Timeline (The Golden Heroes)

World War II
Between 1939 and 1941 Detective Comics and its sister company, All-American Publications, introduced popular superheroes such as Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, Hawkman, Green Arrow and Aquaman. Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics, had million-selling titles featuring the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Although DC and Timely characters are well-remembered today, circulation figures suggest that the best-selling superhero title of the era was Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel with sales of about 1.4 million copies per issue. The comic was published biweekly at one point to capitalize on its popularity

Patriotic heroes donning red, white, and blue were particularly popular during the time of the second World War following The Shield's debut in 1940. Many heroes of this time period battled the Axis powers, with covers such as Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941) showing the title character punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

As comic books grew in popularity, publishers began launching titles that expanded into a variety of genres. Dell Comics' non-superhero characters (particularly the licensed Walt Disney animated-character comics) outsold the superhero comics of the day. The publisher featured licensed movie and literary characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Roy Rogers and Tarzan. It was during this era that noted Donald Duck writer-artist Carl Barks rose to prominence. Additionally, MLJ's introduction of Archie Andrews in Pep Comics #22 (December 1941) gave rise to teen humor comics, with the Archie Andrews character remaining in print well into the 21st century.

After the war
The educational comic book Dagwood Splits the Atom used characters from the comic strip Blondie. According to historian Michael A. Amundson, appealing comic-book characters helped ease young readers' fear of nuclear war and neutralize anxiety about the questions posed by atomic power. It was during this period that long-running humor comics debuted, including EC's Mad and Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge in Dell's Four Color Comics (both in 1952).

Shift from superheroes
During the late 1940s, the popularity of superhero comics waned. To retain reader interest, comic publishers diversified into genres such as war, Westerns, science fiction, romance, crime and horror. Many superhero titles were converted to other genres. This also introduced darker themes and brought about the 'Grim Age of Comics' The most notable example was Batman who genre moved to horror and crime