Batman: The Silver Age Omnibus 1

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The Silver Age marked a decline in horror, crime, romance, talking animal humor, and Westerns as American-comics genres. With some of the best artists too, Curt Swan and Dick Sprang, and lots of covers by Win Mortimer and plots by Edmond Hamilton and the legendary Bill Finger.

citation needed] When juvenile offenders admitted to reading comics, it was seized on as a common denominator; [5] one notable critic was Fredric Wertham, author of the book Seduction of the Innocent (1954), [5] who attempted to shift the blame for juvenile delinquency from the parents of the children to the comic books they read. Unfortunately the dictat came down from higher levels of DC that editor Jack Schiff should put more science fiction and more monsters into the Bat-stories.I was looking at pictures of Batman and Detective Comics covers, and I was surprised because they didn't fit with some of my preconceived ideas about the Silver Age. One commentator has suggested that, "Perhaps one of the reasons underground comics have come to be considered legitimate art is due to the fact that the work of these artists more truly embodies what much of the public believes is true of newspaper strips—that they are written and drawn (i.

He also dismisses the end of the 12-cent comic book, which went to 15 cents as the industry standard in early 1969, noting that the 1962 hike from 10 cents to 12 cents had no bearing in this regard. The entire collection contains work by Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton, Dave Wood, and Jack Schiff, Sheldon Moldoff, Stan Kaye, Charles Paris, Dick Sprang, Win Mortimer, and Bob Oksner. Plus a greater amount of science fiction weirdness (although Batman always had sci-fi weirdness--starting with Dr. With the popularity of the Batman television show in 1966, publishers that had specialized in other forms began adding campy superhero titles to their lines. In the mid-1960s, DC established that characters appearing in comics published prior to the Silver Age lived on a parallel Earth the company dubbed Earth-Two.However, controversy arose over alleged links between comic books and juvenile delinquency, focusing in particular on crime, horror, and superheroes. One of the few most-selling American comics publishers in 1956, Harvey Comics, discontinued its horror comics when the Comics Code was implemented and sought a new target audience. The mad scientist theme relying on drugs and mental manipulation very much has more of a pulp feel than the superhero/sci-fi themes that dominated the Silver Age.

The daily Batman newspaper strip began in 1966, on the heels of the Batmania craze created by the hit television series staring Adam West, and ran through the early 1970s. He created Captain Future for pulp editor Mort Weisinger in 1939 and, upon moving to DC Comics in 1941, Weisinger offered Hamilton work on comics scripts.The "New Look" (starting in 1964) is when Jack Schiff was taken off the Batman titles, with Julius Schwartz taking over DETECTIVE COMICS and BATMAN, while Mort Weisinger took over WORLD'S FINEST COMICS. Its only by 1969, after the show ended, that a conscious effort was made to significantly overhaul the tone of the Batman mythos, and try to recapture the feel of the earliest Kane/Finger stories. The Silver Age coincided with the rise of pop art, an artistic movement that used popular cultural artifacts, such as advertising and packaging, as source material for fine, or gallery-exhibited, art. American Comics Group gave its established character Herbie a secret superhero identity as the Fat Fury, and introduced the characters of Nemesis and Magic-Man. Comic books of the Silver Age explained superhero phenomena and origins through science, inspired by contemporary science fiction, as opposed to the Golden Age, which commonly relied on magic or mysticism.

Post-Code (starting around 1954) is characterized by most of the old villains (except Joker) being ignored and a growing concentration on family matters. That is where the Comics Code Authority step in, Street level/gritty Batman is kind of overrated as stated earlier. Featuring an all-star cast of characters including Robin, the Joker, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Batgirl, Two Face, Scarecrow, Superman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and more!He exaggerated the James Bond-style spy stories, introducing the vortex beam (which lifts objects), the aphonic bomb (which explodes silently), a miniature electronic absorber (which protected Fury from electricity), and the Q-ray machine (a molecular disintegrator)—all in his first 11-page story. Also Bruce left Wayne Manor and the Batcave to reside in his penthouse atop of the Wayne Foundation. Some critics and historians argue that one characteristic of the Silver Age was that science fiction and aliens replaced magic and gods. He discontinued his comic book efforts in mid-1943 to pencil the daily Batman and Robin newspaper strip.