Comics Trivia | 100 trivia & facts about Comic books [Part 5]

The Modern Age of comic books is the age that made the medium popular. Many superheroes made their leap into films and became part of pop culture.

After the Bronze Age, the Modern Age of comics revolutionised the medium. So let’s find out some more things about this age.

The Modern Age of Comic Books is a period in the history of American superhero comic books which is generally considered to have begun in the mid-1980s and continues through the present day
During approximately the first 15 years of this period, many comic book characters were redesigned, creators gained prominence in the industry, independent comics flourished, and larger publishing houses became more commercialized
An alternative name for this period is the Dark Age of Comic Books, due to the popularity and artistic influence of titles with serious content, such as Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen
Because the time period encompassing the Modern Age is not well defined, and in some cases disputed by both fans and most professionals, a comprehensive history is open to debate
Many influences from the Bronze Age of Comic Books would overlap with the infancy of the Modern Age
The work of creators such as John Byrne (Alpha Flight, Fantastic Four), Chris Claremont (Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men), and Frank Miller (Daredevil) would reach fruition in the Bronze Age but their impact was still felt in the Modern Age
The Uncanny X-Men is the most definitive example of this impact as Bronze Age characters such as Wolverine and Sabretooth would have a huge influence on the Marvel Universe in the 1980s and beyond
For DC, Crisis on Infinite Earths is the bridge that joins the two ages
The result was the cancellation of The Flash (with issue 350), Superman (with issue 423), and Wonder Woman (with issue 329)
The post-Crisis world would have Wally West as the new Flash, John Byrne writing a brand-new Superman series, and George Pérez working on a new Wonder Woman series
Batman would also get a makeover as the Batman: Year One storyline would be one of the most popular Batman stories ever published
The late 1970s saw famed creators going to work for new independent publishers
The arrival of Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief at Marvel Comics saw the departure of key creators at Marvel such as Steve Gerber, Marv Wolfman, and others. In these new companies (Pacific, Eclipse, First) creators were free to create very personal stories
Mike Grell’s Jon Sable Freelance, Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg!, Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s Nexus, Dave Steven’s Rocketeer and John Ostrander’s GrimJack attracted some attention and garnered a number of awards
These creators were brought in by DC editor Mike Gold to create defining works such as Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters by Grell, Blackhawk by Chaykin, and Hawkworld by Truman. With Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and Art Spiegelman’s Maus (which would later receive the Pulitzer Prize), this period marks the summit of the artform per comics expert Scott McCloud
The Comics Code Authority was established in 1954, and specified that no comic should contain the words “horror” or “terror” in its title
This led EC Comics to abandon its horror comics line
Publishers such as Dell and Gold Key comics did run an expanding line of silver-age horror and “mystery” titles during the early 1960s, and Charlton maintained a continuous publishing history of them, during the later 1960s
A gradual loosening of enforcement standards eventually led to the re-establishment of horror titles within the DC and Marvel lineups by the end of the decade
Since this genre’s evolution does not neatly match the hero-dominated transitional phases that are usually used to demarcate different eras of comic books, it is necessary to understand this “silver age” and “bronze age” background
1970s horror anthology series merely continued what had already been established during the late 1960s, and endured into the 1980s until they were markedly transformed into new formats, many of which were greatly influenced by, or directly reprinted, “pre-code” content and styles of the early 1950s
Starting with Alan Moore’s groundbreaking work on DC’s Swamp Thing in the early 1980s, horror comic books incorporated elements of science fiction/fantasy and strove to a new artistic standard
Other examples include Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (followed a few years later by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Preacher)
DC’s Vertigo line, under the editorship of Karen Berger, was launched in 1993, with the goal of specializing in this genre
Existing titles such as Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Hellblazer, and Shade, the Changing Man were absorbed into this new line
Other titles later were created for the line, which continued successfully into the 2010s
Starting in the 1990s and throughout the 2000s, a number of successful movie adaptations of comic books, partly due to improvements in special effect technology, helped to extend their market audience, attracting the attention of many new readers who previously had not been interested in comic books
This also led to an avalanche of other comic book adaptations which included previously lesser known Vertigo titles, notably Constantine (based on the comic book Hellblazer) and V for Vendetta
In the mid-1970s, Marvel antiheroes such as the X-Men’s Wolverine, the Punisher, and writer/artist Frank Miller’s darker version of Daredevil challenged the previous model of the superhero as a cheerful humanitarian
Miller also created Elektra, who straddled the conventional boundary between love interest and villain
Two artistically influential DC Comics limited series contributed to the trend: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, also by Frank Miller and Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, both of which were series of psychological depth that starred troubled heroes
By the late 1980s DC had published many mature titles such as John Constantine, Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, and Lobo
They featured morally ambiguous characters such as the cynical John Constantine and the violence-loving Lobo with graphic violence and adult content that differentiated them from other mainstream titles
DC later separated these titles to their launched Vertigo imprint that publishes titles outside of the DC Universe
By the early 1990s, antiheroes had become the rule rather than the exception, and among the most popular were Marvel Comics’ Cable and Venom and Image Comics’ Spawn
The trend of creating characters with more psychological depth that were less black-and-white, also affected supervillains
For example, the Joker, Batman’s nemesis, was portrayed less as an evil criminal and more as a mentally ill psychopath who cannot control his actions, Marvel Comics’ galactic planet-eater Galactus became a force of nature who means no personal malice in his feedings, and the X-Men’s nemesis Magneto became more benign and sympathetic as a man who fights for an oppressed people, albeit through means that others deem unacceptable
By the mid-1980s, X-Men had become one of the most popular titles in comics
Marvel decided to build on this success by creating a number of spin-off titles, sometimes collectively referred to as “X-Books”
These early X-Books included New Mutants (which would later become X-Force), X-Factor, Excalibur, and a Wolverine solo series
There were many new popular additions to the X-Men in the 1990s, including Cable and Bishop
By the early 1990s, X-Men had become the biggest franchise in comics, and by the middle of the decade over a dozen X-Men-related comic books, both continuing and limited series, were published each month
On an almost annual basis from 1986 until 1999, one storyline crossed-over into almost every X-Book for two to three months
These “X-Overs” usually led to a spike in sales
This sales boom resulted in a great deal of merchandising, such as action figures, video games and trading cards
This success was thanks in no small part to the Fox Network’s animated X-Men series
The series debuted in 1992 and drew in a large number of younger fans
The sales boom began to wane in the mid to late 1990s, due to the crash of the speculators’ market and the effect it had on the industry
Marvel declared bankruptcy in 1996 and as a result, scaled back all of their franchises, including X-Men
A number of “X-books” were canceled, and the amount of limited series published, as well as general merchandise, was reduced
In the early 2000s, a series of blockbuster X-Men movies have kept the X-Men franchise healthy, and have resulted in a larger market presence outside of comics
In 1999–2000, a new animated series, X-Men: Evolution debuted, while new toys have been developed and sold since the success of the first X-Men feature film
The comic books themselves have been reinvented in series such as Grant Morrison’s New X-Men and the Ultimate X-Men
The Ultimate X-Men, like Marvel’s other “Ultimate” series, is an alternative universe story, starting the X-Men tale anew
This was done for X-Men, and other books, because Marvel feared that the long and complex histories of the established storylines of certain titles were scaring off new readers
Many series tried to imitate the model the X-Men carved as a franchise
Marvel and DC expanded popular properties, such as Punisher, Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman into networks of spin-off books in the mid-to-late 1980s
Like the X-Books, some of these spin-offs highlighted a concept or supporting character(s) from a parent series, while others were simply additional monthly series featuring a popular character
In another similarity to the X-Books, these franchises regularly featured crossovers, in which one storyline overlapped into every title in the “family” for a few months
With regards to storylines overlapping, the Superman stories from 1991–2000 were written on a weekly basis
One needed to buy Superman, Adventures of Superman, Action Comics, and Superman: The Man of Steel (and eventually, Superman: The Man of Tomorrow) to keep up with any existing storylines
If a collector only bought Action Comics, they would only get twenty-five percent of the story
A triangle was featured on the cover of every Superman title with a number on it
This number indicated which week of the year the Superman title was released
Complementing the creation of these franchises was the concept of redesigning the characters
The impact of Crisis on Infinite Earths was the first example as Supergirl died in issue 7, and long-time Flash (Barry Allen) died in issue 8
Specifically, Barry Allen signified the beginning of the Silver Age of Comics and his death was highly shocking at the time
Marvel Comics’ Secret Wars would usher in a new change as well as Spider-Man would wear a black costume
This costume change led to the development of the character Venom
The interest in the speculator market of a new Spider-Man costume led to other changes for Marvel characters in the 1980s
Iron Man would have a silver and red armor in issue 200
Captain America would be fired and would be reborn as the Captain, wearing a black outfit in issue 337 of the series
The Incredible Hulk would revert to his original grey skin color in issue 325
Issue 300 of the first Avengers series resulted in a new lineup including Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, of the Fantastic Four
Within the decade, Wolverine would switch to a brown and yellow costume, Thor would be replaced by Thunderstrike, Archangel would emerge as the X-Men’s Angel’s dark counterpart after serving as one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen, and many other Marvel characters would have complete image overhauls
The changes to Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine and most other Marvel characters would be undone in the early 1990s
The 1990s would bring similar changes to the DC Universe, including the death of Superman and the crippling of Bruce Wayne in 1993
The only lasting change was Kyle Rayner replacing Hal Jordan as Green Lantern
In addition to individual character or franchise/family wide makeovers, Crisis on Infinite Earths ushered in a popular trend of “rebooting”, “remaking” or greatly reimagining the publisher-wide universes every 5–10 years on varying scales
This often resulted in origins being retold, histories being rewritten, and so forth
These reinventions could be on as large a scale as suddenly retconning seminal story points and rewriting character histories, or simply introducing and/or killing off/writing out various important and minor elements of a universe
Crisis on Infinite Earths resulted in several miniseries which explicitly retconned character histories, such as Batman: Year One, Superman: Man of Steel and Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals
An example of a less ambitious scale of changes is Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters, which did not explicitly retcon or retell Green Arrow’s history, but simply changed his setting and other elements of the present, leaving the past largely intact
This trend of publisher wide reinventions, which often consists of a new miniseries and various spinoff storylines in established books, continued for decades, with DC’s New 52 in 2011 and Marvel’s Secret Wars in 2015
In the mid-1980s, artist Jack Kirby, co-creator of many of Marvel’s most popular characters, came into dispute with Marvel over the disappearance of original pages of artwork from some of his most famous titles
Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and many other contemporary stars became vocal advocates for Kirby
By the early 1990s, these events, as well as the influence of vocal proponents of independent publishing, helped to inspire a number of Marvel artists to form their own company, Image Comics
The company would serve as a prominent example of creator-owned comics publishing
Marvel artists such as X-Men’s Jim Lee, The New Mutants/X-Force’s Rob Liefeld and Spider-Man’s Todd McFarlane were extremely popular and were idolized by younger readers in ways more common to professional athletes and rock musicians than comic book artists
Propelled by star power and upset that they did not own the popular characters they created for Marvel, several illustrators, including the above three formed Image Comics in 1992, an umbrella label under which several autonomous, creator-owned companies existed
Image properties, such as WildC.A.T.s, Gen¹³, Witchblade and especially McFarlane’s Spawn provided brisk competition for long-standing superheroes
Image in particular is singled out by some critics for contributing to the conditions which led to the speculator market crashing, as Image titles favored alternative covers, foil covers, and other “collectible” comics
Many popular creators followed Image’s lead and attempted to use their star power to launch their own series and ones for which they would have licensing rights and editorial control
Chris Claremont, famous for his long run as the writer of Uncanny X-Men, created Sovereign Seven for DC
Joe Madureira, also made popular by Uncanny X-Men, launched Battle Chasers for WildStorm Productions
Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, and Brent Anderson created Astro City for Image
In 1993, a coalition of African-American writers and artists started Milestone Comics, believing that minority characters were underrepresented in American superhero comics
Some of the company’s better-known series include Static, about an African-American teen who became Milestone’s key character, Hardware, an example of Afrofuturism, Icon, about an alien mimicking the appearance of an African-American, and Blood Syndicate, a series about a multicultural gang of superheroes
All of these flagship titles were co-created by Dwayne McDuffie
In 1997, the Milestone Universe merged with the DC Universe