Bronze Age of Comic Books

The Bronze Age of Comic Books is an informal name for a period in the history of mainstream American comic books usually said to run from 1970 to 1985. It follows the Silver Age of Comic Books.The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide

The Bronze Age retained many of the conventions of the Silver Age, with brightly colored superhero titles remaining the mainstay of the industry. However, darker plot elements and more mature storylines featuring real-world issues, such as drug use, alcoholism, and environmental pollution, began to appear during the period, prefiguring the later Modern Age of Comic Books.

Origins

The term Bronze Age was first used by comic book fandom and later the Overstreet Price Guide to refer to the more mature and modern comic books of the early 70s to the mid-80s.

There is no one single event that can be said to herald the beginning of the Bronze Age. Instead a number of events at the beginning of the 1970s, taken together, can be seen as a shift away from the tone of comics in the previous decade.One such event was Jack Kirby's departure from Marvel Comics in 1970, ending arguably the most important creative partnership of the Silver Age (with Stan Lee). Kirby then turned to DC, where he created The Fourth World series of titles starting with Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 in December 1970. Also in 1970 Mort Weisinger, the long term editor of the various Superman titles, retired to be replaced by Julius Schwartz. Schwartz set about...
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