When Did the Iron Age End?

If you follow my logic:

The Golden Age of Comics began with Action Comics # 1 and ended with Tales from the Crypt # 46.

The Silver Age of Comics began with Fantastic Four # 1 and ended with Green Lantern # 76.

The Bronze Age of Comics began with Green Lantern # 76 and ended with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns # 1, which started the Iron Age of Comics.

When did the Iron Age end, assuming it did?

This is a much tougher question for me.

After the Grim n Gritty comics spawned in the wake of TDKR dominated the 90s, it's not as intuitive to find a point where the tide receded. Yet recede it did, thankfully. If you pull books off the rack of your comic shop today, few indeed bear the hallmarks of G n G. Many of the leading advocates for this approach are marginal figures in the industry today: Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, etc. Old-school fun comics are de riguer, with Kurt Busiek, Mark Waid, and Geoff Johns leading the way. Even Alan Moore turned away from Grim n Gritty---he makes fun comics like Top Ten and Tom Strong these days.

If I had to point to a turning point, it would be Mark Waid and Alex Ross' Kingdom Come # 1:



With this series, Waid and Ross set out to take comics back from the forces of G n G. In fact, the villainous Magog of this series was designed to look very much like the sort of character Rob Liefeld and company introduce during G n G's heydey at Image Comics. The triumph of old-school characters like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel over these newer, deadlier "heroes" was very much intended to presage a return to a Silver Age mentality.

Ross' gouache sheen provided a dose of visual reality to the images while Waid presented the very real consequences of embracing violence and amorality, as unintended consequences threatened to consume the world.

I don't think it's any surprise that in the wake of this project and Ross' work on "Marvels" for Marvel Comics that we saw a return to old school, iconic superheroes. Antiheroes like Wolverine and The Punisher were no longer quite as popular, while older, more innocent characters returned to prominence.

I'd suggest that marked the end of the Iron Age, and with out heroes shining brightly once more, the beginning of the Brass Age, which continues to this day.

There has been a second renaissance on comic book stands as a result of this turn, and you'll note that the bright comics of the Silver and Bronze Ages seem to be holding their own with Iron Age properties in the Hollywood hit machine, despite Hollywood's tendency to view dark and edgy as "artistic".