How Old Is Jimmy Olsen Supposed To Be?

[Timothy Hunter]

He's been around since Superman 13 in 1941, which makes him at the very youngest, as old as Dick Grayson currently is in the 20 to 30 range. Unlike Dick Grayson however, whose age when first becoming Robin is very well documented, I've never been sure how old Jimmy Olsen was supposed to be at the start of Superman's career. Was he a pre-teen? A teenager? A young adult?

Action Comics 865 claimed he was 22, which seems a bit young for a character who was working at the Daily Planet when Superman first appeared in Metropolis.

[phonogram12]

DC will almost never outright say the ages of most of their characters (especially one's who are supposed to eternally be youthful like Jimmy), but even with a somewhat condensed nu52-like timeline, if you do the math, he'd probably be somewhere around 28. That said, unless set in some ten years in the future, DC will likely never age him past 25.

[Frontier]

18-25 in my opinion.

[Mutant God]

Is he the same age as Dick Grayson or older?

[Jim Kelly]

It's impossible to answer, because there are so many continuities to choose from and even within each continuity there are many contradictions.

In SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 111 (June 1968)--1st story, "Jimmy Olsen, Boy Wonder" by Cary Bates and Pete Costanza--Jimmy tries out for the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City and is turned down. He then meets with his pal Robin, the Boy Wonder, who is also known as Dick Grayson, at their Eyrie secret H.Q., where Olsen is taught how to impersonate Grayson. Jim then goes to high school as Dick and his thought balloons make it clear that he's like David Cassidy or Johnny Depp pretending to be a teen-ager but already older than high school age (DAVID CASSIDY: MAN UNDERCOVER and 21 JUMP STREET, respectively). But later, Kaye Daye explains to Jimmy that the reason he can't join the M.A.G.C. is because he's not yet twenty-five.

In the early Superman comics, the character that's assumed to be Jimmy is very young--if he's the office boy that appears in ACTION COMICS 6 (November 1938)--maybe twelve years old???

In any future movie, T.V. show or comic book reboot, I'd like Jimmy to be as young as possible at the beginning. He could be the kid in dailies 127 – 162--June 12th - July 22nd, 1939, by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (layouts: Shuster; finished art: Dennis Neville)--where Lane and Kent investigate a cruel orphanage, reprinted in SUPERMAN 3 (Winter 1940). I know the kid in that story is named Frankie--but I like to re-imagine this as Jimmy's origin story and how he first met Clark and Lois. I think it's one of the finest stories from the Man of Steel's early days.

[Jon Clark]

Jiimmy always struck me as late teens to no more than 22 for most of his Pre-Crisis life (back when Clark was eternally 29). He might have aged a bit during the Bronze Age to maybe 25 by the time of Crisis. There was a Silver-age story where Superman adopted him which seems to say he was under 18 at that point.

Post Crisis I got the impression that Jimmy was still a kid when Superman debuted (he seemed to still be living at home in the early Byrne/Wolfman era. And something led me to believe Jimmy might have gotten an early start at the Planet- freelance teen photographer to cub reporter to rookie all between Superman's public debut and Crisis.

[Restingvoice]

He's been around since Superman 13 in 1941, which makes him at the very youngest, as old as Dick Grayson currently is in the 20 to 30 range. Unlike Dick Grayson however, whose age when first becoming Robin is very well documented, I've never been sure how old Jimmy Olsen was supposed to be at the start of Superman's career. Was he a pre-teen? A teenager? A young adult?

Action Comics 865 claimed he was 22, which seems a bit young for a character who was working at the Daily Planet when Superman first appeared in Metropolis.

Action Comics #6 in Comixology refer to an unammed office boy as Jimmy, and I often hear him referred as a cub reporter, if I'm not mistaken, so he sounds like an intern, or someone who works freelance or part time, so if Lois and Clark are 25 at the start, he'd be in the college age range. 18 to 22.

In the early Superman comics, the character that's assumed to be Jimmy is very young--if he's the office boy that appears in ACTION COMICS 6 (November 1938)--maybe twelve years old???

This is what I was talking about, except I interpret him older, I guess you can be an office boy that young in the 40s since Dick was also hired as a waiter in a cruise while trying to catch Catwoman, and that was one of his first case

Is he the same age as Dick Grayson or older?

Older. Dick was still a young Robin, age range 8 to 12. While they don't start that way in the golden age, in the modern versions of the origins, Jimmy, Lois and Clark tend to be already a Daily Planet trio by the time Superman's first year ends.

I'm thinking college age at the start, but maybe you can make him a teen freelance photographer like Peter Parker, so 15 at the youngest.