Arachnid Analysis: Defining the Comic Book Ages for Spidey

In this article I postulate what specific issues or arcs demark Spidey’s transition from one age of comics history into the next.

If you’ve been a comic book reader for long enough you’ve probably heard the terms ‘Golden Age’, ‘Silver Age’, etc. thrown around. These refer to eras of the American comic book industry, with particular emphasis upon the types of stories that were told within each era. Comic historians have debated when each era began and ended, with the mammoth book ’75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking’ going so far as to even define a primordial ‘Stone Age’ era.

In my experience the Ages have been commonly defined like this:

The Golden Age 1938-1956, beginning with Action Comics #1.

The Silver Age 1956-1973, beginning with DC Showcase #4.

The Bronze Age 1973-1986, beginning with Amazing Spider-Man #121-122.

The Dark Age 1986-Now, beginning with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and/or Watchmen.

From there historians have debated, with some arguing the Bronze Age never ended and others arguing we are still living in the Dark Age.

However, even if there were wide consensus upon when specifically each era began and ended, I feel there is a much more practical approach to be had.

To lift the curtain back a bit, in the past I’ve worked for the publishing house Dorling Kindersley (better known as just ‘D.K.’). Specifically my role was as an image researcher for various books, chiefly Marvel and DC properties.* Whilst working on the 2017 Wonder Woman guide book the team needed to create a timeline for the character’s history, denoted by the Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Dark Age, etc.

To help us the author of the book, Landry Q. Walker, revealed that internally within DC comics the start/end of each era is defined differently depending upon each character (or at least the major ones). For instance the Dark Age for Superman began in 1986’s Man of Steel #1, whilst for Wonder Woman it began in 1987, with Wonder Woman v2 #1 by George Perez. This mentality always struck me as a more useful  than demanding that every character entered each new era of comics at the same time.

Rather, I think you could argue that the transition from one era to another for the industry as a whole happened over time as opposed to the day Watchmen #1 hit shelves or something. For instance we could argue that the Dark Age began ‘around’ 1986, so any title put out in say 1995 would undeniably be set in the Dark Age.

With that said here are my personal suggestions for when each comic book era began and ended for the 616 version of Peter Parker.

The Silver Age (1962-1973)

I don’t think there can be any debate that by 1962 the Silver Age had supplanted the Golden Age. As such by default, Spider-Man’s debut in Amazing Fantasy #15 has to be the dawn of the Silver Age for the character.

The Bronze Age (1973-1987)

Many Comic historians have argued that the Silver Age died with Gwen Stacy in ASM #121-122. Whilst there is some debate about that I feel it’s totally appropriate for the moment to be the end of the Silver Age and the dawn of the Bronze Age for Spidey  specifically.

The Dark Age (1987-2001)

I really debated with myself about when the Dark Age should begin. I’ve heard it argued that ASM #252, the debut of the black costume, should be regarded as the dawn of the Dark Age for Spidey. But looking back at the ‘Alien Costume Saga’ it seems the costume was the darkest thing about it. The stories themselves were not all that different from what had come before.

Alternatively I really considered ‘The Death of Jean DeWolff’ (Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110) as a potential contender. However, whilst that story (and Peter David’s overall Spec run) certainly fits the bill of dark, grim and gritty stories, I don’t feel the Spider books as a whole were like that in the mid-1980s. In fact that was the point. ASM was more bright and optimistic and Spec was by design darker and grittier in order to create a greater contrast. Web meanwhile was the ‘travel’ book and strings of fill-in writers and artists meant there was little uniformity about almost anything. Plus Frank Miller’s Daredevil run began in 1981 and had a similarly grim and gritty tone to it.

So I’ve opted for perhaps the obvious choice and gone with ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt’. Not only is it the start of a new era for Spidey in general, but it wouldn’t be long before Venom would be showing up and the Spider titles in general began seeding in more darkness over all. Not to mention the raw weight and substance in the story makes it a bona fide contender next to Watchmen and the Dark Knight Returns.

The Cinematic Age (2001-2012)

In this article a fellow  Crawlspace contributor suggested that the post-Dark Age eras of comics be dubbed the ‘Cinematic Age’ and the ‘Diversity Age’. It seemed better than anything I could come up with so I’ll be using those terms.

Regardless of how you want to name it, it’s hard to deny that the industry entered a new age with the release of Ultimate Spider-Man #1, a trend setter for how most comics in the 21^st century would be written; for better or worse.

Probably the biggest example of this was an emphasis upon decompressed storylines, typically around 6 issues long. And it’s with that in mind that I propose that ASM v2 #30 (a.k.a. ASM #471) represents the beginning of the Cinematic Age for Spidey. Like ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt’ and ‘The Death of Gwen Stacy’ it began a new chapter in Peter’s life, but more significantly it began a big multi-part storyline. Whilst done-in-ones existed thereafter they were no longer the rule of the day, with every story being at least 2-3 issues long, but more commonly 4-6.

The Diversity Age (2013-Now)

For good or ill, Spider-Man in 2010s and beyond has been defined by huge uptick in the number of so-called ‘Web-Warriors’.

These have included new characters, returning ones, or sometimes something in between.

Spider-Gwen

Ben Reilly

Kaine

Spider-Man Noir

Spider-Ham

Peni Parker

Lady Spider

Spidey-UK

Anya Corazon

Spinneret

Spiderling

Spider-Punk

Spider-Man India

Supaidāman

The list goes on.

Were I to peg a point when this era began for the industry in general (or even just for the Spider-Man line specifically) I’d probably go for the debut of Miles Morales in 2011.

However, we are confining things to the 616 version of Peter Parker and for him I’ve selected the Superior Spider-Man #1.

I was sorely tempted to have picked Spider-Island as it is a story where literally everyone in New York gains his powers and concludes by setting up a spin-off about his literal clone. However, the story was a one off and Peter once co-existed with another clone of himself in the 1990s so the lay of the land wasn’t really that different. Similarly, his meeting with Miles Morales in Spider-Men was a consideration but that seemed little different from when the character met his futuristic counterpart in 1995’s Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man #1.

However, Superior #1 began one of the most unique periods of time for the character. Between January 2013-April 2014, outside of some tie-in comics to the USM cartoon or the issues ASM #700.1-700.5, there were no new comic books released where Peter Parker was actually Spider-Man.

In the Ultimate Universe Miles Morales was Spider-Man and Jessica Drew (Peter’s clone) was Spider-Woman.

In the 616 Universe Otto Octavius was Spider-Man, Kaine Parker was the Scarlet Spider, Flash Thompson was Venom, Jessica Drew was Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter was Madame Web, Anya Corazon was Spider-Girl and Miguel O’Hara was Spider-Man 2099.

Even after Peter returned that same year saw the debut of Cindy Moon as Silk as well as the ‘Spider-Verse’, event that introduced/reintroduced almost every kind of Web-Warrior imaginable. Yet more Spider characters have appeared since, particularly in the 2018 Into the Spider-Verse movie tie-in ‘Spider-Verse’ sequel story ‘Spider-Geddon’. Between these two events many of the ‘Web-Warriors’ featured have stuck around one way or another, several of them even starring in an eponymous team book for awhile.

Whilst Miles Morales might have gotten the ball rolling on this, it was the Superior Spider-Man ongoing series that truly differentiated this era it from its predecessors.

Of course hindsight might change the lay of the land. What I call the Diversity Age might be named something else. Diversity might not even be the defining feature of this era. These other Spider characters might soon disappear into the ether, rendering much of the 2010s a blip.

Only time will tell.

*On a side note, perhaps the most surreal day of my career was when a senior editor in his fifties walked up to my desk and asked me to explain ‘Clone Conspiracy’ to him.