Where else did They Come From?

[No One of Consequence]

They Came From The Rising Sun, based entirely on Japanese tokusatsu (special effects) media from about the mid-60s onward (probably with a cut off at the early 90s or the turn of the millennium). This includes a lot of Kaiju films, as well as the various Henshen genres (both the Sentai and Magic Girl ones, among others), Kaijin ("mysterious person" super villains), and Kyodai Heroes (Ultraman and other "grow into a giant to fight monsters" types). Maybe also the Delinquent Girl genre (Sukeban Deka and the like), though that might be a spin off like the slasher one for Beyond the Grave.

The PCs would likely be Special Agents, transforming heroes, spiritualists-mystics, and other hero types who are tasked with protecting their town, Japan, and the world from giant monsters, alien invaders, evil spirits, super-powered villains, and other antisocial types.

[Dataweaver]

Also would come within inches of covering wireworks, like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon — which only fails to meet the requirement by coming from China instead of Japan.

[No One of Consequence]

Also would come within inches of covering wireworks, like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon — which only fails to meet the requirement by coming from China instead of Japan.

Kung Fu films - especially the ones from the 60s and 70s - would probably be their own game, as would 80s and 90s Hong Kong action movies.

Also, Mexican Luchador films.

[wingnut2292]

Kung Fu films - especially the ones from the 60s and 70s - would probably be their own game, as would 80s and 90s Hong Kong action movies.

Also, Mexican Luchador films.

They Came Dancing the Funky Inferno & They Came From the House of Flying Wires: A Tasteful Introspective on the Exploitation Genres, such as "Shaft" or "Enter the Dragon", of the late 60's, 70's and early 80's.

[No One of Consequence]

They Came Dancing the Funky Inferno & They Came From the House of Flying Wires: A Tasteful Introspective on the Exploitation Genres, such as "Shaft" or "Enter the Dragon", of the late 60's, 70's and early 80's.

If you've never seen Monkeyfun Studios's Spirit of '77 RPG, it's a great deal of fun and works very hard to capture the mood of 70s action/adventure heroes across the spectrum of Neo-noir to Sci Fi to comedy.

Also Green Ronin Studios's Damnation Decade, which is wonderfully over the top with its alternate history based on '70s cinema setting.

Sadly, I don't think any of the major generic superhero RPGs (Champions, Mutants & Masterminds, etc.) have ever managed to publish a Bronze Age (@68 to @84) setting/genre sourcebook. (Although it was painfully obvious that someone working on M&M's Silver Age book clearly wished that they were doing the Bronze Age, as almost all of the character archetypes were based on stuff from the 70s.)

[Amethyst]

If you've never seen Monkeyfun Studios's https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/148480/Spirit-of-77-Core-Rulebook"]Spirit of '77[/URL] RPG, it's a great deal of fun and works very hard to capture the mood of 70s action/adventure heroes across the spectrum of Neo-noir to Sci Fi to comedy.

Also Green Ronin Studios's https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/20321/Damnation-Decade"]Damnation Decade[/URL], which is wonderfully over the top with its alternate history based on '70s cinema setting.

Sadly, I don't think any of the major generic superhero RPGs (Champions, Mutants & Masterminds, etc.) have ever managed to publish a Bronze Age (@68 to @84) setting/genre sourcebook. (Although it was painfully obvious that someone working on M&M's Silver Age book clearly wished that they were doing the Bronze Age, as almost all of the character archetypes were based on stuff from the 70s.)

I started exploring Marvel with my older sister’s comics from the mid to late 80s (I guess that’s the Iron Age?), so I know next to nothing about the Bronze Age. What was it like?

[Dataweaver]

I started comics around the same time; but I've researched the Bronze Age. That said, the focus of my research has been DC Comics; so bear that in mind.

For those who draw the distinction, the Silver Age ran from the late 50s to the early 70s, and the Bronze Age ran from there until the early 80s. The Silver Age was dominated by the Comics Code, and as such there were strict limitations on what kinds of stories you could tell. For instance, you won't find Catwoman in the Silver Age; the idea of the heroic Batman having a romance with a criminal effectively violated the Code. Batwoman was originally created to take her place as a more wholesome costumed love interest. It's telling that the original Batwoman disappeared and Catwoman reappeared when the Bronze Age started; and that Batwoman's only appearance in the Bronze Age was her murder.

The Bronze Age was when Comics started to get out from under the restrictions imposed by the Comics Code; and the results were stories that were “socially aware”:
• Green Lantern and Green Arrow teamed up and went on a road trip across the country so that Ollie could show Hal the social problems in America; and one of those problems turned out to be Ollie's sidekick, Roy Harper, being a junkie.
• The Teen Titans had an incident where their actions lead to the death of a great man, and they hung up their costumes and underwent training under their new patron Mr. Jupiter to become better people.
• Right at the start of the Bronze Age, Wonder Woman was depowered, retired her swimsuit costume, and became a “private spy”, for lack of a better term: she did everything good expect of a James Bond-esque secret agent, except that there was no agency that she worked for. (Granted, that didn't last more than four years; for the bulk of the Bronze Age, she was back to bouncing bullets with her bracelets in satin tights. But frankly, there's not much interesting to say about her from then until the Crisis.)
• The Daily Planet got bought out by WGBS, and Clark Kent became a TV anchorman. This status quo held right up to the Crisis.
• Batman closed down the Batcave and moved his base of operations to Wayne Tower in downtown Gotham. Sick Grayson moved out to attend college, and Barbara Gordon was introduced to the comics. There was a period at the start where things were silly because of of the Batman TV series; but gradually the silliness was toned down and the books took on a more somber tone (as per the murder of Kathy Kane, a.k.a. Batwoman).

[No One of Consequence]

I started exploring Marvel with my older sister’s comics from the mid to late 80s (I guess that’s the Iron Age?), so I know next to nothing about the Bronze Age. What was it like?

The biggest thing is that a fair number of people who'd grown up reading comics in the 60s were now in college or the work force but were still interested in comics. So the stories were a bit more reflective of current event issues and slightly more mature subject matter. The two biggest things behind the scenes which helped drive this were the development of the Direct Market (comics sold at dedicated comic book shops rather than just news stands and drug store spinner racks) and the alterations made to the Comics Code, both in 1972. This allowed superhero comics to try tackling things like drug abuse, character death, political scandals and the like. The Code alterations also finally allowed for the depiction of actual monsters in comics, which led to a flood of supernatural and horror themed characters and titles. This was accompanied by various efforts to make characters who appealed to what was going on in popular culture, including various minority and women characters, as well as a number of concepts based on fads.

If you're interested in this time period for Marvel, I'd recommend finding some of the period stuff from Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, Marvel Team Up, Marvel Two-In-One, Iron Man's "Demon in a Bottle" storyline, the relaunch of The Uncanny X-Men (when Wolverine first joined the team), Power Man & Iron Fist, Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Ghost Rider, Son of Satan and Satana, Tigra the Werewoman, Spider Woman, Ms. Marvel, Dazzler, The New Defenders, Conan the Barbarian, Man-Thing, and Tomb of Dracula.

Tomb of Dracula is especially relevant to They Came From Beyond the Grave, as it's essentially an early 70s vampire movie in comic form.

On the DC side, the biggest thing was the run of Batman comics that rescued the character from the legacy of the campy late 60s tv show and turned him into a mixture of Gothic-Noir detective and International Man of Mystery. From the later part of the Bronze Age (the early 80s) is the land mark New Teen Titans, as well as Batman & The Outsiders. Also Saga of the Swamp Thing (another that's good Beyond the Grave reading), House of Mystery and House of Secrets, Jack Kirby's DC work (New Gods, Mister Miracle, The Demon, OMAC), Green Arrow/Green Lantern, The Brave & The Bold (a team up book), Batgirl, Huntress, Supergirl, and Legion of Superheroes.

[Dataweaver]

Although Crisis on Infinite Earths is often cited as the break between Bronze and Iron, I tend to view the Iron Age as having started a few years earlier. In particular, I tend to view New Teen Titans as one of the earliest Iron Age comics rather than being the tail end of the Bronze Age.

[wingnut2292]

Thought that the Iron Age Started with "The Killing Joke" in an elseworld where the Joker killed Louis Lane, driving Superman to go kill him and go super hardcore.

But Film-o-graphicly, that was when you started to have colored or ethnic leads or themes. The characters were very thin and kinda campy, and that's why they were called the Exploitation Genere. But as kinda inauthentic or shallow, they were still fun movies. They were different to the Boomers - they were sexy, they had action, the music was funky, the wire-fu was cool. After the race riots of the 60's these movies brought black\asian culture to the north and midwest. I think I can there would be no Die Hard, no Rambo, without the Exploitation Genere as a kind of prototype for those 80's action shows. Even mainstream movies like "Bond 007" (Moonracer, On Her Magisty's Sercret Service, To Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only) were influenced, if just to compete. Where do you think Lucas got the idea to model the Force from the Tao? It was a very influential, if slightly provocative, era for fiction.

[thedonnie]

Thought that the Iron Age Started with "The Killing Joke" in an elseworld where the Joker killed Louis Lane, driving Superman to go kill him and go super hardcore.

I hope you were joking about that. lol
Killing Joke was about when Joker shot Barbara Gordon and paralyzed her and then Batman hunted him down...and it is speculated that Batman killed Joker.

Joker killing Lois Lane was from the video game, Injustice.

The Iron Age was in the 90's or so when everything was edgey and people had pockets and blades all over their costume. And their names had the words "shadows" and "blood" and "kill" and the like in them.

[Amethyst]

The first comic I can remember reading was when I was like five and I read an old copy of X-Men: Mutant Massacre. That was Iron Age, right?

[wingnut2292]

They Came Seeking Immortality: A guide on the Wuxia (Chinese Kung-fu analogs to European knight errants, fighting for glory and great justice... and the favor of the Sect Leader's Daughter) and Xianxia (Chinese Daoitst Immortal-aspirants, cultivating their Chi though Danger, Medicine, Wonders and Mysteries).

Because I need a good means to run a Xianxia adventure, and I don't think Scion nor Aeon-Trinity are the right tools for the job. But I want to be able to use Scale - it solves so many issues with Cultivation. (Each Realm of difference is one degree of Scale.) Fighting someone stronger is possible, but not a cakewalk. Scale also can apply to your choice of 1 Attribute per realm, so a given Cultivator might run faster, lift more, jump higher, hear a fly cough, see a fly 500m/1 li away, go a day without sleep.

[The Gentleman Gamer]

I hope you were joking about that. lol
Killing Joke was about when Joker shot Barbara Gordon and paralyzed her and then Batman hunted him down...and it is speculated that Batman killed Joker.

Joker killing Lois Lane was from the video game, Injustice.

The Iron Age was in the 90's or so when everything was edgey and people had pockets and blades all over their costume. And their names had the words "shadows" and "blood" and "kill" and the like in them.

It originally happened in the comic Kingdom Come, if I recall.

[Dataweaver]

Which is ironic; because in my opinion, Kingdom Come was a reaction to, and eventually brought about the end of, the Iron Age at DC — or at least put it on a hiatus for about a decade.