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Can we talk about how comic readers treat Silver Age books like they’re sacred?
I keep seeing fans online act like Silver Age comics were perfect and nothing since has come close. But I picked up a 1962 issue of Fantastic Four at a con last month and honestly, the writing was all over the place. The characters kept explaining what they were doing mid punch, and the art had these weird panel gaps where action must have happened off page. Compare that to a Hickman run from 2012 where each issue fits together like puzzle pieces. I think the shift happened in the late 80s when writers started treating comics as ongoing stories instead of monthly adventures. People get defensive because those old books are valuable, but the storytelling has gotten way tighter in the last 30 years. Has anyone else tried reading a random Silver Age issue and felt let down?
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jessej2310d ago
Yeah, the part about characters explaining mid punch really clicked for me. I used to defend those old books hard, thought I was just missing the magic or something. But then I read an old Spider-Man issue where he literally stops fighting to narrate his whole thought process about web fluid ratios. It snapped me out of it. You're right that the storytelling is way tighter now. I can still appreciate what those books did for building the universe, but picking one up cold without nostalgia goggles is a rough experience. The craft has definitely moved forward.
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kim_ramirez310d ago
The "nostalgia goggles" thing is what gets me. I remember trying to get my nephew into some old X-Men issues I had and he just looked at me like I was speaking a different language. He couldn't get past all the inner monologue boxes. It made me realize how much we just accepted that style because we grew up with it. But yeah, the web fluid ratios thing is hilarious because that's exactly the kind of random detail they'd stop everything for. You'd be in the middle of a fight and suddenly get a full lesson on how the mask lenses work or some physics breakdown of the grapple line. Books back then felt like they were written by people who didn't trust the artist to tell the story through the art.
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