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scans_daily2014-12-31 11:21 pm
lego_joker) wrote in scans_daily2014-12-31 11:21 pm
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31 Days of Scans - Favorite Era of Comics: Dark Age
Yeah, I'm gonna get nailed to the wall for this, but this shouldn't really surprise anyone who has long-term familiarity with my posts. Granted, I'm talking about the late 80s-90s period as a whole instead of just the Image-infused years that everyone instantly thinks of when "Dark Age" is brought up, but there doesn't seem to be any other popular name for the Age as a whole. Heck, some people think that it hasn't really ended yet!
So why this Age? I'll admit... I'm a shallow bastard in many respects when it comes to my comics. The stories of the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages all have a certain charm about them, but the dialogue is just something I can't ever fully get over. No one ever uses one word when they can use five, even when they're supposed to be seconds away from horrible, painful death. Both the narrator and the thought bubbles hammer the same plot points over and over with all the nuance of a Wikipedia article. And all the character voices sound almost the same, to the point where tacking a stray "Ha-Ha!" or "Ho-Ho!" in the Joker's speech bubbles looks like a genius innovation.
In that sense, the leaner, sparser dialogue style of more modern comics is a godsend. In the interest of fairness, though, I will say that I don't care much for overly flippant, pop-culture-stuffed speech, which also seems to be popular in modern comic-book dialogue. But when this:
Goes up against this:
The latter's gonna win every time.
Aside from execution, we have the matter of content. I will be the first to acknowledge that the writers of the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages had some pretty revolutionary imaginations - hell, much as we take him for granted today, Superman himself was a rather bold innovation circa 1938. And since the top writers back then often pumped out hundreds of scripts over their careers, they would come up with dozens - or at least half a dozen - brilliant ideas that are well worth revisiting in modern times.
But tragically, those ideas - no matter how brilliant - were inevitably bound by the iron Status Quo. Superman's mermaid girlfriend was obviously never going to overtake Lois in his affections, Kandor was never going to return to normal size, and Batman would never use one of his pals' handy-dandy time machines to undo the Wayne murders.
I know that today's status quo isn't a lot more flexible, but what has changed is the number of stories that writers are allowed to place out of continuity, out of lockstep with both the content and the style of the "mainstream" tales. It was the Dark Age that brought forth things like Legends of the Dark Knight and Batman: Black and White, places where creators could let their imaginations and personal takes on a character run wild, continuity be damned. Granted, sometimes this leads to All-Star Batman and Robin, but sometimes it leads to Eisner-worthy stories like Ted McKeever's "Perpetual Mourning" or Archie Goodwin's "Heroes".
Tying into the above, there's the matter of art styles. The earlier periods seemed to have a more strictly-enforced house style, which, combined with the more limited coloring palette, meant that it was more difficult to tell one creative team from another art-wise as well as story-wise. Sure, the discerning eye could easily tell a Don Newton apart from a Gene Colan, but even a newbie would never mistake a Norm Breyfogle:
For, say, a Kelley Jones:
You may or may not like both of the styles (I've met few people who do), but the emphasis on variety is welcome.
Returning to story for a bit - I know better than to claim that the Dark Age invented deconstructive superhero storytelling, but there's a certain rawness to its deconstructive stories that gets to me every time. Maybe it's just the faded quality of the art at work, maybe not...
(Incidentally, I want to kick off a Peter Milligan tribute event kind of thing when 2015 rolls in. A lot of writers have tried to tell Vertigo stories with Batman, but I feel Milligan is the only one who ever succeeded.)
Admittedly, I can't speak for all of the Dark Age. My experiences are 90% Batman, and from what I hear, he actually got off relatively light compared to everyone else in the superhero game. I dunno, maybe Marvel and Image had some truly atrocious things going on in the Dark Age that justifies all the animosity towards it.
But lastly, and most importantly...
I just can't hate an Age with this scene in it. I just can't.
Have a happy New Year, everyone!
So why this Age? I'll admit... I'm a shallow bastard in many respects when it comes to my comics. The stories of the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages all have a certain charm about them, but the dialogue is just something I can't ever fully get over. No one ever uses one word when they can use five, even when they're supposed to be seconds away from horrible, painful death. Both the narrator and the thought bubbles hammer the same plot points over and over with all the nuance of a Wikipedia article. And all the character voices sound almost the same, to the point where tacking a stray "Ha-Ha!" or "Ho-Ho!" in the Joker's speech bubbles looks like a genius innovation.
In that sense, the leaner, sparser dialogue style of more modern comics is a godsend. In the interest of fairness, though, I will say that I don't care much for overly flippant, pop-culture-stuffed speech, which also seems to be popular in modern comic-book dialogue. But when this:
Goes up against this:
The latter's gonna win every time.
Aside from execution, we have the matter of content. I will be the first to acknowledge that the writers of the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages had some pretty revolutionary imaginations - hell, much as we take him for granted today, Superman himself was a rather bold innovation circa 1938. And since the top writers back then often pumped out hundreds of scripts over their careers, they would come up with dozens - or at least half a dozen - brilliant ideas that are well worth revisiting in modern times.
But tragically, those ideas - no matter how brilliant - were inevitably bound by the iron Status Quo. Superman's mermaid girlfriend was obviously never going to overtake Lois in his affections, Kandor was never going to return to normal size, and Batman would never use one of his pals' handy-dandy time machines to undo the Wayne murders.
I know that today's status quo isn't a lot more flexible, but what has changed is the number of stories that writers are allowed to place out of continuity, out of lockstep with both the content and the style of the "mainstream" tales. It was the Dark Age that brought forth things like Legends of the Dark Knight and Batman: Black and White, places where creators could let their imaginations and personal takes on a character run wild, continuity be damned. Granted, sometimes this leads to All-Star Batman and Robin, but sometimes it leads to Eisner-worthy stories like Ted McKeever's "Perpetual Mourning" or Archie Goodwin's "Heroes".
Tying into the above, there's the matter of art styles. The earlier periods seemed to have a more strictly-enforced house style, which, combined with the more limited coloring palette, meant that it was more difficult to tell one creative team from another art-wise as well as story-wise. Sure, the discerning eye could easily tell a Don Newton apart from a Gene Colan, but even a newbie would never mistake a Norm Breyfogle:
For, say, a Kelley Jones:
You may or may not like both of the styles (I've met few people who do), but the emphasis on variety is welcome.
Returning to story for a bit - I know better than to claim that the Dark Age invented deconstructive superhero storytelling, but there's a certain rawness to its deconstructive stories that gets to me every time. Maybe it's just the faded quality of the art at work, maybe not...
(Incidentally, I want to kick off a Peter Milligan tribute event kind of thing when 2015 rolls in. A lot of writers have tried to tell Vertigo stories with Batman, but I feel Milligan is the only one who ever succeeded.)
Admittedly, I can't speak for all of the Dark Age. My experiences are 90% Batman, and from what I hear, he actually got off relatively light compared to everyone else in the superhero game. I dunno, maybe Marvel and Image had some truly atrocious things going on in the Dark Age that justifies all the animosity towards it.
But lastly, and most importantly...
I just can't hate an Age with this scene in it. I just can't.
Have a happy New Year, everyone!
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