Social relevance A concern with social issues had been a part of comic book stories since their beginnings: early Superman stories, for example, dealt with issues such as child mistreatment and working conditions for
minors. However, in the 1970s relevance became not only a feature of the stories, but also something that the books loudly proclaimed on their covers to promote sales. The Spider-Man drug issues were at the forefront of the trend of "social relevance" with comic books noticeably handling real-life issues. The above-mentioned
Green Lantern/Green Arrow series dealt not only with drugs, but other topics like racism and environmental degradation. The
X-Men titles, which were partly based on the premise that mutants were a metaphor for real-world minorities, became wildly popular. Other well-known "relevant" comics include the "
Demon in a Bottle", where
Iron Man confronts his alcoholism, and the socially conscious stories written by
Steve Gerber in such titles as
Howard the Duck and
Omega the Unknown. Issues regarding female empowerment became trends with female versions of popular male characters (
Spider-Woman,
Red Sonja,
Ms. Marvel,
She-Hulk).
Creator credit and labor agreements Writers and artists began getting a lot more credit for their creations, even though they were still ceding copyrights to the companies for whom they worked. Pencil Artists were allowed to keep their original artwork and sell it on the open market. When word got out that Superman's creators
Jerry Siegel and
Joe Shuster were living in poverty, artists such as Neal Adams,
Jerry Robinson and
Bernie Wrightson helped organize fellow artists to pressure DC in rectifying them and other pioneers from the 1930s and 1940s. Newer publishers, such as Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics, negotiated contracts in which creators retained copyright to their creations.
Minority superheroes One of the most significant developments during the period was a substantial rise in the number of black and other non-white minority superheroes. Before the 1970s, there had been very few non-white superheroes (Marvel Comics'
Black Panther and
Falcon introduced in 1966 and 1969, respectively, being notable exceptions) but starting in the early 1970s this began to change with the introduction of characters such as Marvel's
Luke Cage (who was the first black superhero featured in his own comic book in 1972) of the
Defenders,
Storm of the
X-Men,
Blade,
Monica Rambeau of the Avengers,
Misty Knight,
Shang-Chi, and
DC's Green Lantern
John Stewart,
Bronze Tiger,
Black Lightning,
Vixen and
Cyborg of
Teen Titans, many of whom were black (with the exception of Shang-Chi himself). Additionally, Jewish superheroes became more visible with the appearances of Marvel's
Kitty Pryde of the X-Men and
Moon Knight, respectively. Characters such as Luke Cage,
Mantis, Misty Knight, Shang-Chi and
Iron Fist have been seen by some as an attempt by Marvel Comics to cash in on the 1970s crazes for
kung fu films. However, these and other minority characters came into their own after these film trends faded, and became increasingly popular and important as time progressed. By the mid-1980s, Storm and Cyborg had become leaders of the
X-Men and
Teen Titans, respectively, and John Stewart briefly replaced
Hal Jordan as the lead character of the
Green Lantern title.1
Art styles Starting with Neal Adams' work in
Green Lantern/Green Arrow a newly sophisticated realism became the norm in the industry. Buyers would no longer be interested in the heavily stylized work of artists of the Silver Age or simpler cartooning of the Golden Age. The so-called "House Style" of DC tended to imitations of Adams' work, while Marvel adopted a more realistic version of Kirby's style. This change is sometimes credited to a new generation of artists influenced by the popularity of
EC Comics in the 1950s. Artists who could distinguish themselves from these House Styles would achieve some renown. Such names include
Berni Wrightson,
Jim Aparo,
Jim Starlin,
John Byrne,
Frank Miller,
George Pérez and
Howard Chaykin. A secondary line of comics at DC, headed by former EC Comics artist Joe Orlando and devoted to horror titles, established a differing set of styles and aggressively sought talent from Asia and Latin America.
Revival of the X-Men and the teen characters The
X-Men were originally created in 1963 by
Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby. However, the title never achieved the popularity of other Lee/Kirby creations, and by 1970, after a brief run with Neal Adams' more realistic Silver Age style, Marvel ceased publishing new material and the title was turned over to reprints. But in 1975 an "all-new, all-different" version of the X-Men was introduced by
Len Wein and
Dave Cockrum in
Giant-Size X-Men #1, with
Chris Claremont as uncredited assistant co-plotter. Claremont stayed as writer on just about all X-Men-related titles, including spinoffs, for the next sixteen years, after which other regular writers such as
Louise Simonson,
Fabian Nicieza and
Scott Lobdell joined and Claremont eventually left. One of the most apparent influences from this series was the creation of what became DC Comics' answer to X-Men's character-based storytelling style,
The New Teen Titans by
Marv Wolfman and
George Pérez, which became a highly successful and influential property in its own right. Wolfman would associate himself with the title for sixteen years, while Perez established a large fan base and a sought-after pencilling style. A
successful cartoon based on the Titans of the Bronze Age of Comics was launched in 2003, and lasted for four years.
Team-up books and anthologies During the Silver Age, comic books frequently had several features, a form harkening back to the Golden Age when the first comics were anthologies. In 1968, Marvel graduated its double feature characters appearing in their anthologies to full-length stories in their own comic. But several of these characters could not sustain their own title and were cancelled. Marvel tried to create new double feature anthologies such as
Amazing Adventures and
Astonishing Tales which did not last as double feature comic books. A more enduring concept was that of the team-up book, either combining two characters, at least one of which was not popular enough to sustain its own title (
Green Lantern/Green Arrow). Even DC combined two features in
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes and had team-up books (
The Brave and the Bold,
DC Comics Presents and ''
World's Finest Comics''). Virtually all such books disappeared by the end of the period.
Company crossovers Marvel and DC worked out several crossover titles the first of which was
Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man. This was followed by a second Superman and Spider-Man,
Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk and the
X-Men vs The New Teen Titans. Another title,
The Avengers vs. the Justice League of America was written by
Gerry Conway and drawn by
George Pérez with plotting by Roy Thomas, but was never published, reflecting the later animosity between the two companies. Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter was not pleased that DC wanted the fourth company crossover to include
The New Teen Titans, DC's best-selling title at the time, as he wanted the crossover to be the X-Men and the Legion of Super-Heroes. This led to Shooter's decision to stall and cancel the JLA/Avengers project.
Reprints Beginning around 1970, Marvel introduced vast numbers of reprints into the market, which played a key role in their becoming the overall market leader among comic publishers. Suddenly many titles featured reprints:
X-Men,
Sgt. Fury,
Kid Colt, Outlaw,
Rawhide Kid,
Two-Gun Kid,
Outlaw Kid,
Jungle Action,
Special Marvel Edition (the early issues),
War is Hell (the early issues),
Creatures on the Loose,
Monsters on the Prowl and
FEAR, to name just a few.
DC Implosion In the mid-'70s, DC launched numerous new titles such as
Jack Kirby's
New Gods and
Steve Ditko's
Shade, the Changing Man.
Jenette Kahn would eventually take the helm of the company in 1976. The company followed this up in 1978 with the "
DC Explosion" where the standard line of books increased in page count and 50 cent price. Many of these titles added backup features with various characters. However, DC greatly overestimated the appeal of so many new titles at once, sales dropped severely during the harsh 1978 winter and it nearly broke the company and the industry, including
Charlton Comics; this event has been called the "
DC Implosion". Marvel eventually gained 50% of the market and Stan Lee handed control of the comic division to
Jim Shooter while he worked with their growing animation spin-offs.
Non-superhero comics As the Bronze Age began in the early 1970s, popularity shifted away from the established superhero genre towards comic book titles from which superheroes were absent altogether. These non-superhero comics were typically inspired by genres like Westerns or fantasy & pulp fiction. As previously noted, 1971's revised Comics Code left the horror genre ripe for development and several supernaturally-themed series resulted, such as the popular
The Tomb of Dracula,
Ghost Rider and
Swamp Thing. In the science fiction genre,
post-apocalyptic survival stories were an early trend, as evidenced by characters like
Deathlok,
Killraven and
Kamandi. The long-running sci-fi/fantasy anthology comic magazine
Metal Hurlant and its American counterpart
Heavy Metal began publishing in the late '70s. Marvel's
Star Wars series was very popular with a nine-year run. Other titles began from characters originally found in 20th century pulp magazines or novels. Noteworthy examples are the long running titles
Conan the Barbarian and
Savage Sword of Conan (the latter was published as a magazine, bypassing the Comics Code), as well as
Master of Kung-Fu. The early success of these titles soon led to more pulp character adaptations (
Doc Savage,
Kull,
The Shadow,
Justice, Inc.,
Tarzan). During this period, Charlton,
Western Publishing/
Gold Key, Marvel and DC also regularly published official comic book adaptations for various projects, including popular films (
Planet of the Apes,
Godzilla, ''
Logan's Run, Indiana Jones, Jaws 2, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars), TV shows (The Six Million Dollar Man, Lost in Space, The
Man from Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, The A-Team, Welcome Back Kotter), toys (G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Transformers, Rom, Atari Force, Thundercats''), and even public figures (
Kiss,
Pope John Paul II). Though not necessarily "non-superhero", a few unconventional comic book series from the period featured one or more villains as their central character (
Super-Villain Team-Up,
Secret Society of Super Villains,
The Joker). ==Alternate markets and formats==