>
> > In the early 60's Marvel Comics (no relation to the Golden Age Captain Marvel who was first owned by Fawsett Comics, but DC sued for rigths since he was so much like Superman) published Fantastic Four #1 wich started the Silver Age.
>
> That's very close to the time the Silver Age started, but it really started with either issue 255 of Detective Comics or issue 4 of Showcase, both put out by DC Comics. Detective #225 (November '55) was the first appearance of the Martian Manhunter and is considered the first Silver Age hero. Showcase #4 (September '56) was the first appearance of the Silver Age Flash. Fantastic Four #1 appeared in 1961. Although not the first Silver Age comic book, FF was the first comic book series where the protagonists were multi-facted. There were arguements and disagreements. But that's a post for another time.
>
> -Faux "Silver Age" Pas

Remember when I said I work for Superman's company? I received the following e-mail from the publisher of DC Comics in response to my question of when the Silver Age started; thought you all might be interested:

Basically, the history goes like this: the Golden Age of comics was the first flowering of the comic book as a creative medium in America. It's dated as beginning around 1935, with the first comics in the physical form we know them, and is usually dated as ending in the early '50s with the end of most of the super-hero comics (comics history is very super-hero centric, I'm afraid).

The Silver Age is the second wave of super-heroes. (In between the two came some great stuff, like EC comics with the birth of Tales From The Crypt and MAD.) The two main choices for dating the beginning of this are DETECTIVE #225 (the first appearance of the Manhunter from Mars, the first new super-hero since the end of the Golden Age) or SHOWCASE #4 (the first appearance of the so-called Silver Age Flash, a revival of a Golden Age hero with a new costume, secret identity and mythos). Since SHOWCASE #4 was the first whole issue devoted to a new super-hero since the Golden Age, and its commercial success led directly to the revival of the other super-heroes, that's where I'd come out.

FANTASTIC FOUR #1 is important for starting modern Marvel, but can't be considered the start of the Silver Age. It was published after the owner of DC (Jack Leibowitz) boasted about the sales success of DC's revived super hero comics (and a group called JUSTIC LEAGUE OF AMERICA in particular) to Marvel's owner (Martin Goodman) over golf. Stan Lee, then Marvel's editor and principal writer, has often told the story of Goodman returning from the golf game and telling Stan to create a new super hero group, with FANTASTIC FOUR as the result.

Hope this helps!