USA Today, which usually does decent mainstream coverage of the comic book industry, has an early look about Marvel’s upcoming tonal shift in it’s line of books.  If you’re not aware for the last seven years the Marvel universe has been a bit “dark”.  Well, that’s all about to change…. for the heroic.

Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada had this to say:

Heroes will be heroes again. They’ve gone through hell and they’re back to being good guys — a throwback to the early days of the Marvel Universe, with more of a swashbuckling feel.

Writer Brian Michael Bendis also added:

The ‘brand new day’ of the Heroic Age presents a tonal shift to optimism, a world filled with hope but quite hellish villains. The heroes realize it’s a blue-sky world worth protecting…. This was always the whole point — the reunion, the Avengers getting back together, because this is what the world needs right now. Now we get to the good stuff.

Marvel tends to tie it’s series into cultural shifts and their tone tends to reflect society at the time.  The 2000’s could be considered a dark time marked with war and fear, all of which were touched upon in various ways through Marvel’s comics.  With the election of a new President and a renewed call for hope, one has to wonder if Marvel is going with the time.