The passage of time in the Marvel Universe

[Slimybug]

I know that this can be seen as something of a pointless issue, as an actual timeline to the MU doesn't mean a lot to some. I remember watching Joe Quesada in person talk about how Franklin Richards was just never going to grow up. But I'd still like to see if there's any sense that can be made of the MU timeline, and see if anyone has any ideas on how much time has passed in the real-world-55 years since FF#1

So here's what I got...

1961 Nov. - Fantastic Four #1 - Johnny is stated to be 16.

1962-1963 - Amazing Fantasy #15 & Amazing Spider-Man #1 - Around this time, Peter is supposed to be 15, which makes him at least 1 year younger than Johnny, depending on how much time passed between these 3 issues.

1963 Sept. - X-Men #1 - Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, and Angel are stated to be 18 at this time, while Iceman is 16.


1965 Sept. - Amazing Spider-Man #28 - Peter graduates high school, beginning college 3 issues/months later, in December. So more or less, it seems the comics have been in real time up to now. But Peter stays in college for a long time.

1966 May - Fantastic Four #50 - Johnny Storm begins college. It was previously stated that he had delayed college due to being in the Fantastic Four. If this is still real-time, and he's 1 year older than Peter, that means he put it off for two years, but given how time began to be compressed after Peter started college, it's probably best to state one year, and the 5 months between him and Peter starting could be like a couple weeks.

1968 Nov. - Fantastic Four Annual #6 - Birth of Franklin Richards, and of continuity problems forevermore.

1978 Oct. - Amazing Spider-Man #185 - Peter graduates college, making the past 13 years condensed into 4.


And that's all I got for now. Because I'm not up to date on modern comics, I don't even know how old Franklin Richards is supposed to be. So anything that further gives evidence of concrete amounts of time passing would be awesome.

[Wiccan]

Marvel's passage of time doesn't make any sort of sense at all tbh. Better to just not think that much about it.

[MichaelC]

There is no rhyme or reason to it. Characters even become younger when the plot requires it. They are all whatever age the story needs them to be.

[ZNOP]

I know that this can be seen as something of a pointless issue, as an actual timeline to the MU doesn't mean a lot to some. I remember watching Joe Quesada in person talk about how Franklin Richards was just never going to grow up. But I'd still like to see if there's any sense that can be made of the MU timeline, and see if anyone has any ideas on how much time has passed in the real-world-55 years since FF#1

So here's what I got...

1963 Sept. - X-Men #1 - Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, and Angel are stated to be 18 at this time, while Iceman is 16.

In X-Men #1 Xavier does state that Bobby was sixteen yrs old -- but, where in said book was the ages of the other students actually mentioned?

[Mike_Murdock]

Some characters are allowed to grow up, others are not. It depends on what they want to do. The passage of time doesn't progress constantly for all characters and it's not worth expecting it to.

That being said, one that bothers me is that Luna (Crystal's daughter) is apparently younger than her cousin Ahura (Medusa's daughter) even though she was born first. At least families should be consistent (like Franklin and Valeria are).

[Kusanagi]

If you're a teenager you age waaaaaay faster than an adult.

If you're a kid you will either be eternally stuck as a kid or suffer time travel shenanigans.

If you're adult you're in that nebulous Mid 20s - late 30s and never seem to age.

[Darth Phoenix]

Julie powers 5th grade with Franklin about 6 or 7

power pack.jpg

julie power is now like 17 and Franklin pre secret wars is 7 to 9 at at this time total BS that has been annoying me for decades

julie power.jpg

[nitake92]

It's ALWAYS best to think that Franklin Richard or that mutant girl from Worsts X-Man Ever is responsible for the wacky passage of time.

You know...JUST once I'd like to see some sort of crisis that puts everyone in the Marvel U into the age they WOULD be if they aged normally starting from when they were first published.( Like that world Ben Grimm went to once in an FF annual)