Bronze Age (1970-79)

The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly in the superhero genre, that lasted roughly from the late 1950s/early 1960s to the early 1970s. It was preceded by the Golden Age of Comic Books. more...

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During the Silver Age, the character make-up of superheroes evolved. Writers injected science fiction concepts into the origins and adventures of superheroes. More importantly, superheroes became more human and troubled, and since the Silver Age, character development and personal conflict have been almost as important to the image of a superhero as superpowers and epic adventures.

Events leading to the Silver Age

Following World War II, superheroes faced a steady decline in popularity. Their development was complicated by the rise of gritty horror and crime comic books, as well as by national parental concerns ignited by Dr. Fredric Wertham's influential book Seduction of the Innocent, and fanned by U.S. Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency. In response, the comic book industry implemented the Comics Code, which forbade gore, excessive violence, sexual suggestiveness, and disrespect of authorities, among other tenets. This made certain genres more difficult to publish, though comic books, like the similarly constrained media of film and television, of necessity, developed new means of storytelling and new types of stories.

History

The end of the Silver Age is cause for debate, but comics historians generally agreed that the period began with DC Comics' Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956), which introduced the modern version of the superhero the Flash. Under editor Julius Schwartz, super-speedster the Flash took only his power and his superhero name from the company's 1940s star, and became the first of many old characters DC revised as streamlined, science fiction-influenced models. Other DC heroes published continuously from from the 1930s and 1940s, such as Superman and Batman, were retconned as living in an alternate universe called Earth-Two, with the present-day versions considered as living in the modern-day mainstream continuity, Earth-One.

DC added to the momentum by introducing the Justice League of America, an all-star group consisting of its most popular characters, and the success of which prompted rival Marvel Comics to introduced its own superhero team, the Fantastic Four.

The led to the era's rise of Marvel under the guidance of writer-editor Stan Lee and such artists/co-writers as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Marvel who introduced more sophisticated characterization and dynamic plotting into superhero comics, and began aiming at teen and college-age readers in addition to the children's market. Aside from the Fantastic Four, the most popular and influential Marvel characters of this period were Spider-Man and the Hulk. Other significant and enduring Marvel heroes introduced during the Silver Age include Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil, the X-Men, and Marvel's own all-star group, the Avengers. After an initial period of hesitance, DC began to adopt some of Marvel's creative approaches.

Read more at Wikipedia.org