Favorite Spider-Era?

[Lasil]

The Bronze Age was peak Spider-Man.

[Mister Mets]

Thanks. For some reason I thought Flash came earlier than that.

The Golden Age has a lot more in common with the so-called Dark Age. In the Golden Age, Superhero comics shared the stage with crime comics and other genres and overlapped with newspaper comics. Will Eisner's The Spirit most famously. The Dark Age which was led by the British Invasion (Moore, Gaiman and others) ultimately led to another development where non-superhero stories dominated, especially Vertigo where Swamp Thing became the most important title for DC in the 80s, in the same way Frank Miller's Daredevil was for Marvel in the same decade. Both Miller and Moore started in superhero comics but gradually moved away...Like Miller's biggest commercial success is Three Hundred, a historical fiction comic that led to one of the most influential action movies of the last decade. Whereas the Silver-Bronze Age, and now the current era, is more superhero centric. I tend to see the current era as a Post-Modern Age, i.e. where there's a general acceptance that there's not going to be any last word on superheroes, that Watchmen which Moore thought would end the genre, and many expected it would, didn't do that. Post-Modernism is all about the fact that this idea that things are going linearly from progress to progress is bunk, that development is random, chaotic, zig-zaggy and erratic, and that there's no "last word".

In the case of Spider-Man and Marvel, it's odd because the Lee-Kirby-Ditko era is credied with being a revolution over the staid Silver and Golden Age formula of storytelling, so it's not representative of the Silver Age. People don't often acknowledge how much of an influence Spider-Man had on Batman and Superman. Spider-Man for instance was a lot more tough and intense than Superman and Batman in that time. Many people keep saying Green Goblin is a knock-off of Joker, but actually Goblin killed Gwen Stacy in 1973, a full decade before The Killing Joke and A Death in the Family. In fact the same year you had The Night Gwen Stacy Died...you had "The Joker's Five Way Revenge", the story that made Joker a murderer again after being nerfed for more than two decades. Green Goblin and Norman Osborn never went to jail...and indeed Norman Osborn has the distinction of going 40 years in real-time publication history before going to jail in The Pulse's first story arc. Then take a look at Batman's Strange Apparitions arc where Batman and Bruce Wayne worries about how his double life is making him unhappy, and he has a relationship with Silver St. Cloud and he's drawn as a younger guy, and basically he starts showing Peter Parker-ish traits.

And of course in the 80s, the late Bronze Age, Mary Jane knowing Peter's identity all along ended the whole Silver Age gaslighting trope of the girl not knowing the double life. And that led to Lois knowing very early Superman's secret identity (a story written by Roger Stern as it happens, it's often forgotten that he wrote far more for Superman than he ever did Spider-Man).

A quick point on the Silver Age is that Lee/Kirby Lee/Ditko and Lee/Romita Marvel is clearly understood as being part of that age, even if it came in the second half, and had a big impact on DC.

It's the same way EC is Golden Age even if it came several years into the period.

The Joker's Five Way Revenge is arguably the most important Neal Adams Batman story, so it's a landmark of its age.

There is a bit of a question of when exactly the bronze age started. The first Conan comics (October 1970) and Kirby's arrival at DC (November 1970) is one oft-mentioned moment. Others include the Night Gwen Stacy Died (July 1973), and the debut of the Punisher (February 1974) so there is a long grey area. I like ASM 90 as the cutoff as a big moment that changes the tenor of the series at the time of other major changes in comics.

I'll note Iris Allen revealed she was aware of Barry's secret identity early on (November 1967), so it wasn't something that started with MJ.

https://www.cbr.com/flash-iris-barry-secret-identity/

[HypnoHustler]

Hey guys, I have a better way to split up the eras... it’s called the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the 00s and the 10s.

And everyone knows the 90s are best! ��

[Shadowcat]

Hey guys, I have a better way to split up the eras... it’s called the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the 00s and the 10s.

And everyone knows the 90s are best! ��

I prefer the late 70’s and 80’s.

[Winterboy]

'70s Spidey by Conway, Andru, Mooney, Buscema...

spidey.jpg

[Shadowcat]

'70s Spidey by Conway, Andru, Mooney, Buscema...

spidey.jpg

I looooove Andru and Buscema Spidey.

[MajorHoy]

Even thought I occasionally bought (well, had my Dad buy for me) a few issues of Amazing Spider-Man in the 1960s (back when the cheesy cartoon with the great theme song was on TV!), I had to go with era when I really started buying Spider-Man comic books myself on a regular basis: Bronze Age. (There were some great continuing stories back then from guys like Bill Mantlo!)

[comicscollector]

I voted the Silver Age.Just consistent and great stories for almost all the Spider-Man stories.

[kingaliencracker]

I'll go Bronze Age, which I would just say for my intents and purposes is the 80's.