Tropes and Touchpoints of the Bronze Age

[winterhawk]

I'm continuing to touch up my campaign's historical timeline and found the Bronze Age is woefully underdeveloped.  Considering this is my favorite era of comics, I've decided to update it with the flavor of the times.  Defining the Bronze Age as between 1970-1985, the elements I want to include/have included so far:

 

• The death of a significant NPC (Gwen Stacy's death)
• The revelation that a hero has a chemical dependency (Tony Stark's alcoholism/Speedy's heroin addiction)
• An 'un-team' (The Defenders)
• The introduction of ethnic heroes (Luke Cage/Black Vulcan/Samurai/Apache Chief)
• The introduction of 'kung-fu' heroes (Iron Fist/Shang-Chi/Richard Dragon/Bronze Tiger)
• The introduction of a gun toting killer vigilante (The Punisher debuted in 1974)

 

The owner of my comic shop, who's also a Bronze Age fan (check out http://keithskomix.com/ if your in the Chicago Area) suggested:

 

• The resurgence of a defunct team (X-Men were reintroduced in 1975, The New Teen Titans in 1980 with all new, ultimately most popular lineups) 

My question to the learned panel is am I missing any elements from the Bronze Age that would give it some additional flavor? 

 

As always, thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

[SteelCold]

Mutant hysteria. The Vietnam War. Disco. They were predominant in the 70's.

[TheQuestionMan]

Bronze Age of Comic Books - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age_of_Comic_Books

 

Bronze Age - Comic Vine 

http://comicvine.gamespot.com/bronze-age/4015-55978/ 

 

The Bronze Age of Comics - TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks 

[assault]

Disillusionment and road trips.

 

Green Lantern/Green Arrow

Captain America (Nomad)

[wcw43921]

Greater distrust in government and other traditional institutions, with elected and appointed officials alike conducting illicit activities with the intent of "protecting our interests," and employing mercenaries and criminals to enforce their will.

 

The Bronze Age, if I'm not mistaken, is also when the concept of the Evil Corporate Entity began to take hold in comics, with corporations (if not being run by supervillains themselves) hiring supervillains to further their aims.

 

Hope that helps.

[TheQuestionMan]

Music of the 1970s 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_in_music

 

Music of the 1980s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_in_music

 

Favorites:

Sting - Russians

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHylQRVN2Qs

 

 

For those who did not live through it.

 

 

History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History

 

1970s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s

 

1980s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s

[Lord Liaden]

Greater distrust in government and other traditional institutions, with elected and appointed officials alike conducting illicit activities with the intent of "protecting our interests," and employing mercenaries and criminals to enforce their will.

 

The Bronze Age, if I'm not mistaken, is also when the concept of the Evil Corporate Entity began to take hold in comics, with corporations (if not being run by supervillains themselves) hiring supervillains to further their aims.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Also, greater mistrust in superheroes themselves, particularly those who are identifiably different in some way, e.g. mutant, alien, or visibly "monstrous." General objection to superhero "elitism;" the perception that they don't care about the damage and disruption they cause to the lives of ordinary people.

[TheQuestionMan]

Neptune City, a campaign setting set in the Comic Book Bronze Age.  

https://sites.google.com/a/neptunecity.org/wiki/eras-of-neptune-city/bronze-age

[TheQuestionMan]

Algernon Files - Blackwyrm Games 

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/23847/The-Algernon-Files-HERO

[TheQuestionMan]

San Angelo: City of Heroes

http://www.goldrushgames.com/sacoh.html

[TheQuestionMan]

All have a Silver Age fading to Bronze Age feel, IMOHO!

 

Hope that helps

 

QM

[dmjalund]

[Lucius]

My question to the learned panel is am I missing any elements from the Bronze Age that would give it some additional flavor? 

 

As always, thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

Elements typically included in bronze are

Copper (Cu) (has to be there)

Tin (Sn) (almost always there)

Aluminum (Al)

Manganese (Mn)

Nickel (Ni)

Zink (Zn)

Arsenic (As) (I would avoid this for "additional flavor" in anything someone will be actually tasting)

Phosphorus (P)

Silicon (Si)

 

I seldom taste bronze, and am not a metallurgist, so I can't tell you how these elements effect flavor and can't tell you much about how they effect the other properties of bronze.

 

I have read that arsenic bronze was popular early in the bronze age and fell out of use for hopefully obvious reasons.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

And a brazen palindromedary

[Fry Daddy]

The Bronze Age was also a time for experimentation and the rise of the indie labels. Marvel and DC started and canceled many new titles during the 70s and early-mid 80s, and Pacific, Eclipse, and other smaller publishers began. ONe thing I enjoyed from the Bronze Age was the constant attempt at new things -- New Gods, Shade the Changing Man, Marvel Premiere, Marvel Spotlight, new rise of horror (Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night). I guess what 'm saying is don't tie yourself to one type of adventures. Have characters that cover a wide variety of backgrounds so you do cosmic stories, streetwise stories, supernatural stories...

[massey]

Everybody wore sandals and togas

Gladiators

Coliseums

[Cassandra]

I'm continuing to touch up my campaign's historical timeline and found the Bronze Age is woefully underdeveloped.  Considering this is my favorite era of comics, I've decided to update it with the flavor of the times.  Defining the Bronze Age as between 1970-1985, the elements I want to include/have included so far:

 

• The death of a significant NPC (Gwen Stacy's death)
• The revelation that a hero has a chemical dependency (Tony Stark's alcoholism/Speedy's heroin addiction)
• An 'un-team' (The Defenders)
• The introduction of ethnic heroes (Luke Cage/Black Vulcan/Samurai/Apache Chief)
• The introduction of 'kung-fu' heroes (Iron Fist/Shang-Chi/Richard Dragon/Bronze Tiger)
• The introduction of a gun toting killer vigilante (The Punisher debuted in 1974)

 

The owner of my comic shop, who's also a Bronze Age fan (check out http://keithskomix.com/ if your in the Chicago Area) suggested:

 

• The resurgence of a defunct team (X-Men were reintroduced in 1975, The New Teen Titans in 1980 with all new, ultimately most popular lineups) 

My question to the learned panel is am I missing any elements from the Bronze Age that would give it some additional flavor? 

 

As al

I'm continuing to touch up my campaign's historical timeline and found the Bronze Age is woefully underdeveloped.  Considering this is my favorite era of comics, I've decided to update it with the flavor of the times.  Defining the Bronze Age as between 1970-1985, the elements I want to include/have included so far:

 

• The death of a significant NPC (Gwen Stacy's death)
• The revelation that a hero has a chemical dependency (Tony Stark's alcoholism/Speedy's heroin addiction)
• An 'un-team' (The Defenders)
• The introduction of ethnic heroes (Luke Cage/Black Vulcan/Samurai/Apache Chief)
• The introduction of 'kung-fu' heroes (Iron Fist/Shang-Chi/Richard Dragon/Bronze Tiger)
• The introduction of a gun toting killer vigilante (The Punisher debuted in 1974)

 

The owner of my comic shop, who's also a Bronze Age fan (check out http://keithskomix.com/ if your in the Chicago Area) suggested:

 

• The resurgence of a defunct team (X-Men were reintroduced in 1975, The New Teen Titans in 1980 with all new, ultimately most popular lineups) 

My question to the learned panel is am I missing any elements from the Bronze Age that would give it some additional flavor? 

 

As always, thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

 

New Female Versions of Male Heroes (She Hulk, Spider-Woman, Power Girl).

 

Heroes with psychological problems. (Thorn: Split Personality)

[Christopher R Taylor]

Those seem more like events that happened rather than themes of the comics.  Bronze Age mixed the superheroic patterns of Silver Age (costumes, code names, teams, no killing, bad guys come back, etc) with more realistic elements like real world events and ordinary human level problems such as bad grades in school, broken hearts, drug addiction, racism, etc.  The focus was less on zany events and superpowers and more on personal stories and believable, relatable characters.

[winterhawk]

The Vietnam War.

 

The killer vigilante I've created is a Vietnam vet, much like the original origin of the Punisher.

 

Disillusionment and road trips.

 

Green Lantern/Green Arrow

Captain America (Nomad)

 

Thanks, both are great suggestions.  I have the advantage of being able to use real world history, so the start of my Bronze Age begins at the Democratic Convention in 1968.  One hero is disgraced into retirement after his excessive use of force on protestors is televised, the equivalent of the Teen Titans breaks up, and one sidekick breaks off from his mentor to become a 'hero of the people'.  I also have two young heroes getting married and going on a road trip for their honeymoon.  They end up at both Woodstock and Altamont.  

 

 

New Female Versions of Male Heroes (She Hulk, Spider-Woman, Power Girl).

 

Heroes with psychological problems. (Thorn: Split Personality)

 

Another great suggestion.  I already had a female sidekick to a hero (think Mary Marvel).  After the unrest at the Convention, she renames herself Ms. Thunder and becomes a representative of the growing feminist movement.