DC Started It...Dawn Of The SILVER AGE! 

As much as I love the grittier or more "serious" storylines in contemporary comics, the wild, outlandish, and weird stories and characters from the Silver Age have a special place in my heart. I mean, I could definitely do with more giant, sentient starfish in today's comics.

“This was no joke” People were burning pieces of paper on the street because they thought the sight of Robin’s bare, spread legs would make their kids gay... it sure sounds like a joke, a pretty funny one.

I LOVE the Silver Age. Carmen Infantino also effectively used the concept of a Rogues Gallery, very effectively... The VILLAINs were my favorite part of the Silver Age, (Capt.Cold, Brainiac, and the Riddler). The Golden Age villains were all gangsters. Before the Silver Age, villains would try to kill people all of the time. The Silver Age introduced villains that would try to kill the heroes with Giant Clocks, and Chains made out of Kryptonite...

Sorry I'm late to the party! I am 53 and grew up with comics. I loved the Silver Age because I lived in it, and those stories were, to me, the stuff of life. They made my imagination run wild. And we had all the best characters! In my teens, I lost interest in comics, and I stopped reading them until I was in college. But on a whim, I picked up a few comics and read them, and the more mature, darker nature of the stories was intriguing. So I ravenously ate up things like "The Dark Knight Returns," "Crisis on Infinite Earths," "The Killing Joke," and Frank Miller's run on Daredevil. And then eventually I got married, and there was no room in our small house for my comics collection. I sold them to a dealer and gave them up again. Now I have two kids, 11 and 9, and i wanted to introduce them to comics. We are reading Silver Age stories, and my kids love them! Code approved, so i don't have to worry about language, sex, or gore. The heroes are heroic, the villains are zany, and we have a great time reading them together.

I love the silver age so much, and there are times when I need to just sit back and read all the silver age. Modern age comics can sometimes bum me the heck out

Honestly, I'm tempted to read Wertham's book just for a laugh.

"THINK OF THE CHILDREN! WHY WON'T ANYONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!" LOL.... why do those ppl always think up things worse than anyone else can?

I think that the Golden Age, "Seduction of the Innocent," and the Silver Age all deserve their own videos, with one leading into the next. There's a lot of material there.

Seduction of the Innocent is one of the few books that I wouldn't mind burning.

I like the lighthearted aspect of the silver age, when stories were just plain fun, if formulaic. It's also hard to be angry at silver age stories when they go wrong because everything isn't taken as seriously in general.

A clear and concise explanation of the silver age . Having been born then, I can say it's an accurate account . And I agree that boundaries made creators more imaginative and inventive . Like movie sequels that tend to be special effects extravaganzas and aren't as good as the original that had a more limited budget .

You should give each comic book age a video

The Silver Age has a rather big place in my heart, since it reminds me of my late father. The Silver Age was the age of comics my dad grew up with and was the era who knew the best. Adam West Batman is what got him into comics and is part of the reason I'm a massive nerd now. It just makes me think of my dad growing up and I sometimes imagine the awesome times he must have had reading them, so I can't ever not love this particular era of camp, creativity and idealism.

I was born during the tail end of the Silver Age and and watched it shift slowly into the Bronze Age without even realizing it, but remember seeing the difference between the reprints in DC and Marvel's 100 page specials. But, when the early 80's happened I saw that shift happening clearly and actually felt it too eerily paralleling my becoming a teenager and moving. By the time Crisis came and finished its run it symbolized more than I probably even realized.

Absolutely had no idea what the Silver Age consisted for till now. This was so entertaining I loved it to bits! I originally got into comics when my friend after viewing the The Avengers told me about a few Loki comics. I must say I’ve been hooked since :)

Let me put it this way...I was born in 67 so I missed a lot of it and to be honest didn't really get into reading comics until 79, which was already into the Bronze age. That being said, once I did get into them I spent quite a bit of time and money at the local comic shop buying back issues and between those that stories printed in various DC digests or as back up stories in some of Marvel's titles I did get a significant exposure to enough silver age material to develop a fondness for it...and watching re-runs of Batman didn't hurt either. I always enjoyed reading the silver age stories because there was a simplicity to them that took a lot of the edge off of being a teenager in the 80's. As I rebuild my collection, I'm finding more and more silver age stories that I want in it that I didn't have before alongside those that I did and I find that in reading them that simplicity helps take the edge of being fifty something on days when I really REALLY don't want to adult.

Awesome episode! Thanks for the shout out!

Don't forget "good girl" comics and all the headlights Freddy Wertham objected to, ala Phantom Lady.

An amazing book I highly recommend about the "comics scare" is The Ten Cent Plague. The Tales From The Crypt TV show also did a fantastic documentary on the subject.

What I find hiarliously ironic is that Batwoman and Batgirl were created in this timeto combat the idea that Batman and Robin were homosexual... and now Batwoman is a lesbian :P

the silver age was fun, wacky and honestly just great overall, along with fantastic art. And the continuity, while having less of a focus, was easier to follow than modern day comics. And characters would normally stay within their own books, with a few spin offs, and stories would wrap up in one comic, making it easier to follow. I think a neo-silver age could work, taking the crazy wacky shenanigans of the silver age and its easy going continuity, but having arcs within those books. However, I'm really not sure if dc can go back to the silver age with how complicated they've made their continuity after flashpoint, but I would like if they tried (as for marvel, their continuity is actually pretty easy and fluid so a neo-silver age wouldn't be too hard for them).

I do appreciate the Spock 🖖🏻 shirt.Live long and prosper,Sasha!😸I hope I spelled your name correctly.😅

When I was reading comics in the mid 80s we knew we were in the Bronze age of Comics, as things had definitely shifted from the Silver Age, even though no one could point to a clear marker. But 1970 Green Lantern & Green Arrow and Gwen dying in '73 definitely had a tone shift from the campy Go-Go Checks '60s. And then with Swamp Thing, Sand Man, Watchman, Black Costume Spider-Man >> Venom, but clearly from the DARK Phoenix Saga of 1980 through DARK Knight Returns in 1986, we totally get why you call it the "Dark Age". And the '90s didn't make it any better. So honestly I am not sure if Comics had a proper Bronze or Iron Age, or even "Digital Age:" as scanning art into, and coloring with, a Computer can be traced as far back as 1987, but became very common in the 90s. But obviously, being able to read a comic online - in that Digital sense -- came much later.

I was a casual comics reader as a kid. I got hooked for a while on the Jack Kirby Jimmy Olsen “Fourth World,” “New Gods,” “DNAliens” era. I was pretty much do you see as a kid, now rabidly Marvel as a result of the MCU.

I was born during the bronze age and got into comics during the dark age but discovering silver age comics is the most fun I've had reading comics. There was so much creativity and silliness. While I think the bronze age tends to have my favorite stories the silver age stories are a lot more entertaining to go back to and deliver simple and zany adventures.

The Silver Age was actually better than the Golden Age. True, the Golden Age gave us the original heroes and heroines--Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and a few others, but the Silver age gave rise to a new and much improved art form, particularly by Jack Kirby--and Sasha, you should do a vid on Kirby for those who aren't aware of how great he was--and Carmine Infantino...Ditko, too--along with a slightly more scientific view on how comics approached the fantastic. All these heroes fueled my imagination, and it's probably the reason I became the struggling YA Fantasy writer that I am today!

I got the DC Showcase volumes at the library- I am a sucker for the wacky storylines and silliness (especially things like the funhouse mirror Justice League issue, crazy stuff!)

Sasha, your videos are great, very entertaining. Are you a long-time Trekkie? That is definitely a great shirt. But, I will never ‘turn down the Spock.’ Please consider doing a video of the other comic eras. Thanks for all you do.

I would love to see a video expanding on/explaining the other ages. Having been a comics fan for 3 years and some change, the ages still confuse me a bit.

I'm just glad the Dark Age is dead. But it seems to be alive and well in the live action. I don't need the Boys and Watchmen. Hell, I thought Watchmen was overrated during it's initial run. I'd like to see the return of the Greatest American Hero. But not a reboot, a sequel. Or how about a prequel mini-series. We know that Ralph wasn't the first. Hollywood loves prequels. Star Trek has both Discovery and will soon add a series with Captain Pike. Or somehow license Astro City.

I just wanted to say thank you so so much for all the vids like this and all the times you do cliff notes for big DC events in your vids. As someone who’s still relatively new to comics, it’s sometimes hard to understand what people are talking about and referencing with all the different eras of comics (golden age, silver age, Bronze Age, pre-crisis, post-crisis, N52, rebirth, etc) because it’s the “basics” that “everyone just knows.” Your video explanations really helped me get a better grasp on it all and make it seem less overwhelming. 💕💕💕

Watching this makes me wish for more clarity on all the comics ages. Maybe you've already done this and I just haven't found it yet, but if you haven't, maybe you could consider making this into a series with episodes each focusing on an era of comics? Sorry to leave comments so late, I've only recently discovered your channel and am slowly watching back episodes and catching up. Keep up the great work!

Also can you plz talk about adam warlock as he is barely spoken about and he is my favorite marvel character

“Because they lived alone together and sometimes shared a bed.” Well, he isn’t wrong.

My first introduction to the Silver age was reading old reprints of the Fantastic Four with my mom from the digest sized Marvel comics at the age of four. Then the Adam West Batman TV series and movie. Then a Brave and The Bold anthology from DC.

Thank you Sasha....You put in lots of work to make a beautiful presentation.

I was born in 1989, long after the silver age ended. However, I have a bunch of old Superman and Batman comics that used to belong to my father. During the 90s, there weren't really any DC comics sold in Sweden, so as far as comics goes, that was my first contact with the DC universe. I also watched the Swedish dub of Batman the Animated Series on TV at about the same time, so I had two very different images of Batman. We did have Swedish translations of Spider-Man and X-Men comics in the 90s, so I grew up reading 90s Marvel and 60s DC.

My first exposure to superheroes was the 1978 Superman movie. It was mid 80s and I was... less than six? As a kid, it was Chris Reeves Superman and Adam West Batman that informed me as to what heroes should be, Superfriends too--all made during the Silver Age or its successor, the Bronze. Thus when I picked up my first comic book in the 90s (Death of Superman paperback) I was shocked. Yes... the DC universe I had fallen in love with and though still existed for years after ceased to exist when I was four with Crisis in in 1986. In terms of comicdom, I was born in the wrong time... or the right time so as better appreciate stories whose only goals are to make people happy, a world where (to quote Mark Waid) "an orderly cataloged continuity" takes second place to "a kingdom of wonder." Thank you Casually Comics!

This has been instructive especially to me. I've been around since the Golden Age of Modern Audio Drama, and now we're into the Bronze Age of Modern Audio Drama. A lot of people got real issues with my identification of the Ages because how negative the reaction is against the Silver Age of comics. But I don't see it as a negative thing as much as just a different time.

This was well done! I was born early in the Silver Age, reading comics on and off for well over 50 years - and I still read and review comics today for a couple of websites. All that is to say that your video is fantastic. Excellent analysis, presented exceptionally well. Glad I found your channel!

I think Fredrick Wertham(Renamed Fred Worthless to avoid legal troubles) is THE Ultimate Comic Villian.

Very well presented and spot on! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE the Silver Age. My favorite era of Spider-man is during this time and there is nothing like reading Gardner Fox's JLA run. It was a fun time and I wish I had some silver age comics right here, right now. make it happen, God. Fun fact: Grant Morrison was influenced by the Silver Age, so without the Silver Age, I never would have gotten his JLA run or All-Star Superman.

I appreciate the variety of characterization each age gives to its cast because passionate writers are able to draw from that history and connect with equally passionate readers. I love the complex subtleties it promotes.

This video was very informative and helpful. Thank you!

Thank you so much for this video and all your videos

So when did the original modern age (death of Gwen Stacy up through the speculator boom) end? I always assumed we were still in the modern age because the stories keep coming back to the grimdark that defined that era

Great video. As entertaining as it is informative. The content on this channel is of such a high calibre.

Hi, Sasha. I am a new subscriber to your channel, and I have been binge-watching your videos. I am thoroughly enjoying them. I have been collecting comics since the Silver Age. I started when I was 6 years old when my dad bought me my first Batman 80 page Giant comic for 25 cents. I got into comics just as the Batman craze of the 1960s was beginning and the Adam West tv show was premiering. I have a fondness for the Silver Age books. Although, today they seem “campy”, that era of comics still holds fond memories. I collected only DC as a small boy, but when I was in high school in the 70s, a friend introduced me to Marvel. I still collect and enjoy comic books to this day. Thank you for such an awesome video on the Silver Age. Your research on the history is top notch.

Your awesome, thanks for the history. Keep up the great work!

Fun fact: One of Frederick Wortham's favorite vocabulary words was, "twitter."

Loved this. My intro to The Silver Age was when I was a little kid and saw the various "Origins Of Marvel Comics" trade paperbacks by Stan Lee at the bookstores. It did instill a bias in me, unfortunately (I was both unaware of Jack Kirby's contributions at Marvel, as well as the richness of DC), but it was my intro. I'll be sharing this video. Thanks!

I started collecting super-hero titles in the beginning of the Bronze Age, so the Silver Age for me was the history of these heroes I was discovering. I was mostly a DC reader at the time, though I did dip my toes into Marvel for the team books (Fantastic Four, Avengers, Defenders, X-Men) and Spider-Man. Team-up titles were favorites of mine too. The more heroes in an issue, the better - for me.

Excellent content !

I have a hard time appreciating Silver Age comics' optimism and goofy flights of fancy. I'm Gen-X and grew up as that world was fading away. Reading comics from the code-approved stories 1950s & 1960s reminded me of similarly wooden & goofy television from that era: from "The Andy Griffith Show" to "Lost in Space." On the other hand, I really took to Silver & Bronze Age Marvel Comics, which reminded more of "The Twilight Zone," "Star Trek," even "M*A*S*H." In retrospect, I think Marvel also retained more of the horror, humor, mystery, and romance elements of the older EC line -- which I'm sure I would have loved. (DC eventually got on board with horror & mystery titles, producing House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Swamp Thing, etc -- the seeds of the Vertigo comics I'd be reading in college.) I think that Marvel also drew more inspiration from movies, experimenting with visual and narrative perspective in ways few comics artists had since Will Eisner's heyday (I discovered The Spirit in reprints much later). Finally, Marvel had an ear for society & culture that DC just didn't, at the time. Marvel writers & artists increasingly came to grips with social change, with changing politics, mores, clothes, slang, etc. I'm not sure DC was ready to let them. People of Color, heroes of color in particular, were visible on the pages of Marvel Comics about a decade before they were at DC. (Marvel's Black Panther first appeared in 1966; The Falcon in 1969; DC's Black Lightning in 1977.) DC's treatment of legacy characters has never helped matters, much. Despite my aversion to the Silver Age, writers like Roy Thomas managed to interest me in Golden Age DC -- at least, as re-imagined, decades later. I was drawn to Earth-2's multi-generational world to some extent just because characters were allowed to age, stories were allowed to finish, Batman & Catwoman could marry, characters around the age of my grandparents in fact had grown children, etc. I was even for rolling them into a single continuity with the Earth-1 characters, provided that at least some characters would be permitted to belong to a time period and age (even if the Trinity remained forever 35). If Jay Garrick & Alan Scott were the Flash & Green Lantern of the 1940s, Barry Allen & Hal Jordan were the 1960s versions. But they were getting a little long in the tooth by the 1980s, right? So, we were going to have a new Flash & Green Lantern! Great! Until .... Boomers. Somehow, the Silver Age heroes are forever. So, even though Wally West was The Flash for 20 years, during which time Barry Allen was dead & unknown to young readers ... They had to bring him back. And despite having numerous alternative candidates over the years, alcoholic wanna-be-Chuck-Yeager Hal Jordan never retires, never gives up the ring. Oliver Queen never makes way for Roy Harper or Connor Hawke. We never get to a third Black Canary, even though by now she should be something like her own great-grandmother, shouldn't she? So, really, this has done nothing to further endear Silver Age DC to me. Sorry! YMMV, of course. Just a jaded old Gen-Xer's views.

Great video. Did you ever do a golden age? Or (my personal favorite) bronze age? Your thoughts and commentary keep me coming back. Love the videos

Can you do a video on each of the Ages, please??? I'd like to hear more about the Bronze Age and the Dark Age. I hadn't even heard about the latter until you brought it up in this video. I can guess it's the 90s where there was an explosion of style over substance comics

I just subscribed, provided view 9,999 - so close! - and was wondering if there was a Bronze Age video ...? My guess is that the Bronze Age began in general with Killing Joke and all the graphic novels.

For me, the end of the Silver Age (beginning of the end at least) was the Amazing Spider-Man #96-98, when Marvel published the anti-drug message without the Comics Code Seal, at the request of Richard Nixon’s DHEW. You can say “Death of Gwen Stacey”, but I’d argue it was well under way at that point.

Marvel often refers to its Silver Age as The Marvel Age (also a magazine size collection).

I have many comic books published in the Silver Age in my collection, I love the storytelling! I think that it ended after Batman #217 (December 1969) when Dick Grayson went to College, but then cemented in The Night Gwen Stacy Died.

I grew up in the silver age. That was when I discovered comics. It will always feel like home to me but I love the Bronze age more.

To Casually Comics, hi. Happy-holidays, I-may-please-say, I'm an adamant believer in,The Golden & Silver Ages. I personally-maintain that, as-one-might look at, particularly the Golden-Age, as some-what silly. These Golden-Age Super-heros, had a super-hero ethicism- to-them. I honestly-believe, that the psychologically- personalization, that started in the mid-1960's, sort-of-ruins, the comics of-the-comics. I-may-please-say, I personally don't care, about their personal lives. Although this may-sound, a-certain-amount cruel. I particularly-believe the most iconic-part-of-Superman, is the-premise. That he's- a- survivor, of a-blown-up-world.

I love the old school CRIME, Tails From The Crypt, MAD, EERIE, And Witches Tale's. To bad Tales From The Hood was never really a Comic.. The Silver age was so Scientifically *Seducting.. Lol

My uncle worked for a book publisher in Canada so he would give me all his rejects (no covers) . I had a brilliant collection for years (lost in a basement flood) but I knew all the characters and most of the plots through the '60s and '70s.

Loved this video even though I already knew most of this stuff it was cool to hear if from someone else's perspective....I am curious about the highlights of the broze age, a period of comics of which I have little to no knowledge

When I was around 9, early 1970s, my brother "baby-sitted" me by locking me in his best friend's bedroom while they both went out for six hours. In the bedroom I discovered a three feet tall stack of DC Silver Age comics and that was my introduction to them. Best six hours of my life apart from needing to pee.

I love your videos so much!

I grew up during the Silver Age, but Mad Magazine was my go to. I think my Dad lived its sense of humor.

LSS&HTB. The way you say it is just so recognizable. Done it all by the way.

I still love the silver age. I grew up reading the Avengers in Marvel Triple Action. It was the only way to read back issues then. I did manage to get a bunch of Marvel Collectors Item Classics as well. Still have them to this day.

I grew up in the 1970s watching the early superhero tv shows and cartoons from the 60s and 70s, which mostly represented the Silver age era. Batman 66, filmation's Superman, Aquaman and Batman cartoons. Spiderman's first cartoon series (with that terrific opening theme) and then Superfriends and Wonder Woman. Also the 1950s Superman, which was the one Golden age type show. All these remain my favourite incarnation of Superheroes and I feel the best introduction to those characters. I find todays stuff just too angst ridden.

Seduction of the innocent guy (already forgot his name) going on about TV sounds like one of those opening “Gotham sucks” narrations in a particularly cynical Batman comic

This was really interesting! The ESRB for videogames was created after a similar outrage against violence in videogames in the 90s (Videogame Historian has an excellent video about it).

This is one of those moments when I can thank my parents for their timing as I came into this world around the time that the Silver Age had started and the foundations of the great DC/Marvel rivalry were formed. Fun times!

It died out around !970 as teenage boomers {the major comic buying demo) moved into the pro or anti war era.

Bringing up William Moulton Marston makes me wonder if you would consider doing videos on comic creators like Marston, Bob Kane, Siegil & Shuster, Kirby, Lee, etc. I'd love to get you pov on them, and the lore behind creating iconic heroes. (But only after the Donna Troy video, lets not make Donna Troy the SuperCorp of CC lol)

I think technically the silver age ended when prices switched from 15 to 20 cents per comic. Roughly sometime in 1971.

I grew up with the Silver Age. There were some great B listers in that era that enjoyed as well. MLJ Comics prior to the "camp" era being one example.

Thank you Flash for helping the superheroes return in a time when Comics were suffering, Thank you Stan the man, for all your incredible characters and great new messages and daring to tell bold new stories, Thank you Jack, Steve, and all the other great artists who contributed to this era, and most of all Thank you Sasha for presenting this video so well. Incidentally I hate to be picky but is it at all possible, someone could explain the actual in comic reason Why Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were sharing a bed? All I ever really hear is all the attacking of the concept, however my mind is sure there is an in story reason! Please answer with respect! Keep up the great work on this channel!

Grew up on silver age stories. Loved them. Many were silly and light hearted stories. Teen Titans, Legion of Super Heroes, JLA/JSA annual, Defenders, Avengers, FF, and other team ups. The old The Brave and The Bold series. Classics. I struggle now with the demise of the Earth 2 characters from that era (Robin and Wayne/Huntress mostly). Plus GL and Flash story lines have become hot messes.

Oh my god I just noticed that Spock shirt that’s awesome

I was there for all of it, buying them right off the twirly rack at the drugstore...JLA 21/22 the birthing of a multi verse, watching Batman's TV (Holy Ancient Geek, Batman!) debut and even Beck & Binder's last obscure effort Fatman, the Human Flying saucer. (Hint: Video topic?) 12 cents for worlds of adventure, 25 cents for the annuals. Where is a good twirly rack to be found these days?

EXCELLENT!!!!!!! 👏🏾👍🏾💯😇

Pardon me for commenting on an old video. But the whole thing with Wertham's book reminds me of the time a superhero from my country was criticized because parents were afraid children were gonna start swallowing stones to get powers like hers 😅

This is really fascinating Sasha, thank you.

This is an old clip, but I just found it. My memory of the Silver Age includes a very brief phase, maybe two or three months, when I very abruptly shifted from being a solid DC fan to reading almost exclusively Marvels (I did follow the Legion for another year or so). What most intrigued me were the story arcs, as compared to the DC episodic formula where the monthly stories could be read in any order, February, May, October, March didn't matter. The longer, braided story arcs grabbed my attention -- but I also saw characters of color. Robbie Robertson at the Bugle, Gabe Jones in the Howlers, were just part of the background. The Panther, of course. DC tended to have *one* issue every two or three years that celebrated diversity, but the regular roster was always pure vanilla. Well, wait, I think Green Lantern had an Eskimo sidekick called "Pieface" for a while. That was about it for color repre-- oh, OK, Brainiac 5. Marvel had noticeably better representation of black characters at a time when DC was spectacularly failing to pretend they understood.

Great t-shirt.

Most of the things Wertham warned against are now official policy in the major publishers.

Another awesome post. I learned a great deal. Thanks.

For me the Silver age finally ended with the conclusion of Crisis on infinate Earths. After that things just weren't the same for me.

Fredric Wertham: The First Anti

Sorry for the late comments, but I just discovered your channel recently. It's generally accepted that the Silver age ended with the publications of Detective Comics 395 and Green Lantern 76. I am a little biased, though, as I specialize in the Bronze Age of DC.

The Bronze Age is generally considered to have started in 1970. Green Lantern 76 is usually considered the 1st major book of the era. Conan the Barbarian 1, which was several months later, is probably the 1st major Marvel book of the era.

In my freshman year of college I took an LBGTQ history class and for my finally essay I wrote about LBGTQ representation in comics (mainly talking about the poor ones). I talked about Seduction of the innocent with Batman and Robin, Kathy and Kate Kane, and Iceman’s disastrous being told he was gay.

The Bronze Age begins with Superman overcoming his weakness to Kryptonite and Kirby leaving Marvel and moving over to DC to create their New Gods and Fourth World.

Interesting - thank you :-)

I really feel that the start of the Silver Age Ended in 71 and the Bronze Age starting with the Sandman arc in Superman and the introduction of the New Gods that same year in DC

If we were going by metallic analogy, what age are we at now? Tin? Aluminum? Zinc? Alloy Aluminum? Plastic painted to look like aluminum???

Are umbrellas considered natural?