What are the comic book ages?

[Alan2099]

I was browsing through another site and ran across a term I hadn't heard anyone use before. "The Copper Age." We all know Golden Age and Silver Age comics, and most people accept a Bronze Age, but I've never heard of Copper Age so I went looking things up and found people don't tend to agree on ages.


The Start of the Golden Age seems to be set in stone. Everyone agree it's the first appearance of Superman.

The Silver Age comes down to whether you want to start it with Barry as the Flash or with the Fantastic Four, but it's only a few years apart.

The Bronze Age starts with the Death of Gwen Stacy.


Other than that, there seems to be some disagreement. Some people list a Victorian Age and a Plantinum Age before Superman first appears, but there's some few comics from that time it's hardly worth mentioning.

Some have listed an Atom Age between the Golden Age and the Silver Age, but it seems poorly defined and I haven't seen any place that lists when it starts.

After the Bronze Age, depending on who you listen too, I've seen a Copper Age, a Chrome Age, and a Dark Age all listed.

If you want to go by the Copper Age definition, it apparently started with Marvel's Secret Wars mini series and ended with Jim Lee's X-men #1. After which we go into the Modern Age.

Some people follow up the Copper Age with the Chrome Age, the age of special covers, super star artists, violent anti-heroes, and bad girls. Some people call this the Dark Age. Some just call it the '90s.

After that, we're in the Modern Age. Unless we're in the Diamond Age (which some people consider started with the Ultimate line of comics.)

There are even some people that say the Modern Age is over and we've gone into the Post-Modern Age, which started with the first appearance of Miles Morales.

You'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit rambling of unfocused here, since I'm writing this out as I see this information for the first time.

Personally, I think the Copper Age definition feels kind of useless and would say the Bronze Age continued until Jim Lee's X-men, regardless of what you want to call that time.

After the 90s died down, there seemed to be a big retro modern push that I feel deserves it's own era before we got into the age of A-hole heroes and "realistic cinematic" costumes that started with the Ultimates.

I'm curious to here how other people define things, and whether you've even heard of this other ages before.

[Tuck]

I don't know about all that, but can we just call the period of Image-influenced overly violent comics the Xtreme Age! ?

[ed2962]

I think most fans agree with the start of the Golden Age and Silver Age ( Action Comics #1 and Showcase #4 ). I've seen a couple of folks call that period between the end of WW2 and before Barry Allen when superheroes weren't as popular "The Atomic Age" but I'm not sure that's widely accepted.

I think most places I've seen over the years point to about 1970 ( Conan #1 ) as the start of the Bronze Age and it probably ending perhaps 1986.

Nineteen Eighty Six ( Watchmen, DKR ) is the start of the "Grim and Gritty Era", the start of "The Copper Age" and I've also seen it referred to as "The Dark Age". I think where it gets tricky is I don't think we all agree when this period ended. I say perhaps the early 2000's? But I'm not sure there's a defining event or whatever for the next period...

[Kirby101]

The Silver Age is agreed on as Showcase #4. The FF is 5 years later and DC was heavy into the superhero rebirth.
The Bronze age is not the Death of Gwen. There are half a dozen books that people offer as the start. Conan #1, Green Lantern #76, GS X-Men #1, New Gods #1, and so on.
After that, there is no agreed on age name or when they start.

[MRP]

Ages are only relevant if you are discussing super-hero comics published by Marvel and DC and their predecessors. they don't reflect trends or patterns happening in the industry as a whole, just within the subsection of the industry represented by that particular output, and the things that characterize those ages are either absent form other genres and publishers, or continue in those other genres and publishers both well before and well after the arbitrary demarcation points people point to because of developments in super-hero comics.

The only real industry wide demarcation lines that applies to all publishers and all genres is pre-Code comics and code era comics, pre-direct market and direct market era comics.

Other than that trends concerning content, publishing models, pricing, industry practices, etc. vary widely from genre to genre, and publisher to publisher even within the set years most people place the label eras onto to try to define them. Take the super-hero blinders off and those terms are essentially meaningless to the industry and the medium of comics as a whole. And if you widen the focus beyond the United States t include comics in Europe, Asia and other places, those terms are even more meaningless. And even within just Marvel and DC super-hero comics, there is not the homogeneity within books vis-avis content and publishing strategies that people seem to imply by using those labels.

-M