Steve V : « I know you were probably just starting out when these were published but-- Do you have any insight on the direction characters like She-Hulk and Animal Man took in the late 80s/early 90s? Meaning breaking the fourth wall/aware they are fictional characters while still coexisting in their mainstream continuities? I just finished Grant Morrison’s Animal Man and realized it came out around the same time as John Byrne’s Sensational She-Hulk. It’s fascinating to see DC and Marvel tackle the same concepts side by side, one comedic and the other more existential and horrifying. Obviously this wasn’t a new concept at the time or since. Stan and Jack (and others) did this sort of thing for gags since the golden age. Deadpool. Mark Waid’s FF run dabbled a bit with it in the afterlife. Mark Millar’s 1985. There are countless examples in comics and other mediums. But Shulkie/Animal Man seem like the modern watershed moment for it in superhero comics continuity (as far as I know). »
Tom Brevoort : « The breaking of the fourth wall is a bit that comics, and indeed, other media, have been doing pretty much since media was invented. But I think the missing link that you may be overlooking here is the popularity in the late 1980s of the television series MOONLIGHTING . i can’t speak for Grant and ANIMAL MAN , but John Byrne was very forthcoming at the time that he was inspired to take the fourth wall-breaking approach to his new SHE-HULK series by MOONLIGHTING doing the same sort of thing. That show popularized the approach at the moment, and as is often the case, those working in the comic book field were inspired to follow suit. »
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