So Now That We Have Copper

[ArnoldTBlumberg]

As you'd see in our articles on this subject, our criteria for all the Ages and the shifts between them is focused on the "publishing and editorial decisions" that characterize those shifts and eras. So just market factors, no, it has to be about something substantive in the comics themselves. But remember, no matter how many factors you name to justify an Age, there are probably lots more of them - and probably lots that contradict them as well.

 

It's all arbitrary after all, just a convenient way for us to compartmentalize and discuss history.

 

Arnold

[deathlok]

Arnold, I for one think the defined Copper Age is a nice bold move. As long as it is defined it will gain acceptance over time.

 

Books form the 80's needed to separate from books in the 90's. I think 1992, with the formation of Image, is an acceptable point.

 

Good job!

[OldGuy]

I think 1992, with the formation of Image, is an acceptable point.

 

Makes as much sense as any other reasoning I've heard......

[reddog4063]

so whats the modern age going to be called when its no longer modern?

[Kevin Boyd]

Something else.

[FFB]

I would agree that it make sense that modern would begin with Image. I remember when McFarlane started Image. It was a defining moment in comic collecting. I think the beginning of Copper with Crisis and Secret Wars makes sense too, however I'd probably go further back and mark the beginning of Copper with the beginning of the Frank Miller era (Daredevil, Wolverine Limited, later Dark Knight).

 

[colossuscomics]

I think Ages are a good way to quantify and categorize comics. In addition to the content reasons, there are also production value reasons. A comic from the eighties has more of a newsprint quality to the pages vs a modern comic from the ninties which was printed on a more glossy, high-production value paper. The newsprint copy is harder to find in 9.8, where a glossy book is fairly easy to grade in 9.8 if the book had minimal handling.

 

I think Ages begin and end on their own time schedules. I consider the Bronze Age for X-Men to be #94-143 and Copper to be #144-213 (end of mutant massacre); Daredevil I think the Copper Age started in May of 1979 with Daredevil #158 and the emergence of Frank Miller; ASM I think the Copper Age begins with issue #238 and runs through issue #328.

 

Spawn #1 came on the market in May of 1992. At the same time Valiant titles were also gaining ground. However I think the beginning of this "new" modern age (I remember the 80s were considered "new") to be when McFarlane started his work on the new Spiderman series for Marvel in August of 1990.

[The Brain]

Well put Steve.

[Kevin Boyd]

ASM I think the Copper Age begins with issue #238 and runs through issue #328.

 

We should actually be having this discussion in the Copper Forum.

 

Hobgoblin is an important character, but you enter the Roger Stern run (226-252) mid-stream and skip some classic stories by starting with 238.

 

I would at least move that to issue 226 the first issue the two did as a team. That way you get 229-230 "Nobody Stops the Juggernaut" fight and 231-232 Mr. Hyde and Cobra. All four issues were recently reprinted (last week!) in Wizard's Spider-Man Masterpiece Hardcover of the 10 best Spidey stories