The Ages Of DC Comics - A Compact Guide For Our Readers

Context

Our profiles for DC Comics characters often use jargon about this publisher’s continuity – “pre-Crisis”, “Earth-4”, “rebooted LSH”, etc..

These cannot be explained every single time. But at the same time, they are opaque for people who aren’t seasoned super-hero comic book readers.

So here’s a compact explanation of the various eras and continuities in DC Comics super-hero comics. It prolongs our glossary.

DC Comics

What is now called DC Comics started out as National Allied Publications. Founded by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in 1934, DC Comics is best-known as the home for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

The first release was New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine in 1935.

Though having 80 plus years of publication history, their books can be initially broken down into two large sections:

1. Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths (henceforth shortened to Pre-Crisis).
2. Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths (shortened to Post-Crisis).

These two main sections reference the epic maxi series Crisis on Infinite Earths. Its first issue was published in April 1985, and it wrapped up in March 1986.

Ages

DC Comics’ universe grew and changed over the decades. And so the authors felt the need explain why Superman (and others) had been active since 1938.

This led to the context of “ages”. With each age, the same characters return in a new version – to better match a new generation of readers. Which also allowed the more human characters, such as Batman, to still be active decades later.

(The ages can also be presented as “reboots”. This notion used to be obscure, but 2010s+ movie franchises made it far more mainstream — ed.).

Pre-Crisis (1935-1986)

Pre-Crisis DC Comics is one of the easiest eras to identify.

It refers to books published by DC Comics before the ending of their maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths (a.k.a. “Crisis”). These books had multiple versions of popular heroes, set on different parallel universes, called “Earths”.

Crisis removed the multiple Earths from their publication history, along with most duplicated heroes.

Pre-Crisis has a number of sub-ages, which we’ll describe below.

The Golden Age

The Golden Age at DC is usually considered to start with the publication of Action Comics #1 in the Spring of 1938 (cover date June).

However, DC had been publishing books about super heroes for a few years already. DC’s first superhero was Doctor Occult, who first appeared in 1935.

Many well-known superhero characters first appeared during this time such as Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Aquaman & Green Arrow.

Other familiar superhero names first appeared during this time such as Green Lantern, Flash & Hawkman. However, these Golden Age versions are usually not as well-known as their Silver Age counterparts.

In 1940, National Comics absorbed All-American & Detective Comics and became known as DC Comics. But the official name change only took place in the late 1970s.

The creation of the Justice Society of America also happened in 1940 (All Star Comics #3). This was the first team-up and superhero team book in comics history. It also established that the characters that DC was producing existed in the same universe.

The Golden Age started coming to an end in 1946. At this point, many of the superhero comic books were switched over to Westerns, Science Fiction and other genres.

In 1954, due to pressure from Senate hearings (possibly spurred on by the publication of Seduction of the Innocent, by Fredric Wertham), the Comics Code Authority was created. Comics had been suggested as keys to juvenile delinquency, immorality, and criminal behavior. So rather than face governmental oversight, the current publishers created the Comics Code to self-regulate.

The only DC superhero comics to continue publishing through the 1950s were Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Detective Comics, Batman, Superboy, Superman, Wonder Woman, and World’s Finest Comics. Characters such as Green Arrow & Aquaman were still being shown in backup features during the time between the Golden & Silver ages.

The Silver Age

The Silver Age of DC Comics is usually considered to start with Showcase #4 (1956). It has the first appearance of the Flash (Barry Allen).

However, other heroes such as Martian Manhunter/J’onn J’onzz and Captain Comet had already appeared.

Old identities such as Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Atom were taken over by new characters. These had different origins and backgrounds than their Golden Age counterparts.

After the appearances of these new heroes, DC’s second superhero team was created in 1958. The Legion of Super-Heroes was different from the Justice Society in that the Legion existed 1,000 years in the future in the 30th Century. These heroes time traveled back to the 20th century to induct the hero who had inspired them, and thus Superboy joined the Legion.

The Legion continued to be popular enough to stay in print for almost 50 years.

JLA

In early 1960, the next superhero team emerged, the Justice League of America. This team also included Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. But it had the new versions of Green Lantern & Flash, along with Silver Age hero Martian Manhunter. More new versions of old characters and new heroes would join – including Green Arrow & Hawkman.

In 1961, DC reintroduced the Justice Society in Flash #123. This landmark story stated the Golden Age heroes lived on an alternate Earth in a different “vibration rate”. The Golden Age heroes were stated to exist on the misnamed “Earth 2” (which would have actually appeared first, chronologically) and the Justice League on Earth 1.

This established the DC Multiverse, leading to the yearly summer team-up of the Justice League & Justice Society.

It is hard to give DC’s Silver Age a definitive end date. It slowly gave way to the birth of the Bronze Age. It is usually considered the Silver Age ended in or by the 1970s, but not all sources agree.

The Bronze Age

Sources differ as to when and how the Bronze Age began.

• Some consider the drug-related story line of “Snowbirds Don’t Fly” in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 & 86 in 1971 to be a candidate.
• Others refer to the defection of Jack Kirby to DC Comics from Marvel in 1970…
• … or the murder of Aquaman’s son (known as Aquababy) by his enemy Black Manta in 1977.