The Downfall of Batman In The Silver Age of Comics 

This is exactly why I'd love to see a crossover between '66 Batman and Man of Steel Superman 🤣

this is too true.

@@Superlad945 I'm only familiar with comics from 10 years before crisis. This documentary is not accurate because Batman was 2nd only to Superman in the silver/bronze age. Detective Comics,Batman, Brave and the Bold used to sell 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 each month for each one of these titles. Also Flash, Green Lantern,Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Legion of superheroes were popular and sold 1,000,000 or more each month specially during summer. They just tried different stories, not because they were loosing sales. They used to try anything all the time.

@@Superlad945 yes that's accurate up to early 70s is all I know, I didn't watch late 70s or 80s. The Legion of superheroes comic book was a top selling comics too. House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Mystery in Space. Our Army at War. I was a DC fan but also had a complete collection of Marvel Comics.

I read these comics back then and Batman stories were goofy bavk then but the big change was in 68 when Batman had a bigger cape as he looked cool as the stories were wrote much better .

@@speedracer1945 and sales went down.

@@drmidnight680-kz2le didnt notice then I was a kid back then and bought comics for the art and cover . Mostly Marvel comic arcs as well .

I never read any of those Batman stories which one do you recommend for me to read?

​@@ThespeedrapThe Zebra Batman storyb is goofy as hell, but it has a lowkey terrifying concept behind it

If you enjoyed them, perhaps you were more of a Superman reader. The Legion of Super Heroes stories in this period of time were similar to the Superman stories.

@@stevepensando2593- that shit sounds dope

Hi, Grant Morrison. How do you do

I would love a modern take on the Mystery man story. Jim Gordon becoming a vigilante has great potential. Maybe the plot could be Jim is trying to solve a case and his Mystery man persona is an undercover disguise.

​@@Darthzilla99Kind of like how Batman uses the Matches Malone persona.

Of course I am biased, but the Batman of my early '80s childhood (1982-1988) will always be my favorite era. The Dark Knight Detective was in ultimate form in the mid '80s, Brave and the Bold (art by Jim Aparo, stories by Mike Barr) became the best Bat book to buy, until he formed The Outsiders and then THAT became my favorite book. Frank Miller's Dark Knight graphic novel in '84 put him over the top in mainstream media.

@@juniorjames7076 your childhood of the 1980s was at the close of Neil Adams tenure as writer/illustrator of Batman comic books, which in essence was the dawn of the Bronze Age of comic books. For during the Bronze Age majority of the Silver Age comic book writers and illustrators were retiring from the business. I love the Silver Age of comic books because of the incredible art work of the time from illustrators such as Curt Swan (Superman) and Neil Adams (Batman). However we all have our own preferences from our childhoods, that doesn't mean that anyone is wrong it only means what we have been raised on.

@@wallacelang1374 yeah, Swan is top. He was very different due to inkers and the fact that he Started as Boring copycat just like Boring was Shuster copycat, but his art was and is, always the A game. Funny how in the end he illustrated all three (Earth-2, Earth-1 and Post-Crisis) Superman married with Lois. Also predicted Chris Reeve and Hank Cavill, while most of his Silver Age stuff was clearly inspired after George Reeves face, just like nowadays Gary Frank draws Chris Reeve (sometimes almost for everyone, Superman, Batman, Thomas Wayne, Ozymandias, Comedian, Black Adam even, Dr. Manhattan, once you see you can't unsee it, especially in latest works like Doomsday Clock) or Jason Fabok after Hank Cavill, and Clay Mann was Cavill facing at first but then Reeve after trunks returned, but recently I think it is mix between two.

Not just Kirby. Romita, Buscema, Colan etc.

Remember Gay used to mean happy not homosexuality

​@@anthonyallmond3682 and queer just mean weird back then

The rainbow flag was first used in a gay pride parade in 1978. Before that it didn't have any particular association with the gay rights movement.

The Wrath is great. Chuck Dixon said there was some weird agreement made between someone, somewhere that made The Wrath off-limits for use. He said he never figured out why that was.

The look of Batman's gloves originally came from an earlier character called "The Bat".

The Batman of my early '80s childhood (1982-1988) will always be my favorite era. The Dark Knight Detective was in ultimate form in the mid '80s with Brave and the Bold (art by Jim Aparo, stories by Mike Barr) being the best Bat book to buy, until he formed The Outsiders and then THAT became my favorite book. Batman stories were grimy, sometimes creepy, and even international- one minute in the backstreets of Gotham ghetto, next page following a clue to the backstreets of Istanbul or Budapest! Frank Miller's Dark Knight graphic novel in '86 put him over the top in mainstream media.

What was Superman origin for you growing up and now? What elements

Totally agree, a lot of those "dark detective" Batman stories are more repetitive than anything in the silver age, "law and order" with a guy at the crime scene with a Dracula cape😴

Modern Batman is a caricature of an edge lord. People today feel validated by reading “sophisticated mature” comics. Yet….. they are still just reading comics.

That was great English, for the record. And I agree with your comment 100%!

Owen liked comicd

Thank you!

Good Batman stories which inspired the 90s Animated series I'm guessing.

I agreee, but of course I am biased. The Batman of my early '80s childhood (1982-1988) will always be my favorite era. The Dark Knight Detective was in ultimate form in the mid '80s with Brave and the Bold (art by Jim Aparo, stories by Mike Barr) being the best Bat book to buy, until he formed The Outsiders and then THAT became my favorite book. Batman stories were grimy, sometimes creepy, and even international- one minute in the backstreets of Gotham ghetto, next page following a clue to the backstreets of Istanbul or Budapest! Frank Miller's Dark Knight graphic novel in '86 put him over the top in mainstream media.

Also I think Batmans stagnation was likely also a byproduct of Kanes tight grip over Batman the character didn't allow them to flesh out him. While I have an fondess for werid silver age, it's crazy to think there was a time Batman was in the literal shadow of Superman.

@@Superlad945 Thats true, but at the same time but yea people forget how popular Aquaman was in the 60s

One of the main reasons I do it :)

@@SalazarKnight makes the reboots distinguishable. They are special editions in a way

finesse>

you mean the movie right and i loved it

Well I loved Man Of Steel, I think it’s an absolutely fantastic movie, awesome and epic in its scope, and just every about it was so good! It has a timeless quality about it, and perhaps that’s why it is now finally ( a Decade after it’s Theatrical Release) beginning to garner the Respect and Recognition that it so richly deserves!!

It was trash

I think there's a little too much inertia in the modern DC editorial approach. The Didio/Lee regime kept claiming they were wiping and reinventing the whole line, but it was the same people with the same ideas of what works, so their "fresh" approaches seemed anything but. I've met both of these guys. They're both terrifically nice folks, and by all accounts, they were loyal bosses. But their creative choices seemed to be the same old attempts to recapture the magic of The Dark Knight Returns. DC editorial has been trying, and mostly failing, to do that for 30+ years now. Unfortunately, the "Combat Boots Batman" is the end-product of that direction, and because everyone is still trying to chase that dragon, I don't see anything fresh and different coming along to supplant it anytime soon. Comics have been failing so long, they no longer know how to measure what's working and what isn't. So they tend to always stay the course, for fear of losing the last loyal fans they have. But as with the DCEU or the Star Wars franchise, they're try please the loudest fans, rather than the fans most interested in quality work. Loud fans aren't interested in quality, they're interested in control. That's why they're loud, to influence the product. And DC has been listening to them so long, they're they only people the books still appeal to. Believe me, there are a lot of people at DC who're trying to change it. But whether they can or not in the long run, we'll just have to wait and see.

Thank you Carlos! And hello Brazil! 🇧🇷

Is there any specific comic that said that?

@@ramonegues5689 I think it was in Batman: R.I.P. by Grant Morrison. Though I may be remembering it wrong.

@@arcadeassassin7176 This is bullshit.Modern Batman lives in a different universe of earth-1 Batman.Morrison just refuse to accept the DC history is not a only one universe.

@@EvandroACruz Calm down dude. It's just a comic book you don't need to get this mad. Besides batman only ever gets soft rebooted unlike most other dc characters large portions of his history remain in tact with only his origin being retold. Plus Batman: R.I.P. is in continuity so your essentially saying that the cannon is wrong about it's self. And also who cares it's about telling good stories not getting bogged down in pointless continuity based gatekeeping.

@@ramonegues5689- it’s Batman R.I.P. for sure and it’s one of my favorite Batman stories, definitely try it out. And it’s not just hard drugs that explain his behavior, it’s a wild read.

He mentioned before when pressed about a series on Wonder Woman's or Superman's Golden Age history that it wouldn't be possible, it's too much work, it takes tons of reading to get all the proper information for Batman.

Thank you so much! It makes me really happy to read that :)

You're completely correct. Well, to be fair, they were backup features, they didn't have their own books. Wondy Supes and Bats were what drew in readers, Ollie and Arthor were bonuses.

Im not so sure. I love Adam West's Batman because I grew up watching reruns of it in the 90s, But as an adult I'm pretty sure you would get Clooney's Batman and Robin.

@@kyledamron Honestly, I'd take Clooney's Batman and Robin over another boring explosion-fest... And I'm saying that as someone who used to be a big fan of 90s action movies. 30 years on the formula has gotten stale.

To my knowledge and understanding, this is what historians have generally agreed upon: - Golden Age | Start: 1939; End: mid-1950s - Silver Age | Start: mid-1950s; End: 1969 - Bronze Age | Start: early-1970s; End: 1986 This is the categorization system that I've known for as long as I can remember. Then again, I didn't live to see those ages happening in real time, so if this is a retroactive arrangement, I couldn't tell.

@@SalazarKnight Thanks for the reply. There is an analog in other areas regarding the naming of things in history. Nobody called WWI by that name until much later. In 2001, saying "nine-eleven" would have confused people. There was no such thing as the Internet during the 1970s, so social customs progressed in the traditional way, not under pressure from media narratives or social influencers. As I mentioned before, in the early 1970s, I never heard mention of the "Silver Age"; that came later to differentiate that time from the Golden Age. Using the expression "Bronze Age" even later yet. According to the Wikipedia article, the current comics time period has two different names, Modern Age and Dark Age. I predict one of those will win out.

@@SalazarKnight I lived through some of this, and I'd agree with this timeline (we didn't really name these "ages" until later like @misterlyle. says below, but we could easily recognize them by the artwork at the time). Even though I started reading and buying comics in the early bronze age, I had inherited a ton of Golden/Silver age comics from older cousins/uncles - my comics were 90% DC. Great video, btw. You mention the wackiness of the Batman titles, but the Superman titles were doing the same thing - the "What If?..." and Jimmy Olsen stories were pretty crazy. lol. As far as Batman artists go - Carmine Infantino, Dick Giordano, Neal Adams, Jim Aparo. 'nuff said.

"Hi Diddle Riddle"/"Smack in the Middle" are based on "Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler!" from Batman #171, and "The Joker's Last Laugh!" from Detective Comics #332. "Fine Feathered Finks"/"The Penguin's a Jinx" are based on "Partners In Plunder!" from Batman #169. "The Joker Is Wild"/"Batman Is Riled" are based on "The Joker's Utility Belt!" from Batman #73. "Instant Freeze"/"Rats Like Cheese" are based on "The Ice Crimes Of Mr. Zero" from Batman #121 (and perhaps also "The Princess Of Plunder" from Batman #10?) "Zelda the Great"/"A Death Worse Than Fate" are based on "Batman's Inescapable Doom-Trap!" from Detective Comics #346 "The Thirteenth Hat"/"Batman Stands Pat" as well as "The Contaminated Cowl"/"The Mad Hatter Runs Afoul" are all based on "The Mad Hatter Of Gotham City" from Detective Comics #230 and "The New Crimes Of The Mad Hatter" from Batman #161. "The Joker Trumps an Ace"/"Batman Sets the Pace" are based on "A Hairpin, a Hoe, a Hacksaw, a Hole In the Ground!" from Batman #53. King Tut may have been inspired by the villain of "Wolf, the Crime Master" from Batman #2? False Face is taken from the story "The Menace of False Face" from Batman #113 "Death in Slow Motion"/"The Riddler's False Notion" are based on "The Joker's Comedy Capers!" from Detective Comics #341. "The Penguin's Nest"/"The Bird's Last Jest" are based on "The Penguin's Nest!" from Batman #36. "Batman's Anniversary"/"A Riddling Controversy are based on "The Riddler" from Detective Comics #140 and "Batman's Deadly Birthday" from Batman #130.

Question, did you base your username on the DC character?

@@ffiiggyy Yes, one of my favourites!