In the 1950s, superhero comics were in a major decline. Nobody wanted to read comic books about costumed crimefighters who had silly names and fought equally silly villains, Axis minions and gangsters at the end of World War II. Many comics companies that produced superhero comics went bankrupt and the surviving companies cancelled most of their superhero titles.
To maintain reader interest, many comic book publishers started publishing comics from a wide variety of genres such as action-adventure, science fiction, horror, crime, romance and war. By that time, only DC's mainstays, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were the few remaining superhero comics still publishing. Meanwhile, comic books were blamed by parents groups for causing an increase in juvenile delinquency because of the increasingly lurid content, especially crime and horror comics.
The proliferation and the content of comic books during the 1950s was criticized by a major psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, the author of Seduction of the Innocent, for causing juvenile delinquency. This book combined with the anti-comics backlash caused the establishment of the Comics Code Authority, which was essentially a content regulation system in order to prevent comic books from being banned in the States.
Suppose the Comics Code Authority and the anti-comic book backlash never happened, and the comic books managed to self-regulate by forming a ratings system, and the superhero genre continued its decline.
Would superhero comics remain popular, or become a remnant in comic book history?
Would there be diversity in genres from comic books?
Then what would entertainment be like in a world where superhero comics were less popular than the OTL?
To maintain reader interest, many comic book publishers started publishing comics from a wide variety of genres such as action-adventure, science fiction, horror, crime, romance and war. By that time, only DC's mainstays, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were the few remaining superhero comics still publishing. Meanwhile, comic books were blamed by parents groups for causing an increase in juvenile delinquency because of the increasingly lurid content, especially crime and horror comics.
The proliferation and the content of comic books during the 1950s was criticized by a major psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, the author of Seduction of the Innocent, for causing juvenile delinquency. This book combined with the anti-comics backlash caused the establishment of the Comics Code Authority, which was essentially a content regulation system in order to prevent comic books from being banned in the States.
Suppose the Comics Code Authority and the anti-comic book backlash never happened, and the comic books managed to self-regulate by forming a ratings system, and the superhero genre continued its decline.
Would superhero comics remain popular, or become a remnant in comic book history?
Would there be diversity in genres from comic books?
Then what would entertainment be like in a world where superhero comics were less popular than the OTL?