The Golden Age (comics)

The Golden Age
Cover to The Golden Age trade paperback.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Publication date	Summer 1993 – Spring 1994
Number of issues	4
Main character(s)	Various DC Comics Golden Age characters
Creative team
Writer(s)	James Robinson
Artist(s)	Paul Smith
Colorist(s)	Richard Ory
Collected editions
The Golden Age
JSA: The Golden Age

The Golden Age is a 1993 four-issue Elseworlds comic book mini-series by writer James Robinson and artist Paul Smith. It concerns the Golden Age DC Comics superheroes entering the 1950s and facing the advent of McCarthyism.

The series opens showing how various Golden Age heroes have adjusted to life after World War II. The members of the Justice Society of America and All-Star Squadron have retired. Tex Thompson, formerly the Americommando, has returned from Europe a war hero, and has used his fame to start a political career, resulting in him being elected a Senator. He then recruits several former heroes to create a new group of heroes for the 1950s. The group includes Robotman (who is slowly losing touch with his humanity), the Atom and Johnny Thunder (who are both looking for somewhere to belong), and Dan the Dyna-Mite (Daniel Dunbar) (who is lost after the death of his mentor TNT). Thompson oversees various experiments on Dunbar which change him into the incredibly powerful Dynaman.

Other retired heroes are suffering from their own problems. The McCarthy hearings have resulted in Green Lantern being blacklisted due to his job as the head of a media corporation. Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle were married and eventually divorced. Quick is now a television reporter while Belle is dating journalist John Law (formerly the Tarantula). Starman has suffered a nervous breakdown after realizing that his research into cosmic energy helped in the development of the atom bomb. Captain Triumph (Lance Gallant) has retired and is trying to lead a normal life, despite his brother's ghost urging him to become a hero again. Hourman is fighting his addiction to the Miraclo pill that gives him his powers.