Golden Age Comics: The Birth of DC & Marvel Explained

While comic book characters have taken over the entertainment industry, it’s been a long time since the Golden Age of Comic Books, back when the likes of Batman, Captain America, Superman and Wonder Woman got just as much love on the printed page. While their book sales may no longer hold a candle to their box office receipts, rewind a few decades and you’ll find that the best, and most important years of Marvel and DC predate even World War II.

While the dates may vary depending who you ask, the Golden Age is usually considered to begin in the late 1930s and end in the early-to-mid ’50s, and that stretch of time would change the pop culture landscape forever. The general consensus is that the era began in 1938 with the introduction of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s Superman in the pages of Action Comics #1, which was printed by National Allied, DC’s predecessor. The book popularized both the idea of a super-powered individual fighting crimes, as well as heroes keeping secret identities to protect both themselves and those around them. Within the next few years, the world would meet the likes of Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, and countless other now iconic heroes. But DC wasn’t alone for long in these early years of comic book fever.

Launched in 1939, what the world now knows as Marvel Comics originally operated under the name Timely Comics and it took no time for the company to also realize the unfulfilled market DC had been mining. Within a scant few months, Timely began publishing its own superhero books and by the early 1940s, the likes of Captain America, Namor the Sub-Mariner and the (original) Human Torch were flying off of store shelves and newsstands.

Some historians speculate that the popularity of the medium skyrocketed during the Golden Age – at least partially – on account of the second World War breaking out. Comics were affordable, plentiful, uplifting, easy to transport and oftentimes centered on tales of patriotic do-gooders fighting for American values. The very first Captain America famously features the title character in his signature red, white and blue punching out Hitler (months before the US had even entered the war), and he’s far from the only character from the era to foil supervillainous Nazi plots. It’s probably also important to keep in mind that the spike in popularity came shortly after The Great Depressions, and that perhaps readers were particularly keen for some much needed escapism.

The Golden Age also saw publishers expanding into other genres, with war stories, sci-fi, westerns and even horror books beginning to appear. Teen-focused series like Archie gained popularity as the war wound down. But all this wild growth was eventually hampered, thanks in no small part to the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency investigating the supposed negative impact of comic books on the youth in 1953 and subsequently helping create the Comics Code Authority, which strictly limited many comic creators and gave publishers the right to censor their employees’ work as they saw fit. This action left many writers and artists creatively hamstrung, with their content basically now at their publishers’ whim.

While the industry has clearly survived, it would prove to be a rocky next few decades, but even despite the popularity of things like the Marvel Cinematic Universe today, comic book sales aren’t anywhere near where they were. And while countless movies and TV shows continue to keep these characters alive, none of those properties would even exist if not for the Golden Age of Comic Books.

About The Author