Comic Book Ages

[RobinFan4880]

I happened to be looking at the various ages of Comic Books (Golden, Silver, etc.) and I noticed something interesting - the ages all lasted between 12 and 15 years except for on, the modern age. The Modern Age has existed since 1985. That's over 30 years of time, which is really double how long the other ages lasted.

Obviously, the ages are constructs we create in retrospect but they are fun lenses with which we can look at the past with.

With that in mind, where would you put the dividing line to break the Modern Age in half?

Some possible ideas:

- 1996, Marvel's Bankruptcy
- 1996, Kingdom Come is published
- 1998, Marvel Knights is published
- 1999, Jim Lee sells Wild Storm to DC
- 2000, the start of the Ultimate Universe
- 2000, the start of big budget comic book movies from Marvel's IP
- 2005, New Avengers #1 is published
- 2005, Infinite Crisis is published
- 2011, the New 52 begins (seems less relevant post-Rebirth)

[Beyonder595]

1985-2004: The Dark Age
2004-2015: The Event Age
(Some overlapping here but, who says there can't be two ages at the same time)
2009-Present Day: The Indie Age

[codystarbuck]

1985-2004: The Dark Age
2004-2015: The Event Age
(Some overlapping here but, who says there can't be two ages at the same time)
2009-Present Day: The Indie Age

I don't know if I would classify 1985-1990 as a "dark age". You can debate about when it really gets dark; but,I don't feell that those 5 years are particularly dark, even with Dark Knight and Watchmen and some of the other things. It does start getting really dark in the 90s. It starts in the late 80s; but, I'd call it more of a "twilight." For me, where things really change, in the 90s, is when marvel decides to self-distribute, and touches off the distributor wars. That sped them right into bankruptcy, killed Capital City (and Heroes World, which was a healthy regional distributor, until Marvel got their grubby little hands on them) and was the final nail in the coffin for a lot of the surviving independents. After that, Marvel is in bankruptcy, Steve Geppi has an effective monopoly, and a large chunk of the retail market is gone.

[ed2962]

I've heard/read '85-'96 or 2000 referred to as The Copper Age. I don't think it's a definitive term though.

[Gray Lensman]

I had taken to calling the nu52 the Mercury Age - looks like Silver at first glance but is actually toxic.