What's the current age?

[Rafa-Rivas-2099]

We know there was a golden age and a silver age. Conservative people like to keep it short and pretend there's no age after that, as if what we've read after that had no distinctive tone. Some deny the dark age and some go as far as denying even the bronze age.

I think that there are ages indeed. They often keep some aspects from the previous and go against the rest.

The way I see it, the golden and the silver ages were mostly popular versions of modernist literature, done for merely entertaining purposes and mostly for kids; while similarly, the broze and the dark ages were popular versions of postmodernist literature, done for entertaining purposes mostly for young adults, only the dark age reached high artistic values during the 80s. Each era has its tells, but it's hard (and limiting) to label each work and, even more, each author. Although they might occur more frequently in one era, particular themes, techniques and situations can appear in any of the rest, which is why I consider the narrative style and art better ways to identify eras. Modernist ages tend to place the characters in the scenes as a sitcom or play, while he postmodernists love to play with the "camera"; modernist writers kinda repeat what the art is already showing (which makes the story feel a little dull or tedious), while the postmodernist, specially the dark age counts on the reader to keep up.

My tentative answer to my own question is that we're past the dark age, and that the starting marks are JLA: Midsummer's Nightmare, Kingdom Come, Marvels and Supreme. However, their precedents are Giffen's JLI and Animal Man, in that the current era is nostalgic for the silver and golden ages, idealistic like them, but driven by shock value and keeps using po-mo elements like deconstruction, pluralism, pastiche or metafiction.

[Rafa-Rivas-2099]

My take on past eras:

Golden age
1938 - 1949
Anthologies with multiple stories.
Only one-parters (as far as I've read).
No crossovers, earliest an rare examples of shared continuity.
Only one time characters are killed off.
No recurring characters die (although Two-face was permanently cured).
The text repeats the content of the images.
Most images are poorly drawn.
2D characterization.
Mostly white guys, some girls but mostly sideckicks.
Summarizing dialogues.
Good guy beats bad guys because they are punks and he's right.
Lots of genres.
Modernism.

The 50s gap: Aliens, paranormal, absurd camp, imps, families, pets.

Silver Age:
c. 1955 - 1972
Breakdowns: 55-64: classic, 64-72: Marvel-style
1 to 4 features per title.
Mostly titles with a main character, some anthologies rotate them.
Two-parters rarely done.
Earliest but rare crossovers (Zatanna, the Outsider).
Recurring characters rarely died (Alfred, Doom Patrol), earliest resurretion (Alfred).
Only the earliest weddings: Dibnys, Currys.
The text repeats the content of the images.
Most images feature very decent and consistent art, shy camera angles.
2D characterization.
Mostly white handsome guys, some girls but mostly sideckicks.
Summarizing dialogues.
Only good vs. evil situations. Good guys are civic minded.
Lots of genres, but superheroes are mostly the same.
Modernism.

Bronze age:
c. 1972 - 1985
1 or 2 features per title.
Mostly titles with a main character, anthologies rare
Two-parters are rare but increase.
Some crossovers.
Some characters died (Batwoman, E2 Bruce and Selina, Iris), some resurrections.
Most of the text repeats the content of the images at the begining, changes towards the end.
Most images feature great and consistent art, more impacting camera angles ("How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way").
Archetypical characterization.
White guys and affirmation characters.
Less and less summarizing dialogue.
Inclusion of real life situations from an educative angle. Good guys like diversity.
Lots of superhero-flavored genres: Swamp Thing, Jonah Hex, Demon
Modernism / postmodernism.


Dark age:
1986 - 1996
Breakdowns: 86-92: classic, 92-96: all-gore
Started with one or 2 features per title, ended with only one.
Mostly titles with a main character.
Mostly one or two parters in the 80s, 3 to four parters increase in the 90s.
Lots of crossovers.
Iconic deaths and shocks: Vibe, Steel, Flash II, Clayface II, Mirror Master, Gypsy's family, Green Lantern, Ice, Green Arrow, Sandman I, Starman I, Atom I (and oter JSAers), etc.
Text and images complement each other.
Great, wildly varying art. There was some sort of punk or "angry" (very Image) aesthetic towards the end (lots of over-the-top-muscles, big messy hair, cyberpunk tech, pocket belts and chaotic hatches)
Layered characterization (ideally).
Diversity of race and sex.
Realistic dialogue (ideally).
Realistic situations contrasting with the fantasy (deconstruction).
Pastiche of genres (mostly superhero)
Postmodernism

Current age:
1996-present
Breakdowns: 96-04 moderate, 04-11 silver age renaissance, 11-present (??)
Some backup features returned in the 00s.
Mostly titles with a main character.
Mostly multiple parters with long story arcs and terribly slow pacing.
Tons of crossovers, tie-ins, events, you name it.
Everybody dies and resurrects: Azrael, Aztek, Sarah Essen, Stan Merkel, Cancy O'Hara (not Miles), Green Arrow, Flash (both Barry and Bart), Hal Jordan, Ice, Aquaman, J'Onn, Jason Todd, Firestorm, Maxwell Lord, Sue Dibny, the Elongated Man, the Question,the entire JLA (Obsidian Age), Mr. Miracle, Orion, Big Barda, Knockout, Desaad, Granny, Godfrey, Highfather, Beautiful Dreamer, Lightray, Lashina, Libra, Vundabar, Bedlam, Sleez, Karate Kid, Duela Dent, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Jean Loring, Rocket Red, Stompa, Mad Harriet, Kalibak, Darkseid, Mantis, Gizmo, Dr. Light, Captain Boomerang, Captain Boomerang II, Efigy, Black Hand, the Trickster, you name him.
Text and images complement each other.
Great, wildly varying art.
Layered characterization (ideally).
Diversity of race and sex.
Realistic dialogue (ideally).
Realistic situations contrasting with the fantasy (deconstruction).
Pastiche of genres (mostly superhero), but almost no comedy.
Intense but superfluous revival of the silver and bronze age.
Post-postmodernism (metamodernism?).

Each has a lot in common and a lot to contrast with the previous, and some can be spit in two. For instance, during the early 60s, "classic silver age", most of the new guys were the same archetype over and over with different powers, often science-based revivals of the golden age ones; during the late 60s, "late" silver age, there was a lot of Marvel influence, so they started doing more tragic freaks (metamorpho, creeper, deadman, swamp thing, enchantress); and during the 50s, "early" silver age, the continuity with the golden was blurry, and they were doing a lot of pets, imps, female versions, aliens and ghosts, as if their main influences were Rin Tin Tin, sci-fi pulp and b-movies. Likewise the dark age has it's classic moment, 85-92, with great sophisticated writing, and the mid 90s, which had a lot of Image-influenced violence and shock value for adults.

The current era has a lot in common with the dark age, but I think a lot of it champions idealistic heroes over anti heroes (where are Lobo, Hitman and Azrael now). Stuff like Identity Crisis, Countdown to IC, OMAC, IC and Cry for Justice, challenge the notion of perfectly good heroes, all the stuff written by Morrison, Waid, Dini, Cooke, Giffen, DeMatteis, McDuffie (along with some of Meltzer and Johns) champions it.

The complication goes further, I think that the New 52 might belong to yet another era. Stuff like Cry for Justice and the runs of Tony Daniel, David Finch and Scott Lobdell remind me of the crappiest, cheapest aspects of the early 90s.

[Burning Eyes]

Golden Age: 1938-1953

Silver Age: 1956-1970

Bronze Age: 1970-1985

Iron Age: 1986-2006

Digital Age: 2007-onwards

^just my opinion. May not be accurate.

[MajorHoy]

Currently, the Forgettable Age.

[Rafa-Rivas-2099]

Golden Age: 1938-1953

Silver Age: 1956-1970

Bronze Age: 1970-1985

Iron Age: 1986-2006

Digital Age: 2007-onwards

^just my opinion. May not be accurate.

Why 2007?

[Lord Destiny]

1938-1956.....Golden Age (of 1st Multiverse Age)
1956-1986.....Silver Age (of 1st Multiverse Age)
1986-2006.....Monoverse Age
2006-2011....2nd Multiverse Age
2011-now.....New52-verse Age

Last one's clumsy. But the rest are much better than continuing to use metals...

Alternate names (based on how I feel about them):

1938-1956.....A good first attempt
1956-1986.....The way I like it
1986-2006.....flyover country
2006-2011....interesting again
2011-now.....sad last gasp of an intellectually dying company

[stk]

The current age is always the "Modern Age" until it ends and we can look back on it with some perspective, judging it more objectively.

On a side note, I hate when people forget the Bronze Age, or lump it in with Silver. No. There was an extreme tonal shift at both major publishers. A bigger shift than from Bronze to post-Crisis. If you ignore that transition, you might as well ignore all transitions.

[Tandaemonium]

Golden - Original Flavor
Silver - Congress decides that comics should only be for kids/Comics Code Authority + huge Baby Boomer Generation = the general existing consensus that cartoons and comics are only for children.
Bronze - Various comic creators decide to stop insulting their readers' intelligence and maturity 70s-late 80s - where most of your comic creator royalty falls under whose names aren't Stan Lee nor Jack Kirby.
Modern - The 90s Post Death of Supes Era that brought in a huge influx of new readers as well as the other publishers and imprints starting and becoming legitimate competition.
Digital - The web allows the world to be able to converse, comment and discuss about comics with each other. Johns and Bendis driven Big Two, Spider-Man and X-Men movies drive interest and so the comic stories become more streamlined, familiar and accessible to leverage comic-movie interest resulting in many redo's needed per comic property until they correlate with increased sales. Online piracy and recent digital distribution also firmly validates the naming.

* "Modern" should never have been used as a label (nor should it ever as a description for ANYTHING), but due to publications like Wizard, Comic Shop News, numerous comic catalogs, Mile High Comics, etc. It was labeled as such to distinguish from prior eras and unfortunately the name just has to remain the same now despite time.

[Rafa-Rivas-2099]

1938-1956.....Golden Age (of 1st Multiverse Age)
1956-1986.....Silver Age (of 1st Multiverse Age)
1986-2006.....Monoverse Age
2006-2011....2nd Multiverse Age
2011-now.....New52-verse Age

Last one's clumsy. But the rest are much better than continuing to use metals...

Alternate names (based on how I feel about them):

1938-1956.....A good first attempt
1956-1986.....The way I like it
1986-2006.....flyover country
2006-2011....interesting again
2011-now.....sad last gasp of an intellectually dying company

Flyover? I'd say that ti can be split in three eras. 86-92 was the era of the best stories ever written, 92-95 was the gore era, and 96-2011 was pure nostalgia. However, all of it has a postmodernist air. You can see the break in Daredevil, the early issues of Miller's run, when he just drew it, the reading was very tedious (for a contemporary reader), like silver age writing. Despite the mature themes, it's hard to read. That changes when Miller takes over the writing. Even Englehart or O'Neil, some of the best writers of the 70s, had that way of writing, which resources to overexplaining and becomes a bit boring. Barr, Byrne, Claremont, Grant, Starlin, Conway, Giffen and other writers of the 80s (even Englehart and O'Neil) take their cues from similar sources and start writing in a way that the most recent generations (born in 1975 and up) are used to read. I think reading stuff written before the early 80s is a very similar skill, and reading what comes after is another. When I gave up trying to read silver age stuff, McDuffie told me (in his forum), that I have to train myself, because it's a different sort of skill. My two cents is that its postmodernism hitting comics on a deep level.

[Wild_Child]

90's are the dark age

[Rafa-Rivas-2099]

I think the Dark age can be split in two: 85 - 92, which traces back to Swamp Thing and Daredevil and is about adult sophisticated writing and full embracement of postmodernism, and 92-96, in which everything went really dark, but lost the sophistication. The worst tragedies happened during the second part:

-Superman Dies
-Batman goes cripple (even Black Lightning got his nightfall)
-Luthor has way too much hair
-Weird costumes everywhere.
-Over the top muscles (Bane, Amygdala, Doomsday) and over the top breasts (Catwoman)
-Azrael-Batman
-Women with big hair
-Hippie Superman
-Guy becomes a freak
-Lobo everywhere
-Coast City destroyed
-Hal becomes a villain
-Ice, Green Arrow, Half the lanterns killed
-Women in the fridge
-Every villain is a psycho-something (Croc being the prime example)
-If psycho fails, try demons, Underworld Unleshed

Of course, there are traces of the first part in the second (Gaiman was still aroud) and vice versa. Alan Grant started before 92, and although he is a great writer, his style is as grimdark as it gets.

[Rafa-Rivas-2099]

Oddly enough, I've gone by memory and feeling on this matter, but I did a bit of research just now.

Robert G. Weiner has a similar classification, only his version of "dark" or modern age is yet undivided. I agree that after 1986 everything is blurry. However, I insist that the crazy talent (Moore, Miller and most of the Brits) leave mainstream aroun '92 and they are not replaced by equal talent, and that there's heavy Image influence (a grimdark extravaganza) followed the 3 or 4 years after that. Another, interesting finding is that what I instinctively caller "the gap", Weiner calls the "atomic age". Given the topics, I believe it is appropriated. My objection would be a bit with the exact year of start. 1945 doesn't really tell me much. The end of WWII is a big landmark, but the change of themes doesn't really start until the late 40s with characters like Tommy Tomorrow who were inspired by pulp rather than straight superhero themes and coexisted rather with Earth 1 characters. To this category belongs Pow Wow Smith, Phantom Stranger, Rex, Detective Chimp and Captain Comet but not Black Canary and late golden age enemies of the JSA. I'd put the landmark around '48 with some overlapping.

Shirrel Rhoades, has a different take for the Modern age; however, the year again is '86. Interestingly enough, it concurs with me on '92 as a minor pivot. While I proposed The Death of Superman as the landmark, Rhoades points that it's the start of Image, which immediately changed the tone of the big two. I agree there, but that's as far as I go, as I see '96 as yeat another pivot. He calls 86-92 "Copper age" (I'd use that name or call it Iron) and is naming '92-'99 "chrome (I'd call it Dark and limit it to 96). Rhoades calls bot "modern Age" and '99-present, the "postmodern age". That's a big disagreement for me, as the themes of 86-96, greatly or poorly delivered are the same from postmodernist literature, and what comes after has a more optimistic tone (despite keeping the intense shock value, specially after '04), which matches what is starting to be said about post-postmdernism. To him '99 is an important year because of Marvel's bankrupcy; but I think '96 is more important as it started to champion silver age values over morally gray vigilantism and anti-heroes. Another coincidence is the use of the Atomic age (using the more conservative '46 landmark), only as a subset of the Golden age (makes sense).

[Kurosawa]

Pretty much everything from 86 to the present tends to be dark and has only gotten darker, and if it was not dark it was deconstructive. The stuff before Image started was dark but smarter, the stuff from when Image started and a little before when those guys were still at Marvel was dark but stupid, and from around 2000-on the trend has been more toward total deconstruction of the superhero genre with the snippy dialogue and comics being written as movie pitches. There's been no huge change in tone or content, and it's been a very deep rut that there is no sign of them getting out of.

I regard the ages as this:
Golden 35-51
Flux 52-55
Silver 56-70
Bronze 71-85
Iron/Dark Age 86-present.

Oh by the way, there were a few continued stories in the Golden Age, and of course there was the one huge serialized story: The Monster Society of Evil storyline, which ran in Captain Marvel Adventures from issue 22 through issue 46.