Changed my mind about golden age comics after talking to a collector at the shop

I used to think golden age stuff was boring and just for old timers. But last Saturday a guy named Dave at my LCS showed me an old Action Comics #1 reprint and talked about how those stories set up everything we read today. He pointed out that Superman's first appearance had him fighting a wife beater and corrupt politicians, not aliens. I never realized how grounded and bold those early issues were. Has anyone else had their opinion flipped by a random conversation at a comic shop?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordanl822d ago

Dave at my shop did the same thing for me but with a different book. He pulled out a reprint of Detective Comics #27 and showed me how Batman started as a straight up pulp vigilante who carried a gun and wasn't afraid to kill people. That gritty edge got smoothed out over the decades but it's still hiding in there under the surface of some modern stories. It's wild how those early issues were basically crime noir dressed up in capes.

angela432d ago

Tbh, that bit about Batman starting as a pulp vigilante who carried a gun is something that really got me thinking too, @jordanl82. I mean, you look at the Dark Knight now and he's this strict no-kill rule guy, but those early Detective Comics issues were almost like a different character entirely. Did Dave mention if any of that original grit carried over into stories after the 1940s, or did they just completely sand it down for the Comics Code? Because it seems like some modern writers try to bring that edge back, but it's never quite the same as those first few years when nobody was policing the content.