Scans_Daily

Back in ye goode olde days, Gotham villains didn't need no stinkin' telekinetic powers or rotting corpses to do their bidding. No, they got by through bein' tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties, and makin' it square. Well, as square as drug-running, arms-smuggling, "protection"-selling, and cold-blooded murder can be, anyways. Of course, the sheer snazziness of their character designs didn't hurt, either.

Like most of you, I imagine, I can't muster up any enthusiasm for the new Ventriloquist running through the pages of Gail Simone's Batgirl. As dull as I'd found Peyton Riley's story, I'd happily take her (preferably written by Paul Dini) over this SAW-wannabe any day.

But, as with many things in life, none can compare with the original.

( Old guys playing with dolls, behind the cut! )

We've seen the end of the Silver Age Batman in a previous post. But as a wise man who may or may not be a figment of my imagination once said: for every end, there is a beginning. And as DC comics plunged headlong into the 1970s, the first shots of Bronze Age Batman were delivered, loud and clear, with the January 1970 issue of Detective Comics.

It would probably be fair to say that this story broke just as many traditions - if not more - than its predecessor. This, after all, was a Batman story with no Wayne Manor or Batcave, no Alfred or Gordon, no Robin, and no Gotham. It's a straightforward, pulpy little yarn with quite a lot in common with the first Golden Age Batman stories - the dark atmosphere (literally as well as figuratively - it takes place over a single night, after all), the high-stakes clashes, the overtones of mysticism and magic (Silver Age Bat-comics preferred to shy away from such things; even Bat-Mite was explained through sci-fi mumbo-jumbo), and more.

And men who brought this story to us? Oh, just three little nobodies by the names of Denny O'Neil, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano.
( Darkness, death, and Batman the (arguable) murderer, all behind the cut! )

... let's have a look at the day that Dick Grayson graduated from high school after being held back for thirty years. And the historical implications for the Bat-comics surrounding it as a whole.

For different heroes (and their respective supporting casts) in the DC Universe, the exact moment of transition from "Golden Age" to "Silver Age" varied from "clear as day" - such as in the case of the Flash and Green Lantern, who had entirely new people take over the titles - to "muddled, vague, endlessly-debated mess" - as was the case with Superman and Batman.

The transition from "Silver Age" to "Bronze Age" was just as messy for many heroes, if not moreso. After all, unlike the jump from Golden to Silver, the jump from Silver to Bronze saw no retcon saying "Oh, all the comics published during [insert time period here] took place on this Earth, while the ones you're reading right now take place on this Earth!". A portion of comics fans and/or scholars today even deny the very existence of a "Bronze Age", choosing to lump all of the output from the 1970s to the mid-1980s (a rough approximation, mind you) into the Silver Age.

Still, there were definite changes in tone, art style, and story elements in most of DC's publications once the 1970s rolled around. Clark Kent, for one, became a TV News Anchor, while Oliver Queen picked up his (in)famous rough-edged personality and left-wing ideals (as well as his fabulous goatee).

For me, though, the clearest line in the sand - at least where DC's major heroes were concerned - was the one drawn in the Batman books.

(Note: 7 pages - and a cover - from Batman #217.)

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