RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Popping the Silver Age Myth

And you know what? I like grim 'n' gritty. I love Miller's DKR. I loved Cable's assumption of responsibility for the New Mutants. I like Byrne's Superman, where Luthor had a kryptonite ring and threw Superman out of his office by the scruff of the neck like trash. I thought the Mutant Massacre in X-men in the mid-80s, where Nightcrawler and Colossus were hospitalised, was awesome, and that Wolverine skewered Phoenix rather than let her kill Selene in cold blood. I like the fact that Hal Jordan turned evil, that Aquaman lost a hand, that the Flash died and isn't coming back and that the Anti-Monitor crisped Supergirl. I liked the fact that Hulk broke his leg in Secret Wars. And I liked Batman becoming obsessed with his war on crime.

The writing became exciting. These people with their powers were fighting desperate and evil adversaries. Sometimes bad things happened. And I think comics were better for it.

Yes. And look at all the Archie comics. $2.25 a digest. In each digest, you not only get one complete story, you get several complete stories!

Now is it that big a stretch to think DC can't do this with their back catalog of single/double issue comic stories from the 40's-80's?

Batman? Give me grim and gritty. Same with Green Arrow, the Question, Daredevil, Punisher, etc.

But not every character should be that way. For example, Superman, Capt. Marvel, maybe FF, all work better IMO, with more of the silver age elements intact.

Well thank fuck someone read it and even better agreed with it.

I'm not excusing the bad writing which also epitomised the grim n gritty 90s period. Alex Ross was right to mock Liefeld in Kingdom Come. Anything which comes out of Image now with a cape is doomed to failure because their currency is worth nothing, when it comes to superheroics and if not for The Authority and access to Jim Lee's pencils Wildstorm would probably be a decision DC would have regretted.

But if not for grim n gritty we'd all be bitching about comics, like we did with Star Wars. We'd have grown out of them. Actually we wouldn't be bitching about them. We wouldn't be reading them.

With the exception of some of the events of Reign of the Supermen, when have they EVER tried to make Superman grim 'n' gritty?

I gotta agree with Dave on this. The original Superman was a bit grim and gritty too. And, quite frankly, I don't like the Silver Age Superman as a character. He's a bit of a douche.

...quite frankly, I don't like the Silver Age Superman as a character. He's a bit of a douche.

Most of us recognize that the silver age was flawed and most of old time fans don't really want a return to that era. We don't want a Batman who acts like Adam West. We don't want simplistic stories that only last eight pages. But we do like the idea of taking what works in a modern age (better characterization, better logic, better art) and maybe, just maybe, making more comics that are, like the ones in the Silver Age, fun to read and even capable of attracting new readers, instead of catering to an ever shrinking readership that needs to be exposed to even more "shocking" moments to rouse themselves from their comics reading ennui