The Bronze Age of the comic book came at different times to different companies and is generally considered to be around the late 1960’s to early 1970’s. The Bronze Age is really defined by it’s characters having much darker plot elements than previous plot lines, examples such as narcotic use, murders and death of loved ones being featured caused outrage with parents. This much more adult style was really the beginning of the Modern age of the comics that we see today. The darker anti hero was also appearing, tortured individuals that were essentially the good guy but behaved with less than good guy code of ethics. Such examples include Ghost Rider, Wolverine and The Punisher. These characters would often be violent and temperamental, killing for revenge and often falling to torturing their vistims.
Today these anti-heroes prove to be the most popular of the current American comic book market. During the 1990’s there was a huge boom in the popularity of comic collections and shops sprung up everywhere offering reprints of previous released comics. Unfortunately the boom only lasted for a few years and most of the stores closed by the mid 1990’s
Today new publications are nowhere near the level of previous decades but there is still a huge cult following and collectors are known to pay fortunes for first editions and limited editions of comic books. What the future holds for the American comic is a little unclear. There is certainly a growth of smaller underground publications that seem to be growing in popularity. The characters created over the decades almost all have now been converted into film and cartoon TV series which caries on their popularity and continues to introduce these characters to new generations. It may be that the physical print publications are not as popular but the characters themselves live on and thrive in the video game and merchandising market.
