The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly in the superhero genre, that lasted roughly from the late 1950s/early 1960s to the early 1970s. It was preceded by the Golden Age of Comic Books.

During the Silver Age, the character make-up of superheroes evolved. Writers injected science fiction concepts into the origins and adventures of superheroes. More importantly, superheroes became more human and troubled, and since the Silver Age, character development and personal conflict have been almost as important to the image of a superhero as superpowers and epic adventures.

Events leading to the Silver Age

Following World War II, superheroes faced a steady decline in popularity. Their development was complicated by the rise of gritty horror and crime comic books, as well as by national parental concerns ignited by Dr. Fredric Wertham's influential book Seduction of the Innocent, and fanned by U.S. Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency. In response, the comic book industry implemented the Comics Code, which forbade gore, excessive violence, sexual suggestiveness, and disrespect of authorities, among other tenets. This made certain genres more difficult to publish, though comic books, like the similarly constrained media of film and television, of necessity, developed new means of storytelling and new types of stories.

History

The beginning of the Silver Age is cause for debate, but comics historians generally agree that the period began with DC Comics' Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956), which introduced the modern version of the superhero the Flash.

According to Will Jacobs, three super heroes still had their own titles in 1956: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Superman was available in "great quantity, but little quality." Batman was doing better, but his comics were "lackluster" in comparison to his "atmospheric adventures" of the 1940's. Wonder Woman, having lost her original writer and artist, was no longer "idiosyncratic" or "interesting." Then Showcase #4 arrived on the newsstands, "begging to be bought." The cover featured an undulating strip of film and the Flash running so fast he came out of the film and at the reader.^[1]

Under editor Julius Schwartz, super-speedster the Flash took only his power and his superhero name from the company's 1940s star, and became the first of many old characters DC revised as streamlined, science fiction-influenced models. Other DC heroes published continuously from from the 1930s and 1940s, such as Superman and Batman, were retconned as living in an alternate universe called Earth-Two, with the present-day versions considered as living in the modern-day mainstream continuity, Earth-One.

DC added to the momentum by introducing the Justice League of America, an all-star group consisting of its most popular characters, the success of which prompted rival Marvel Comics to introduce its own superhero team, the Fantastic Four.^[2]

This led to the era's rise of Marvel under the guidance of writer-editor Stan Lee and such artists/co-writers as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Marvel introduced more sophisticated characterization and dynamic plotting into superhero comics, and began aiming at teen and college-age readers in addition to the children's market. Aside from the Fantastic Four, the most popular and influential Marvel characters of this period were Spider-Man and the Hulk.^[3] Other significant and enduring Marvel heroes introduced during the Silver Age include Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil, the X-Men, and Marvel's own all-star group, the Avengers. After an initial period of hesitance, DC began to adopt some of Marvel's creative approaches.

Comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that in the 1960s,

DC was the equivalent of the big Hollywood studios: After the brilliance of DC's reinvention of the superhero.... in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it had run into a creative drought by the decade's end. There was a new audience for comics now, and it wasn't just the little kids that traditionally had read the books. The Marvel of the 1960s was in its own way the counterpart of the French New Wave.... Marvel was pioneering new methods of comics storytelling and characterization, addressing more serious themes, and in the process keeping and attracting readers in their teens and beyond. Moreover, among this new generation of readers were people who wanted to write or draw comics themselves, within the new style that Marvel had pioneered, and push the creative envelope still further.^[4]

The resurgence of superheroes proved so influential that publishing houses not known for such characters — including Archie Comics, Charlton Comics and Dell Comics — attempted their own superheroes, but met with limited critical and popular success. Tower Comics was an exception with the well-received if short-lived T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series by Wally Wood.

In addition, new artists, many of whom grew up with comics as well as being formally trained, began to expand the mainstream medium into new art styles. Major examples include Neal Adams who introduced naturalism with his illustrative style, and Jim Steranko who introduced op art, touches of Surrealism, and graphic design elements.

The period hit its commercial peak from 1966 to 1968 with the popularity of the ABC network's campy Batman TV series, which both heightened interest in comics and damaged their public image as a legitimate artistic medium — this despite the Batman comic books themselves having taken a more serious tone in 1964 with the introduction of the "New Look Batman".

Underground comics got their start during the 1960s portion of the Silver Age. However, because the artistic content, goals and marketing of these comic books were so different from the mainstream companies, it is generally considered a separate movement in the medium.

Origin of the term

Comics historian and movie producer Michael Uslan traced the origin of the term to the letters column of Justice League of America #42 (Feb. 1966), which went on sale December 9, 1965. Letter-writer 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!"^[5] The natural hierarchy of gold-silver-bronze, as in Olympic medals, also took hold, and as Uslan writes, "Fans immediately glommed onto this, refining it more directly into a Silver Age version of the Golden Age. Very soon, it was in our vernacular, replacing such expressions as ... 'Second Heroic Age of Comics' or 'The Modern Age' of comics. It wasn't long before dealers were ... specifying it was a Golden Age comic for sale or a Silver Age comic for sale".^[5]

End of the Silver Age

The precise end of the Silver Age is in some debate. Candidate periods include:

• Jack Kirby's departure from Marvel Comics to produce Fourth World titles at DC Comics (1970).
• The retirement of Mort Weisinger, long-time editor of the Superman family of comics for DC (1970). The Superman titles were then divided among several editors, including Julius Schwartz, Murray Boltinoff, E. Nelson Bridwell, Mike Sekowsky and, briefly, Jack Kirby.
• The change of rules to the Comics Code Authority which allowed for more controversial topics to be discussed (1971). This led to a wave of horror comics such as Ghost Rider and Tomb of Dracula.
• When Stan Lee stopped writing for Marvel Comics, at the same time stepping down as Editor-In-Chief (1972).
• The advent of darker superhero stories in the early 1970s. During this time, Batman returned to his roots as a dubious vigilante, and Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams started the gritty, urban-themed series Green Lantern/Green Arrow.
• The death of Gwen Stacy, the girlfriend of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) in The Amazing Spider-Man #121 ("The Night Gwen Stacy Died") (1973).
• The debut of the "All-New All-Different" X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), restarting a franchise that would dominate subsequent decades.
• Adventure Comics #452 (1977), starring Aquaman, where the villain Black Manta kidnaps and murders Aquaman's infant son.

In summary, by any standard, the Silver Age of Comics ended in the early to, at the very latest, mid-1970s.

Subsequent eras

After a brief period dominated by horror and fantasy titles, a third period of superheroes (commonly referred to as the Bronze Age) began, with a new wave of creators including writers Steve Englehart, Mike Friedrich, Steve Gerber, Don McGregor, Doug Moench, and Len Wein, and artists such as Rich Buckler, Marshall Rogers, P. Craig Russell, and Bernie Wrightson.

The period after that is variously referred to as the Modern Age of Comic Books, the Dark Age of Comic Books (referring to both a decline in the industry and the popularity of grim titles such as Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen),^{[citation needed]} the Iron Age of Comic Books,^{[citation needed]} or the Diamond Age of Comic Books (suggested by Scott McCloud,^{[citation needed]} with the different facets signifying the current diversity in the medium).

"Neo-silver", a term many attribute^{[citation needed]} to IGN columnist Peter Sanderson, has been used in the 2000s to describe comics such as Kurt Busiek's Astro City that attempt to return to the lighter, more noble aspects of Silver Age comics while retaining the maturity and complexity of later ages.

Stylistic conventions

Certain styles and conventions were generally common to titles during the Silver Age.

It was common for the first page (also called the "splash page") to serve as a second cover, giving a tease to what was to come later in the issue. Most stories actually started on page two.

Comic book covers

DC covers of the Silver Age are notable for the abundance of speech balloons. Marvel, after its first year or so, generally opted for an action scene or a dramatic tableau, frequently with such symbolic elements as floating heads watching and reacting, and only returned to speech balloons occasionally toward the end of the era — creating controversy among Marvelites at the time. Speech balloons eventually fell out of favor and are rarely seen on covers today, except as homage or parody.

Noted Silver Age talents

During this period in mainstream companies, artists, especially at Marvel, began to play an increasingly important role as story co-plotters.

Editors

• Dick Giordano
• Stan Lee
• Jack Schiff
• Julius Schwartz
• Mort Weisinger

Writers

• Otto Binder
• John Broome
• Arnold Drake
• Gary Friedrich
• Joe Gill
• Archie Goodwin
• Edmond Hamilton
• Bob Haney
• Robert Kanigher
• Stan Lee
• Dennis O'Neil
• Jerry Siegel
• Jim Steranko
• Roy Thomas
• Marv Wolfman

Pencilers

• Neal Adams
• Murphy Anderson
• Jim Aparo
• Dick Ayers
• Wayne Boring
• John Buscema
• Sal Buscema
• Nick Cardy
• Gene Colan
• Dan DeCarlo
• Steve Ditko
• Ramona Fradon
• Stanley Goldberg
• Don Heck
• Carmine Infantino
• Gil Kane
• Jack Kirby
• Joe Kubert
• Sheldon Moldoff
• Jim Mooney
• John Romita, Sr.
• Mike Sekowsky
• John Severin
• Marie Severin
• Jim Steranko
• Curt Swan
• Herb Trimpe
• George Tuska
• Wally Wood

Inkers

• Jack Abel
• Dan Adkins
• Murphy Anderson
• Dick Ayers
• Vince Colletta
• Joe Giella
• Sid Greene
• George Klein
• Paul Reinman
• George Roussos
• Joe Sinnott
• Chic Stone

Key Issues of the Silver Age

DC Comics

Marvel Comics

Footnotes