Ages of the characters...

[maryjane]

it's a few years that marvel comics is a real disaster... writers that do not know the story of the characters they are writings and editors that do not control anything... a great problem is the ages of the characters... when marvel was at the beginning, Spider-Man, Human Torch and the first X-Men were all teen agers; now Scott Summers (and so the others of the group) is written like he's 45, while Peter and Johnny are still under 30... the children are becoming too old and so the parents, Valeria and Franklin put Susan much over 40, too much in my opinion... and these are just examples... what do you think about this argoument ? and have you other examples ?

[ENTRYS]

it's a few years that marvel comics is a real disaster... writers that do not know the story of the characters they are writings and editors that do not control anything... a great problem is the ages of the characters... when marvel was at the beginning, Spider-Man, Human Torch and the first X-Men were all teen agers; now Scott Summers (and so the others of the group) is written like he's 45, while Peter and Johnny are still under 30... the children are becoming too old and so the parents, Valeria and Franklin put Susan much over 40, too much in my opinion... and these are just examples... what do you think about this argoument ? and have you other examples ?

Usually the majority of western comicbook characters retains a certain age and always reverts back to the status quo. Spider-Man can in one story lose his body to Doctor Octopus, but eventually he'll get it back and you'll have him swinging past the US flag to announce how he is back.

The same goes for the age. Tony Stark has been as old as he is ever since he was introduced. Spider-Man started off as a 15 year old teenager. He is one of the few, who has progressed. Now he is 28-29 and that's his modern status quo. Tony Stark on the other hand hasn't aged 15 years. Neither has the Punisher, who started off as a Vietnam veteran, but now his backstory has been retconned to being an Iraq veteran, so that his age makes more sense. I don't think that someone like Cyclops is 45 years. He might act more mature, but his status quo is probably him being in his mid to late 30s.

In DC you have the same things. There were times where Batman and Superman got quite old. You could say that they were in their mid 40s. But their new status quo is probably more like 29-30, where other characters have absolutely aged. Like Nightwing, who started off as a very young Robin. Same with Red Hood. Even Tim Drake got slightly older, so that Damian Wayne could be the new young Robin. But those age changes didn't make Batman 60 years old.

You just have to roll with it.

[SpideyClone]

it's a few years that marvel comics is a real disaster... writers that do not know the story of the characters they are writings and editors that do not control anything... a great problem is the ages of the characters... when marvel was at the beginning, Spider-Man, Human Torch and the first X-Men were all teen agers; now Scott Summers (and so the others of the group) is written like he's 45, while Peter and Johnny are still under 30... the children are becoming too old and so the parents, Valeria and Franklin put Susan much over 40, too much in my opinion... and these are just examples... what do you think about this argoument ? and have you other examples ?

Magneto, a holocaust survivor, should be well into his 90's, was de-aged at least once in the comics. Professor X, same generation, cloned body I believe. Mr. Fantastic and Ben Grimm fought in WW 2, I think that was retconned though. Punisher was a Vietnam Vet. Should be in his late 60's-70's now, probably retconned as well.

[Ultimate Captain America]

Punisher had been retconned into an Iraq war veteran, but that causes the same problems, so now he's a veteran of the "Siacong War", a fictional war with no dates. Same as Jim Rhodes and any other Vietnam veteran.

[Digifiend]

Usually the majority of western comicbook characters retains a certain age and always reverts back to the status quo. Spider-Man can in one story lose his body to Doctor Octopus, but eventually he'll get it back and you'll have him swinging past the US flag to announce how he is back.

The same goes for the age. Tony Stark has been as old as he is ever since he was introduced. Spider-Man started off as a 15 year old teenager. He is one of the few, who has progressed. Now he is 28-29 and that's his modern status quo. Tony Stark on the other hand hasn't aged 15 years. Neither has the Punisher, who started off as a Vietnam veteran, but now his backstory has been retconned to being an Iraq veteran, so that his age makes more sense. I don't think that someone like Cyclops is 45 years. He might act more mature, but his status quo is probably him being in his mid to late 30s.

In DC you have the same things. There were times where Batman and Superman got quite old. You could say that they were in their mid 40s. But their new status quo is probably more like 29-30, where other characters have absolutely aged. Like Nightwing, who started off as a very young Robin. Same with Red Hood. Even Tim Drake got slightly older, so that Damian Wayne could be the new young Robin. But those age changes didn't make Batman 60 years old.

You just have to roll with it.

Cyclops should be about 30. Iceman's the same age as Spider-Man and Human Torch (i.e. 15 on his debut), and Scott's a year older (his time displaced version who joined the Champions was 16, so that should be how old he was when X-Men launched in 1963), as are Angel and Marvel Girl. Beast is the oldest of the O5, he's a couple of years older than the others.

Even Iraq has been retconned for Punisher now - as well as Afghanistan for Iron Man. Both now use the fictional SianCong in their backstories, something closer to their original Vietnam origins.

Tony was probably in his 20s when introduced, and around 40 now. He may also have de-aged himself a bit when he created a new body at the end of Bendis's run.

it's a few years that marvel comics is a real disaster... writers that do not know the story of the characters they are writings and editors that do not control anything... a great problem is the ages of the characters... when marvel was at the beginning, Spider-Man, Human Torch and the first X-Men were all teen agers; now Scott Summers (and so the others of the group) is written like he's 45, while Peter and Johnny are still under 30... the children are becoming too old and so the parents, Valeria and Franklin put Susan much over 40, too much in my opinion... and these are just examples... what do you think about this argoument ? and have you other examples ?

Susan being over 40 actually does make sense. She's eight years older than Johnny, who was 15 in their origin, so she was 23 when she became the Invisible Girl. Franklin was born within a couple of years of that. When they went to rebuild the multiverse after Secret Wars, Sue, Reed and the kids were gone for five years, but it was only one year for Ben and Johnny. That means she has an extra four years. If Johnny's now 29, Sue would normally be 37, but due to those extra four years, is actually now 41. Which is easily old enough to have teenage children. The issue isn't with Sue. It's Valeria, who was born too recently to be a teen already. Even with the extra four years, she ought not to be older than ten.

[krazijoe]

Just forget ages, it's easier.

[ComicNoobie]

Ages always confuse me in comics, especially with how they are established to be around certain events but aren't that old at this point. Magneto comes to mind. Of course there is Spider-Man as well. Then you have conflicting books that give different ages like in the case of Cassie Lang, where she was stated to be fifteen in one book but sixteen in another? Franklin and Valeria had big growth spurts, not that I minded that. It just makes me wonder how old a group like Power Pack would be. Katie Power was around the same age as Franklin, so is she a young teenager now too? Granted Power Pack don't show up that often these days.

[Witchfan]

Fifteen years have passed since Fantastic Four #1. Take the age that you think the character was at that point and add 15 years.

[CaptCleghorn]

Fifteen years have passed since Fantastic Four #1. Take the age that you think the character was at that point and add 15 years.

Yeah. This works as a rough guideline, but there will always be exceptions. Especially by fans like us who are inclined to hunt for them. The characters are generally fine with this. There are certainly enough reasons to be able to tweak ages like rejuvenation, mutant lifespans, cosmic ray effects, etc. to justify active physical activity.

Just forget ages, it's easier.

This plan also has merit.

[Digifiend]

Ages always confuse me in comics, especially with how they are established to be around certain events but aren't that old at this point. Magneto comes to mind. Of course there is Spider-Man as well. Then you have conflicting books that give different ages like in the case of Cassie Lang, where she was stated to be fifteen in one book but sixteen in another? Franklin and Valeria had big growth spurts, not that I minded that. It just makes me wonder how old a group like Power Pack would be. Katie Power was around the same age as Franklin, so is she a young teenager now too? Granted Power Pack don't show up that often these days.

Katie should indeed be a teenager by now - I think her last stated age was 12, but if Kamala and Miles have aged a year since Marvel Legacy (where she starred in a one-shot), then so should she, making her 13. Julie is 19 last we saw (she was in college when she showed up in Runaways), Alex would be 20 (he was 19 in FF before Secret Wars), but he was with Reed and Sue so he's actually 24. And Jack's about 14.

[H-E-D]

Don't worry about it.

[jwatson]

Just forget ages, it's easier.

I know i don't think about it. Sue is 28 in appearance even though my mind tells me she is probably like 35 and got married at 19 and pregnant at 20 because cosmic rays slow aging. it is what it is and not that serious. lol It's when you try to impose a time frame or an age that it becomes tricky or rather important to me.

[Iron Maiden]

Just forget ages, it's easier.

This is pretty much the best solution. As noted, Ben and Reed were WWII veterans in the Lee/Kirby days. I can't recall whose run exactly it was but sometime after the Heroes Reborn phase, Ben became a veteran of the Gulf Wars. Reed always had that touch of gray in his hair and that has stayed the same. There is an age gap between him and Sue because he met her when she was living with her aunt. She could be perhaps 8 years younger and of course Johnny even younger than that. Sue was pretty much the only mother figure he remembers. Their father Dr. Storm was widowed when he got into a car accident and his wife Mary died as a result. I consider the FF as the sort of baseline of the MU characters and you just go from there. Peter Parker too since he was a high school student in the Lee/Ditko years.

Namor is an outlier because he is truly one of the first Marvel characters along with Steve Rogers/Captain America. Namor is a mutant and he has a longer life span as does Steve with the super soldier serum. Originally Doctor Doom was around during WWII since he is tied to the FF origins also but I think that is mostly ignored. He went off to Tibet after his accident in college. His body has been regenerated a couple of times beginning with Byrne's run when it was disintegrated in the fight between Silver Surfer and Terrax. But the Beyonder brought him back. Doom, Reed and Ben are probably the equivalent of being around early 40s IMO.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, Steve is 100 years old. And because of his origin, he gets chronologically older in real time, unlike basically everyone else. He was born on 4 July 1922, became Captain America aged 18 in 1940, and was frozen at age 23. He didn't age at all while frozen, and was defrosted around 15 years ago. The time he was frozen for just keeps getting longer.

[Darkgreed]

This has been bothering me too. For example Fantastic Four had franklin and Valeria never grew up. They are the same age as Scott langs daughter Stature. Stature grew up years ago while they remained kids.

In new mutants Legion should be in his late 20 with the rest of teammates. Now he is dating a 16 year old; Blindfold.

The X-Men need to start aging half of their team up. New mutants are all grown up late 30, Gen X too Early 30. Then you have the Class where kid Omega came the should all be in their late 20. With jean school kids in their late early 20.
Now the new kids should be in the teens