The comic book exhibit, “Saving the Universe one Panel as a Time: Heroes & Superheroes of the Bronze Age of Comic Books and Beyond” will be on display through the end of the semester in the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, located in Mary Harmon Bryant Hall. The exhibit is opened from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. throughout the week.

The exhibit will focus mostly on the Bronze and Modern Age of comic books, which took place from the 1970’s to the present, said Kate Matheny, division of special collections.

According to the UA libraries website, the exhibit will feature books from Harold Selesky Comics Collection and the Sneed Comic Book Collection in the following sections: Iconic Stories, 1970s-1980s; Superman Reimagined; How Well Do You Know Your Marvel Teams?; Public Domain Heroes; History Mashup; and The Many Faces of Jekyll & Hyde.

The Bronze Age of comic books, lasting from 1970 to 1985, was important because many major publishing companies began to move away from the Comics Code Authority (CCA), which regulated content having to do with violence, sexual content and drugs in comic books. Once publishers’ moved away from the code’s seal of approval, the doors were opened for darker subject matter and more realistic story telling.

This move was led by Lee and Marvel Comics in 1971, when they published an issue of Spiderman that incorporated drug usage, said Arnold T. Blumberg in his article “The Night Gwen Stacy Died: The End of Innocence and the Birth of the Bronze Age.”

“Having thrown down the gauntlet, Marvel opened the door to a new era in mature storytelling for superhero comics,” Blumberg said.