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Comic Books - The Bronze Age

After the Golden Age of comic books came the Silver Age and this was followed by the Bronze Age which was the period between early 1970s and the mid 1980s. But now the tone of the comics was changing to a darker more adult theme.

The darkness was first emphasized by the death of Peter Parker's girlfriend of many years Gwen Stacy. The villain Green Goblin took a life for the first time and it was a sign that realism was making itself known in comics too. This incident somehow indicated the end of an era and the start of an entirely different one. Realism was taking a new and very bold step out. This acted as a wake up call and comic books took on the mantle of tackling social issues too.

The emergence of minority heroes of comic books dealt with social problems. With a co-star like Luke Cage it was clear that industries were keen on bringing in African Americans. Before Luke Cage comic book regulars were the likes of the Black Panther and Falcon. Since their stories had no portrayals that were stereotypical the resistance from these comics was not much while Luke Cage was being condemned as being just another ethnic typecast.

The X-men were a significant addition in comic books and they lent credence to the minorities. X–men were prejudiced against by humans as they were portrayed as mutants. This step of an evolution in humans was perhaps difficult for the Marvel comic world to swallow. Rebellion occurs when a particular thing is not understood or is feared. The X-men was an analogy to the minority with the underlying theory that if civilization could not handle the X-men as being mutants then would there be acceptance of the minority communities? It indicated a whole shift in the perception of humans as humans.

So as far as possible the Bronze Age tried to maintain realism within its pages. It was evident that the X-men were not acceptable at the individual level. There was fear of the unknown and the not-understood and this would lead to rage and violence. Violence is the outcome of ignorance and this was what was probably happening among the readers too.

As an analogy, this one where the minorities were being compared to the X-men was a brilliant one. While the prejudices may have been different the results were the same. What the Bronze Age did was to define what America was thinking during that time.

Speculation is rife about the so-called end of the Bronze Age. There was a suggestion that ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths' may have been the start of the end but it was never proven. There was another opinion that the Bronze Age sort of merged in to the modern era of comic books but whatever the case it was clear that the Bronze Age had an important role to play in the social changes that were taking place.

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Pete Kilmer has been in the comics retail industry for ten years as a member of Downtown Comics in Indianapolis. Downtown Comics is one of the Midwest's largest comic retailers with over four locations in Indianapolis. All opinions are his own, and they cannot be bought with free swag.

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