Why are bronze age comics so much better than any other era

Why are bronze age comics so much better than any other era

Frank Miller hadn't lost his mind yet

Modern storytelling minus decompression. There was actual character growth and plot progression.

God that model was so satisfying to look at.

Perfect balance of silliness and seriousness.

>Modern storytelling minus decompression
It can be really hit or miss. A lot of stories from that time period were still stuck in a very stinted and awkward writing style that doesn't hold up.

Wolfman's stuff comes to mind.

The first generation making comics that actually grew up reading comics. First generation that was college educated. First generation that chose a career in comics because it's what they always wanted. Guys who grew up in the 60's who did drugs and were into weird shit. Pure love for comics without cynicism or jaded bullshit. There was plenty of history to draw from and comics were ready to go deep emotionally or post-modern or political or pretty much anywhere else you wanted but you were still tethered by the release schedule and distribution method and need to draw in new readers so you couldn't go full self indulgence.

Paraphrasing Alan Moore, the Golden Age had one dimensional characters, the Silver Age bumped it to two and by the Bronze Age we had three dimensional characters.

From my shallow pool of experience:
>Better variety of villains than golden age, plus established single universe for heroes and villains
>More lasting consequence than the silver age stuff. Plus they're free of the comic code for story telling

I've always felt that Moore quote to be really self serving.

>stories weren't being retold
>despite being in the same universes, heroes could still do their own thing without taking each other's bullshit into account
>no shitty "hey lel look at these variant covers" to sell more issues
>Green Lantern hadn't tried to do the "LOOK AT ALL THESE DIFFERENT CORPS LOL" shit that didn't even stick around

>you were probably younger and less cynical while reading them

>>Green Lantern hadn't tried to do the "LOOK AT ALL THESE DIFFERENT CORPS LOL" shit that didn't even stick around
this is needlessly petty, user

>>Green Lantern hadn't tried to do the "LOOK AT ALL THESE DIFFERENT CORPS LOL" shit that didn't even stick around

user I think you forgot about some stuff.

Plus (and this is important), unlike subsequent generations of comics fans they actually had a life OUTSIDE comics and life experiences to draw on to write more complex characters and stories.
Compare today where comics is an almost absurdly niche form of entertainment that requires a lot of investment time and thus often precludes any other hobbies or even much of a social life to actually get "into".

In the Bronze Age people writing comics were just people who grew up reading comics and did other stuff too.
After the 1980's hit people who grew up reading comics were insular, nerdy losers who didn't have the kind of healthier breadth of life experience.

>After the 1980's hit people who grew up reading comics were insular, nerdy losers who didn't have the kind of healthier breadth of life experience.

Why did this happen, anyway?

comics stopped being for kids but people still saw them that way so people who read comics were ostracized

user those are literally just members of the GL corps, but in purple spandex. Look, the symbol is even the exact same

You know as well as I do that having the rainbow become a superhero was just lazy writing. Tell me one thing that the Compassion Corps can do, and then name one substantial thing they actually wound up doing

I can't just go ahead and call any era the best because all eras have produced good things. Even whatever era we are in now has nuggets of gold here and there. But the Bronze Age was extremely both for the Big Two and for independents (with the B&W indie explosion).

Unfortunately it was also the era that gave birth to event comics and the "shocking status quo change" as a publicity stunt, although it was still fresh at the time so people didn't hate it as much. They hated it, but not as much as today

maybe because he was better than a lot of the scrubs that came before

Money.
Marketing to younger nerds and manchildren with ridiculously continuity-heavy comics with alternate covers and shit that tied into multiple other issues and thus required you to buy even more comics with even more alternate covers and shit was vastly more profitable, even though it was basically unsustainable long-term and shattered the industry into what it is today.

Marvel definitely started the trend but DC is hardly without blame there and were just as happy to squeeze blood from the same stone given the chance.

why did you post a square of milk chocolate?

They stopped selling comics on newspaper stands and started selling them in specialist shops. Comics forever became a nerdy insular thing you had to seek out rather than something casual or every day like they are in Europe or Japan.

force bad guys to feel compassion with brainwashing

helped stop the Blackest Night

that's a bronze bar noob L2smith

It was more money and the effort to drive out/lock out casual readers because dedicated readers and collectors were more profitable.

>Green Lantern hadn't tried to do the "LOOK AT ALL THESE DIFFERENT CORPS LOL" shit that didn't even stick around
there are only 7 user calm your tits

Image was also deeply complicit in the transition

well yeah, kids don't have money

>brainwashing
Okay, so they're about as powerful as a CIA agent or one of those guys posting the "you mad, white boi?" threads on Sup Forums. Gotcha

>helped stop the Blackest Night
Jacking off in the corner while everyone else does all the important fighting only counts as "helping" in Overwatch, user

they did plenty of the important fighting, though. Their ability to copy other Lanterns' energy was integral to stopping all the Black Lanterns coming from space

That's about 5 too many

there's 9 but two of them are defunct

They aren't. The 80s was way better than the 70s.

i thought we were still in the bronze age

the 80s is still the Bronze Age until 1986

>Plus (and this is important), unlike subsequent generations of comics fans they actually had a life OUTSIDE comics and life experiences to draw on to write more complex characters and stories.
Compare today where comics is an almost absurdly niche form of entertainment that requires a lot of investment time and thus often precludes any other hobbies or even much of a social life to actually get "into".

Yea but this is sadly true for essentially all artists today where "art" is a college major and a lifestyle.

This fucking guy got kicked out of elementary school for beating up his principal and then spent his teenage years sleeping in boxcars and riding the rails until he got arrested for vagrancy and put on a chain gang which he then escaped from. He's not some millionaire banker's son who spent his childhood taking acting lessons at a private theater school and then buying his way into Juilliard and sitting around until his uncle calls up his Hollywood producer friend and gets him a role in the newest action movie.

All artists used to draw from life experience.

80s is still bronze age.

This also lasted all of 2 issues before being completely destroyed.

Nope. They were essentially the Sinestro corps. Same leader, same base, the works, they just used a different color from their leader because Johns forgot the material Sinestro uses for his rings has extreme scarcity.

6 too many. The Star Sapphires shouldn't mingle given their original purpose and Sinestro's ring couldn't be mass produced. That's a bit like demanding Evil Star get his own corps when you get down to it.

You opened with

>...that didn't even stick around.

Well no period is without its duds. It's just that the bronze age has fewer.

He's no Jack Kirby, user.