Is it just me or have we reached a point in which we can identify characteristics of the current era of comic books?

Is it just me or have we reached a point in which we can identify characteristics of the current era of comic books?

I don't have any catchy name for it like "Golden," "Silver," or anything so I won't bother. I am partial to Diamond Age or Millennium Age though. I think that it started some time after the industry crashed following the collapse of the speculator boom. Comics like pic related mark the beginning.

Characteristics include (but not necessarily limited to):
> Writers and Artists mutually recognized and furthermore recognized as creative teams

> Celebration of comic book history.

> The pervasive edginess of the Iron Age lost ground.

> Film and television stylistic influence in both the art and the writing.

> Reconstruction/Post-Reconstruction > Deconstruction/Post-Deconstruction

> Turning away from the reinvention of characters in favor emphasizing their classic or iconic qualities and finding fresh takes on them

> Similarly, digging up forgotten, obscure, backwater characters and breathing new life into them

> Annual crossover events became the primary business model

What is your take on it all Sup Forums?

No such thing as an "Iron Age", it was called the Dark Age.

"Ages" and "Waves" and "Movements" or whatever you want to call it are dead across all forms of art on the whole thanks to the internet, post modernism, niche markets etc. etc.

You can call a group of years anything you want but there's never gonna be characteristics or trends that describe a whole group of independent creators again.

>I don't have any catchy name for it like "Golden," "Silver," or anything so I won't bother.

You understand that "Golden Age" and "Silver Age" are universally recognized terms that refer to periods of history in civilizations, trades, "art forms", or industries, right? They aren't just some shit comic fans thought "sounded cool".

There is no fact in your post.

That's just not how shit works. That's not how words work, that's not how ANYTHING works.

Look up "Dark Age of comics" versus "Iron Age of comics". See which one yields you more results.

There's also currently a very distinctive aesthetic style, practicool. I do believe this will be as iconic for this period of comics as XTREME was for the 90s.

>> Celebration of comic book history.
Are you making a joke?

>current era of comic books?
>Turning away from the reinvention of characters in favor emphasizing their classic or iconic qualities and finding fresh takes on them

current era of DC books you mean

>Film and television stylistic influence in both the art and the writing

"Widescreen Comics" thanks to Bryan Hitch on The Authority and Ultimates.

Taking all the wrong lessons from another visual medium. He just made movies that without motion

> Writers and Artists mutually recognized and furthermore recognized as creative teams

I feel like in the mainstream writers overshadow the artists right now. Johns, Morrison, Bendis, Hickman, Kirkman, Millar, etc

>I feel like in the mainstream writers overshadow the artists right now. Johns, Morrison, Bendis, Hickman, Kirkman, Millar, etc
it's true, but I would also like to mention hickman is an artist as well, and guys like brandon graham are always pushing for the artists to be recognized more. even tom king was like, "no guys pay attention to david finch his stuff's actually good this time around"

>Writers and Artists mutually recognized and furthermore recognized as creative teams
>The pervasive edginess of the Iron Age lost ground.
>Film and television stylistic influence in both the art and the writing.

Agreed, definitely.

> Reconstruction/Post-Reconstruction > Deconstruction/Post-Deconstruction
> Turning away from the reinvention of characters in favor emphasizing their classic or iconic qualities and finding fresh takes on them
>Annual crossover events became the primary business model

A lot of this focuses too much on capes, IMO (although they're by far the biggest comics in this age, too). Crossovers were a big deal in the past, as well.

>Similarly, digging up forgotten, obscure, backwater characters and breathing new life into them

Eh. The "Iron" age, as you call it, felt like it did that more. Besides maybe King's upcoming Batman stuff and what Marvel has announced for the new Now!, I think the "Iron Age" did more of this.

>practicool

This, this, this. Great observation.

I'd say "practical" costumes, for both female and male characters, is a BIG difference between the modern age and what came before.

I say "Dark Age" covers TDKR to the mid-2000's. It's disputed because that contains Watchmen, CoIE, Secret Wars, Jim Lee's X-Men and Liefeld's X-Force, MacFarlane and the speculator boom, the rise of indie comics, Vertigo, Milestone, Tim Burton's Batman, DC legacies, digital coloring, and many other things that were huge events in comics history. But ask me, all of that was occurring in the shadow of Watchmen and TDKR and what they started.

Next there was what could almost be called the Bendis Age because of how distinctly decompressed stories became in the early 2000's. This all seemed to follow movies like X-Men, and the Ultimate line is a perfect example. Avengers Disassembled and Identity Crisis set the standard for comics that would go on to around 2012.

Our current age is just beginning but is already starting to develop distinctive characteristics, such as influence from MCU movies and other media versions, less focus on continuity, non-cape creator owned comics becoming a bigger slice of the market because of TV and movie adaptations, and a bigger focus on collected stories over monthly.

>I would also like to mention hickman is an artist as well
On what? Is he like Bendis, Brubaker, or Remender who all started out drawing their own stuff before giving it up once they got noticed?

Also, to add to this:

If I were to give this current age a name, it'd be the "Glossy" Age of comics.

A lot of effort, in both capes and indies, is put into "polishing" out any weirdness -- any comic-only kind of things -- so that they can be adapted almost straight-to-screen. This, of course, is due to the increasing interest in American comics from cape films.

So, things like sexy costumes on female characters get polished out; weird, old supervillains get slightly updated. On the indie side, you see concepts and executions that are more straightforward, so that they can be adapted with ease (compared to the more numerous number of "weird" indie comics in the 80s/90s).

In general, series are shorter, getting rid of the "ugliness" of a big number on the cover and replacing it with a shiny #1. Electronic reading -- on tablets, in particular -- is more popular now than ever and less like an inferior option to either trades or floppies.

I wouldn't be surprised if, during this era:
* We see the destruction of Diamond, or a significant move away from the LCS-only model (at least so that Amazon can sell floppies, for instance).

He hasn't done his own art since 2008. I think he realized there was more money in being a writer, when you're that high-profile.

> practicool
> Decompressed storytelling
> "Glossing over" / "polishing"
Nice observations.

The "Wood Age" is what we should call it. The writing is overall wooden. Political agendas, needless pests, are being put into comics like termites in wood. Shoehorned diversity characters are everywhere, taking away the identites of beloved characters. There's a shitty design style for this era, super function-over-form. It's gonna be looked back on like we look back on the 90's, because this is "The 90's 2: The Return"

Looks like OP was valid if in the minority to me.

With any hope, Marvel's real plan is to turn all of these diversity hires into their own characters. Jim Rhodes climbed into the Iron Man suit and then became War Machine after Tony Stark returned for example.

I mean, Bendis was like a boardwalk caricaturist