Well, hey there. So... been a while since I touched this one, huh? I have to admit, ending in 1954 with Bruce Wayne now in the custody of one Lamont Cranston was not what I had in mind for where this would go. My intention was to do one section for each of the big ages of superhero comics - the Golden, the Silver, the Bronze, and then the "Modern" (or Dark Age if you're anything like me when it comes to comics).
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..so, naturally, let's get on with the Silver Age!
That is... after a bit of housekeeping.
You see, in entering the Silver Age, I've decided to add in a retcon! A retcon in comics?! Will wonders never cease? We're going to wind the clocks back to just after World War I, when Kent Allard was still the drug crime lord Yin Ko and operating out of Tibet. The Tulku had another student in the ways of manipulating the darkness within the hearts of men, one who could have in another life become the Shadow himself. The man's name? Nicholas Joseph Fury.
You see, like Kent, Fury was a soldier during World War I as well. Unlike Kent, Fury was exposed to a world beyond the mundane one that most people knew early on in his military career. Taking some inspiration from Marvel's Original Sin event, Nick Fury was eventually set up to be the "Man on the Wall" and take care of threats that the regular world simply wasn't ready for or equipped to handle. Learning of the Tulku, Fury sought him out as well and ended up training alongside Kent for a time. Eventually, however, the darkness within Fury's heart was too great and the lengths that he was willing to go to in order to achieve his ends disturbed even Kent. Fury left, eventually rejoining the United States military. We'll be getting back to him in a bit.
Let's fast forward back to 1954. Young Bruce Wayne becomes the ward of Lamont Cranston, aka Kent Allard, aka The Shadow. The eight year old boy has a darkness within him following the death of his parents, something that his butler Alfred Pennyworth is clearly perturbed by. The Shadow, on the other hand, thinks it would be well to put the boy to use. He begins training Bruce in his ways and Bruce ends up taking inspiration during a training exercise when he scares some bats in the belfry of an old church in Gotham, causing them to fly around before their escape. After Cranston reveals his identity to the boy, he has Bruce take the oath. Rather than follow exactly in his mentor's footsteps, however, Bruce takes on the identity of "the Bat".
Not quite the hero he will become... but we'll get there soon enough.
Elsewhere, while Bruce spends some years training, other things are going on. Superman remains active as a superhero even after World War II, being one of the most beloved of all heroes. The United Nations, fearing the once more rising superhuman population, founds the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division or "S.H.I.E.L.D.", headed by Captain America's wartime sweetheart Peggy Carter and with a young Nicholas Fury as one of its first agents.
We also get some heroes that I may or may not have missed last time appearing for the first time - such as Barry Allen as the Flash of Earth-1 (Jay Garrick likely would have been involved in one of the multiversal crossovers I mentioned last time) or Ray Palmer appearing as the Atom for the first time. However, some changes are less obvious. For example, in 1963, a man named Charles Xavier founds his School for Gifted Youngsters. For a time working alongside his friend Erik Lehnsherr until the two eventually parted ways over their methodologies. Obviously, neither of the two men, the schools, nor their chosen students are quite what they seem.
In other ways, as I said before, there are less heroes. Dan Garrett would have stepped down as the Blue Beetle by now and instead lives as an archaeologist for good this time. Diana of Themyscira returned to her people after the horrors of World War II left her disillusioned, Steve Rogers was lost in the ice during World War II, and so on.
This begins to change in 1964 when two big events occur. First, there is the formation of a superhero team - the Avengers. A billionaire playboy by the name of Tony Stark has become Iron Man using a powered suit. Joining him on the team are the aforementioned Ray Palmer as the Atom, Palmer's girlfriend Janet Van Dyne as the Wasp, a scientist named Bruce Banner who has unfortunately found himself stuck transforming into the Incredible Hulk following a nuclear accident, and finally... Superman.
At least, that is the original formation of the team in this universe. At the insistence of SHIELD, a sixth member is added to the roster - defected Soviet spy Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow, with her acting as the handler for the team. They have their first major battle against not Loki, but against a force founded by one Erik Lehnsherr, now going under the name of Magneto. The name of that group? The Brotherhood of Mutants! This not only puts the Avengers in the public eye and very popular as heroes (particularly after they save President Johnson from Magneto), but also unfortunately stirs up a great deal of anti-mutant sentiment in America and the world at large.
The second big event in '64? A scientist by the name of Reed Richards decides to put his theories about cosmic radiation into practice, going up on a space flight with friends Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, and Johnny Storm. Accidental overexposure to said radiation turns them into - you guessed it! - the Fantastic Four. The two biggest superhero teams in the world have been formed.
... back in Gotham, however, all is not well. Fury has discovered the true identity of Lamont Cranston and in The Shadow comics has been playing a long game of espionage against his fellow, one that gets Bruce right in the middle. In particular, Kent is shocked that while he has aged nearly fifty years, Fury doesn't appear to have aged a day since leaving the Tulku. It would be a lengthy story arc playing over a year, with Fury burning every vestige of Kent's identity as Lamont Cranston as well as attempting to sway Bruce from his side. Unfortunately, Fury tips his hand and eventually gets egged into a fight by Kent, beating the physically older man near to death.
Bruce responds in kind, but stops short of killing Fury. He refuses to become like the man who murdered his parents, vowing over the beaten and broken form of Nick Fury that he will not kill. He warns the SHIELD agent to stay out of Gotham and to never darken their doorstep again. Fury leaves, getting reprimanded by Director Carter afterward for going rogue and letting his vendetta with Kent get the best of him. However, the "death" of Lamont Cranston serves as a major turning point in the Shadow comics. With Bruce now "orphaned" once more, Kent steps more fully into the position of the Shadow... although it was clear through the Year of Fury that the years are finally catching up to him, and even his gathered skills and tricks won't save him forever.
Indeed, given that Kent could have been no younger than 15-16 when World War I ended in 1918 and the fact that we're not going with a sliding time scale, then Kent Allard could not possibly be any younger than 62 by this point! He stubbornly tries to keep going, but after a particularly disastrous encounter with a criminal gang in which he is injured (coupled with the beating that Fury gave him), Kent is convinced to hang up his fedora once and for all. The costume of The Shadow is the first one to hang beneath Wayne Manor in what will eventually become the Batcave. Because of this, we have our first major status quo change as Lamont Cranston gets old and, eventually... dies. "The Bat" becomes... Batman.
Bruce, now at the age of 18, has many years ahead of him to be a superhero.
As 1964 becomes 1965, yet more changes occur. Dan Garrett comes out of retirement as the Blue Beetle one last time, ending in his death and passing the mantle on to his student Theodore "Ted" Kord. The Fantastic Four discover Namor, the son of Atlanna and the Prince of Atlantis, as well as square off against Doctor Doom for the first time. Steve Rogers is found and thawed from the ice, once more becoming Captain America in this strange, new world he's found himself in, even reigniting his relationship with Peggy Carter for a time... more on that later. Notably, he does not join the Avengers... at least, not yet.
The 1960's roll into the 1970's with some events and crossovers. SHIELD becomes a more dominant player in the superhero game, with many of their own agents also having superpowers. Zod and his entourage from Krypton end up emerging on Earth in 1972 and causing all hell to break loose, eventually ending with them trapped in the Phantom Zone and Superman resigning from active membership in the Avengers due to public outcry against Kryptonians. The X-Men make themselves known and are on watchlists by both the United States Government and SHIELD, the former group in particular poised to make things very difficult for them due largely to anti-mutant sentiment that has been festering since even before the Avengers' battle with the Brotherhood of Mutants.
This largely is due to a young up and coming Senator named Robert Kelly who proposes to Congress the first attempt at a "Mutant Registration Act" in 1973. Stirring up anti-mutant sentiment, Kelly manages to get the bill through the Senate before a series of hearings in the House take place at which Professor Charles Xavier is a witness called upon multiple times to offer testimony. The hearings take place alongside other events in the X-Men book, but Kelly eventually finds himself halted after the X-Men manage to rescue President Gerald Ford, who pledges to veto any such bill that comes to his desk out of gratitude and a desire to put said bill under more scrutiny. This, coupled with a drop in anti-mutant sentiment, makes Kelly withdraw for a time... but not completely give up his quest.
After all, there are plenty of people who are still of like mind about mutants being bad... some Friends that he'll be getting to know all too well. Among these Friends of Humanity, Kelly finds one Colonel William Stryker, who introduces him to the Weapon X project and showcases to him a new mutant recruit by the name of James Howlett, saying that his mutation would be perfect for dealing with the X-Men with a few...tweaks...
However, we're not quite done with the Silver Age. We have yet to introduce two particular individuals of interest going forward. Going back to Gotham, the year is 1980 and a young man named Richard "Dick" Grayson has lost his parents due to a mafia assassin. Bruce Wayne, seeing an opportunity, takes on the young man of age twelve as his ward and yet, he becomes the new Robin.
Back in New York City, around that same time, a young man by the name of Peter Parker attends a scientific demonstration and is bitten by a radioactive spider. After losing his Uncle Ben to a criminal that he could have stopped, Peter becomes the Amazing Spider-Man! He begins to deal with a plethora of supervillains that pop up and we have two more things to cover before closing this all out...
In Norway, a comet falls from the sky and leaves a massive impact crater. When the Norwegian authorities get out to it, they find a most curious thing: an old style hammer that no one seems able to lift.
Our final vignette takes place not on Earth-1, but instead on Earth-2. On Earth-2, of which there have been a few crossovers between two as we established in Part 1, Jay Garrick and the rest of the Justice Society (which has lasted until 1980 rather than falling apart after World War II as it did on Earth-1) find themselves faced with a mysterious curtain of anti-matter moving through their universe. No matter what they do, no matter what resources they put to use, they seem unable to stop it. Eventually, Jay uses the Cosmic Treadmill to leave his universe and find help on Earth-1. As he travels into the Speed Force, he becomes aware of the destruction befalling his universe and comes across a very strange man... a Pariah... being pulled between the universes as they collapse...
When we return with Part 3, we won't be entering the Bronze Age, but ending the Silver Age with a bang.
Next time...
Worlds will live.
Worlds will die.
Nothing will ever be the same.
When we return... it's time... for the Crisis on Infinite Earths!
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