Pre-Crisis Supergirl Question.

[Crisis]

Given the facts that by the time this was written about Batgirl in the Batman Family 10 *(Batgirl reveals she's 25 years old) and Kara is in her 2nd career post graduation (from stanhope...KSFTV, Vandyne University Student (grad school) and New Athens) would it be fair to say that she and Babs are the same Age at this point??

[Jon Clark]

I think they'd be close in age. I think Kara was about 25 based on a Superman/Supergirl crossover just prior to Crisis but not sure how that timeline works out with her various jobs factored in.

[Jim Kelly]

It would be fair to say that at that point, Babs and Linda are about the same age. And I believe there was legislation on Earth-One that allowed Barbara to become a member of Congress at the age of twenty-five, so she is around that age.

For Supergirl she aged at a greater rate relative to the other characters on Earth-One. She's about fourteen or fifteen when she arrives on Earth, she gets adopted, goes off to college, has a few careers. She would have to be in her mid-twenties for all that to happen (she could have been a child savant, but she was dating boys and men, so it wouldn't make sense for a fifteen year old to be dating a nineteen year old Dick Malverne).

Batgirl is already a librarian, presumably with a college degree, when she debuts. She really doesn't age and stays in her mid-twenties (my guess) until the Crisis.

In the early 1980s, when Supergirl got a new title, she was de-aged (without explanation). So at the time of the Crisis, she would have been younger than Batgirl.

[Restingvoice]

It would be fair to say that at that point, Babs and Linda are about the same age. And I believe there was legislation on Earth-One that allowed Barbara to become a member of Congress at the age of twenty-five, so she is around that age.

For Supergirl she aged at a greater rate relative to the other characters on Earth-One. She's about fourteen or fifteen when she arrives on Earth, she gets adopted, goes off to college, has a few careers. She would have to be in her mid-twenties for all that to happen (she could have been a child savant, but she was dating boys and men, so it wouldn't make sense for a fifteen year old to be dating a nineteen year old Dick Malverne).

Batgirl is already a librarian, presumably with a college degree, when she debuts. She really doesn't age and stays in her mid-twenties (my guess) until the Crisis.

In the early 1980s, when Supergirl got a new title, she was de-aged (without explanation). So at the time of the Crisis, she would have been younger than Batgirl.

Oh well that explains how in the 72 series she's already a college student and working, then at the beginning of the 82 series, the blurb said that she's no longer a high schooler and is now in college

[Adekis]

Explanations sometimes just... didn't happen back then. Honestly, I think I like it better than the pathological need we sometimes have these days, for any retcons or changes to be explained in meticulous reality-warping detail.

Superboy would clearly look the same age as his Legion cohorts, for example, even when he was still meant to be in high school and they were in their mid or late 20s.

Then again, I might've preferred it if Superboy at least aged into college, like Supergirl did pretty early. I don't think he ever did back then.

[marshal88]

that depends i suppose on the artist , superman ; the secret years mini series covered clark college/uniiversity years where he attended metropolis university and he looked like a grown up.

[Jim Kelly]

Given that movies and T.V. shows cast actors that are in their late twenties and even thirties as teen-agers, I can sort of forgive artists like Mike Grell for the creative license they used. My personal favourite artist for Clark as a teen was George Papp. Also, (with the right inker) Curt Swan did a good job of making him look young enough. And I think Clark looks like he's in his early twenties in THE SECRET YEARS, by Swan and Schaffenberger (Frank Miller's covers, on the other hand, did not make that clear). But in the first Lori Lemaris story, when Clark meets her at college, Wayne Boring made no effort to make him look the right age.

[Adekis]

Given that movies and T.V. shows cast actors that are in their late twenties and even thirties as teen-agers, I can sort of forgive artists like Mike Grell for the creative license they used. My personal favourite artist for Clark as a teen was George Papp. Also, (with the right inker) Curt Swan did a good job of making him look young enough. And I think Clark looks like he's in his early twenties in THE SECRET YEARS, by Swan and Schaffenberger (Frank Miller's covers, on the other hand, did not make that clear). But in the first Lori Lemaris story, when Clark meets her at college, Wayne Boring made no effort to make him look the right age.

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You are not kidding.

Yeah, most Silver Age stories where Superman is in college, he pretty much looks like normal, mid-30s-to-40s Superman. This even extends to live action - when George Reeves' Clark Kent first moves to Metropolis, he's said to be twenty-five years old, but Reeves was thirty-eight at the time that episode aired, and the show pretty much treats him as Reeves' age for the rest of the series.

I will say though, about Mike Grell, that his older looking Superboy, with the sideburns, is actually my favorite single design for Superman.

[Tzigone]

Yeah, most Silver Age stories where Superman is in college, he pretty much looks like normal, mid-30s-to-40s Superman.

It's a contrast to all the teens that should have their full heights already (or nearly so), but are still 6 inches to a foot shorter than all the adults.

[The Darknight Detective]

Hmm... Clark and Bruce (and many other Earth-1 superheroes) were in their late twenties. Barbara was at least 25, since she was a congresswoman. I never understood the Kara de-aging thing myself, but it happened.

[The Darknight Detective]

It's a contrast to all the teens that should have their full heights already (or nearly so), but are still 6 inches to a foot shorter than all the adults.

Heh. I have always found that to be stupid.

[witchboy]

Mike Grell Superboy is the gold standard for me. He does have a Superman-worthy physique but he still looks younger, a little trimmer. It makes sense that Kal would be super buff in his late teens. That build is what I expect a 19 ish year old Superboy to look like.
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