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The impact of socially relevance stories in the late 1960’s

The 1960's was a rough and confusing time for the United States. During the late 1960's, the main event or social issue that was taking place and was the topic of everyday life in America was the war in Vietnam. Because the war was so heavily opposed, people rioting and protesting were common in city streets and college campuses. This sparked a whole new era in America. This era in america was filled with protest and outrage. These protestors were the ones who formed the hippy movement in the United States. These times were all about peace and war was far from what any one wanted. Drugs became extremely popular during the hippy movement. This can be seen in the comic books of the late 1960s. Comic books became a big hit and were now created at an underground level. These comic books were not required to be checked by the comic code and this sparked a new generation of comic books.These underground comic books were very representative of the rebellious times. Also the comic book The Amazing Spider-Man featured drugs in them as Peter Parker's best friend begins taking drugs in order to ease the pain of his girlfriend Mary Jane coming on to Peter. This is another aspect that had not yet been featured in comic books that is socially relevant in the 1960s. There were also stories that confronted feminism and female empowerment with female versions of male characters like Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, and She-Hulk. The growing popularity of socially relevant comics during the 1960s gave way for the comic writer’s of the 1970s to be free to talk about more personal and realistic social problems that people face everyday.

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