During the 1980’s, comics started to become more and more “darker”. By darker, I mean that comics started to become more violent, and more graphic. There were many reasons for this. One reason was that the United States people were using drugs more and more. The comic book writers wanted to make comics that would be very appealing to people who were using these drugs. Also, the comic book writers were using drugs and writing the comics at the same time. A person on drugs would have a great time reading these comics when they are “dark”. Another reason for these comics becoming “dark” would be the increased crime rate happening. Crime was amongst America greatly and it translated into the comics. More comics were producing these stories about crime and the hero trying to stop it. The illustrations were more “dark” and the content was more graphic. Murder was shown in a totally different way than it had ever been. An example of these “dark” comics would the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The illustrations are very detailed and the villains are portrayed more evil. If you look at the joker from this comic, you see an immediate difference. He is more “edgy” and looks more terrifying. You can tell that he definitely has some kind of issue in his head. He just looks like he downright wants to hurt people for fun. This is seen throughout many comics. The 1980’s was known for a “dark” time in comics.
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.
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