genres such as horror, crime, Science Fiction and funny animals took precedence; in particular, EC Comics grew to become one of the most prominent comics publishers around with anthologies like Weird Science, Frontline Combat and the seminal Tales from the Crypt. Steve GeppiSuperheroes didn't go away entirely. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman continued to be published, with Superman in particular seeing a boom in popularity thanks to The Adventures of Superman. Other publishers attempted to Retool their superhero characters, such as the infamous Captain America's Weird Tales, but these mostly didn't stick.
Unfortunately, the boundary-pushing of this era led to outcry from Moral Guardians who blamed comics for corrupting the youth. This led to the creation of The Comics Code, spearheaded by Archie Comics and DC Comics... who very coincidentally published the sort of fare that would be unlikely to see much restriction from the Code in the first place. The creation of the Code strangled many of the publishers that popped up during this era, with EC switching their editorial focus from comic books to MAD Magazine.
The Silver Age of Comic Books (1956-1971)
Aka: The Second Heroic Age
The time when "superhero" and "comic book" truly came to be effectively synonymous. Most sources view Showcase #4, the debut of the modern version of The Flash, as the beginning of the Silver Age, with 1961's Fantastic Four #1 codifying the superhero's return to dominance. This era is, in fact, where the very idea of "ages" of comic books come from—the name "Golden Age" for wartime comics was coined around 1960, and the term "Silver Age" for the then-current era followed as a natural consequence (pushing out terminology like "the Second Heroic Age").The Silver Age is typically characterised first and foremost by Camp: out-there stories of fantastical science fiction and magic, plots driven by contrivance and morality plays where the bad guys always get their comeuppance. This era is infamous for Superdickery, which was often a result of eye-catching covers being drawn before a story had been written.
While the Silver Age is typically thought of as goofy, absurd, and even throwaway, this was the era when Marvel Comics rose to prominence with more introspective and character-driven series that carried plot and character threads through multiple issues—after all, 1962 saw the debut of the archetypal hero with realistic problems, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!
The Bronze Age of Comic Books (1971-1986)
Aka: The Copper Age
During this era, creators were able to explore more mature and topical storylines, something exemplified by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' Green Lantern/Green Arrow series. Younger and Hipper characters were popular during this time, with two of the biggest being Marvel's X-Men and DC's The New Teen Titans, which would even recieve a Crossover in 1982 despite their publishers' fierce rivalry; minority superheroes would also start to appear prominently, though many of them still leaned heavilty into the stereotypical. Unlike the mostly standalone, Status Quo Is God issues of the Silver Age, arcs would often cross multiple issues of a series; storylines had lasting impact, with characters being Killed Off for Real—though of course, in many cases that wouldn't last. This era also saw the rise of the comic book limited series or miniseries, and the Graphic Novel, new alternatives to the "ongoing" series that were expected to keep going until they stopped being profitable enough.
Modern Era
The current era definitely has the least consensus over how it should be divided up. Many, many sources, including The Other Wiki, refer to this era as a single "Modern Age of Comic Books" or "Iron Age of Comic Books"; even among those who agree with splitting the Dark Age off, where to draw the line varies between as early as 1995 or as late as 2004. The subsequent age similarly has no perfect consensus on where it ends; suggestions range from around 2009 to 2016. As such, the set of eras presented here are just one interpretation among many!The Dark Age of Comic Books (1986-1996)
Aka: The Iron Age, the Copper Age/Chrome Age, the Modern Age
It was the rise of Image Comics that really defined this era's... er, image. Founded by a group of seven of Marvel's top artists following a dispute over creator's rights, most of Image's heroes (and those of other publishers of the era) followed in the tradition of Rob Liefeld's Cable as 90s Anti-Heroes: hyper-violent and only nominally heroic, with the men being mountains of muscle and stubble and the women having toothpick waists and Stripperific outfits. Indeed, Steve Geppi divided this era into the "Copper Age" (1986-1992) and the "Chrome Age" (1992-1999), with the breaking point being the founding of Image. This helped comics break away from their "just for kids" reputation and come to be seen as edgy and rebellious.
Of course, the Dark Age wasn't exclusively adolescent machismo—Justice League International hit at around the same time as Watchmen, after all. Storylines like The Infinity Gauntlet, character runs like George Pérez's Wonder Woman, and independent series like Hellboy were acclaimed for the strength of their writing and art, and DC's Vertigo Comics imprint was particularly noted for publishing some of the most enduring and thoughtful comic series of the 1990s.
And then it all fell apart.
The Great Comics Crash of 1996
During the Dark Age, comics were a big, BIG deal. With many Golden Age and Silver Age comic books now selling to collectors for thousands of dollars, even mainstream newspapers discussed the idea of buying comics as an investment. Direct marketIf you know anything about economics, you can see where this is going.
It turns out that these comics that were selling for such high numbers were expensive because they were rare, and these new issues specially designed to be "collectible" were anything but. The bottom rapidly fell out from under the market, retailers were left with piles of unsold stock that they couldn't move or return to the publishers, and publishers went from making unprecedented amounts of money to being forced to lay off staff to stop them from losing everything. Even this couldn't save Marvel, under the disastrous leadership of corporate raider Ron Perelman, from filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the end of 1996.
The process of recovery from the crash was slow and difficult. While many publishers went out of business entirely, DC survived thanks to having been owned by Time-Warner since the 1970s, keeping its head down and gradually winning back audience trust. Image's loose corporate structure, which had led to the Schedule Slip that contributed to the crash, ironically kept overheads low enough that they were able to weather it. Marvel had the biggest struggle to recover, but their purchase by ToyBiz and Avi Arad's aggressive pursuit of movie and TV deals managed to bring them back from the edge.
The Renaissance Age of Comic Books (1996-2011)
Aka: The Diamond Age, the Prismatic Age, the Aluminium Age, the Plastic Age, the Modern Age
A backlash to the adolescent edge of the Dark Age led to a lighter tone, more in line with that of the Bronze Age, though not going back to the frivolousness of the Silver Age—while the industry was mostly past the desire to be seen as transgressive, it was now eager to be seen as respectable. However, many aspects of Silver Age continuity were reincorporated into canon as fans started Running the Asylum, often reinterpreted in more grounded ways. Of course, creators with such strong opinions on canon could lead to conflicts over the direction of characters in this era.
A notable trend in this era was the rise of the Crisis Crossover. While such crossovers had been popular in the 90s (to the extent they're sometimes seen as a contributing factor to the Crash), DC's Infinite Crisis and Marvel's Civil War solidified the concept of both companies having yearly, line-wide crossover events that signposted the "meta-story" of their universes. On the other hand, outside of the Big Two, non-superhero comics rose to a prominence they hadn't had since before the Comics Code; multiple smaller publishers experimented with different genres, with Image's The Walking Dead being the unquestioned breakout hit of the era.
The Blue Age of Comic Books (2011-present)
Aka: The Post-Modern Age, The Modern Age
The same year, Brian Michael Bendis was influenced by the (unsuccessful) social media campaign to have Donald Glover play Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man to introduce a new version of Spider-Man to the Ultimate Universe, the Black/Latino Miles Morales; several other Affirmative-Action Legacy heroes would follow in Miles' wake, both new characters like Kamala Khan and existing characters taking on new roles, as with Sam Wilson taking up the mantle of Captain America. Social media impacted this era in more ways than one, providing a new marketing angle for reaching audiences who wouldn't normally be interested in comics; this was coupled with nontraditional, even unorthodox storytelling to appeal to a wider variety of readers. Helping out with this was the new prevalence of digital comics, with apps like ComiXologynote , DC Universe Infinite and Marvel Unlimited making it easier than ever for new readers to jump aboard.
As for what's next—well, if you're following TV Tropes' roughly 15 year periodization scheme, that means a new era would likely start somewhere between 2024 and 2029... though what's going to characterize this new era won't be obvious for a good few years after that.
Until then, keep reading, true believers!









