Linking a character to heavily to a certain time period is bad for the character

[GenericUsername]

You either horribly date the character if you do, or you’re forced to use cheap and increasingly silly means to keep them relevant or in some cases still alive in the modern day. Captain America is one of the few characters that have managed to pull this off in an interesting way. With others it becomes increasingly silly overtime(Disco Dazzler) or increasingly convoluted overtime (when they use clones or time travel for example). The best characters are the ones whose origins are times less, and can be moved from one decade to another with only superficial changes.

Depends on the character and how they are written. Some characters have time travel, age very slowly or powers that keep them young completely.

The ancient character that looks young has been around in storytelling for centuries.

So it just requires enough creativity to pull it off.

[JudicatorPrime]

Honestly, it's unavoidable. Every character has something about them that dates them. Even the immortals, if you think about it. The only way to prevent it is to literally stop Time for writers and readers. But good luck making a distinction between the first page and the last, if you somehow find a way to do that.

[Iron Maiden]

no if you pick a war you pick World War II. Vietnam and the Gulf War are not remembered in the same way. If Captain America was a Vietnam veteran he would not be thought of as fondly.

Just have him frozen for longer. Other characters like Magneto will have a tougher time. Unless Marvel is just okay with Magneto being a 100+ years old

Why not? It's already been accepted that he was an adult or prehaps late teens when he was in Auschwitz. He was de-aged into a baby once so maybe that shaved off a few years. But his real age is probably at least 100 by now. The Fantastic Four have the same problem because originally Ben was a WWII veteran (pilot) and Reed worked in the O.S.S. But you won't see any mention of this in the comics. In Heroes Reborn Fantastic Four I think Ben was a Gulf War veteran. There were a couple of stories that offered some explanation on their ages and I think they tied it to the cosmic rays.

[Iron Maiden]

Originally, the Infinity Formula was just given to Nick. Eventually, it was spread to all of the Howlers. Here is where the OP's warnings get legitimate, though. How does Happy Sam Sawyer show up in an issue of Captain America? Was it given to him as well? And Reb Ralston was a US Senator. At some point, doesn't America wonder how a WWII vet is serving in the Senate? Dugan may be an LMD, but that's the convolution the OP spoke of. If Dugan's an LMD, what about Gabe Jones? I know the Howlers were all killed off in Secret Warriors thereby keeping the problem from getting any worse, but there is still a lot of shifting timeline crap going on before that.

The OP does make a good point here and the Howlers are good support for their argument.

The other WWII veteran James "Bucky" Barnes was frozen too and then re-emerged as the Winter Soldier.

[Digifiend]

James Buchanan Barnes.

[Digifiend]

Why not? It's already been accepted that he was an adult or prehaps late teens when he was in Auschwitz. He was de-aged into a baby once so maybe that shaved off a few years. But his real age is probably at least 100 by now. The Fantastic Four have the same problem because originally Ben was a WWII veteran (pilot) and Reed worked in the O.S.S. But you won't see any mention of this in the comics.

Problem solved. Read issue 3 of Kurt Busiek's The Marvels. They retconned them to being in Sian-Cong, with Reed still part of an OSS analogue.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvels_Vol_2_3

[shooshoomanjoe]

Problem solved. Read issue 3 of Kurt Busiek's The Marvels. They retconned them to being in Sian-Cong, with Reed still part of an OSS analogue.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvels_Vol_2_3

I thought Marvels want in continuity.

[gurkle]

For me the logical solution would be to just say that time doesn't pass in comics the way it does in real life. Why is a character still 30 years old if they fought in World War II? Why are the Fantastic Four the same age as when they tried to beat the Soviets into space? I don't think it needs explaining. In comics, characters stay the same age and the same distance in time from important events, no matter how many years ago it happened in real life.

To me this would be a lot less jarring than the way they keep rewriting characters' pasts to bring them up to date, so characters who once fought in Korea fought in some other war, or the FF suddenly had a different purpose behind the mission that transformed them. Either way it doesn't (can't) make sense, they might as well do it in a way that preserves the important events in charaters' lives in more or less the same way they originally appeared.

[Iron Maiden]

James Buchanan Barnes.

Oops...had two different characters on the brain. Thanks

[CaptCleghorn]

Why not? It's already been accepted that he was an adult or prehaps late teens when he was in Auschwitz. He was de-aged into a baby once so maybe that shaved off a few years. But his real age is probably at least 100 by now. The Fantastic Four have the same problem because originally Ben was a WWII veteran (pilot) and Reed worked in the O.S.S. But you won't see any mention of this in the comics. In Heroes Reborn Fantastic Four I think Ben was a Gulf War veteran. There were a couple of stories that offered some explanation on their ages and I think they tied it to the cosmic rays.

A point that has come up is Magneto's past is strongly served by his experiences at Auschwitz. Reed and Ben being WW2 vets not so much. Army, sure, but WW2 isn't really as important to them as it is to Cap and Magneto. As for the FF's links with history, we've often gone a couple of pages with that in the FF appreciation thread. The sliding timeline has made it so that none of them may have been born by the moon landing. The reasons for the flight have changed over the years as well.

[Iron Maiden]

A point that has come up is Magneto's past is strongly served by his experiences at Auschwitz. Reed and Ben being WW2 vets not so much. Army, sure, but WW2 isn't really as important to them as it is to Cap and Magneto. As for the FF's links with history, we've often gone a couple of pages with that in the FF appreciation thread. The sliding timeline has made it so that none of them may have been born by the moon landing. The reasons for the flight have changed over the years as well.

I'm well aware of all that. One thing that also complicates matters which I didn't bring up earlier is Franklin and Valeria. Franklin was born in FF annual #6 in the Lee/Kirby days. He continued to talk babyish talk well into Tom DeFalco's run. The first significant mention of Franklin getting older occurs during the Pacheco/Marin run in issue #51 (2002) we saw the first specific mention of Franklin's age. Also significant is that they are taking him to a private school. It's too back that no other writing team AFAIK ever followed up on this



I sometimes use Kristoff as a yardstick for Franklin since he was brought in to the FF cast of characters by John Byrne as a counterpoint to Franklin. Originally they appeared to be about the same age but over the year the physical difference between them increased. Franklin was still drawn to be about grade school age while Kristoff got older looking until eventually we see him as an adult with a full beard in the Doom solo. He was also put in charge of the newly annexed Symkaria. Even Valeria seems to be aging at a faster rate than Franklin ever did. We can only guess at the age gap between them but in that panel above this is the only time that I can recall a specific age is mentioned for Franklin. So since Valeria is born a few issues later she has to be 7 years younger. But you sure can't tell for sure these days.

Perhaps bringing the children is straying from the topic. But it is an event in the lives of the Fantastic Four I suppose

[Shadowcat]

Since Marvel keeps adding new stories about the past of older characters like Logan, Mystique, Xavier or Magneto, they just have to write one where Erik is abducted by some mad scientist and put into stasis for years.

He was. The Stranger captured Mags & Toad back in the 60’s.

[shooshoomanjoe]

He was. The Stranger captured Mags & Toad back in the 60’s.

Those early Lee/Kirby issues were tough to read. They did de-age Magneto in the '70s or '80s, and that may have worked then but it doesn't work today. Apparently, he was recently de-aged again years later by the High Evolutionary.

[Shadowcat]

Those early Lee/Kirby issues were tough to read. They did de-age Magneto in the '70s or '80s, and that may have worked then but it doesn't work today. Apparently, he was recently de-aged again years later by the High Evolutionary.

Yeah, the beginning of the Fraction run when he regained his powers. And I’m sure with Krakoa he’ll be brought back to his prime then too. Like Destiny was.

[Zero Hunter]

Problem solved. Read issue 3 of Kurt Busiek's The Marvels. They retconned them to being in Sian-Cong, with Reed still part of an OSS analogue.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvels_Vol_2_3

That whole Sian-Cong thing is probably the dumbest thing marvel has ever come up with.