The Iron Age of Comics

Milestone Media’s Icon has a pretty punchy elevator pitch: “What if Superman was a Black Republican?” But with stories by Dwayne McDuffie and pencils by M.D. “Doc” Bright (both now sadly no longer with us), this book goes to some interesting and unexpected places. For one thing, this Supermanalogue has a sidekick: a teenage girl named Rocket who is arguably the real protagonist of the book and whose struggles and issues are the most complex and heartfelt that the book explores. We discuss how McDuffie and Bright tackle teen pregnancy in an honest and conscientious way through Rocket and examine racial identity and privilege through the title character, acknowledging there are no easy answers for any of the questions being raised.

Neil Gaiman’s complete reinvention of DC’s trademark on The Sandman is inarguably one of the most influential comics of the Iron Age…so why haven’t we talked about it much yet? And why are we starting with the storyline that’s popularly considered “Volume 2” of the series? We’re focusing on the collection that introduced The Sandman to the bookshelf market (which originally included the landmark “The Sound of Her Wings” story) and marked an evolution in the comic from a horror reimagining in the vein of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing to a showcase for Gaiman’s brand of dark fantasy and his love of the world of stories. We’ll also touch on how the series introduced character types not seen in other comics of the time, whether it matters or not that a big part of the story hinges on plotlines from Roy Thomas’ Infinity Inc., and how The Sandman went on to give birth to the Vertigo imprint.

While many early offerings from Image Comics were deliberately designed to appeal to their popular artists’ existing fanbases, Erik Larsen took a different approach, reviving a character he created at his kitchen table while making homemade comics with his friends as a child. And 32 years later, Larsen still stands apart from his compatriots as the only Image founder still regularly writing and drawing his original creation: The Savage Dragon. In this episode, we talk about Larsen’s influences and early career, how the series marries Bronze Age-style soap-opera subplotting to a distinctly Iron Age attitude and self-awareness, and why sometimes over-the-top violence and superhero silliness can be as true an expression of an artist’s creative freedom as anything else you’ll find in the comic book medium.

Superstar penciler Jim Lee adopted less revolutionary rhetoric than some of his fellow Image founders after leaving Marvel Comics, but he became one of the most successful of the group, growing his WildStorm Productions imprint into a publishing empire. WildC.A.T.s, Lee’s first Image offering from 1992, takes his and co-creator Brandon Choi’s love of spy fiction and channels it into something that would have looked very familiar to fans of Lee’s X-Men. We look at WildC.A.T.s’ expansive cast and ask, “How much mysterious backstory is too much mysterious backstory?” We’ll also look at Lee’s continued career at Image, his brief return to Marvel, and finally on up to today as head honcho of DC Comics.

When Daniel Clowes was writing and drawing vignettes about two cynical teenage girls in his groundbreaking comic anthology Eightball, he wasn’t sure Ghost World would add up to anything in the end, but its balance of bitter ennui and painful self-reflection connected with readers and led to a standalone graphic novel and a 2001 film adaptation. Kicking off our conversation with a discussion of the alternative comics scene, we then struggle to overcome our own inner critics to dig deep into the comic: the zeitgeist of the ‘90s, the vibrant mundanity of its setting, and how our identification with the leads has changed as we’ve aged. Get ready for a very personal look at a very personal book.

With one foot in the world of DuckTales and another in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, Jeff Smith’s Bone is so confident and assured from its very first issue that it seems to have arrived fully formed, but it was actually the result of years of refinement. Syndicates balked at Smith’s creative vision for a four-panel comic strip version of Bone, but their loss was comic books’ gain, as the series became an indie darling in single issues and eventually blazed a trail for today’s YA graphic novel market. In this episode, we take a look at the first collection—Out from Boneville—learn about Smith’s surprising creative influences, and discuss what made Bone a true “all-ages” comic beloved by kids, librarians, and old-school comics fans alike.

Anything goes on a fifth Wednesday, so in this episode, Justin and Jim look back at a blast from their pasts — Kevin Smith's comics-reference-heavy 1995 movie Mallrats — but arrive at somewhat different assessments about how it plays today. Along the way, they discuss what it meant to name-drop Wolverine in a Hollywood motion picture back in the '90s, the comics-style shared universe Smith's films existed in, the implications of the Stan Lee cameo, Jeremy London and Jason Lee's differing approaches to performing non-naturalistic dialogue, and much more.

BWA-HA-HA! Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatties may not have originally set out to turn DC’s signature superteam into a workplace sitcom, but with artist Kevin Maguire they produced a screwball series still treasured by fans. With a roster assembled largely out of desperation and a constantly shifting status quo, Justice League International reinterpreted how the superhero would be perceived in a post-Crisis, post-Watchmen comics landscape by leaning into the absurdity instead of making its subject grimmer and grittier.

The story of a faux Justice League who seize control of the United States with the best of intentions only to be undone by the resulting ethical nightmares, Squadron Supreme is sometimes called “Marvel’s Watchmen”: a 12-issue series examining the impact of superheroes on society and deconstructing the genre. But Mark Gruenwald’s magnum opus is a very different work in terms of tone and execution, as Gruenwald embraced the traditional comic book tropes and storytelling devices that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons deliberately eschewed. We look at Squadron Supreme both in comparison with Watchmen and on its own merits to discuss how best to appreciate this series today.

Our continued deep dive into the comic book that defined the Iron Age begins with a lengthy appreciation of Dave Gibbons’ art and storytelling, then gets into the weeds talking about the novel’s themes, worldbuilding, and its legacy of superhero deconstructionism. We’ll also discuss the ownership dispute over the rights to Watchmen, and the various adaptations, sequels, and prequels that exist today because of that ownership dispute. Unorthodox opinions abound, and your hosts may have to resolve their disagreements with pistols at dawn before it’s all over!

What’s left to say about Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ novel Watchmen? Plenty, as it turns out! In our first of two episodes on the subject, we talk about the changes in the larger comics industry that needed to be in place for Watchmen to exist, consider the degree to which the series relies (or doesn’t) on the Charlton Action Heroes for inspiration, and finally do a deep dive on the major characters and what drives them. Jim and Justin may disagree about how well Watchmen holds up today, but several assumptions about this book will be challenged in any event!

This fifth Wednesday, the Iron Age boys throw a bit of a curveball by taking a look at an obscure fantasy series from the early 1980s! Designed to serve what was perceived as an untapped audience for Marvel and entice toy manufacturers to create a line of licensed tie-in action figures, The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior throws a few curveballs of its own with a somewhat conceptually abstract central conflict and an antagonist who's more of a victim of circumstance than your standard unambiguous bad guy. We discuss the comic, the toys, and the Marvel Universe guest stars (who never again mentioned their adventures on Crystar's planet)!

Artist Mike Mignola made his first foray into creator-owned work with Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, a 1994 miniseries for Dark Horse’s Legend imprint. In time, Mignola would be responsible for every aspect of Hellboy’s adventures, turning him and the B.R.P.D into a miniature comic book industry, but for this initial story, Mignola turned to Iron Age stalwart John Byrne to help with the scripting. We’ll talk about Mignola and his cohorts in the Legend imprint, the horror and pulp influences that went into this series, and the historical Rasputin before discussing how Hellboy took Hollywood.

When up-and-coming writer Joe Kelly got the keys to Deadpool’s first solo series, he subverted fan expectations by downplaying the character’s connections to the larger X-franchise. Similarly, he decided to fulfill the constant requests for the Merc with a Mouth to team-up with Spider-Man in a way nobody expected. We take a look at the innovative, Forrest Gump-inspired techniques used to insert a time-traveling Deadpool into a semi-obscure issue of Amazing Spider-Man by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr. and discuss whether this oversized issue’s jokes about Norman Osborn’s weird hair and Gwen Stacy hold up today.

Forget whatever you think you know about Hawkman! Tim Truman’s 1989 prestige format miniseries Hawkworld drew from inspirations including cop shows, Vietnam War movies, and The Count of Monte Cristo to update the winged warrior’s Silver Age origin for a grittier, more grounded era. The result is a science fiction adventure offering a critique of imperialism and class inequality that resonates just as strongly today. We’ll also dig into the confusing tangle of Hawkman’s post-Crisis continuity, but rest assured that Hawkworld itself won’t require you to be an expert in Thanagarian lore before or since.

With the Avengers and Fantastic Four temporarily outsourced to Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee in 1997, Marvel touted the ostensibly brand-new heroes of the Thunderbolts as the next big thing to a somewhat skeptical comics readership. The legendary twist ending to the first issue made the book into an overnight success but sometimes overshadows the work Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley did on the rest of the series, making this comic worth a re-examination. We’ll discuss the origins of the concept, the first year of the series, and how the creators refreshed Silver and Bronze Age superhero tropes while developing a bunch of C-list villains into vibrant, interesting characters.

The first issue of the web-slinger's quarterly fifth-week title kicked off the 1993 14-part crossover "Maximum Carnage," but Spider-Man Unlimited #1's supersized page count left room for two whole backup stories as well. We talk plenty about the main feature's giant fang monsters and unconvincing serial killers, but also dig into the very nature of the anthology superhero comic and ponder what it could be capable of.

Before they were a multimillion-dollar media and licensing franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were just a funny idea that two young artists in Western Massachusetts introduced in a black-and-white book with a 3,000-copy print run. For one of your hosts, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s original series is a longtime favorite by a pair of hometown heroes; the other is coming in fresh, having only ever seen the cartoon and movie adaptations. We’ll read the three-issue arc that kicks off the series, consider the Turtles in the context of the Black-and-White Boom (and Bust), and discuss how the creators’ idiosyncratic vision and artistic chops elevate the comic beyond a one-joke parody of Frank Miller and various other influences.

At a time in the mid-1990s when the Avengers franchise struggled for attention against the industry-defining X-Men and Image titles, Mark Waid and Ron Garney somehow pulled off one of the most celebrated Captain America runs of all time…until it was cut short to make way for Rob Liefeld’s “Heroes Reborn” revamp. We look at this creative team’s opening arc, “Operation Rebirth,” which used propulsive, slam-bang action plotting to try to maintain Cap’s relevance in the grim ‘n’ gritty ‘90s and reinvent a long-lost supporting character along the way. We’ll also touch on Waid’s broader superhero-writing career and why there’s more to his work than simple Silver Age nostalgia.

Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz, at the height of their powers and industry clout, took advantage of the creative freedom offered by Marvel’s Epic imprint to produce the highly experimental (and somewhat improvisational) eight-issue miniseries, Elektra: Assassin, a dark comedy taking aim at politics, spycraft, ninjas, and the media. We'll discuss whether its cutting-edge approach to satire in 1987 holds up today, what this series suggests about the popularity and potential of the Elektra character, and why you probably shouldn’t worry too much about how this fits into Marvel Universe continuity.

(This comic book was intended for mature readers, and our discussion of the work is likely to reflect and comment on content that some people may find controversial or upsetting, so please take this into consideration when listening.)

In the late '90s, Marvel was struggling through a bankruptcy and looking for innovative ways to boost sales and find a wider audience. They turned to hot artists Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, who enlisted their pal, indie screenwriter and director Kevin Smith, to relaunch Daredevil to mainstream media coverage. The success of the Marvel Knights line led to a new era at Marvel and paved the way for more high-profile creators outside of the industry to try their hand at comics, which makes this series a crucial transition point to the post-Iron Age. But how does Smith's "Guardian Devil"—which combines Vertigo-style religious themes, controversial character deaths, and homages to Frank Miller's run so blatant that they're remarked upon in the text itself—hold up today?

At the height of the grim ‘n’ gritty superhero craze, Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross offered fans a nostalgic but innovative look at the superheroes of yesteryear with their 1994 miniseries, Marvels. Through a combination of man-on-the-street perspective and near-photorealist painting, this series brought Marvel’s Golden and Silver Ages to life like never before. Today, Marvels is rightly celebrated as an all-time classic, but we’ll take a look at how unusual this series was for its time...and the surprising role that Hellraiser creator Clive Barker played in getting Marvel to take a chance on the concept.

If you were reading comics in the ‘90s, you probably also read Wizard: a glossy magazine offering irreverent commentary along with news, interviews, and the latest up-to-date price guides. To many fans, Wizard was all the hilarity and fun of comic book culture wrapped between two covers and sealed in a polybag; to others, it was a symbol of everything wrong with the industry. We look back at our own experiences as Wizard readers, walk through some of the recurring features from its heyday, and grapple with the magazine’s complicated legacy. We’ll also try to get to the bottom of the speculator boom and bust, and what role Wizard played in it.

March having a fifth Wednesday in it throws off our usual "every other week" release schedule, but you can't get rid of us that easily! We pop in for a quick look ahead at the next three months of episodes, plus a promise to get to reading the five-star reviews you've so graciously been leaving us. All this plus a John Byrne joke to tide you over until our next full episode.

While many of DC’s other heavy hitters were massively revamped in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Green Lantern Hal Jordan received a comparatively modest tune-up to his origin story. But Emerald Dawn’s attempts to retrofit a Silver Age icon with personality flaws met with resistance from many diehard fans. We look at the legacy (or lack thereof) of the 1989 miniseries, what effect the behind-the-scenes shift in writers might have had on the story, and how it sometimes seems to anticipate the Marvel Cinematic Universe approach to superhero origins.

Spider-Man went through a lot of changes in the Iron Age, but not even the Clone Saga had as big an impact as getting married to Mary Jane Watson. What began as a multimedia PR stunt became a development that Marvel eventually felt it had to retcon out of existence entirely with “One More Day.” Fans and pros alike continue to argue whether marriage was a positive step in the evolution of the characters or a fundamental betrayal of the core appeal of the Spider-Man concept, and we’ll look at both perspectives.

When DC decided its flagship character needed a top-to-bottom reboot for the post-Crisis era, they turned to superstar writer-artist John Byrne. The six-issue origin series The Man of Steel introduced a streamlined, modernized, and arguably “Marvelized” Superman, but many fans felt that it threw the baby out with the bathwater. We take a critical look at Byrne’s influences and controversial changes to the Superman legend (both good and bad) and how his take on Superman defined the character for a generation...and even seems to resist subsequent attempts to reboot!

In 1992, Todd McFarlane and his fellow Marvel superstar creators jumped ship to found Image, creating a major independent alternative to the comics industry’s “Big Two.” In this episode, we examine how McFarlane’s most popular creation, the grim ‘n’ gritty supernatural vigilante called Spawn, became not just a sales phenomenon, but also an existential threat to the traditional way of superheroes throughout the Iron Age. We’ll also discuss McFarlane’s legacy and just what exactly went on in a given issue of the series.

While DC was breaking new ground with the Crisis/Dark Knight/Watchmen trifecta, Marvel entered a paradigm shift of its own with the rise of superstar artists like Jim Lee. Under Lee’s creative direction, 1991’s X-Men #1 became the best-selling single comic book of all time - a record it still holds - but in the process drove away Chris Claremont, the writer who'd made the X-Men a phenomenon in the first place in his initial 17-year run. In this episode, we look at this comic and how it ushered in the X-franchise’s total dominance of the ‘90s comics industry.