Determining the X-MEN's AGES, and Catergorizing Them By It

[Heroine Addict]

I've always assumed Warren was a lil' younger than Hank, but just slightly older than Scott & Jean, maybe by a year or so. But I also had Beast pegged with more than just a 2-year gap with them, too, so...

[yogaflame]

4 years is too much to work with the 60s/70s stuff though. Alex and Lorna would've been only 17/18 during the ANAD transition which doesn't work at all. I'm reasonably certain Bobby and Lorna were said to be same age in the 60s too.

And actually Bobby should be younger than Kurt going by that Classic backup where he went all racist-like-dad on the new ANAD guys. Unless he just thought Kurt was older because he was drinking? Actually that makes me wonder how old Thinderbird was? Was his age with Warpath ever stated anywhere?

If you actually look at his first appearance, Alex is graduating 3 in his class from Old Landon COLLEGE!? Or is that just supposed to be him graduating from HS? Either way, Scott seems more than just two years older to be fawning with pride about how his baby brother turned out.

[Harpsikord]

If you actually look at his first appearance, Alex is graduating 3 in his class from COLLEGE!? Or is that just supposed to be him graduating from HS? Either way, Scott seems more than just two years older to be fawning with pride about how his baby brother turned out.

It's meant to be college. Again, it doesn't work with the sliding timescale - so this is something that would be best ignored. Like Jean being a decade older than Kitty, etc.

More recent mentions of ages are probably more accepted as canon, like Iceman Origins placing him at 13 or 14 when the X-Men are formed.

[yogaflame]

Looks like Kurt was 21 in UXM Annual #4, published around the same time as UXM #139.

And Iceman was a sophomore in college in Uncanny 145.

[yogaflame]

It's meant to be college. Again, it doesn't work with the sliding timescale - so this is something that would be best ignored. Like Jean being a decade older than Kitty, etc.

More recent mentions of ages are probably more accepted as canon, like Iceman Origins placing him at 13 or 14 when the X-Men are formed.

I feel like they were moving at real-time in the 05 era. I think a whole year passes in just the first 2 or 3 issues, they graduate and everything!

I'll ignore Jean's tombstone, but I won't ignore Bobby's 16 year old age in Uncanny #1. So are we to believe a 13 year old white boy was put in jail and almost lynched?

[DDM]

Mostly everything else is spot on, but there's this. Jean cannot have been a full decade older than Kitty was at the time of her death anymore - she was on panel, but not anymore. IT doesn't make sense. Inferno was at least a full two years after the Dark Phoenix saga, giving Scott enough time to get with Maddie, conceive a kid, for her to have the kid, and for the kid to age into a toddler. We also know that the New Mutants at the time of Inferno, for the median age (which is Dani and Sam), were about 16. This was officially dated for the Limbo Kids arc of the last New Mutants volume as being five years ago at the time, when Cannonball was said to be 21, making him sixteen. With this in mind and the idea that Jean, Scott, and Warren are at most twenty-nine years old can't work. The implication then is that all of the X-Men stories told in the 90's, 00's, and 10's have happened within a three year timespan. Doesn't work, does it?

Also, Hank was 18 when Jean/Scott/Warren were 16. Two year difference. Bobby was 14.

Scott and Jean (if alive) would be early/mid 30s now (mentally mid 40s but that's another discussion lol). Sam being only 21 as of NM V3 is actually the part that doesn't work, especially if Kitty was already "legal" during Ellis Excalibur. If Sam was 20 in 1996 how could he be only 21 in 2011? How could Kitty be only 19 in 2011? Jubilee was 17 then too, but if Sam's 21 she'd drop to 15.

The issue isn't Jean, it's actually Sam.

As for Beast I thought he was only a year older? 19 when the others were 18 and Bobby 16? That might be a retcon too though?

Emma Frost is at least 40.

She was at least 40 in 1980.

[DDM]

It's meant to be college. Again, it doesn't work with the sliding timescale - so this is something that would be best ignored. Like Jean being a decade older than Kitty, etc.

More recent mentions of ages are probably more accepted as canon, like Iceman Origins placing him at 13 or 14 when the X-Men are formed.

If we're going by the lastest stuff Iceman's writer (Sina Grace) said he's in his early 30s now.

[DDM]

Googled a good article on passage of time during Claremont's run.

http://www.writeups.org/aging-x-men-comics-chronology/

[Harpsikord]

Scott and Jean (if alive) would be early/mid 30s now (mentally mid 40s but that's another discussion lol). Sam being only 21 as of NM V3 is actually the part that doesn't work, especially if Kitty was already "legal" during Ellis Excalibur. If Sam was 20 in 1996 how could he be only 21 in 2011? How could Kitty be only 19 in 2011? Jubilee was 17 then too, but if Sam's 21 she'd drop to 15.

The issue isn't Jean, it's actually Sam.

This is what I've been saying through the whole thread about sliding timescales. Strictly going by them isn't something that works, a little bit of wiggling needs to be done. Sam JUST turned 21 in Fraction's run, five years after Inferno, which had to be at least two years after the Dark Phoenix Saga because otherwise we'd have had Nathan as an infant, and he was at least 18 months old. Adult ages can be a lot less stringent than the ages of kids are, so that part definitely needs to be based off of how old Nathan was. And we know that it's been five years since Inferno. That's key, as well as the O5 being around 29 - at the absolute oldest.

They were sixteen when they were recruited and the most time that's passed is 13 years.

As for Beast I thought he was only a year older? 19 when the others were 18 and Bobby 16? That might be a retcon too though?

I think we're both wrong - me about the difference and you about the specific ages. I just read Origins: Beast, and he was still clearly a HS senior, so he was 17. The rest were 16 and Bobby was 14.

[Heroine Addict]

I seem to recall Beast saying to Jean that he just turned 30, back during the early 2000's awful Revolution. Adding thereafter, due to her teasing, that she would be following him soon enough. Could be wrong, tho, IDK.

[DDM]

I feel like they were moving at real-time in the 05 era. I think a whole year passes in just the first 2 or 3 issues, they graduate and everything!

I'll ignore Jean's tombstone, but I won't ignore Bobby's 16 year old age in Uncanny #1. So are we to believe a 13 year old white boy was put in jail and almost lynched?

The sliding timescale started in 1968 iirc, before it was 1:1 our time to Marvel time. From then on it was roughly 2:1 per year until the late 70s when it became roughly 3:1, then in the early 90s it became 4:1. Now they just don't give a shit and Franklin Richards is 8 or something.

[Harpsikord]

I seem to recall Beast saying to Jean that he just turned 30, back during the early 2000's awful Revolution. Adding thereafter, due to her teasing, that she would be following him soon enough. Could be wrong, tho, IDK.

You're right, this was during the Morrison run I thought.

She's still 30 adjacent Hank is definitely 30 by now. The thing is that it doesn't make sense for her to have turned 30 since then.

I can't stress this enough: our timeline is only 13 years. So however old the O5 officially are in the first volume of ANXM and their origins oneshots, add thirteen years to that and that's the oldest they can be.

[yogaflame]

This is what I've been saying through the whole thread about sliding timescales. [b]Strictly going by them isn't something that works, a little bit of wiggling needs to be done.... Inferno, which had to be at least two years after the Dark Phoenix Saga because otherwise we'd have had Nathan as an infant, and he was at least 18 months old. Adult ages can be a lot less stringent than the ages of kids are, so that part definitely needs to be based off of how old Nathan was.

Nathan really messes up this whole sliding timescale thing. We're supposed to believe only 5 years have passed since NM were assembled, but 9 months passes between Uncanny 175 and 201?

[Harpsikord]

Nathan really messes up this whole sliding timescale thing. We're supposed to believe only 5 years have passed since NM were assembled, but 9 months passes between Uncanny 175 and 201?

That's not on Nathan, that's on editorial during the Fraction era. xD

[yogaflame]

The sliding timescale started in 1968 iirc, before it was 1:1 our time to Marvel time. From then on it was roughly 2:1 per year until the late 70s when it became roughly 3:1, then in the early 90s it became 4:1. Now they just don't give a shit and Franklin Richards is 8 or something.

I like to think 5 or 6:1, which allows for Franklin to still be 8.