Avengers Ages (616)

[Phoenixx9]

Good catch, thanks. I used to own the Captain Savage & Leatherneck Raiders book where Ben Grimm appeared during WW2 as an ace pilot, but for some reason I kept thinking that Marvel had foregone that story as canon and moved his service date up to the Korean War. But I guess not. So Ben, Doom and Reed are all close to 100 years old, if not slightly older. It kind of makes you want to revisit the old "How old was Reed when he started dating Sue?" thing.

Wasn't Reed like 19 when he first met a 12-year old Sue at her Aunt's house in California?

[PCN24454]

Wasn't Reed like 19 when he first met a 12-year old Sue at her Aunt's house in California?

I like to treat this as "Lee and Kirby not knowing how to do math".

[JudicatorPrime]

Rather than rebooting everything, wouldn't it be better to just have a static timeline like Harry Potter? It doesn't need to be real-time, just consistent.

The problem is that characters currently aren't ageing at the same consistent rate across the board. What happens in comics is more like soap opera timelines. Tune in on Monday and the dad is leaving his fiancée and their infant child for her best friend. Watch the same show a week later and the infant is now a grown man who looks the same age as his parents and is now involved in a steamy affair with his father's new wife, who happens to be the same woman that his father left them for the week prior. And no, she hasn't aged at all, either.

I'm not a big fan of reboots, but sometimes you have to reset and reframe characters for modernity. If Marvel did that consistently in a more or less official way, maybe that would help everyone who had an age question?

[JudicatorPrime]

I like to treat this as "Lee and Kirby not knowing how to do math".

I don't mean to derail the thread, but maybe Lee and/or Kirby were secretly residents of the state of Georgia? The age of consent in Georgia up until about 1918 was only 10 years of age. (Not kidding.) From 1919 - 1964 the age of consent was only 14. So if a 60 year old wanted to date a 14 year old, legally speaking, it was ok. (Again, not kidding.) Given that laws aren't always an accurate reflection of social mores, I'm willing to bet the problem wasn't Lee and Kirby's arithmetic.

Kids doing adult things was/is a feature of this fantasy world. It's why little kid brother Johnny got to go along for a ride in an unshielded space ship. It's why Robin could tag along with Batman, dodging bullets in his bright yellow, red and green "easy target practice" garb. Child endangerment laws be damned. And Hank, Scott, Bobby, Jean and Warren were all recruited and trained by the world's greatest mind to be an elite paramilitary group and soldiers for the cause routinely exposed to life and death missions well before they could all legally vote. Seriously, that Xavier must have written one hell of a permission slip for some of their parents to sign off on that.

[9th.]

15 years ago? Long enough for at least a couple years to have passed in-universe. He was born in the mid-80s now. If no time had passed in universe it would be 1986, but I think 1984 is more accurate. Which makes him 36 (my age!).

I never told you this but you have incredible memory when it comes to comics. They need to hire you to remind writers of certain events so they can keep the continuity in line.

[Digifiend]

This illustrates perfectly why trying to figure out a character's age is a bit of a Sisyphean endeavor. Ben Grimm and Reed Richards are both Korean War vets. Doctor Doom is Reed's college roommate, so their ages should be similar. That puts all three men in their Nineties. Iron Man and Rhodey were both in the Viet Nam conflict. Even if they were teens in the late 60s early 70s, they'd still be pushing 70 years of age now.

History of the Marvel Universe retconned those into being the fictional Sian Cong War.

[Digifiend]

Kids doing adult things was/is a feature of this fantasy world. It's why little kid brother Johnny got to go along for a ride in an unshielded space ship. It's why Robin could tag along with Batman, dodging bullets in his bright yellow, red and green "easy target practice" garb. Child endangerment laws be damned. And Hank, Scott, Bobby, Jean and Warren were all recruited and trained by the world's greatest mind to be an elite paramilitary group and soldiers for the cause routinely exposed to life and death missions well before they could all legally vote. Seriously, that Xavier must have written one hell of a permission slip for some of their parents to sign off on that.

He mindwiped some (Beast's, at least), others wanted rid of their kids, like how a homophobic parent might ostracise their child if they declare they're gay.

[JudicatorPrime]

He mindwiped some (Beast's, at least), others wanted rid of their kids, like how a homophobic parent might ostracise their child if they declare they're gay.

Oh, I know that Xavier used questionable methods, not to mention preying on young, vulnerable, pliant minds with the original 5. That he had no qualms about pitting this team against a known killer and one of the most powerful beings on the planet in Magneto and his brotherhood pretty much tells you all that you need to know. In the real world Xavier would have been brought up on charges. He's no better than Apocalypse or Sinister

[shooshoomanjoe]

History of the Marvel Universe retconned those into being the fictional Sian Cong War.

For characters that were originally set up to be in the Korean War?

[Swamp Thing 2099]

Jessica Jones is the same age as Peter Parker.

[4sake Baned]

I don't mean to derail the thread, but maybe Lee and/or Kirby were secretly residents of the state of Georgia? The age of consent in Georgia up until about 1918 was only 10 years of age. (Not kidding.) From 1919 - 1964 the age of consent was only 14. So if a 60 year old wanted to date a 14 year old, legally speaking, it was ok. (Again, not kidding.) Given that laws aren't always an accurate reflection of social mores, I'm willing to bet the problem wasn't Lee and Kirby's arithmetic.

Kids doing adult things was/is a feature of this fantasy world. It's why little kid brother Johnny got to go along for a ride in an unshielded space ship. It's why Robin could tag along with Batman, dodging bullets in his bright yellow, red and green "easy target practice" garb. Child endangerment laws be damned. And Hank, Scott, Bobby, Jean and Warren were all recruited and trained by the world's greatest mind to be an elite paramilitary group and soldiers for the cause routinely exposed to life and death missions well before they could all legally vote. Seriously, that Xavier must have written one hell of a permission slip for some of their parents to sign off on that.

Facts my maternal grandparents where married for 70 years & they got married at 13 & 17 in a small town in GA...

[mikeb]

Carol Danvers was 29 years old in 1981, according to her driver's license in Avengers Annual #10.

Carol's age was not taken from a driver's license. When Carol was pulled from the San Francisco bay, she had no ID on her. The SFPD ran Carol's fingerprints to identify the "Jane Doe". This is how Carol was identified and how old she was. Funny though, when Carol first joined the Avengers #183, Carol wouldn't allow Henry Gyrich to take her fingerprints. She didn't want to have them cross referenced with her NASA files and end up being exposed as a possible security risk to the paranoid Gyrich.

[JudicatorPrime]

Funny though, when Carol first joined the Avengers #183, Carol wouldn't allow Henry Gyrich to take her fingerprints. She didn't want to have them cross referenced with her NASA files and end up being exposed as a possible security risk to the paranoid Gyrich.

I recall Carol also being an officer in the Air Force and head of a top secret base. It's how she met Mar-Vell. She would have enjoyed a very high security clearance had she remained active. It's possible that Gyrich might have needed permission from his superiors to see some of her more restricted files.