Skip to main content

Why did superheroes become “dark” in the 1980s?

Comics became dark in the 1980s for numerous reasons. One of the main reasons was the atmosphere created by the Cold War. The fears brought about by the Cold War were still present in the eighties. It was a very grey period where people did not know what to expect. Fear was a central notion in the United States, which influenced the way comic books were written. The fear of a nuclear war was still present in the minds of Americans, even though not as prominent as it had been in the sixties. The comic book that demonstrated how superheroes transformed in the eighties and became darker was The Dark Knight Returns. This version of Batman was darker and had more mature content. Bruce Wayne was older and came out of retirement. Violence also became a more prominent factor in the Batman stories. Gotham City became a city where crime and violence constantly existed. Therefore Batman had a more difficult job at an older age. Although violence was more prominent, neither blood nor gore was shown throughout the Batman comics, it was implied. In addition to violence, drugs were seen in comics because of the change in the political atmosphere in the U.S.

Drug content was seen more in comics in the eighties than in any previous decade. They became a constant problem for Bruce Wayne. The eighties was the time when Reagan came into power. It was an era where Reagan promoted Reagonomics and his race against drugs. The drug and crime problem during the eighties influenced the dark mentality of the comics, especially Batman. The comics of Batman no longer were campy and had a childish feeling to it. Comics were not aimed at children anymore, therefore, comics with more mature content could be created. This started the creation of graphic models. Frank Miller's Dark Knight was an example of this change in graphics, where the pictures resembled this new dark essence. It was something new that had never been attempted by comics before. It was the start of new "dark" superheroes. The political climate of the United States and the continuation of the Cold War influenced writers to create darker superheroes with more mature content.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why blame comics for societal failure?

Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.
2 comments
Read more

Were comics at the forefront of social transformation or lagging behind in the 1960’s?

Throughout the 60’s, comics were at the forefront of social transformation. Possibly the best example of this is through comics reflection of the public’s view of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the war a majority of Americans fully supported the cause. The idea that communism, the most evil idea conceived, could spread first through South-East Asia and eventually to the US lead Americans to accept the need to occupy Vietnam. However as the war progressed it became more obvious that it was less to defend democracy and actually just a proxy war against Russia. As support for the war diminished, comics greatly altered their position on the war to question the causes of the war, and whether the US should actually be there. The comic Iron Man accurately represented this shift in support as he stopped dealing arms, and took a moral stand against their use. As well as Vietnam War culture, comics also accurately portrayed youth culture in the US throughout the 60’s. Comics suc...
Post a Comment
Read more

The 1950s are often portrayed as a period of social cohesion. Why is this misleading?

When we think of the 1950's, most people think of similar things such as "Leave it to Beaver", very conservative and cliched pop music, and high patriotism. Our view of that time is one of social conformity to conservative values, with a traditional nuclear family where the father worked and the mother stayed home, where a majority of people attended church, where crime was relatively low, where a majority of American citizens were extremely patriotic, and where entertainment media emphasized these same conservative values and were subjected to censorship if they did not conform. This is misleading because while these things were all true to a certain extent, the world was obviously not perfect and not everyone was conforming or upholding traditional values, even if it seemed like they were. The 1950's were actually a very tumultuous time period, with the end of World War II leaving Europe war torn and in debt, the outbreak of the Korean War and the clashes of opinion...
1 comment
Read more