Besides a date range, what defines the Bronze Age?

[bronze johnny]

The Bronze Age saw the rise of comic books with heroes who represented the growing diversity of America during the 1970s. Never in the history of the American Comic Book did superheroes who were Black, Asian, and Native Americans have comics of their own. The super teams were multicultural - as the Summer of '75 showed us. In an attempt to address the movement for an Equal Rights Amendment, Women superheroes had greater roles on the super teams. America was becoming a more diverse society and the comic book publishers realized it was time to give all Americans an opportunity to have heroes they could identify with (with a hope for an increase in comic book sales).

 

The first great wave of comic book diversity started in the Bronze Age. And yes, the Bronze Age gave rise to a new superhero "realism" and the "death of innocence." It also gave rise to the second great horror-mystery era. And the blaxploitation and Karate-Kung Fu Mania that adapted the great popularity of Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, David Carradine, and other Martial Arts film stars to the comic book medium were the newer genres to join Conan and the Sword and Sorcery books. Jack Kirby unsuccessfully tried to take the medium to new heights with a universe based on the King's newest mythos. Kirby's magnum opus would never come to fruition during the early 70s. However, Kirby planted the seeds for later generations to cultivate and expand the boundaries of the medium.

 

The Bronze Age was a special time when the rise in first issues increased dramatically from the preceding time of Silver. We saw the beginnings of a mutant era where characters would begin a wave of diversity that would expand over the following decades contributing greatly to Marvel's dominance. The end of the Bronze Age saw the great DC Implosion - the largest cancellation of titles at one time in the history of the American Comic Book. DC would have to re-allign itself and recognize that a greater superhero universe of diverse characters contemporaneously required better story telling or the publisher that gave us the first superhero could potentially travel the paths to 1982 and 1984 with Harvey and Whitman. DC would quickly turn its fortune around when the revamped and newly diverse New Teen Titans hit the stands in 1980.

 

Upon entering a local comic shop, one can easily see the amazing diversity of comic book characters and the American Comic Book. Heroes who represent the vast multicultural place that is America today. Heroes who are Black-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Ethnic-Americans (Irish-Americans, Russian-Americans, etc.) and Gay-Americans. And heroes that all Americans can identify with. The comic book collectors today are more diverse than ever. My fellow collectors and friends who I see at my local comic book shop get together and discuss comics and the characters they love - heroes they identify with. Some of them were born outside America while others are children of parents who came to the United States or Canada seeking a better life.

 

Diversity continues to make America a greater place for all and the superheroes we love and cherish have become more diverse.

 

And it all started in the Bronze Age of the American Comic Book.

 

John

[DavidTheDavid]

Thank you for that.

[bronze johnny]

Thank you for that.

 

Your welcome (thumbs u

[divad]

Diversity continues to make America a greater place for all and the superheroes we love and cherish have become more diverse.

 

And it all started in the Bronze Age of the American Comic Book.

 

John

 

John,

 

A great post indeed, but the comic book as an art form was following society's lead . . . not the other way around.

 

- David

[bronze johnny]

David,

 

Agreed - the comic book as an art form is reflecting the changes taking place in the society at a particular time in history. And surely, the comic book medium in no significant way influenced the changes in American Society (that is unless someone can provide definitive proof that the inventor of a society changing device got the idea from reading one of Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four books). What I'm saying in the paragraphs you cite is that the superheroes changed to keep up with the great change in America - a more diverse population. And Americans as a people were becoming more collectively conscious of this rise in diversity during the 1970s. Sorry if I didn't make this point clearer.

 

John

[Zonker]

Wasn't it a bit unusual to have superhero AND war AND horror AND western all done at the same time? I mean, golden went from pulp to superhero to crime and horror, to silver dominated by superhero. Was there more McCartney devoted to more genres than previously?

 

I'm guessing your phone auto-corrected whatever you were trying to say to "McCartney" ?

 

But no... it wasn't at all "unusual" to the bronze age to have so many genres. It only seems that the Silver Age was dominated by superheroes in retrospect, since those are the books that have surviving interest to collectors today. Take a look at Mike's time machine for May 1966 , the month that FF #50 came out-- you'll see Westerns, Funny Animals, Romance, War, Archie & its many knock-offs, and plenty of cartoon and TV tie-ins side by side with the super-heroes.

 

During this period, Marvel was limited by its distribution deal with National Periodical Publications to less than 20 titles per month, but they still devoted a portion of their scarce monthly allotment to Kid Colt, Sgt. Fury, Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, Millie, Patsy & Hedy, etc.

 

Instead, I think the Bronze Age was the last gasp for anything apart from super-heroes, as distribution began moving to the Direct sales channel, and the more general audience fell by the wayside in favor of the super-hero-centric hobbyist/collector.