Has "The Modern Age of Comic Books" ended?

Looking at the entry for The Modern Age Of Comic Books, there's speculation that that age may have ended with the launch of The New 52 in 2011. Three years on from that, what do people think? Does anyone care to make an argument one way or the other?

We'll have to wait until well into the next Age to say when the Iron Age truly ends.

And no, I don't think the launch of the New 52 marked a big change. Crisis on Infinite Earths excised all the Silver Age silliness that was part of canon up to then, but Flashpoint has not introduced any comparable change in theme or tone; rather, the dense sel-referentialism, fanboy-pandering, gratuitous decompression, and asylum runnage of the Iron Age have continued as before.

But really, the Ages are subjective. In the 70s, people used Golden and Silver ages to refer to sales figures, and it was only later that the terms came to be associated with the themes, tone, and content of comics published at the time. (And in fact does Golden Age have any connotations at all about what you might expect to find in a comic?)

Every Age we identify is an essentially arbitarily-designated period during which certain themes and tone predominate, yet these factors emerge from the societal zeitgeist and cultural milieu of the previous Age, and the elements of each Age linger long into the next as the medium, rather than violently changing, gradually evolves to cater to consumers' tastes.

I don't see it, honestly. I don't think there's a tonal shift between old and New52 and Marvel hasn't changed either.

You could maybe make a case that DC has entered a new Dark Age with the Crises but, again, that's the company not the industry so not really.

Or this. Which is more comprehensive and better said.

edited 13th Oct '14 3:32:34 AM by Anteres

The biggest actual current change is the superhero comics medium being more and more influenced by the film medium as its characters become far better known as movie characters rather than comics'. I'd also mention the comics themselves shifting towards the digital (the Digital Era?) but to be frank, I think we still have to see the big point where digital distribution becomes THE thing to be associated with comics in the public awareness.

I will say one thing about the "new" age: Events have gone from being one every few years for each company to many each year.

I'm of the opinion that we'll know that this age of comics has passed once all of its quirks - what differentiated this age from the rest - are gone. And I don't see that happening for a while.

(Moderately off-topic: anyone want to tell me when the hell the Golden Age of Comics ended?)

a lot of people mark the beginning of the silver age with the introduction of barry allen (the flash), but like everything else it's a bit arbitrary.

Well, that's the beginning of the Silver Age...

I've heard people place the end of the Golden Age at the end of World War II, when superheroes decreased in popularity. If you go that route, though, then where do things like the works of Carl Barks or EC Comics fit in?

Me, personally, the Golden Age probably ended with the Comics Code. It changed a hell of a lot in comic books so it's only natural to put the divide there.

edited 13th Oct '14 8:28:59 AM by Aldo930

Yeah, if anything, I'd call this "The Popular Age of Superhero Comic Books".

Superhero media is more popular now than it's ever been in history, to the point that I care less about the comics' incarnations of certain characters (like Captain America, actually one of my heroes) over his movie version, whom I find far more compelling.

The most defining trait the actual books themselves have in this era are an endless stream of publicity stunts designed to temporarily boost sales a la The Death Of Superman.

As I understand it, the Golden Age ended up with the arrival of the Comics Code, and afterwards there was a limbo Dark Age of sorts until Barry Allen's debut kickstarted the Silver Age with a renaissance of the superhero genre.

The Comics Code came into effect in 1954. Barry Allen debuted in 1956... Can we call this a transition period? Maybe...

I don't think it's ever clear when an Age begins or ends at the time; it's something that has to be applied looking back. It can also be easier to define the course of comics by the people in charge than it is by the "Age" concept, which is fairly arbitrary.

For instance, over at Marvel, there was a significant tonal shift when Joey Quesada left the comic and Axel Alonso took over as Editor-in-Chief. Events became villain-driven instead of hero-driven, a lot of soft reboots occurred, and the general atmosphere of the comics shifted, resulting in far stronger cross-title continuity, but with less in-title consistency.

There've been a lot of Clean Slates in Alonso's reign, effectively purging a character's entire supporting cast, rogues gallery, setting, etc. - effectively dropping everything about the character except for the character or concept itself, and then starting over as if from scratch. Agent Venom says F*ck You to his connections to the Spider-Man cast and setting and moves to a new city, the Punisher moves to a new city, Asgard leaves Earth and Thor behind so that Thor can travel through space having cosmic adventures, the Thunderbolts are reassembled In Name Only, etc.

Alonso's run has also been far more focused on Cosmic Marvel than Quesada's was; space travel, time travel, alternate dimensions, etc. are all a much bigger deal. The Avengers aren't Earth's Mightiest Heroes anymore, now they're the only defenders standing against the end of the entire multiverse when they aren't moonlighting as an intergalactic peacekeeping force who fights the aliens who created all life in the universe.

I can't say if an Age has shifted, but at Marvel, Alonso's regime is so very different from Quesada's that one might as well have. Nobody fights crime anymore; all the supers are too busy fighting alien gods and multi-apocalypses and stuff that trivial things like a compelling supporting cast, character-driven storytelling, or villains smaller than Galactus have fallen by the wayside.

edited 13th Oct '14 9:02:39 AM by TobiasDrake

yeah, i agree with this. i think it's kind of harmful to the medium of comics though; there's so much other stuff out there, far better than most of dc and marvel's superhero output, that is going to remain widely unknown. the comic book industry in the west is really disappointing in this aspect.

edited 13th Oct '14 9:33:34 AM by wehrmacht

Those of us who are fans of stuff like the work of Barks, Kurtzman, Crumb, Clowes, etc. have kind of learned to live with it. Superheroes have been associated with comics for years and that ain't gonna change anytime soon. They've pretty much crowded every other genre out of the market.

I'd love it if we had a more varied comic market, a la Europe, but that'll never happen here...

edited 13th Oct '14 9:38:51 AM by Aldo930

But that's just Marvel, though. Can we call that a "comics" era if DC (and other publishers, whoever they may be at this point) have also followed suit? The Bronze Age was so described because DC and Marvel and other houses were all attempting to engage in more grounded, human stories and more adult and sexual themes. The Dark Age was pretty much the entire industry losing its mind in grimdarkness, and the Modern Age was a rejection of (most) of that grimdarkness.

Looking over the Marvel events/crossovers. The other ages had way less of them it seems.

Edit: Was Chaos War any good?

edited 13th Oct '14 10:40:51 AM by LordofLore

Yeah, I loved it, personally.

Hoo boy, this is a long one.

When people refer to the Metal Ages of comics, they're specifically referring to American superhero comics. In fact, they're almost entirely referring to Marvel and DC, though Image was a big deal in the early Iron Age, and there were a bunch of publishers in the Golden Age (most of which have been bought out by Marvel and DC).

The Golden Age is pretty clearly defined, because the term was coined to refer to sales figures, not content. It started in 1938 with the publication of Action Comics #1, which introduced Superman. It ended in 1946 or 1947; without the Nazis to provide an epic villains, people weren't interested in superheroes, and sales plumetted until only Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were still getting new stories. Crime, horror, and western comics were the big sellers at this time, as well as funny animals, which were always popular.

Between the Golden and Silver ages came what was known the Interregnum. Superheroes were unpopular during this time.

The Silver Age was a product of the Comics Code, which came into force in 1954. This set of guidelines gutted crime and horror comics, which were the big sellers, and westerns became dull. Superheroes, on the other hand, were easy to retool into silly, fun, light-hearted, family-friendly fare, so everyone started copying the formula succesfully employed by Batman - campy stories that were equal parts action, adventure, and humour, during which nobody ever died. As a result, superheroes became the dominant genre for kids who wanted to read action and adventure stories. (As an aside, the kind of concerns that led to the Comics Code in the first place also prompted Marcus Morris to launch The Eagle in the UK).

Two dates are commonly given for the start of the Silver Age. Some say it began in 1956 with the reboot of The Flash, since this reboot was the first to appear after the Comics Code, and was the kind of fun adventure that characterises what we call the Silver Age. Others say it began in 1961 with the launch of Fantastic Four, which brought Timely Comics, now renamed Marvel, back into the game and brought a new level of sophistication and continuity to superhero comics - and, most importantly, led to a huge increase in sales of superhero comics, which is relevant because as I already mentioned, the terms Golden and Silver Age were coined to refer to ages of high sales figures.

The Bronze Age was the result of the gradual weakening of the Comics Code, and is pretty consistently agreed to have lasted form 1971 to 1986. Throughout the late 1960s, superhero comics had been adopting a gradually more down-to-Earth tone and making some effort to examine real-world problems. One thing the Comics Code forbade was depictions of drugs, even in a negative light. 1971 saw both Spider-Man and Green Arrow/Green Lantern publishing stories with anti-drug messages, which meant they weren't allowed to display the Comics Code logo and many newsagents refused to stock them. They sold pretty well regardless, and the good morals contained therein prompted the Comics Code to be amended to allow drugs as long as they were portrayed negatively. From then on, the Comics Code gradually got more and more lenient as to what was allowed as superheroes took an increasingly realistic tone.

It was also around this time that people noticed that the previous sales peak had been dominated by goofy, silly stories, while the contemporaneous peak was comprised of more realistic, down-to-Earth, real life matters. Hence, the identification of the Ages started to shfit from a description of sales figures to a portrait of tone and content.

The realism that characterised the Bronze Age ultimately led into the next age, which began in 1986; however, as mentioned, many Bronze Age elements persisted long into the next Age, and the transition was not a clean-cut one. The standard view is that the Bronze Age was followed by the Dark Age. The transition was marked by Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, written by Frank Miller before he went crazy, and Watchmen, written by Alan Moore before he went cranky. Both were ultimately based on a single trope - Reality Ensues. These comics explored what would happen if anonymous masked vigilanted really existed and what the real-world consequences would be. Both also featured what was at the time a shocking amount of sex and graphic violence, though by modern standards they just had an average amount.

1986 was also the year DC's year-long epic mega-crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths came to a close, rebooting absolutely everything so that all the silly and goffy continuity from the Golden and Silver Ages was jetissoned, while the darker and more mature aspects of the Bronze Age stayed.

The influence of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns coupled with a by now barely-noticed Comics Code led to a huge proliferation of sex and violence in comics, as well as a much darker tone - though it must be borne in mind that this was a gradual escalation, it's not like everyone in 1987 woke up one day and said "Moore and Miller's work was successful, let's make comics that are nothing but bloody tits!"

The other big factor of the Dark Age was the rise in comics shops, most of which were established and run by people who were already comic fans. These people and their clientele didn't give a damn about the Comics Code, and so for the first time, unapproved comics became a viable product. This led to a decline in newsagent sales, which resulted in superhero comic buyers consisting increasingly of established, dedicated fans.

Another factor at this time which prompted another spike in sales was increasing awareness of the value of old comics, particularly first appearances and variant covers. Comic fans heard that Action Comics #1 could sell for thousands of dollars to rich super-fans, and so started buying lots of comics and keeping them in good condition in the hope that they would one day be able to sell them for a huge profit. The publishers took advantage of this craze and printed comics with all sorts of variant covers, holofoil logos, and trading cards, as well as relaunching established series with new #1 issues for speculators to invest in.

In 1992, a group of writers and artists at Marvel, upset about how their work was treated, broke away and founded Image Comics, based on the principles that comics would be owned and made by their creators, and would have no editorial interference (beyond, presumably, making sure they didn't publish anything that was actually illegal). Image quickly made a name for itself by publishing comics with excessive amounts of sex and violence, which sold impressively; Marvel and DC followed suit.

Another major new publisher at the time was Valiant, which was based on a set of titles with a tightly-controlled, completely consistent shared continuity. Their stories were popular, and Valiant actually became the third biggest publisher in America, ahead of even Image.

As the market became increasingly reliant on established collectors, and long-time fans started working for Marvel and DC, comics came increasingly to cater to those super-fans who both knew all the continuity to date and actually read the comics they bought. This resulted in slavish adherence to established continuity lest a fan point out an inconsistency with an issue from 1963, as well as bigger-scale, longer-running storylines than were previously practical, since for the first time ever, the publishers were reasonably sure that people buying one issue would have bought the last few and would buy the next few, so there was less need to worry about alienating new fans. For similar reasons, crossovers and cross-references became increasingly common, on the basis that if someone was reading Spider-Man, there was a reasonable chance they were also reading Iron Man.

This all came to a head in 1996. First of all, a planned crossover between the Valiant and Image universes, Deathmate essentially destroyed Valiant. While the Valiant writers were, by necessity, very consistent about handing their work in on time like professionals, the Image writers took the view that "You can't rush genius, dude..." and wrote when they felt like it; Rob Liefeld's contribution to the crossover was, famously, over a year late in handing in his contribution, and Bob Layton had to personally fly to Liefeld's house and stand over him until he finished drawing.

This had the knock-on effect of driving 75% of small comic shops out of business. In 1995, they had ordered large numbers of what would be the biggest crossover ever, and so had to scramble for cash when the issues didn't arrive on time. By the time Deathmate finally did come in, nobody cared any more, leaving the owners with huge piles of unsellable comics.

It didn't help that this was around the time comic fans realised that price ∝ demand ÷ supply. Since everybody had five copies of every issue of every comic available, none of them was going to be worth more than the cover price down the road, and so sales of every singe issue plummeted as the market contracted to the point that the only people buying comics were those who were interested in the stories, and they only bought one copy each. Indeed, the crash was so severe the just a year later, Marvel filed for bankruptcy.

This led into the Modern Age, which is led by adaptations. Marvel and DC both had a string of succesful cartoons based on their properties throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, which introduced a new generation of kids to their characters; indeed, these were so succesful that when the Green Lantern movie was released, a whole lot of people on Twitter asked "Isn't Green Lantern supposed to be black?". DC had also enjoyed success with Superman movies in the 70s and 80s, and Batman in the 80s and 90s, though both these film series ultimately descended into crap.

The Modern Age probably started in 1998, with the release of the first Blade movie. This proved that, despite the disappointments of the last two Superman and Batman movies, comic movies could still be successful and popular, and indeed could bring in new readers to the source material; indeed, it is only after the movies that Blade got his own comic. This pattern continues today, with Marvel making bags and bags of money from its various licenses; DC has been less succesful in the film arena, with only Chrisopher Nolan's Batman movies doing well, though the Arrow TV series seems to be popular, and the comics basically following the movies in terms of content, tone, and even character models. The main theme of the Modern Age is a synthesis of what worked in the Bronze and Dark Ages - it's still grittier and more down to Earth than the Silver Age, while being less grimdark and more hopeful than the Dark Age, while retaining the Dark Age's stronger continuity and consistency as well as more adult themes.

That's the majority view. There is a minority view to which, you may have noticed, I myself subscribe. This is the view that the so-called Dark Age has yet to end; thus, what are commonly called the Dark and Modern Ages are here conflated into a single Age, called the Iron Age. This view emphasises the importance attached the established super-fans, as Marvel and DC are barely even trying to appeal to new fans beyond the terribly-planned Flashpoint (though I gather that Marvel NOW! did pretty well). The publishers have their heads stuck a fair way up their own arses and, like in the 90s, most new fans come into the medium via adaptations rather than picking up a comic from the newsagent. While theme and tone have become less grimdark over time, the business model that pervaded in the late 80s and 90s is still with us, and in fact the emphasis on continuity and super-fans has only become more extreme, as writers and publishers assume everyone will buy the trade paperbacks and write as if the standard division is six issues, not just one.

I don't see this changing for a while. Girls and women are increasingly getting into comics, but tend to be turned away from superheroes due to the condescending, oh-so-supererior hipster (and also creepy) attitude displayed by a significant fraction of established fans; as a result, they are drawn to indie and overseas comics where there is more variety and people are often friendlier. Perhaps as this becomes a bigger market, Marvel and DC will adapt to try and court these untapped customers, but it won't be for a while yet.

While it's all true, you do have to account for a lot of the other stuff; after all, next to Will Eisner and Jack Kirby on the list of great comic book writers are Carl Barks and Harvey Kurtzman... And to a lesser extent, Robert Crumb and his ilk, but they're in a whole other universe from mainstream comics.

Were you to include non-superhero comics in that, the Golden Age lasts till the comics code.

You do make a pretty good case for the minority view. I might say you have won me over.

edited 13th Oct '14 3:59:13 PM by Aldo930

If anything, the transition to digital comics with the likes of digital first and digital only stories and a heavy emphasis of tying in comics with their movie and TV counterparts has had a lot greater impact than anything the New 52 pulled off.

Plus you've got webcomics that are comic-book style comics but without the 'book' part or that come to printed media later (see Skullkickers, for example).

I don't know if we're quite in a new age of comics yet (one that, if I were to name it off the top of my head, I'd call it the "Digital Age"), but if we're not we're definitely approaching one, and it's not necessarily a rosy future for comic books in an of themselves - while there may be a huge amount of awareness for the medium, but sales of comic book issues aren't exactly all that great last I checked.

Personally, I'd say the "Golden Age" didn't end until the early 50's and the Kefauver Comission, with the introduction of the Comics Code Authotiy. It's what gave a lot of publishers the final push to close up shop and get out of the comics business; as a second point, there were quite a few 40's era superheroes that were still being published in the very early 50's, and they didn't go away until the Comics Code made everybody have to pare back their output. The reason a lot of those Batman stories from the 50's (indeed, the reason for the tone of most of the Silver Age) are so goofy and weird is 'cuz one of the Comic's Codes' rules was that comics stories couldn't involve violence that was capable of being imitated. I've always found it mildly amusing that there's only something like 6 years between the end of the "Golden Age" and the beginning of the "Silver Age".

Anyhow, I'd say you never know what "age" your in until it's over. Right now, I'd say we've got more variety on the market, whatever genre may be in dominance, than any other time in history barring the "Golden Age".

We have more variety on the market?

Yeah, if you lived in Europe...

there are a lot of non-cape comics; Saga, Locke and Key, Sex Criminals, Scott Pilgrim, etc. they just get very little publicity and you probably won't hear about them unless you dive in REALLY deep.

still doesn't compare to europe or japan though.

Those non-cape comics are making a bigger splash, though. Superheroes absolutely dominate the floppy market still, but stuff like Scott Pilgrim and Saga is on top of the trade market (which continues to grow).

I'd place the end of the Golden Age at the publication of the final All-Star issue featuring the Justice Society, so around 1951. That was the last gasp of the superheroes of that era, apart from Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman (and Aquaman and Green Arrow, who survived as backup features).

It's interesting though... I'm currently reading through the final All-Star archive featuring those JSA stories from 1950 and 1951, and it's starting to feel like a Silver Age book in terms of tone and art style. Even the method of telling the story by breaking it up into three chapters reminds me of the Silver Age GL or Flash. The focus is beginning to be on sci-fi to some extent. It's clear what's on the horizon, even if this group of characters won't go there except as guest stars.