Parameters of the Silver Age

This column offers an attempt to define the beginning and end of that period known popularly as the comics' "Silver Age." The model it proposes does not posit a single date to represent the end of the period; rather, the culmination of certain processes, which may have occurred later or taken longer in certain comics titles, serves to define the end of the period and the beginning of the next age of comics.

I apologize in advance if this seems long-winded or complex; a simple definition I sometimes use states that the Silver Age ended when comics noticeably failed to satisfy as they had before. Such a claim, however, requires some justification, and some establishment of trends and boundaries.

When Did the Silver Age Begin?

The canon pronounces Showcase, which began the 30-year career of DC's second Flash, as the beginning of the Silver Age. This point serves well, since it reflected the beginnings of a new interest in the superheroic idiom. Arguments claiming that the obscure Captain Comet ushered in the era represent mere attempts to haggle over priority, much like the various claims by various cultures to have "discovered" America.

Captain Comet belonged to the science fiction comics that rose and fell in the interregnum between Golden and Silver Age comics, and did not, by his appearance, become part of or lead to developments that would revive the diminished superhero comic medium. Indeed, he vanished from comics altogether shortly after his first appearance, and did not reappear until the late seventies in a quirky touch where writers and editors decided to reintroduce him in Secret Society of Super-Villains. Therefore, we can dismiss his claim to priority even if he enjoys a minor seniority over the Barry Allen Flash and the balance of the recreated superheroes of DC in the 1960s.

The Flash proved a seminal creation because his reappearance in a new form stimulated DC comics to recreate other figures from the Silver Age. In a fairly short order, DC reintroduced versions of Green Lantern, the Atom, and Hawkman, who, with Golden Age holdovers Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, would prove the basis of DC's successful Justice League of America title, a work that itself inspired increased interest in superheroes and some imitation outside of the company.

The Flash, in Showcase, in 1956, therefore provided the spark that lit the fuse of a superhero explosion that involved a renewed interest in DC heroes and the creation of an entire new universe of Marvel superheroes. Regardless of the disinterest that ultimately killed his title and the character himself, superheroes created after 1956 can consider him father or grandfather, even the Lee-Kirby creations that built on an altogether novel interpretation of the superhero per se.

What Did the Silver Age Include

In DC's case, we can mention the recreation of characters like the Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, and Hawkman; the rediscovery of Golden Age characters like Aquaman and Green Arrow and non-DC creations like the Blackhawks and Plastic Man; the creation of altogether new characters like the Martian Manhunter, Hawk & Dove, Adam Strange, and quite a few others; the formation of superhero teams like the Justice League and Teen Titans from a mixture of surviving, recreated, and new sources; the introduction of key DC universe concepts like the multiverse, which allowed the reuse of the Golden Age Justice Society; and a general expansion of the number and type of superhero comics available. Amid all of this, a number of new talents came into superhero comics, such as Neal Adams, Jim Aparo, Dennis O'Neil, and Jim Shooter; and others came into their prime, like Gil Kane.

In Marvel's case, the Silver Age involved both the creation of an entirely new superhero universe and a new editorial model to go with it. Lee's model would integrate the whole of Marvel's superhero publications in an interconnected model describable as "the Marvel universe," providing a standard for continuity and permeability that would, in limited doses, turn what once appeared as unrelated stories into components of a mythos. At the same time, Lee imposed a human face on the superhero that deviated from the iconic model DC still occasionally tries to use as a template for characters. Consider Marvel creations from the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, and derivative teams like the Inhumans, all to date from the Silver Age; also, the rediscovered Sub-Mariner and Captain America, although definitely Golden Age products, nonetheless became serious players in the comics market more in the Silver Age than the Golden.

When Did the Silver Age End?

Of those of us who remember the Silver Age well enough to speak of it in capital letters, no real consensus exists about the end of the Silver Age. If one must posit a date, figures between 1968 (the beginning of the sales slump in superhero comics) and 1985 (Crisis on Infinite Earths) come to mind.

How you enclose the Silver Age depends upon how you define it. Did it constitute a sequence of stories and end with these stories? Or did it center on the rare interplay of talent that made an entire series of works, across company lines, excel? My own definition tends to involve the presence of exceptional talent suffering exceptional inspiration, and since the talent and inspiration tended to move at different times on different titles, I must close down the Silver Age differently for different magazines.

1. The Silver Age tended to end with a culminating period of exceptional writing and art on particular titles.
2. The Silver Age sometimes ended with a specific story line on some titles (although such points often accompany a change of staff).
3. The Silver Age sometimes slowly faded from a title (some titles retained their Silver Age standards even into the subsequent years, but the Age itself had passed).

These titles have clear Silver Age boundaries:

• Superman: the Silver Age for Superman ended when Dennis O'Neil left the title, after a significant, if short run, with Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. The O'Neil/Swan/Anderson days represented a culmination of Silver Age standards and also an attempt to revise the Superman concept to carry him to the next era of comics. Therefore, this period represents a door between the Silver Age and what would follow.
• Green Lantern: the Silver Age ended for Green Lantern with the end of the Denis O'Neil/Neal Adams/Dick Giordano stories. This was concurrent with the cancellation of the title. That phase of the title involved a move from the simple adventure story into a more deep and complex storytelling that attempted a sounder characterization and a greater connection to the "real world" through topical content. Like Superman, the end of this run would represent a bridge from the Silver Age to a subsequent period made possible by changing editorial standards and higher artistic ones.
• Fantastic Four: the Silver Age for this title began with issue #1; the Silver Age ended when Stan Lee wrote his last story for the title, sometime shortly after Jack Kirby left (according to Marvel hype, Lee wrote no stories for Marvel between 1972 and 1979). Arguably, the Silver Age for this title ended with the departure of Kirby around issue #100. The difference involves splitting hairs, especially considering the short span of time involved and the excellent use of period artists John Romita, Sr. and John Buscema, whose work helped define the Silver Age.
• Avengers: the Silver Age for this title began with issue #1; the Silver Age ended with Avengers #97, which ended an excellent period of lineup of both characters, talent, and storylines. One could also argue that Roy Thomas' departure marked the end of the Silver Age for this title, although this unfairly slights Steve Englehart, who retained the feel of the age in work that dated after the period's end.
• Wonder Woman: the Silver Age ended for Wonder Woman with the remaking of Wonder Woman as a powerless, costumeless, romantically unattached character with a guru. This twelfth-hour to paint hipness on a character who had suffered from editorial mistreatment in the sixties represented an admission of defeat and a pleading attempt to audiences to regard the character as contemporary and trendy. The return of the costumed Wonder Woman in the mid-seventies occurred too late for this character to enjoy any benefit from a Silver Age heritage; and during the age proper, the concept enjoyed some excellent Ross Andru art but little in the way of the revised Lee editorial model that began to infuse itself throughout the whole of the medium.
• The Atom, Hawkman, the Spectre and others: the Silver Age ended for these characters with the cancellation of their titles in the mid-to-late 1960s.

• Batman: this title entered the Silver Age with the influence of "camp" from the television show on the comics (which represented an irrefutable concession to the 1960s) and ended, roughly, with the departure of the O'Neil/Adams/Giordano team from regular creative duties on the title. This team would do later stories, after having completely redefined the character in a fashion truer to his roots than the baggage-burdened caricature of most of the 1960s; but, again, this redefinition formed a door between the Silver Age, when such rethinkings could altogether remake a superhero concept, and the next period, where such developments would allow a number of properties to coast.
• Justice League: This title eludes easy classification for the terminal dates of the Silver Age. Possibly the completion of its structure for the next period constitutes such a delimitation. The first days of the Justice League saw the introduction of science fiction concepts, including the entire "parallel earth" premise DC used to explain the cancellation of most of its superhero comics in the Golden Age; later days saw changes in the team as the Marvel editorial model sank in, including the beginnings of intrateam romances, after the inclusion of Black Canary. Tentatively, I propose that the period between the departure of the Martian Manhunter in 1968 and the introduction of Black Canary as a Justice Leaguer could represent the change of ages in this title.
• Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes: Dave Cockrum's short span on this title obviously breaks the Silver Age and post- periods. Cockrum revised the LSH concept with a view that derived from Marvel-influenced standards. His work laid the basis for the concept's transition from its fifties origins to its future; he brought the team from 1958 to 1973.

I could carry this exercise on for other titles, but the points seem obvious, albeit intuitively, to me. In Marvel's case and in some of the DC cases, the loss of the talent of the high period of the Silver Age tends to define the end of that period; in DC's cases, the adoption of Marvel-influenced editorial standards and/or the end of a great leap forward and/or the changing of the artistic guard tends to define the end.

Difficult Definitions

Having said all this, it becomes obvious that I admit to imprecise thinking about the end of the Silver Age. A mixture of changes in the superhero concept and the talent that presented it all ended this extremely fertile period; however, I stand by my opinion that the age ended at different times for different titles in the same fashion that the age of monarchs ended at different times for different countries.

You may note that I define the end of this period at perhaps uncomfortably early dates. Consider, though, the tendency of titles to drift or coast immediately after the periods I mention; consider the not-quite element of the titles in the aftermath of the changes I mention. You could define the Silver Age differently, perhaps bracketing it between the Barry Allen Flash and the "New" X-Men (now in their 24th year), or Fantastic Four #1 and Crisis on Infinite Earths #1, or any of a number of thoughtful and clever ways.

In my case, I can rely on memory; in each case, I suddenly found myself enjoying the comics less than I had. Sometimes this change did not involve much of a loss (I still relish the immediately post-Kirby Fantastic Four); in other cases, I lost interest in the title altogether as I tired of waiting for the return of quality to levels I remembered.

In 1983, I got tired of waiting, and essentially gave up comics until 1996, when an entirely new and not altogether pleasant market awaited newcomers and prodigal readers. Even after researching the work of this period, and seeing high points like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, I find little need to regret my decision, and, perhaps naively, entertain some hope that a similar period of inspiration may someday shake the foundations of the art form.

The medium deserves something that will inspire nostalgia rather than satisfy it.

For way more on the subject of the Silver Age than I could ever know or write, and so many Silver Age graphics your modem will die of exhaustion retrieving it all, visit the Cheeks the Toy Wonder Page at http://www.toywonder.simplenet.com.