Originally Posted by
Thor-Ul
Carol should be always the oldest. I mean, at least to keep Joe , and his relation with Carol, consistent. Meanwhile being the older, the fact than Joe doesn't want to help her with her education comes from his machism. Normaly, parents help the older sibling, so he can help the next son and so, because economic realities make difficult for them help the next one. And Joe choosing not helping this way to Carol (if she is the older) comes from his idea than that help would be a bad inversion, because in his mind Carol would marry, drop her carrer and any effort put on her education would be lost. The point in that way, and that was something Claremont put an effort on, it was than Carol was as an hardhead as Joe and she was the one who most resembled him, which made their relationship more complicated.
But making Carol the younger, well, that motivation was discarded for being "Joe was an docuhbage, because". And every positive quality of Carol comes just from her mother.