Greetings comic lovers and welcome back to casually comics the channel where we chat
all things comics from reviews of comics new and old to history to anecdotes to really
wherever our whims take us.
Today we’re going to take a look at what I like to call a fandom basic in this case
a comic fandom basic these are terms or concepts so ingrained that it feels like everyone just
knows them You know the kinds of things that if you’re new you’re embarrassed to ask
about or if you’ve been in fandom for awhile have forgotten ever not knowing.
Today we’re going to answer the question what is the silver age?
A bold sole actually asked this in the comment section of my insta you go vernons_exotica.
If you’re always willing to ask the question hit that like button.
So let’s do this get ready for a lot of info.
Comic book history is divided into ages different eras defined by either the creation of new
heroes,and/or the types of stories published and trends.
The silver age is unique and so well remembered because it sees the dawn of so many iconic
heroes and the cementation of superheroes as the dominant comic book genre.
But how did this happen and why.
At it’s base level the silver age is the re-establishment of enthusiasm and creativity
in superhero comics.
It is dated as having begun in 1956 and lasting til 1970.
But the important groundwork for it would happen in 1954.
The golden age had seen the creation of several prominent heroes mostly by DC because MArvel
doesn’t become marvel until 1961 actually marvel established itself as what it will
become during the silver age as a direct result of DC starting the silver age.
Before this in the golden age of heroes they were timely comics and graced the world with
Captain America, while DC was remembered for Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman now known
as the trinity.
Another big prominent Golden Age hero was Fawcett Comics Captain Marvel the first one
ever Billy Batson.
However the golden age would end largely as a result of world war II which would see the
public’s interest truning away from superheroes to other genres.
Genres like, horror and romance but with a special focus on the latter plus crime comics,
and these comics could get pretty graphic.
This was the era of EC comics founded in 1944 a published that gave the world tales from
the crypt, the vault of horror, weird science.
And much more however a death knell was coming from a source that so often spells doom.
Salacious unscientifically founded criticism that claimed that comics were destroying the
minds of youth.
I’m talking about an infamous book in comic history that is called Seduction of the innocent
by Fredric Wertham.
A book that would later be massively critqtiqued for twisting it’s evidence and having almost
no scientific backing.
Wertham would claim that these horror and crime novels were perverting youth turning
them into criminals this was added as a youth who had commited a crime at the time admitted
to reading horror comics does this sound familiar.
That crime novels turned youth into perverts cause of the sexy sometimes nude women.
However he didn’t stop there he had a lot to say about superheroes DC heroes as MArvel’s
premier heroes had yet to be created.
He would claim that the relationship batman shared with robin had sexual homoerotic undertones
cause they lived alone together and shared a bed sometimes.
That wonder woman was a lesbian cause she was strong and independant.
Both of these were especially problemtaic for him cause they had incomplete family units
which he linked to homosexuality.
Would you like some wertham quotes you know you would.
The Batman type of story may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies, of the nature of
which they may be unconscious.
Robin is a handsome ephebic boy, usually shown in his uniform with bare legs.
He is buoyant with energy and devoted to nothing on earth or in interplanetary space as much
as to Bruce Wayne.
He often stands with his legs spread, the genital region discreetly evident.
For boys, Wonder Woman is a frightening image.
For girls she is a morbid ideal.
Where Batman is anti-feminine, the attractive Wonder Woman and her counterparts are definitely
anti-masculine.
Personally seduction of the innocent said way more to me about wertham than it did about
comics but some of his beliefs are still in use and applied
Through TV and moving pictures a child may see more violence in thirty minutes than the
average adult experiences in a lifetime.
What children see on the screen is violence as an almost casual commonplace of daily living.
Violence becomes the fundamental principle of society, the natural law of humanity.
Killing is as common as taking a walk, a gun more natural than an umbrella.
Children learn to take pride in force and to feel ashamed of ordinary sympathy.
They are encouraged to forget that people have feelings.
Think about this and comics because these arguments are still applied people still say
comics are problemtatic and negative influences just the why has changed but just like now
comics reacted in fear.
Wertham was an academic he was invoking the won’t somebody please think of the children
argument he had the veneer of officialness and companies needed parents to get these
comics for their kids.
No one wanted to contribute to what at the time was viewed as deviance whether the claims
were founded on anything other than lose perceived unsubstantiated observations or not.
Just as now no one wants to contribute to being perceived as problematic and so they
changed everything.
Seduction of the innocent was published in 1954 and that same year saw the creation of
the comics code authority partially because of this and also because of an at the time
panic about the rise in juvenille delinquency that was not linked to the post war era but
instead to comic books.
Comic books were to the late 40s what dungeons and dragons was to the 80s and what video
games is to now.
And there are still people who agree with all of the above.
Founded by the comics magazine association of america this was proposed so that publishers
could self regulate rather than have government intervention.
There were senate hearings about all of this.
That’s how seriously people took this book, now there’s always room to discuss how our
entertainment affects us some of us cause humans aren’t a monolith so things penetrate
differently so really could one theory every encompass everybody and how would you ever
get the concrete unmanipulated unbiased data it feels doomed to always be a soft science
however the thing is these discussions rarely remain cordial and most often just descend
into panic and moralism, and reactions are often launched before anything concrete is
found operating instead off of anecdoted and my god won’t somebody please think of the
children.
It was intense before the cca people were burning horror comics in the streets; the
cca would introduce clear rules of what could and could not be depicted for example the
remove clevage rule, the no vampire rule, the separate beds rule, most distributors
would only carry comics with the cca all of this this would lead to the birth of the silver
age.
Because of all this horror comics, action comics and romance comics would fall out of
favour EC comics would ultimately go bankrupt which was a shame as it was really pushing
boundaries such as unpromptedly featuring black sci fi protagonists.
In a story that was protested, it was called judgement day.
Well nobody wants to go bankrupt so they were like what’s safe superheroes but how to
revamp them, well dc decided to relaunch a golden age hero the flash but with a new costume,
a new origin which would feature science cause wertham was also anti the occult themes in
comics and golden age characters tended to have magic backstories.
Also the stories would be more outlandish, sci fi based and adventure filled.
People loved it, The 2nd Flash barry allen created in 1956 is considered by most historians
to be the first hero of the silver age.
And creating a new hero rather than going with the trinity was a definite choice because
of scrutiny on the character as a result of the book.
However, writers would use these restrictions to force themselves to be creative and DC
found itself creating a slew of new heroes the silver age green lantern and eventually
the Justice League in 1960.
It was at this point that Marvel took notice.
Seeing the massive amounts of success DC was having and the newfound boom in superhero
popularity amongst youth.
Martin Goodman a trend founder of Marvel since 1939 when it was timely he was always looking
for what to hop on to make his company a success so he went to writer stan lee and told him
to make him a su[erhero team to match the justice league.
Lee would take a different approach and in 1961 would present the would with the fantastic
four marvel’s first family the launcher of their superhero empire.
The fantastic four would represent a different take on the silver age unburdened by legacy
with which comes pre existing expectations for characters and not under the same scrutiny
as dc not being called out like they had been in seduction of the innocent they had more
lee way and had had more time to observe the trends rather than have to change mid stream.
So their heroes were more flawed they bhad discord but still stayed in line with the
cca.
This made them popular with older readers and led to them being dubbed sophisticated
comics this era is known as the marvel renaissance which would see the creation of most of their
now iconic characters, of particular note aside from the first family were the hulk
and spiderman.
These characters were new and unfamiliar and it helped add to that excitement.
At this point in history the rivalry of these two companies would crystallize and they both
push the other to do better and be incredibly petty at times, sci fi and zany flourished
as companies sought to be creative and not break the code but yes see howfar they could
push it.
This era would see the rise of talents still known to this day.
Stan Lee Jack Kirby Camine Infantino Neal Adams Steve Ditko and more.
This era would see the rise of Caspar the friendly ghost and ritchie rich as other companies
tried to survive under the code trying to keep other genres alive but the juggernaut
of the return of the superhero age could not be stopped.
Another huge factor in the silver age the television comics were willing to take advantage
of what was still viewed to some as a lesser medium being considered a bit of one themselves,
and the versions established on screen would be of the silver age even more aggressively
friendly and over the top than the comics so as not to ruffle any feather.
This is the era that gives us Batman with Adam West which even as the time was a parody
of how silly the silver age could get that show is very self aware.
So why was it called the silver age well the terms itself appears to have originated well
into the silver age when in the letters column of justice league of america #42 in 1966 scott
taylor of westport connecticut wrote If you guys keep bringing back the heroes from the
[1930s-1940s] Golden Age, people 20 years from now will be calling this decade the Silver
Sixties!"
This worked well with olympic medal imagery and it took hold and fans began to call it
the silver age of heroes rather than the second heroic age of comics or the modern age as
it head been going by before.
Every era gets to be called the modern age until it gets it’s official name.
Dealers and sellers took up the terminology cause it made it easy to identify which era
of comic they were selling.
The silver age would come to be remembered for a few things predominantly camp by those
outside it but also it was a period of enthusiasm and optimism even at Marvel with it’s more
relatively more personal driven plots.
It was a period of intense creativity, and the birth of many beloved characters and concepts.
DC also launches the multiverse in this period largely as a way to reconcile the golden and
silver ages and create harmony though legacy and sci fi tropes.
People have a hard time pinpointing exactly when it ended though by the 70s the tone has
definitely shifted the cca is lessening it’s hold and beginning to allow things that were
once banned the code would first be entirely abandoned in 2001 by marvel so it is not the
heralded of the bronze age.
Some claim that the bronze age is solidified with the death of gwen stacy in 1973 but what
most can agree on it is just kind of ended and that eventually it was missed.
Eventually there was some cheer burnout that occurred and people came to want more introspective
stories a better balance
Some feel the silver age and the optimism and burst in characters, mostly friendly competition
and enthusiasm for the medium can never come again while there have been attempts at revivals
the neo silver age it is firmly past.
Though some still hold out hope something like it an era of belief in the concept of
heroes and positivity surrounding them even if they are flawed can come again.
I was born long past the silver age a little past the dark age actually so looking back
at the silver age is fun for me, it’s unique and goes for it in ways that some stories
no longer do some of the conventions that would come with time to preserve continuity
and the like are not in place yet so it all can feel very unfettered.
And while at times it can be too silly or people can have baffling friendships on the
whole it was fun and a time of growth.
With some iconic stories and characters.
There’s something to enjoy and not enjoy about all the eras but the silver is certainly
a special one with a unique origin that certainly turned into companies making lemonade out
of some pretty panicked lemons.
What’s your relationship with the silver age let me know down below that was a long
one and still cliffnoted lots of sections.
I hope if you were completely unfamiliar with the silver age this helped you out.
And maybe provided some new deets you weren’t aware of if you knew about it.
I’m Sasha thanks sso much for watching casually comics please do all of the youtube things
like share comment subscribe and hit that bell notification so you never miss a vid
I’ll see you all again soon buh bye.