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Why did comics become "dark" in the 1980's?

Comics in the 1980's started to become darker and take on a different look. Comics always had drug and violence references in them, but during this decade we see those references taken to another level. The main reason we see this increase in drug and violence references is the reason we see any other change in comics, the culture in the United States changed and in particular drug use was becoming widespread. Comic books and their writers wanted to appeal to the new social craze, so many of the stories we see that came out of this era involved a lot of drug use and violent topics. While not good for kids, this is what people were buying, and if its selling, then thats what the comic book writers are going to publish. Because crime rates in the US were starting to rise, comic writers also saw this as a way to create new and exciting stories that they knew would interest readers. The one comic that is a classic example of the times was The Dark Knight, because everything in this comic just seemed to represent the era and culture in the US.

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