Golden, Silver, Bronze and Modern Age Batman

[JerryvonKramer]

My understanding of it is this:

Golden Age: late 30s (the beginning) until mid-1950s. Key writers: Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Gardner Fox; Key artists: Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson and Dick Sprang

Silver Age: mid-50s until 1969. Key writers: Gardner Fox, Julius Schwartz (editor), John Broome; Key artists: Dick Sprang, Charles Burnley, Carmine Infantino

Bronze Age: 1970s until mid-1980s, Key writers: Denny O'Neill, Steve Englehart, Frank Robbins, Gerry Conway; Key artists: Neal Adams, Marshall Rogers, Dick Giordano, Irv Novick, Walt Simonson, Alan Davis, Don Newton, Gene Colan

Modern Age: from Crisis/ Frank Miller's Year One till now. Key writers: Frank Miller, Alan Grant, Mike Barr, Jim Starlin, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Chuck Dixon, Jeph Loeb, Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker; Key Artists: David Mazzucchelli, Norm Breyfogle, Brian Bolland, Jim Aparo, Tim Sale, Jim Lee, Alex Ross

Golden Age is more detectivey and slightly dark, Silver Age is campy and over-the-top (featuring Sci-fi enemies and stuff), Bronze age is darker and introduced some new villains like R'as Al Ghul.

So how much of this is "right"? I'm hoping for a mega-comic buff to put me in my place! :biggrin:

[robbieglenn]

Gutsy first post haha. Welcome !

[JerryvonKramer]

Obviously a bit TOO gutsy, no one seems like they want to bite :tongue:

I really struggled to come up with Silver Age writers. Most people seem to think the Silver Age was Batman's absolute nadir.

[shaxper]

Golden Age is more detectivey and slightly dark, Silver Age is campy and over-the-top (featuring Sci-fi enemies and stuff), Bronze age is darker and introduced some new villains like R'as Al Ghul.


The Golden Age and Silver Age are a bit more complex than that. It works like this:

1939 to 1942 -- Batman is very dark. The addition of Robin in his second year brightens the mood a bit, but Batman is still lynching monsters from his Batplane when necessary.

1943 to early 1950s -- Batman is remarkably similar to the Adam West/Burt Ward portrayal that would follow. Bad puns and silly adventures for the post-WWII crowd that wanted cheap, uncomplicated thrills. In 1943, Batman gets his first movie serial as well as his own daily comic strip. Both end up shaping and redefining the comic book into something less edgy and more crowd pleasing.

Mid 1950s to early 1960s -- Batman gets absurdly silly. This is where the aliens and sci-fi gadgetry came in, as well as the extended Batman family (Batwoman, the original Batgirl, Ace the Bat Hound, Bat Mite, etc).

Early 1960s to early 1970s -- Batman's Silver Age starts slightly later than it did for most of DC. The silly sci-fi premises actually disappear at this point, with the focus instead shifting to the Batman rogues gallery. Characters like The Riddler, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, and Poison Ivy first become mainstay villains during this time period.

The rest of your post is pretty much spot on.

[Layzie Kidd]

The golden age Batman really is the best one in terms of looks and character. The costume with out that retarded light blue is much more appealing. When the that stupid light blue was first introduced it took away from Batman's darkness and made him your typical happy happy super hero. Golden age Batman owns, you guys remember Batman 673? Epic.

http://www.comicsbulletin.com/news/images/0801/batman673.jpg

[tlunning]

The golden age Batman really is the best one in terms of looks and character. The costume with out that retarded light blue is much more appealing. When the that stupid light blue was first introduced it took away from Batman's darkness and made him your typical happy happy super hero. Golden age Batman owns, you guys remember Batman 673? Epic.
But where are his purple gloves?

[Vidocq]

But where are his purple gloves?

Golden Age Batman only used purple gloves in Detective Comics 27. After that they were Blue or Black. I agree that this one has the best looks. Here is my favorite cover of those good ol' days.

Detective Comics 31.( First appirience of the Batarang and the Batgyro(precursor of the Batwing) and The Monk)
http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=detective031uh5.jpg

[shaxper]

Detective Comics 31.( First appirience of the Batarang and the Batgyro(precursor of the Batwing) and The Monk)
http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=detective031uh5.jpg

Great story. Regarding the cover, I love the homage Neal Adams did with Batman #227 (http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=23872&zoom=4).

[JerryvonKramer]

Just stumbled across this in an old thread:

You are correct. It is unfair and incorrect to equate the entire period of "New Look" stories with the campy TV show. These stories began in 1964; the TV show didn't come along until two years later. True, the producers were inspired by some of these stories, but they're the ones who added the campiness; it was not in the original comics. For a brief time (beginning probably around 1967 or so) the comics attempted to imitate the TV show by throwing in the occasional "Holy this or that!" but this only lasted for a very brief time (thankfully). I believe the next revamp (also led by Julie Schwartz) began in 1969, when Robin went off to college and Bruce decided to return to his earlier "creature of the night" routine.

These are not stories of a "silly" Batman. The silly Batman was the one who was always fighting aliens from other planets and interacting with Bat-mite and Bathound. This period replaced the "silly" period.

I've been trying to get my head around something of late.

There were two on screen interpretations of Batman during the 1960s:

1. Batman '66 with Adam West

2. Filmation's Animated Show Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder.

Now, I've always been told that Batman '66 was a straight up parody of comics of this period and that the Filmation cartoon was a more accurate adaptation of the comics of the 1950s.

But it seems like this is wrong. The super villains seem to disappear from the comics around the early 1950s and Batman starts to battle aliens and giant monsters and other "silly" things.

So that leads to me another question: what exactly was Batman '66 making fun of? Because it seems like it is primarily responsible for kick starting the careers of several major Bat villains, especially the Riddler.

And that Filmation cartoon? It seems more like an adaptation of the late 40s comics. What was going on? Any ideas.

[Gothos]

Just stumbled across this in an old thread:



I've been trying to get my head around something of late.

There were two on screen interpretations of Batman during the 1960s:

1. Batman '66 with Adam West

2. Filmation's Animated Show Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder.

Now, I've always been told that Batman '66 was a straight up parody of comics of this period and that the Filmation cartoon was a more accurate adaptation of the comics of the 1950s.

But it seems like this is wrong. The super villains seem to disappear from the comics around the early 1950s and Batman starts to battle aliens and giant monsters and other "silly" things.

So that leads to me another question: what exactly was Batman '66 making fun of? Because it seems like it is primarily responsible for kick starting the careers of several major Bat villains, especially the Riddler.

And that Filmation cartoon? It seems more like an adaptation of the late 40s comics. What was going on? Any ideas.


IMO the live-action show isn't a DIRECT satire of the Batman comics, but a send-up of heroic adventure generally, with the too-virtuous hero who never drinks anything stronger than milk, gets tantalized by female villains but is never actually swayed by them, and so on.

The Filmation cartoon featured pretty straight versions of one particular TYPE of Batman story: Batman and Robin taking on various gimmick-villains. It's true that there are some gimmick-villains in the 40s but there are also a lot of regular hoods, whereas in the late 50s and early 60s gimmick-villains started to dominate the Bat-books. Julie Schwartz's mid-60s editorship featured both gimmick-villains and intellectual detective tales, the latter being one reason his editorship was so admired by fans of that time. Needless to say, when Filmation did their cartoon, the gimmicks were the only part of the Bat-mythos that interested that company.

[JerryvonKramer]

So coming back to this ... is it fair to say that we've entered a new "era" now? i.e. As distinct from the period that started post-Crisis/ Year One.

[Sn4tcH]

I think what we're in now is still the Modern Age. We're always in the Modern Age. The stuff from the past is what gets the silly names.

If I was naming stuff, I would call Post-DKR/Watchmen till like... the early 00's the "Dark Age". I can't really point at a specific event, but there's was just a general kind of lightening up that happened in the early 00's. I always think of everything past NML as this time period. Batman's costume even changed... so...

Or we could call that the Modern Age, and we're now in the Post-Modern Age... bleh.

[WorstThingUS]

The Golden Age and Silver Age are a bit more complex than that. It works like this:

1939 to 1942 -- Batman is very dark. The addition of Robin in his second year brightens the mood a bit, but Batman is still lynching monsters from his Batplane when necessary.

1943 to early 1950s -- Batman is remarkably similar to the Adam West/Burt Ward portrayal that would follow. Bad puns and silly adventures for the post-WWII crowd that wanted cheap, uncomplicated thrills. In 1943, Batman gets his first movie serial as well as his own daily comic strip. Both end up shaping and redefining the comic book into something less edgy and more crowd pleasing.

Mid 1950s to early 1960s -- Batman gets absurdly silly. This is where the aliens and sci-fi gadgetry came in, as well as the extended Batman family (Batwoman, the original Batgirl, Ace the Bat Hound, Bat Mite, etc).

Early 1960s to early 1970s -- Batman's Silver Age starts slightly later than it did for most of DC. The silly sci-fi premises actually disappear at this point, with the focus instead shifting to the Batman rogues gallery. Characters like The Riddler, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, and Poison Ivy first become mainstay villains during this time period.

The rest of your post is pretty much spot on.

Thank you for clarifying that Batman lightened almost immediately. If I hear one more fanboy whining about about what was barely a year and ignoring the next 30...

Oh, and Robin would join him in throwing bad guys off a building and not looking back, though they technically were not supposed to be killing people.

[DKR]

So coming back to this ... is it fair to say that we've entered a new "era" now? i.e. As distinct from the period that started post-Crisis/ Year One.

I'd say so. I think from Post-CIOE/Year One to RIP/Final Crisis to be one age with a new one starting with Dick as Batman.

[scandalsavage]

I'd say so. I think from Post-CIOE/Year One to RIP/Final Crisis to be one age with a new one starting with Dick as Batman.

I agree. I would say Post-COIE/DKR to Final Crisis is the modern dark age. I hope the next age is not as dark.

[lautreamax]

I'd say so. I think from Post-CIOE/Year One to RIP/Final Crisis to be one age with a new one starting with Dick as Batman.

I kinda disagree. Mostly just because I think it's too soon to really be able to make that kind of statement. "Eras" can really only clearly be defined in retrospect. It's going to take probably at least a decade before we can see if there was any major shift in recent years and where exactly it began.

But overall, I think it's pretty safe to say that there is a gradual evolution and if you compare the types of stories that were published in the late-1980s/early-1990s with what is being published now, it's clear that there are differences.

So yes, we are probably entering a new "era" of comic book history. Where the shit occurred is difficult to pinpoint, though.

[jgiannantoni05]

"Eras" can really only clearly be defined in retrospect. It's going to take probably at least a decade before we can see if there was any major shift in recent years and where exactly it began.
Very true.

So yes, we are probably entering a new "era" of comic book history.
Eh...I don't know for sure. Very odd era if we are, some sort of "comic book neoclassicism" is the best phrase I think for the sort of changes I've seen. By neoclassicism, I mean "characteristic of a revival of an earlier classical style"...revival of the lighter more iconic comic book style...Johns and Morrison really are driving it in DC. As for Marvel, I see it reflected in Spider-Man's direction some.

Where the shit occurred is difficult to pinpoint, though.
Very very true. I'd guess it would go back a ways (2004?), because I'm seeing nothing too new on the present comic book scene.

[lautreamax]

Oh, and by shit, I meant shift. Sorry for the foul language. It was a typo. :)

[Deason]

I think there was a seismic shift when O'Neil retired after NML.