CynthiaCM Posted November 1, 2003 Report Share Posted November 1, 2003 Originally posted by Rene It's also true that Marvel Silver Age began the turn to realism/cynicism (but it's my impression that DC Silver Age lacked this quality). Very true. DC was rather staggered in comparison to Marvel in terms of developing into a more realistic/cynical style. Not that I don't like Silver Age DC, but I just don't feel it was of the same level as Marvel. Personally, I'm more fond of the Bronze Age myself, as I think it brought much needed refinement to the basic Silver Age template. Understandable. I dig the Bronze Age nearly as much as the Silver Age. In fact, we plan to "advance" the Omlevex setting to the Bronze Age later on down the line. But then again, it's true that for most fans, whenever you started reading comics is your favorite age. And I'm a Bronze Age child. I'm a Bronze Age child too, having started in the late '70s. I still love the comics of the era, but there's just something about the Silver Age (especially between '65 and '69) that really does it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CynthiaCM Posted November 1, 2003 Report Share Posted November 1, 2003 Originally posted by Mutant for Hire Makes me wonder what the Silver Age would have been like without the Comics Code. It would've been very similar to the Bronze Age IMO. Just not quite as developed style-wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rene Posted November 1, 2003 Report Share Posted November 1, 2003 Originally posted by CynthiaCM I'm a Bronze Age child too, having started in the late '70s. I still love the comics of the era, but there's just something about the Silver Age (especially between '65 and '69) that really does it for me. I know what you mean about the Silver Age. There was a very powerful sense of wonder there. This sense of wonder already had become a bit thinner by the Bronze Age (and sadly would be lost almost completely in the Iron/Image Age, IMO). The Bronze Age had more sophisticated writing and art, but this sophistication had a price: it was more "mundane" than the Silver Age. Only a few writers managed to bring back a lot of sense of wonder (John Byrne in the FF and Walt Simonson in Thor would be two examples). If we could have the sense of wonder of the Silver and the sophistication of the Bronze, things would be perfect. And that is exactly why I love Silver Age current re-creations more than the real McCoy. "Astro City", "Marvels", "JLA: the Nail", the "Silver Age Sentinels" RPG, Alan Moore's "Supreme" and "1963", maybe even James Robinson's "Starman" sometimes and some issues of "Planetary". They're the best of both worlds to me. If the Omlevex setting will be anything like that, then it will be great. Originally posted by CynthiaCM Very true. DC was rather staggered in comparison to Marvel in terms of developing into a more realistic/cynical style. Not that I don't like Silver Age DC, but I just don't feel it was of the same level as Marvel. Strangely, as I've become older, I've developed a kind of liking for DC Silver Age too (still prefer the Bronze Age though). All that weird science fiction and explosion of mad ideas from DC Silver Age is great for kids or adult fans. It's teenagers (and teen-minded adults) that usually are "too cool and cynical" for that stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted November 1, 2003 Report Share Posted November 1, 2003 Originally posted by Rene Cynthia is right. Superman and Batman were "sanitized" very quickly, far far before the Silver Age's beginnings. So early in their Golden Age careers that most fans aren't even aware of this earlier versions of their moral codes. It's also true that Marvel Silver Age began the turn to realism/cynicism (but it's my impression that DC Silver Age lacked this quality). Personally, I'm more fond of the Bronze Age myself, as I think it brought much needed refinement to the basic Silver Age template. But then again, it's true that for most fans, whenever you started reading comics is your favorite age. And I'm a Bronze Age child. I think there was sort of a brief "pre-Golden Age" when the supers were much more, naturally, like pulp heroes, and, particularly on the heels of the crime of the late Roaring 20s and the early Great Depression, this was just a transtionary step. I think the biggest distinguishing quality of the pre-Bronze is that the heroes were just really morally clean virtually all the time. Even the Marvel stuff of the 60s (which I think you're saying), while more realistic than DC's, had pretty straight-edge heroes ultimately, they just had a few personality warts, just trivial ones compared to later eras. And of those 2 paragraphs, that's sort of an interesting super-hero distinction. The pulps, although they featured really good guys, had a more dark tone, the tone I referred to that super-heroes had just very briefly and got dropped. Pulp heroes often killed and although they weren't moral relativists like some of today's agonizing heroes, they seemed a lot "harder" in spirit than the super-heroes, at least once the super-heroes really got going. And that is both the positive thing about super-heroes and their curse. The mythic goodness, the ultimate good-vs-evil, is highly attractive. I think it attracted readers especially in the Golden Age because people really needed that feeling, and it was a great alternative - the non-killing good guy, he defeats the cycle of violence utterly (well, okay, maybe not the cycle of "violence", but he is not eye-for-an-eye). On the other hand, it's been a curse in that it is easy to be cheesy and ham-fisted with this, and it is an idealistic view thus largely unattainable. Well, I just said something everybody knows...but figured it didn't hurt to say it outright, and just wanted to draw the pulp contrast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted November 1, 2003 Report Share Posted November 1, 2003 Originally posted by Mutant for Hire I'm not sure about Batman and Robin being killers, but in general the bad guy coming to a grisly end rather than escaping and returning another day was more of a Silver Age thing. Superman definitely had a thing for using his power to intimidate others, and in fact I would say that a large number of Golden Age heroes worked by scaring the crap out of their enemies, not just Batman. Yes, the Silver Age was in fact cleaner on many levels than the Golden Age. The heroes were less violent in many ways, and the girls costumes were a lot less risque. Makes me wonder what the Silver Age would have been like without the Comics Code. Many speculate that you wouldn't see the 1960s rise of superheroes without the Comics Code. The Comics Code made it harder for the comics to continue doing mature work; super-hero stuff, though Marvel should be given lots of credit for raising the bar in spite of the Code, was discovered to be an easier fit. It's possible, actually, likely, that in the early 60s publishers wouldn't have turned to supers. We might not have seen the FF until 1968 or some-such. And who knows how that would have looked? Maybe more the way the bronze age looked, given times. Dunno, of course, just speculating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted November 1, 2003 Report Share Posted November 1, 2003 Originally posted by Mutant for Hire I'm not sure about Batman and Robin being killers, but in general the bad guy coming to a grisly end rather than escaping and returning another day was more of a Silver Age thing. See: http://ourworld.cs.com/argentprime/batman.htm Some quotes: "In this first outing, Robin (who was armed with a slingshot in this and many subsequent stories of the early forties) killed at least three of Zucco’s henchmen by throwing or kicking them off of an unfinished skyscraper." "After the brutal murder of Batman’s friend and ally Wong, the unofficial mayor of Chinatown, Batman and Robin apprehend or kill the entire Green Dragon tong that has been terrorizing Chinatown. BF/BK/JR Notes: This story was one of the final times that Batman and Robin were shown to deliberately kill their opponents, in this case by crushing many of the tong’s members beneath their gigantic Green Dragon idol/statue." This was in 1940. While we are on the topic, here is Batman's first appearance: http://reading-room.net/Detective27/Detective27Cover.html Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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