Age Difference Between The Justice League

[Tzigone]

At this point I prefer Dick and Bruce be more like brothers than father son. Dick grew up with his parents till he was 12 or 13. Bruce would only be around 10 to 14 years older. Alfred can be the father figure. It just ages Bruce further than needed if heÂ’s a father figure to Dick too. I also feel like Dick stands apart from the other RobinÂ’s. They all hold Bruce in reverence but Dick has actually filled in for Bruce successfully for significant length of times. Founding the Titans. Dick is a trailblazer as much as Bruce, being the first sidekick. I think the rest of the Batfamily outside of Barbara and Jason who became Oracle and the anti-hero Redhood respectively.

I simply strongly disagree with the bro thing or Alfred as the father figure. I like coming later Alfred later, because it means Bruce chose to fill a parent's role, instead of him choosing to add to Alfred's workload. I also think that ties in the more emotionally unhealthy Bruce of latter years that a don't like. I do think Dick is a trailblazer, but I don't see him being a son as a detriment to that (and would be stoked at the others being trailblazers in their own ways, too). I think all the young ones should (and many have) stopped holding Bruce in reverence, which is a good thing, because no adult should see another that way. A natural thing, too, for children growing up. The ideal relationship between a parent and grown child is one of equals to me. Bruce is a father figure to Dick to me. You want to stop aging Bruce - then stop aging everyone - just pause it all. And stop adding progressively younger newbies (well, at least Duke was older) and new generations. Don't erase/rewrite the foundational relationship - it diminishes the relationship and the characters to do so, IMO. Mind you, I think they've sadly already done quite a lot of that.

Oh, I also strongly disagree with DC's stance that holding the mantle is what makes one worthy and the that ultimate achievement of any younger hero is to be somebody else's replacement or that makes them greater that achieving greatness under their own mantle. So filling in for Batman successfully isn't (or shouldn't be) any more impressive than being Nightwing.

[BatmanJones]

29 all of 'em.

Pretty sure that this (or 28) was the official position up until the 70s at least. I feel like that was a direct answer from Bob Rozakis, DC’s “Answer Man.”

[Frontier]

Oh, I also strongly disagree with DC's stance that holding the mantle is what makes one worthy and the that ultimate achievement of any younger hero is to be somebody else's replacement or that makes them greater that achieving greatness under their own mantle. So filling in for Batman successfully isn't (or shouldn't be) any more impressive than being Nightwing.

I think it depends how you handle it.

I think, say, Dick becoming Nightwing and his own independent hero is perfectly valid and that experience lent itself to when he became Batman and succeeded his mentor, meanwhile Wally West becoming The Flash helped define him as a hero and character.

[Jim Kelly]

I grew up being parented by T.V. And on T.V. a big brother or a young uncle could be a parent to kids. The line was blurred for me as to how old you needed to be to have your own kids. I always figured when I grew up to be a super-hero, I'd have to convince some kid to be my sidekick, but I didn't want to get married, because girls were yucky. I suppose I'd interview other kids for the job and then we would start our nightly patrols.

[The Darknight Detective]

Of course, to the readers in the 1970s and 1980s, youth was very important and they didn't want to read about old men and old women in their thirties still running around playing at super-heroes. This was already important to the Marvel readers in the 1960s, which is why Spider-Man was the most popular character from that publisher. Don't trust anyone over thirty!

Heh. Though I was very young, I can recall when they were saying that years ago. Even as a kid, I thought it was silly (I have never bought into children knowing more than their elders). Besides, I had a harder time trusting my elementary-school classmates back then than any adult.

[John Venus]

I think they meant that comics and superheroes primarily appeal to kids and tweens. Even with a large number of adults getting into it, superheroes still primarily appeal to teens and young adults.

[John Venus]

I so strongly prefer pre-COIE there. I mean, he was a rich playboy, but not a bad person, pre-COIE (at least originally) and in his island origin story (which only came in the late 1970s, after other origin stories), he ended up stranded because he tried to stop thieves. And his time on the island was measured in months, not years. I mean, presuming we're talking about DC Super-Stars #17, and not another earlier version of the island origin story that I'm unfamiliar with. Though, of course, you may well be discussing the later versions where his then-assholeness was projected back into the past and his origin was rewritten to make him crappier.

Yeah, that's something I dealt with when building my own time-slide timeline. The number of years of a pilot is required to stay in the military after training has lengthened over time. I managed to track it back to the 1970s, but not beyond. And when did college become a prerequisite for pilots? I don't know if it was back when the character was created and dealing with the changes in the real world between a character's debut and the present can make things wonky. This is especially seen in characters like Billy and Freddy, who supported themselves from a young age, and with regards to how much society would accept that. I liked old-school Hal, and I liked that we sometimes saw the STEM skills (like he built the trainer in the first story, I think?) that pilots would have.

It doesn't make sense to me to have Ollie be a goody good person pre-island phase. To me, he is the atoner. He may not have killed or robbed or violated anyone, but I see him as someone with an ego who was very spoiled and careless about how he spent his money plus not taking care of his relationships. Then he got trapped on an island where he was forced to survive on his own (I generally prefer if he was alone on the island as opposed to meeting somebody else on there) and came out as a different man. Some of the older behavior sometimes reasserts himself (like his desire to sleep around instead of being faithful to a single partner) but his arc should be about his struggle to become a better person over time.

[Digifiend]

Damian is 14 now, but Tim remains a teenager because of the new continuity.

Tim was 13 when he showed up and 14 when he's Robin then Superman died and Bane broke the Bat (I think the age arrangement of Young Justice was Tim 14 Cassie 15 Conner 16), but your ending age for Dick and Tim generation are about right if using post crisis.

Well, Conner was a clone, and Bart (who you forgot to mention there) had accelerated aging - so both were physically teenagers, but actually only a few years old at the most.

And yeah, Tim and Damian's age gap is definitely narrower than the eight years it was pre-Flashpoint.

Firestorm is either a teen or in his early 20s

Hawkgirl is in her 30s.

The current Firestorm might be a teenager, but he's not the original, who would definitely be in his 20s by now.

Hawkgirl is only in her 20s (wasn't Kendra a teenager when she first appeared in JSA?). Hawkgirl is a separate person from Hawkwoman now, and Hawkwoman is older.

[Timothy Hunter]

Well, Conner was a clone, and Bart (who you forgot to mention there) had accelerated aging - so both were physically teenagers, but actually only a few years old at the most.

And yeah, Tim and Damian's age gap is definitely narrower than the eight years it was pre-Flashpoint.

The current Firestorm might be a teenager, but he's not the original, who would definitely be in his 20s by now.

Hawkgirl is only in her 20s (wasn't Kendra a teenager when she first appeared in JSA?). Hawkgirl is a separate person from Hawkwoman now, and Hawkwoman is older.

When in the comics did Ronnie Raymond start college? Shouldn't he be as old as the original Titans?

[Jim Kelly]

I remember the early 1980s as the time of the young super-teams. It was one of those hot trends in comics that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was parodying. You had the X-Men, New Mutants, Infinity Inc., New Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League Detroit and others of the same ilk. Teen or early twenties aged characters ruled the landscape. Even Supergirl was de-aged.

The de-age factor is another thing that happens all the time. Ma and Pa Kent were de-aged in 1968, then got gradually older in the 1970s and early 1980s, then were aged up in the 1986 reboot, then de-aged again over the next few decades.

I remember Jim Gordon's Sarah Essen started out the same age as him, then got progressively younger looking.

With kids, they seem to rapidly age up, but then they aren't cute anymore and they start to age down again. It's a weird yo-yo effect as the writers can't decide what age they want the characters to be. They want them to be young, but not too young. They can never seem to find the sweet spot.

[CaptCleghorn]

When in the comics did Ronnie Raymond start college? Shouldn't he be as old as the original Titans?

IMHO, he is, but possibly a year younger depending on the Titans when Ronnie Firestorm was introduced.

[Mutant God]

From the ages of the Batfamily thread

My Random Guess:
Alfred - 74
Bruce - 37
Kathy - 30
Barbara - 24
Dick - 22
Jason - 21
Tim - 18
Stephanie - 17
Cassandra - 15
Damian - 11

Heres my random guess:

Batman - 37
Superman - 39
Wonder Woman - 69
Hal Jordan - 40
Barry Allen - 33
Aquaman - 40
Oliver Queen - 36
Dinah Lance - 32
Cyborg - 24
Martian Manhunter - 33
Jon Stewart - 41
Black Lightning - 44

[Lightning Rider]

Bruce is a father figure to Dick to me.

[Superfly Frankenstein]

This is more fun. I like the random guesses.

Here’s mine:
Clark 43
Bruce 46
Diana who knows
Hal 45
Barry 40
Ollie 49
Dinah 39

Dick 29
Wally 30
Roy 29
Garth 31

John Henry Irons 44
Ronnie Raymond 30
Zatanna 40
Vixen 37
Arthur Curry 43

John Stewart 44
Guy Gardner 41
Kyle Rayner 32
Jessica Cruz 25

Lois Lane 40
Conner Kent 10 (body of a 21 year old)
Tim Drake 20
Cassie Sandsmark 19
Bart Allen 18

Lex Luthor 59
Perry White 65
Commissioner Gordon 66
Barbara Gordon 30
Alfred 77
Jimmy Olson 31