Bronze Age of Comic Books
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Image:AmazingSpider-Man122.jpg The Bronze Age of Comic Books is an informal name for a period in the history of mainstream American comic books usually said to run from the early 1970s to the mid 1980s. It followed the Silver Age of Comic Books.<ref>The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide</ref>
The Bronze Age retained many of the conventions of the Silver Age, with brightly colored superhero titles remaining the mainstay of the industry. However darker plot elements and more mature storylines featuring real-world issues, such as drug use, began to appear during the period, prefiguring the later Modern Age of Comic Books.
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[edit] Origins of the Bronze Age
There is no one single event that can be said to herald the beginning of the Bronze Age. Instead a number of events at the beginning of the 1970s, taken together, can be seen as a shift away from the tone of comics in the previous decade.
One such event was Jack Kirby's departure from Marvel Comic in 1970, ending arguably the most important creative partnership of the Silver Age (with Stan Lee). Kirby then turned to DC, where he created The Fourth World series of titles starting with Jimmy Olsen #134 in December 1970. Also in 1970 Mort Weisinger, the long term editor of the various Superman titles, retired to be replaced by Julius Schwartz. Schwartz set about toning down some of the more fanciful aspects of the Weisinger era, removing most Kryptonite from continuity and scaling back Superman's, by that point, near infinite powers.
The murder of Spider-Man's long-term girlfriend Gwen Stacy at the hands of the Green Goblin in 1973 is considered by many to be the definitive Bronze Age event. However there had been a gradual darkening of the tone of superhero comics for several years before that point. (See also: "The Night Gwen Stacy Died".)
In 1971, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee was approached by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a three-part Spider-Man story portraying drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. At the time any portrayal of drug use in comic books, regardless of the context, was banned outright by the Comics Code Authority. The CCA refused to approve the story, but Lee published it regardless.
The positive reception that the story received led to the CCA revising the Comic Code later that year to allow the portrayal of drug addiction as long as it was depicted in a negative light. Later that year, DC Comics had their own drug abuse storyline when it was revealed in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85-86 that the Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy had become addicted to heroin.
The 1971 revision to the Comics Code also relaxed the rules on the use of vampires, ghouls and werewolves in comic books, allowing the growth of a number of horror orientated titles, such as Swamp Thing, Ghost Rider and Tomb of Dracula.
[edit] Further Developments
[edit] Minority Superheroes
One of the most significant developments during the period was a substantial rise in the number of African American and other ethnic minority superheroes. Before the 1970s, there had been very few non-white superheroes (the Black Panther and the Falcon being notable exceptions) but starting in the early 1970s this began to change with the introduction of characters such as Luke Cage (who was the first black superhero to star in his own comic book), Storm, Blade, Shang-Chi, Misty Knight, Bronze Tiger, Black Lightning, Sunfire, Karma and Warpath. One of the most famous minority superheroes would have to be the Native American X-Man, Thunderbird. His death in X-Men # 95 remains one of the few times in comic book history that a character actually remained dead.
Some of these early minority superheroes have subsequently been criticised for perpetuating racial stereotypes. Characters such as Luke Cage, Misty Knight and Shang-Chi have been seen by some as an attempt by Marvel Comics to cash in on the 1970s crazes for blaxploitation and Kung Fu movies. Luke Cage in particular became infamous for his catch phrase "Sweet Christmas!" Other characters however, such as Storm, the John Stewart Green Lantern and Cyborg did not face such criticisms and became increasingly popular and important as time progressed. For instance, by the 1980s Storm and Cyborg had become leaders of the X-Men and The Teen Titans respectively, and John Stewart had replaced Hal Jordan as the main Green Lantern of Earth's sector of space.
[edit] The Revival of the X-Men
The X-Men were originally created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. However, the title never achieved the popularity of other Lee/Kirby creations, and by 1969 Marvel ceased publishing new material and the title was turned over to reprints. However, in 1975 an "all-new all-different" version of the X-Men were introduced by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum in Giant-Size X-Men #1, with Chris Claremont as uncredited assistant co-plotter <ref>Chris Claremont's role in this issue is mentioned in Official Marvel Index to the X-Men #4, November 1987</ref>. Claremont stayed as writer on just about all X-Men related titles including spinoffs up until the end of the Bronze Age, after which other regular writers joined and Claremont eventually left.
One of the most apparent influence was the creation of what became DC Comics' answer to X-Men's character based storytelling style, The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, which became a highly successful and influential property in its own right.
[edit] Relevance
The Spider-Man drug issues were at the forefront of the trend of "relevance"--comic books handling real-life issues. The above-mentioned Green Lantern/Green Arrow series dealt not only with drugs, but racial prejudice and social inequity. The X-Men titles, which were partly based on a premise that mutants were a metaphor for real-world minorities, became wildly popular. Other well-known "relevant" comics include the Lois Lane story "I Am Curious: Black", a story (named after a pornographic film) where Lois becomes black.
While the larger trend eventually faded, contemporary social commentary has remained a source for material for superhero stories to this day.
[edit] Non-superhero comics
During this time period, and partly because of the revision of the Comics Code, many non-superhero mainstream comics became popular. Notable non-superhero comics of the time include Conan and Savage Sword of Conan, which each lasted over 200 issues, with Savage Sword being a magazine format that escaped the Code entirely; Tomb of Dracula; Master of Kung-Fu; the Star Wars comics; Swamp Thing; and Jonah Hex. Doctor Strange and Beast developed in the direction of horror.
[edit] End of the Bronze Age
The end of the Bronze Age is debated, and some do not believe it ended at all. Like the beginning, the exact date is fuzzy, and not every single comic book may be said to have exited the Bronze Age at exactly the same date.
One commonly used ending point for the Bronze Age is the 1985-1986 timeframe. Like the end of the Silver, the end of the Bronze relates to a number of trends and events that happened at around the same time. At this point, DC Comics completed its special event, Crisis on Infinite Earths which marked the revitalization of the company's product line to become a serious market challenger to Marvel again. This timeframe also includes the company's release of the highly acclaimed works, Watchmen by Alan Moore and David Gibbons and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller which redefined the superhero genre and inspired years of "grim and gritty" comic books.
At Marvel Comics, commonly-used milestones marking the end of the Bronze Age include Secret Wars II, at the forerunner of a trend of crossovers (to which Crisis on Infinite Earths also belonged), the New Universe (which ultimately did not succeed, but which started a trend of new lines of comics appearing as universes), and the expansion of the X-Men franchise.
[edit] Timeline of the Bronze Age
- October 1970: Marvel Comics begins publishing Conan The Barbarian.
- 1970: DC Comics begins publishing Jack Kirby's Fourth World titles beginning with Jimmy Olsen and continuing with The New Gods, The Forever People and Mister Miracle.
- 1971: The Comics Code is revised.
- 1971: DC Comics introduces the character of Swamp Thing in its House of Secrets title.
- 1972: Marvel begins to publish Tomb of Dracula.
- 1972: Luke Cage becomes the first African American superhero to receive his own series in Hero for Hire #1.
- 1973: The death of Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
- 1974: First appearance of Wolverine in Incredible Hulk #181.
- 1975: Giant-Size X-Men #1 by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum introduces the "all-new, all-different X-Men."
- 1978: At the request of Roy Thomas, Marvel releases Star Wars, based on the hit movie, and it quickly becomes one of the best-selling books of the era.
- 1978: DC cancels over half of its titles in the so-called DC Implosion.
- 1979: DC publishes The World of Krypton, the first comic book mini-series, which gave publishers a new flexibility with titles.
- 1980: First issue of DC Comics' The New Teen Titans whose success at revitalizing a previously underperforming property would lead to the idea of revamping the entire DC Universe.
- 1982: Marvel publishes Contest of Champions, the first "cross-over event" to feature all of Marvel's major superheroes.
- 1985: DC begins publishing Crisis on Infinite Earths eliminating much of DC's fifty year continuity.
