The Drama Age Of Comics: Superhero Comics in the Post-9/11 World
By Brian Patry
September 16, 2011
10 years have gone by since 9/11 changed the world. It was a day that shook the Western world to its core in more ways than one. With the soul-shattering realization that no, we are not inviolable on our side of the Atlantic came a series of changes to our daily hustle and bustle. Just about anyone over the age of 20 can tell you how air travel has changed (they still have those terrible in-flight meals, though). What only fanboys and fangirls know is that the comics industry also went through a reactionary evolution to cope with living in what some are referring to as “the decade of terror.”
The comics industry has had four major superhero periods in its history. First was the Golden Age of comics, second the Silver Age, then the Bronze Age, and now we’re officially in the Modern Age of comics. These four ages were each spearheaded by specific issues going on in society at the time.
The Golden Age began with the debut of Superman, who inspired hope and bravery in the everyman during the Great Depression. Once the Barry Allen incarnation of the Flash arrived, the Silver Age hit the ground running (pun intended). With him came a departure from the conventional Joe Anybody persona with superpowers, replaced instead by science fiction and the obsession with the atom bomb and all it symbolized. The Bronze Age came at the tip of a modern Robin Hood’s arrows, as Green Arrow was rebooted into the hero who showed us the perils of drug abuse, racism and the prejudices existing within different social classes.
The Modern Age differed from its predecessors in that it focused on the psychological complexities of society and the individual. Almost poetically, no single hero would usher in this era. Instead, Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns forced us to take a good hard look at our true selves and just how delusional our superhero role models can potentially be and, in general, pretty much already were. We also had to realize that the more human our heroes are, the more likely they are to die, as nothing lasts forever. Anyone who read comics in 1992 and 1993 will fill in the gaps for you as to what a world without Superman is really like. It wasn’t one you wanted to live in, but you couldn’t tear yourself away from it.
However, we kind of got bored with the Modern Age for a while. Those anti-hero, flawed hero and dead hero metaphors quickly became gimmicks. The superhero afterlife was pretty much a revolving door, whereas most renegades seemed to have no motivation for existing other than to be “badass to the extreme hardcore” for shock value. It was never quite shocking enough, though.
What was shocking was the wakeup call we got in response to 9/11. We were afraid. All the time. Sure, the odds of being in a terrorist attack are a heck of a lot smaller than winning the lottery, but you did win that bonus scratch ticket the other week, right? All planes go up and come down, but what if one comes down on me? How the heck are we supposed to focus on working in a tall office building if we know there are planes doing fundamentally psychotic things like flying from one destination and landing in another?
The answer is the same as it was at the start of every superhero comic age: we connect to a role model and make metaphors out of daily life to cope with our issues. Enter Green Lantern. Back in the gimmicky anti-fallen-renegade-oops-I-died-again days of the Modern Age, he became Parallax and destroyed literally existence itself at one point. Geoff Johns came up with the genius idea to retcon this. Hal Jordan did not throw the biggest temper tantrum of all time, he actually gave into fear, and doing so had disastrous repercussions. Parallax is now the living embodiment of fear itself and, if a guy whose job requirements are to literally be fearless can succumb to it, how are we supposed to deal with things?
Rather than public figures, superheroes are once again our guides. To get us to connect with them this time around, they’ve become more individual and personable than their Modern Age and Bronze Age predecessors ever were. Have you picked up a comic lately? Does it remind you of something you’ve seen on primetime TV?
In today’s superhero comic, Batman isn’t a dark vigilante in the shadows. He’s the kind of guy you’d see on Law and Order, only draped in a cowl and cape. Superman doesn’t punch his way through problems anymore, he’s just the lead character of an emergency rescue show; a firefighter in blue and red underpants or an EMT who flies instead of driving an ambulance. As for Green Lantern, he’s just the star of your typical cop drama, only instead of a gun and a badge, he totes a ring that harnesses the power of his will. We’ve entered a new age of comics. It’s one where we can connect through the drama of our heroes’ personal turmoil as they live in a world where they have to overcome fear.
Ambrose Redmoon once said that “courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” While it’s an entity in the comics, it’s just an abstract concept in real life. By following the example set by today’s comic book superheroes, we can finally realize we’re capable of moving on with our lives. Sure, a 747 might crash into my office building, but I’ve also got 747 progress reports to write by the end of the month and I’m afraid I don’t get paid for overtime.
Links:
- A succinct description of the decade of terror.
- For more info on the comic books discussed in the article, visit the DC Comics Website.