QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH WILLIAM SCHOELL FOR SUPER-ACTION: THE COPPER AGE OF DC COMICS
- Why are super-heroes suddenly so popular? Comics, movies, TV shows – what gives?
Believe it or not there was a time when super-heroes were not so popular and series were dropped right and left in favor of horror, romance, and science fiction comic books. It was in the so-called “silver age” that super-heroes began rising again and it is a trend that continues to this day. Decades ago kids stopped reading comics when they, say, went to college, but when the comic books became more sophisticated in the late sixties and early seventies it was considered okay to keep reading them into adulthood. Comic books are read by people of all ages.
- How did the movies get into it? Years ago motion pictures didn’t have the technology to make action heroes come alive on the screen as much as they do today. Super-heroes are colorful, their struggles with powerful villains are dramatic and larger than life, with tremendous stakes, so it made sense to adapt them for films.
- Does your book cover the film adaptations of these comics? No, that’s a whole other book. SUPER-ACTION looks strictly at comics during the late eighties and nineties, the so-called “copper” age. But it does cover many of the same storylines which were later re-used in the movies. In fact, much of the material in today’s super-hero movies, besides, the heroes themselves, comes from the comic books.
- Which comic company does this book focus on? This volume focuses on DC comics, which arguably published the longest-running and most famous heroes; that is, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, not to mention Flash and Green Lantern and many others.
- Why cover this particular period? Because it was an exciting time for DC Comics and comic books in general, with lots of changes, experimentation and novelty. Marvel was its biggest competitor and DC had to stay relevant and engaging, so they took a chance on tweaking long-time characters.
- What exactly did they do? Superman was almost completely rebooted; Wonder Woman was turned from a semi-moronic kiddie feature into an intelligent and thought-provoking adventure series which didn’t stint on the mythological action and battle scenes. Batman’s boy partner Robin grew up and became Nightwing and ran his own group, the New Teen Titans. Then there were new Robins, one of whom was killed off by the Joker. DC ran a poll asking fans to decide whether Jasson Todd should live or die, and commentators thought DC fans were frivolous in voting for death, but they weren’t killing off the original Robin, Dick Grayson, who is still around.
- Wasn’t this also a period where comic book companies came out with limited series, maxi-series, or whatever you call them? Yes, Crisis on Infinite Earths streamlined the DC Universe by eliminating all of the alternate earths that had sprung over up the years with heroes from defunct companies as well as earlier versions of DC heroes. The original Superman lived on Earth-2 with the Justice Society, while the silver age edition lived on Earth-1 with the Justice League, even though they came later. DC hoped to eliminate all of the confusion.
- So DC comics just has one earth now? No, a few years ago they decided to reverse themselves and now there are 52 earths with a multiplicity of heroes. Insanity!
- What other series are of particular note? The maxi-series Legends, Cosmic Odyssey War of the Gods, and others. The New Teen Titans, which rivaled Marvel’s X-Men in popularity at the time. There was also a special comic, a joint DC/Marvel project, where the two groups interacted with one another. Green Lantern, Power of the Atom, Suicide Squad. The book looks at the work of such comics superstars as John Byrne, George Perez, and many others. Younger fans may be surprised how long their favorite movie heroes have been around and older readers will enjoy discovering or re-discovering some classic stories.
- Speaking of Marvel, what about their copper age? That’s the next volume!