Avengers Ages (616)

[GenericUsername]

The Young Avengers' ages have never made sense. Wiccan and Speed are too old to have been born after the events of the 1980s Vision and Scarlet Witch series, and Hulkling is too old to have been born after Captain Mar-Vell arrived on Earth - they're all old enough to have been born before the Avengers even formed. Hulkling was finally explained as time travel in his Empyre one-shot, but the twins haven't been explained.

Yeah it's all so crazy to try and understand. It's just a mess.

[Jabare]

ok looks lik I've got some editing to do

[PCN24454]

The Young Avengers' ages have never made sense. Wiccan and Speed are too old to have been born after the events of the 1980s Vision and Scarlet Witch series, and Hulkling is too old to have been born after Captain Mar-Vell arrived on Earth - they're all old enough to have been born before the Avengers even formed. Hulkling was finally explained as time travel in his Empyre one-shot, but the twins haven't been explained.

I just say "Scarlet Witch Chaos Magic" and leave it at that.

[GenericUsername]

I just say "Scarlet Witch Chaos Magic" and leave it at that.

For Billy and Tommy sure, because they were born to other people and then given their Mephisto soul baby implants. And it's widely believed that Wanda's spell at the end of HoM helped do that.

The Mar-Vell stuff is a little bit more tricky. His DNA then would have had to have been taken before he came to earth somehow. Instead of after he died.

[PCN24454]

For Billy and Tommy sure, because they were born to other people and then given their Mephisto soul baby implants. And it's widely believed that Wanda's spell at the end of HoM helped do that.

The Mar-Vell stuff is a little bit more tricky. His DNA then would have had to have been taken before he came to earth somehow. Instead of after he died.

Aliens are weird.

[Toonstrack]

Trying to apply any sort of consistent time scale to Marvel is an exercise in futility.

First of all you have inconsistent timing. For example the X Men aged from teenagers to pretty much adults over a pretty realistic time scale.... at first. Now its a mess. The new mutants continued to age while the OGs just kinda... stopped. Kate aged til about mid 20s and is still mostly written that way. Heck Rahne looks like she's still 17 while the others could easily be mid 20s. Granted she was resurrected but still

Meanwhile elsewhere we had characters like Tony who was a grown adult in his debut and still is, doesnt look to have aged even a day, whereas as just discussed, Scott Summers for example who was a teen at that time and is now a comparable age to Tony. Hawkeye was young man when he debuted and now is written like more of an old man than any of the other avengers are. Bucky sometimes looks older than Sam and Steve at this point despite the fact that Sam should probably be approaching 40s.

Peter has been in his 20s for going on 30 years at this point, or at least he's written that way. But Miles has aged from 13 to now at least 18 years old in the last 15 years.

Reed and Sue seem to age fine but their kids make a mess of the whole continuity.

The best way I make sense of it is just applying the speculative notion that time flows differently in space and since everyone has been there at this point they effectively didn't age at those moments. Also factor in the time spent dead and I just tell myself that they got some years back every time they are resurrected. For examples Cyclops reassurection in the run that preceded DOX.

Another way to rationalize it is to take each story as a pocket dimension/depiction of events that happened at an uncertain time, as rendered by the era. So even if characters who debuted in the 70s all of a sudden own smartphones and are savvy with them, that's just because they probably had that tech earlier in this alt timeline or because we are seeing a rendition of the story as it is told not as it happened. Thats also how I rationalize cities having different buildings in the background depending on the artist lol

[Digifiend]

Miles has only existed for nine years, not 15, but the Ultimate Universe had a different sliding timescale than 616 - no more than two years passed in Peter's 11 years of publication (he started at 16 and died before he could graduate), but three years passed in Miles's time in 1610, partly because of a one year timeskip, when in that same time in 616, not even one year will have passed. When he arrived on 616 he was 16, but he's had a birthday since then (in the annual between Bendis finishing and Ahmed starting), and after that his mother went through a full pregnancy term, so yeah, he's either 18 or close to it. A new school year has also started (in Champions #24, the issue with the shooting at Miles's school), which combined with the eight month Secret Wars timeskip and another pregnancy (Kamala's sister-in-law's), means that Kamala, 16 on her debut, is also definitely 17 or 18 now. Fantastic Four backs that up too - in the time the Future Foundation were away, at least a year passed for Ben and Johnny. For Reed and his family, it was five years, but bear in mind that time was spent away from 616. It's kind of like how you visit Narnia (in CS Lewis's famous Chronicles of Narnia books), and when you get home - even if it's years later - almost no time has passed - time flows differently in the alternate universe.

The X-Men aging realistically in the 60s makes sense, as the same thing goes for Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. The sliding timescale only started later in the decade, some point after Franklin was born and Peter started at college.

[BitParallel]

Age and birthdays for the Avengers, past and present.

Let's fill out the ages for our favorite Marvel Heroes as best we can. Please try to refer to comic panels or make educated guesses based on what we know about the characters. I'll be adjusting ages overtime once we reach a consensus or new info becomes available.

• Iron Man:

Tony Stark was born in 1971 since he was 19 yo during the gulf war .. so he’s 49?

6D96BCDD-58AB-4F50-A7B0-B58B13DE1925.jpg

Alternative age would; 39

23 (his age when he became iron man) + 16 (it’s been 16 years in canon. Source; Franklin age)


Let’s take the average; (49 + 39)/2 = 44 years old

[Digifiend]

Franklin's age minus 4 is how long has actually passed in the Marvel Universe. He aged up five years when away after Secret Wars, when Ben and Johnny only aged one year. So four years difference. If Frank is 16, he was born 12 years ago.

You need to account for when that page was printed too. If it was stated he was born in 1971 five years ago (adjust for how long ago it actually was), then that date should be adjusted by those five years, so it would be 1976. The only exception is if there's a reason for the sliding timescale not to apply - for example Captain America, as Steve just remains in ice longer and still thaws out 14 years before the present day.

[BitParallel]

Franklin's age minus 4 is how long has actually passed in the Marvel Universe. He aged up five years when away after Secret Wars, when Ben and Johnny only aged one year. So four years difference. If Frank is 16, he was born 12 years ago.

You need to account for when that page was printed too. If it was stated he was born in 1971 five years ago (adjust for how long ago it actually was), then that date should be adjusted by those five years, so it would be 1976. The only exception is if there's a reason for the sliding timescale not to apply - for example Captain America, as Steve just remains in ice longer and still thaws out 14 years before the present day.

But we also know, it’s been 15-16 years in marvel universe.

Wait, from where did you get the 1976?

[Witchfan]

I think Secret Wars changed the timescale and made the characters younger. When the universe was brought back from Battleworld, dead characters were alive again and some characters got younger. Those who were in their late 20s/early 30s were knocked back to 25 again.

[MaximoffTrash]

The Young Avengers' ages have never made sense. Wiccan and Speed are too old to have been born after the events of the 1980s Vision and Scarlet Witch series, and Hulkling is too old to have been born after Captain Mar-Vell arrived on Earth - they're all old enough to have been born before the Avengers even formed. Hulkling was finally explained as time travel in his Empyre one-shot, but the twins haven't been explained.

It's suggested the twins' soul traveled back in time, it's actually mentioned in Robinson's Scarlet Witch solo that Wiccan and Speed are older than William and Thomas Maximoff would have been if they survived.

[Reviresco]

Tony Stark was born in 1971 since he was 19 yo during the gulf war .. so he’s 49?

6D96BCDD-58AB-4F50-A7B0-B58B13DE1925.jpg

Alternative age would; 39

23 (his age when he became iron man) + 16 (it’s been 16 years in canon. Source; Franklin age)


Let’s take the average; (49 + 39)/2 = 44 years old

They aren't using the 1st Gulf War (which is more like 30 years ago) or any real war anymore. In the recent History of the Marvel Universe they created a Viet Nam War analog called the Sin-Cong War. That way all the characters with ties to the Viet Nam War have a fictional war that also moves on the sliding timeline.

[Digifiend]

But we also know, it’s been 15-16 years in marvel universe.

Wait, from where did you get the 1976?

It's an example number - if the panel is from a five year old comic, the date mentioned in that comic would need adjusting by five years - hence 1971 becomes 1976.

What issue are those panels from?

[Waking Replica]

The Young Avengers' ages have never made sense. Wiccan and Speed are too old to have been born after the events of the 1980s Vision and Scarlet Witch series, and Hulkling is too old to have been born after Captain Mar-Vell arrived on Earth - they're all old enough to have been born before the Avengers even formed. Hulkling was finally explained as time travel in his Empyre one-shot, but the twins haven't been explained.

Funnily, time travel seems to play a large role in the team lmao. Like you said, Emperor Hulkling used time travel to explain his age, but in Al Ewing's New Avengers run with him and Wiccan, Wiccan used the word "retro-reincarnated" when describing him and Speed. I figure that was Al's way of saying their souls time travelled in whatever ether/astral/soul plane they were held in to implant in the fetuses of the Kaplan and the Shepard's at the appropriate time.

To the OP's point about aging though, they seem to be aging while all the older heroes aren't, since Al had them (and the rest of the Young Avengers sans Cassie) in mind to be 21-23 in Empyre (obviously ignoring that mistake in Kate's age from vol 2). Tbh, I just accept vaguely young adult ages. Older than the Champions, but younger than the big league heroes. That being said, Runaways also has that definitive time placement, right? 2 years or something, which makes YA being as old as they are depicted to be a problem since they debuted around the same time. I don't read the comics, but from the art I've seen, they seem to still be teenagers, at most late teens.