Are there two ages after Iron?

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CoyoteUnion
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Are there two ages after Iron?

Post by CoyoteUnion »

I don't read much actual comics, but I thought none of the other ages lasted more than ~15 years and I know the Iron Age was way past over in 2006. Is the Modern/Radium/Aluminum/Diamond/Platinum/Neo-Silver/PRISMATIC (TVTropes' names were really funny to read) Age just very long or was there a shift at some point? I feel like I hear about more postmodern stuff from the 2010s on but maybe that's just me.
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Davies
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Re: Are there two ages after Iron?

Post by Davies »

The exact dates, and names, of the various ages, are heavily (and loudly) debated. A consensus on the subject will likely not arise until after we are all dead.

My own dates:

Golden Age: 1935 (More Fun Comics #1) to 1953 (Whiz Comics ceases publishing Captain Marvel)
Silver Age: 1955 (The Brave and the Bold #1) to 1971 (Amazing Spider-Man #100, Fantastic Four #115, Stan Lee's last issues)
Bronze Age: 1973 (The Night Gwen Stacy Died) to 1987 (Jim Shooter departs Marvel; Todd McFarlane's first major work for Marvel; Watchmen; Dark Horse; etc.)
Iron Age: 1990 (Beginning of the Image drumroll) to 1999 (Wildstorm becomes part of DC)
+1 Age: 2000 (cinematic era begins at Marvel Comics) to 2011 (the New 52)
+2 Age: 2015 (abandonment of New 52) to present

Those last two are VERY speculative.
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Ken
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Re: Are there two ages after Iron?

Post by Ken »

Radium Age: 2004 - Joe Quesada and Dan Didio come to power at Marvel and DC. Soon we get "Avengers Disassembled," "Titans/Young JusticeL Graduation Day," and "Identity Crisis" (people initially think it's great, but it's actually it's toxic, like Radium.)

Plutonium Age: 2017- present. Everything is toxic, and they just don't care.
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NoOneofConsequence
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Re: Are there two ages after Iron?

Post by NoOneofConsequence »

I would argue that around 1997 or 1998 (I'd have to look up the exact dates, but about the time JLA launched and Heroes Reborn ended)up until around the time of New 52 and Marvel Now were the Alloy Age, trying to combine the better aspects of the previous ages, but near the end also repeating too many of their mistakes.

Around that point, we entered the Media Age, in which the comic companies are largely irrelevant to their parent company save as a collection of IP to be mined for film, TV, streaming, toy, and other content, while those working in the industry are primarily interested in using it as a stepping stone to working in those other content fields and/or trying to get likes and retweets on the styrofoam iceberg/toxic echo chamber that is Twitter.
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Ken
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Re: Are there two ages after Iron?

Post by Ken »

For me, the Silver Age didn't really end until the mid-1970s.

The All-New All-Different X-Men, and then Iris West Allen and Aquababy being killed were all Bronze Age. Gwen dying probably is too. Different companies have different age breaks.

1989 and the "Legends of the Dark Knight" multi-cover fiasco was the beginning of the Foil Age, when speculators and collectors and investors all flooded the market.

"The Alloy Age" is a good enough name for the era that gave us Morrison's "JLA", Busiek's "Avengers", plus revivals of the Titans and the Defenders. But the Alloy Age ended with "JLA/Avengers", period. Around that time the regimes changed at both DC and Marvel and they stopped trying to combine the better aspects.

I've already explained my terms for 2004-2017 and 2017-now.
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NoOneofConsequence
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Re: Are there two ages after Iron?

Post by NoOneofConsequence »

I feel the major dividing line between Silver and Bronze is 1972, primarily for two things that happened behind the scenes: The changes made to the Comics Code and the creation of the Direct Market system. But for the most part, its an evolutionary process rather than a stark divide.
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Superfanboy
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Re: Are there two ages after Iron?

Post by Superfanboy »

I've noticed a handful of small imprint comics like Dynamite doing Silver and Golden Age properties or themes, but playing them straight - instead of making a goofball one shot about how Silver Bullet monitors all the universes, we're going to take it totally seriously that thus guy has a universe scanner in his closet. Alan Moore is also known for this kind of thing. It's taking what someone created as a lark into an object almost of reverence, sort of like turning mythology into religion and trying to rationalize why Baal came back to life because people want to know. Anyway, as far as this goes relating to the ages of comics, I think that culture began to seriously fragment over the last fifty years and increasingly there is no uniform theme or mood in comics, as it's torn in what is basically a low grade civil war in America, which is the main home of supers comics still. Everything is fractalized, and that might be a good thing.
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Ares
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Re: Are there two ages after Iron?

Post by Ares »

For my money's worth:

The Golden Age - 1939 with the appearance of Superman. First era of superheroes, lots of unbridled creativity balanced by the learning curves of figuring out the new genres identity.

The Silver Age - 1956 with the first appearance of the Flash. Era of bold new ideas, reinvention of the superhero concept, balanced by the imposition of the Comics Code.

The Bronze Age - Mid 70's, usually considered to be kicked off with the Death of Gwen Stacy. Marked by a push towards more mature story telling aided by the Comics Code losing influence, which allows for the rise of more independent comic companies and creators.

The Dark Age - The late 80s, usually considered to be some combination of the Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen and The Killing Joke. A general push towards darker, "more relevant" stories, a focus on superstar artists, rise of the Image empire.

The Neo-Classic Age - 1997/1998, marked by Grant Morrison/Howard Porter's iconic JLA and Kurt Busiek/George Perez's Avengers. A push is made towards more classic superhero storytelling, essentially the Bronze Age through modern sensibilities.

The Fractured Age - Mid-2000's, marked by Avengers Dissassembled and Identity Crisis. Another gradual push towards darker storytelling, with an especial focus on the breakdown of traditional heroics, heroes fighting and not trusting each other, and a revisiting stories from the past only to twist them into darker storylines in the present. Also the rise of the "Superstar Writer" who is given more control over things.

The Reboot Age - 2011 with DC's Nu-52 initiative. This is an era where nothing seems to matter. There is no real status quo, there is constant events and shake ups, there is no stability, books are canceled and relaunched constant, heroes can be replaced, brought back, killed, replaced again and have their entire histories changed at the drop of a hat. The "Superstar Writers" have even more influence.

And for my money, we're still in the Reboot Age. There were a couple of attempts to get us out of said age, but it hasn't stuck yet. I almost considered naming the Reboot Age the "Nothing F***ing Matters" Age, but that would sound a bit too bitter. In any case, I'd say there were technically three ages after the Iron / Dark Age of comics.
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NoOneofConsequence
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Re: Are there two ages after Iron?

Post by NoOneofConsequence »

One could, if they wished, include a pre-Golden period - the Newspaper Age, perhaps? - of much of the 30s. The earliest comics were (IIRC) collections of newspaper strips. Arguably, this period would start in 1929 with the debut of Phillip Nowlan's Buck Rogers, Elzie Segar's Popeye and Hergé's Tintin, as well as the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan of the Apes. (Although things like Little Orphan Annie, Connie Kurridge, Jane Arden, and Tailspin Tommy precede that date.) It would also include such things as Lee Falk's The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, Alex Raymond 's Flash Gordon and Secret Agent X9, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, Roy Crane's Captain Easy, Hal Foster's Prince Valliant, Radio Patrol, Jungle Jim, Olga Mesmer, and Ace Drummond. Also DC's Doctor Occult and Slam Bradly.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly. That is the first law of nature.
Voltaire, "Tolerance" (1764)
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