The Modern Age
The Modern Age of Comics is generally considered to have begun from the mid-80’s to today. The age followed the Bronze Age and is noted for having more dark and complex stories and characters, like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. Horror, Fantasy, Mystery and Science Fiction became more mainstream at this point. Alan Moore’s Swap Thing and Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman featured some elements from these genre’s. Many characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Hulk and Wolverine got costume changes.
Antiheroes rose in popularity and characters became more sophisticated, focusing less on being good or evil but more nuance. In Marvel, Galactus became a force of nature that didn’t have any person malice towards the worlds he consumed. In 1996 Marvel declared bankruptcy resulting in “X-books” being cancel. However, with the X-Men movies being released in the early 2000’s and a new animated series, X-Men: Evolution the X-Men series increased in popularity. I believe that the Modern Age will end up being know for an increase of diversity. Heroes like Miles Morales and Kamala Khan will be one of the legacies of the Modern Age.