It has been said that the Bronze Age, also known as the Post Silver Age was the turning point in the comic history.  It began in the early 1970s. Around this time, the creators and companies decided to try a new sort of audience. In this case, they decided to go towards an older audience than the younger crowd.

          Due to the fact that the artists were going towards the older crowd, this was the first time that they gave the characters—

even the heroes a sex life. For example, in a Superman volume, it is the first time we actually get the chance to see Clark on a real date with Lois.

         

Not only did they have more intense stories, they also took in some social issues like drugs and racism. However, the superheroes had to deal with a personal struggle like death, illness and other experiences that would change their lives drastically. Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man included a drug addiction story, while Denny O’Neil and Neal Adam, the creators of Green Lantern/Green Arrow decided to have a hook on heroin.   These storylines helped the audience understand that not everyone is perfect.

Eventually during this era, horror stories came in the picture. Even villains were given the opportunity to shine. Some of them got their own short comic book series. For example, “The Joker” and “Doctor Doom” were among the few that had the chance to be the protagonist for a change instead of an antagonist.

          Unfortunately, there were many bad events that happened during this era. Although both Marvel and DC survived, at first DC was not selling many comic books and Marvel suffered a huge loss. Jack Kirby left them and began to work for DC Comics. This was a huge point toward DC because later on Kirby invented the “New Gods”.

 As if that was not enough, the CCA (Comics Code Authority) was getting worse each day.  Marvel decided to break the law and in 1971 when they published a story about the effects that drug abuse had on people. This story was published in The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98.  The CCA believed that no one would really pay attention to it so they let it go. It was not until the people proved them wrong that they became a bit more open to other topics.
In 1973, the people had a big shock coming their way. In the Amazing Spider-Man issue #121, Spider-Man’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy was murdered
by none other than Green Goblin. No one expected this to happen and it was a big shock to see a villain who actually prevailed. Never had there been a villain that had accomplished their plans so horrible. That comic book will always be remembered as the book that helped them remember that villains are crazy and dangerous.

Anti- Heroes first came out around 1973-1974. Marvel came out with two heroes like Wolverine  and The Punisher. They were so compelling towards the audience because they can appear cold-hearted because of the nature of their aggressive personality. That was one of the reasons why they made them so unique and so loved to all.

          In 1976, Marvel and DC went for another challenge. They had their first superhero crossover such as using Spider-Man and Superman that were characters of different publishing companies. After that happened, it was well accepted by the audience. They began to have more series of books like this. Although the Bronze Age officially ended in the mid 1980s, some say that the Bronze Age never really ended and that it will continue, even in the Modern Age.