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When did the Bronze Age Jump the Shark?

Started by Spider-Variant,

29 posts in this topic

Spider-Variant

Spider-Variant

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I'm a child of the Bronze Age, being raised on Amazing Spider-Mans, Iron-Mans, and Flashes. I loved everything about it, cheesy stories and all. But there were definitive points in collecting it that marked a departure from that love. It was almost as if someone drew a line and said "going forward these are different, and not as good".

 

 

For me two books come to mind.

 

Amazing Spider-Man 186 (Nov. 1978). After a nearly five year run on ASM, Ross Andru left and was replaced by Keith Pollard. It just felt different and looked awkward. Now eventually, John Romita, Jr. would come along, but it had already changed for me.

 

 

Flash 271 (Feb. 1979). Even though the death of Iris storyline was not bad, with Irv Novick leaving the book, Flash just wasn't the same to me. Alex Saviuk's (who would pencil a few issues) just took the wind out of my sails. This was not my Flash. And yeah, the stories through the Novick years were silly, but he made the character fluid and seemingly real to me, well to the 13 year old me.

 

So maybe it was just the departure of an artist that I had truly loved on a series, but these issues stand out as a point of diminishing returns for the Bronze Age.

 

Anyone else feel a certain issue or issues marked the decline of the Bronze Age?

 

 

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Loki

Loki

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Amazing Spider-Man 186 (Nov. 1978). After a nearly five year run on ASM, Ross Andru left and was replaced by Keith Pollard. It just felt different and looked awkward. Now eventually, John Romita, Jr. would come along, but it had already changed for me.

 

I'm with you 100% on this... I have fond memories of the issues leading up to this one (particularly the Green Goblin five-parter in #176-80), but the title seemed to loose its lustre after #185. There's a good 40+ issue stretch of ASM that really made no lasting impression on me at all. It's not until around the Juggernaut storyline in #229/30 that I found ASM engaging again. By that time, we're well into the Copper Age. Personally, I prefer the Spectacular Spideys from the intervening period over the ASMs.

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ft88

ft88

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Atlas Seaboard

 

DC "New Universe" - Kong, Starfire, Changling etc.

 

I'll call it the badwagon affect - Kung Fu type comics (Shang Chi), Fantasy (overkill of Conan type), Disco (Dazzler among others), Jive/Blacksploitation books (Black Panther, Lightning, Powerman). Not to say many of these aren't good comics but when the comic industry follows popculture trends rather than innovates them, you generally get bad books.

 

Artist departure - The Frazetta, Kaluta, Steranko, Stalin, Adams, Wrightson and others gravitated to the more "mature" market of magazines then later to independents. It took a while to replace that crowd with Miller Byrne Rogers and Grell among others.

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Jeffro.

Jeffro.

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Artist departure - The Frazetta, Kaluta, Steranko, Stalin, Adams, Wrightson and others gravitated to the more "mature" market of magazines then later to independents. It took a while to replace that crowd with Miller Byrne Rogers and Grell among others.

 

Yeah, with regards to DC, it's kinda hard to go from early bronze and Wrightson, Adams, and Kaluta to later bronze and Ernie Chua, some guy I never heard of, and Alex Saviuk. :P

 

You had both Kubert (except for covers) and Heath get out of the war books. John Severin doing real nice work on Our Fighting Forces, then the (ugh!) Kirby run, but then you had a, not really at the top of his game, George Evans on OFF until it ended with issue 181.

 

Later bronze seems to suffer artistically. (with a few exceptions of course)

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Zonker

Zonker

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Artist departure - The Frazetta, Kaluta, Steranko, Stalin, Adams, Wrightson and others gravitated to the more "mature" market of magazines then later to independents. It took a while to replace that crowd with Miller Byrne Rogers and Grell among others.

 

Yeah, with regards to DC, it's kinda hard to go from early bronze and Wrightson, Adams, and Kaluta to later bronze and Ernie Chua, some guy I never heard of, and Alex Saviuk. :P

 

You had both Kubert (except for covers) and Heath get out of the war books. John Severin doing real nice work on Our Fighting Forces, then the (ugh!) Kirby run, but then you had a, not really at the top of his game, George Evans on OFF until it ended with issue 181.

 

Later bronze seems to suffer artistically. (with a few exceptions of course)

 

I always divided the Bronze Age into 1970-1974 and later. After December 1974 Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson, Mike Kaluta, Barry Smith mainstream color comics work was pretty much confined to covers only. I think it was about that time that Carmine Infantino was forced out of the top job at DC, and with him seemed to go the artist-centric view DC had during the late '60s / early '70s.

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jjonahjameson1

jjonahjameson1

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For me, it seem to have lost interest when Marvel and DC issued titles devoted to 2nd and 3rd tier characters in their constant jostle for newstand supremacy. The top tier titles lost some lusture as the supporting casts were busy in their own books.

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Sekowskyfan10

Sekowskyfan10

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I have to go with the "DC Explosion/Implosion." I was an avid DC reader at the time, and looked forward to 44 pages of all-new story and art each month as a part of the "Explosion." I even started a subscription to Action Comics.

 

Sadly, after a couple of months, the "Implosion" came. The "Explosion" was the victim of several things, not the least of which was mediocre art in the backup stories.

 

I don't disagree with Andru leaving ASM -- but that was one title. The Implosion affected an entire publisher.

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ShieldAgent

ShieldAgent

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That was such a long time ago Reggie--

 

I am going to say the Bronze age jumped the shark with Secret Wars, or limited series in general, or perhaps the storyline crossovers that forced you to buy a title you did not collect?

 

meh2c

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

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For me personally, it was after the clone saga finished up in ASM 149.

It just seemed as though they Marvel felt they made a mistake killing Gwen, then made a mistake trying to fix it, and decided to lighten the title up.

I'd pick an issue up here and there, but it just wasn't the same.

I still remember years later being in the Marine Corps, stationed in North Carolina and picking up ASM 249 with that Hobgoblin/Kingpin cover, reading it and thinking, "Now THIS is Spider-man!"

Got me right back into collecting again.

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bigfiver69

bigfiver69

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I have to go with the "DC Explosion/Implosion." I was an avid DC reader at the time, and looked forward to 44 pages of all-new story and art each month as a part of the "Explosion." I even started a subscription to Action Comics.

 

Sadly, after a couple of months, the "Implosion" came. The "Explosion" was the victim of several things, not the least of which was mediocre art in the backup stories.

 

I don't disagree with Andru leaving ASM -- but that was one title. The Implosion affected an entire publisher.

 

I have to agree that after the implosion, nothing was the ever the same again at DC. Something was broken that never was fixed.

 

I'm a fan of the DC war books, and after 1976 it was all downhill. The dollar comics and the 44 pagers diluted the quality of the books.

 

There were still things to enjoy, but nothing like the glory years of 1970-75.

 

Shep

 

Shep

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joe_collector

joe_collector

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Amazing Spider-Man 186 (Nov. 1978). After a nearly five year run on ASM, Ross Andru left and was replaced by Keith Pollard. It just felt different and looked awkward. Now eventually, John Romita, Jr. would come along, but it had already changed for me.

 

I've said this before, but the post-graduation "adult" Spidey was almost Copper Age for me, as it represented a quantum shift (not only in story, but creative team as well) in Marvel's best-selling character.

 

This was the first CA bump on the Marvel road, and was a harbinger for many of the major creative and character shifts to come, like Byrne in FF and Miller in DD.

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