The Comics Code, censorship guidelines that dictated what could and couldn’t be depicted in comic books since 1954, became less strict in the 1970s. Comic publishers began ignoring or meeting the bare minimum of the Code by then. By the 1970s, comic books could depict violence more realistically, graphic death, racism, and even drug use. Comics books were sweetly light-hearted, goofy, and even downright silly in the Golden and Silver Ages. Then came the most valuable comic books of the 1970s, or the Bronze Age.
Bronze Age comic books lost their innocence in the 1970s. More comic book characters of diverse races and ethnicities were also introduced in the Bronze Age. It was during the Bronze Age that comic book characters finally grew up. They began to reflect the travails of the real world more.
