In the silver age of comic books, comic book companies took ordinary, though highly skilled, super heroes and placed them in rockets, visit alien worlds and fight for the good no matter what type of society there was.
The silver age of comic books lasted approximately from the late 1950′s to the early 1970′s and during this period, a few attributes of comic book characters started to develop.
It was during this time, that the most interesting developments was the incorporation of science fiction into the storylines. With science fiction at the helm, it was possible to inject a myriad of stories. The ability to stretch the known boundaries put a new spin on tales. In the silver age of comic books, Batman and Robin (who were not super powered) could be placed anywhere, literally anywhere, and they were not confined to earth.
By placing our super heroes in an interplanetary situation, raises the issue that the target society in these other worlds clearly had good versus bad situation. In the silver age of comic books, they took human traits and manifested them in aliens who had special abilities that transcended humans and were perpetually war-like. It was necessary for there to be conflict in the new society, to provide reason for our super heroes to justify their existence.
By fusing science fiction into the comic book format, super heroes and villains could be transformed, or mutated, much more easily. Even the weapons in use could make even Superman pause.
It was during this era, that comic book publishers began to integrate more humanity into their characters. Initially, the super heroes were robotic in their mannerism and emotional appeal and their humanizing suggested a transformation had taken place. It took internalized personal melancholy to rise to the surface and manifest itself to create a more human character.
Aquaman, who was originally considered as a negligible super hero, was transformed during the silver age of comic books. Although Aquaman emerged in the golden age, it wasn’t until the silver age of comic books that his ability to live outside of water and it was revealed that his arch nemesis was really his half brother, Ocean Master.
It is a general belief that the changes that took place in the Silver age comic books represented a modification that society dictated and achieved the alterations necessary to keep the comic book industry relevant in society.
