The Silver Age of Comic Books/Headscratchers


 * ...Seriously, what's with all the spanking?
 * It's fun!
 * Heh Heh... "Spanking"...
 * How come most silver age comics tended to have it with the characters or narrator explaining everything we can quite clearly see for ourselves by looking at the art in the very panel?
 * Just mosey on over to Viewers Are Morons.
 * Erm, not quite. In reality it's because during the Silver Age it was assumed only young children read comics. So really it's like that for the same reason a Berenstein Bears book will have the narration explaining everything you can clearly see happening in the pictures.
 * Also, the way those stories were usually written, the entire script was written before the art was drawn, and there wouldn't be time to make script edits after the art came in. If the artist's storytelling was vague or unclear, tough luck, there's little time to add in some explanatory dialogue. So add in the explanatory dialogue beforehand, because you never know when the artist will have an off moment and make it look like Hero X is doing the jitterbug when he's supposed to unleashing a ninja kick.
 * What's with all the lingering nostalgia? People who work in the comic industry keep trying to reach back to it, even parts that were really stupid. Don't get me wrong, the Modern Age has its fair share of stupid, stupid moments, but some people, like Alex Ross, seem to think the Silver Age was the era of "Greatest comics ever." And sometimes the reversions to the Silver Age work out nicely, other times they blow up in someone's face.
 * I think it's more the themes of the Silver Age that people are trying to hearken back to, not the insane/stupid moments. There's something to be said for the pure, unambiguous heroes and villains of the Silver Age. After so many years of moral grey areas, grim&gritty anti-heroes, and sympathetic villains, a lot of people have been yearning for a return to the good-ol-days when heroes were unambiguously good and villains were Always Chaotic Evil.
 * What's slightly annoying about this nostalgic viewpoint is that the best silver age creators weren't the guys just repeating the last generation's efforts but also experimenting and bringing new ideas to the medium, Like Lee, Kirby and Steranko.
 * Because the comics from that era tend to be So Bad Its Good.
 * Few if any creators yearn for the actual writing style the Silver Age. It's specific characters and concepts that they try to bring back, not the style of writing.
 * It's not about actually wanting to bring back the Silver Age so much as it's a deliberate reaction against the Dark Age, which kept comics mired in a stew of pointless grimdark for far too long, and was in large part an attempt to distance comics as a medium from the silliness and fun of the Silver Age.
 * I consider it a giant case of "failure to launch." The Dark Age of Comics was like an unsightly adolescence that comics first had to go through to break out of its aesthetic childhood. It was often unappealing--kind of like a teenager's cheesy first attempt at a moustache. But it seemed that once comics got the ridiculous levels of Grimdark out of its system, it could maybe try embracing genuinely adult themes and concerns. But on the cusp of adulthood, many of the man-children in charge (and in the audience) decided that a SECOND FREAKING CHILDHOOD was the ticket instead. Aesthetically speaking, they've moved back into mommy's basement.