Age of characters

[Mindworm]

In the new issue of Captain America we learn that Steve Rogers is 40. I always found it a bit strange when we get to know the exact age of a character, as time works somewhat strange in the Marvel universe. I read this book in the 70ies, and what happened then clearly reflected that time period. Still, we have to ignore such things, as the characters hardly age at all, and then knowing the exact age kind of screws things up. Another paradox is Peggy Carter who was supposed to be Sharon's older sister and Cap's girlfriend during the war, but when she passed away, she was Sharon's aunt!

I remember while Byrne wrote FF many years ago, we saw Reed Richards celebrating his 40th birthday, meaning that he's probably in his early 40ies now. Are there any other characters were we have got to learn the exact age?

[Hostile Kangaroo]

Cap should not be in his 40s, he barely ages and definitely looks younger than that.

The Peggy Carter thing isn't that weird though. Typically with characters who are tied to wars they move things around to make it work. The war the Punisher is tied to changes like every ten years.

[aNamored]

Cap should not be in his 40s, he barely ages and definitely looks younger than that.

The Peggy Carter thing isn't that weird though. Typically with characters who are tied to wars they move things around to make it work. The war the Punisher is tied to changes like every ten years.

Yes, in Rucka's run Punisher is much younger. Early 40s at most.

[B. Kuwanger]

Cap should not be in his 40s, he barely ages and definitely looks younger than that.

Um....exactly?

Marvel tries to have it both ways. They don't wanna reboot, but at this point it only makes sense that the Marvel Age began 16 years ago. We're told certain stories lasted a year, and given glimpses into age; Cyclops was 24 during the Dark Phoenix Saga, Cap was around 24 before freezing, DD was approx. 32 in the Bendis run, etc. I can suspend disbelief when it comes to the passing of our own time, but none of these people are actually working together on the sliding timescale so we can only agree to disagree.

[rsreed13]

Um....exactly?

Marvel tries to have it both ways. They don't wanna reboot, but at this point it only makes sense that the Marvel Age began 16 years ago. We're told certain stories lasted a year, and given glimpses into age; Cyclops was 24 during the Dark Phoenix Saga, Cap was around 24 before freezing, DD was approx. 32 in the Bendis run, etc. I can suspend disbelief when it comes to the passing of our own time, but none of these people are actually working together on the sliding timescale so we can only agree to disagree.

Exactly. Combine that with the fact that the characters that were 16 in Young Avengers Vol. 1 (Hulkling, Wiccan) are now 19 in the new volume, and you're talking about 3 years of continuity Disassembled and NOW!

[Ghostwise]

It's definitely a "pay not attention to the man behind the curtain" situation, and the attempts at making at "ten years sliding time scale" (which started in the early 1980s or late 1970s, I forget) predictably only succeeded in making things less intelligible.

There are some cool hypotheses, but time in the MU is best treated by never thinking about it, and loudly breaking into song if somebody insists on drawing inferences from chronology.

[The Black Guardian]

Logically, he should be about 40, although the Super-Soldier Serum makes him basically unaging. He was in his mid to late-20s when he was lost in an iceberg after WWII, and since his thawing, he's been around for 10-15 years. That comes out to approximately 40. I refuse to understand the problem with any characters being over 30. Heck, I even want Peter Parker to be over 30.

But yeah, characters are whatever age a writer makes them.

[Candid Rook]

The war the Punisher is tied to changes like every ten years.

Well it actually hasn't. Frank's ties to the Vietnam war have only really been changed in the last 4 or 5 years.

[Mindworm]

Well it actually hasn't. Frank's ties to the Vietnam war have only really been changed in the last 4 or 5 years.

If I remember correctly, even Flash Thompson was supposed to be in the Vietnam war, bringing Sha Shan home with him...

As some have pointed out, I find it natural that Steve is 40 now, but what about people like Bruce Banner and Matt Murdock and others? Mid to late 30ies?

[carabas]

Cap should not be in his 40s, he barely ages and definitely looks younger than that.

When you have lived for 40 years, you're 40 years old. Even if you still look 25, you're still 40 years old.

25-ish when he went into the ice, and it's been about 15 years since he got thawed? Doesn't seem too farfetched to me.

And he's not 40, he's 85 or something like that. Granted, he slept through more that half of that.

[Mindworm]

When you have lived for 40 years, you're 40 years old. Even if you still look 25, you're still 40 years old.

25-ish when he went into the ice, and it's been about 15 years since he got thawed? Doesn't seem too farfetched to me.

And he's not 40, he's 85 or something like that. Granted, he slept through more that half of that.

When 40 is mentioned, that is of course the time when he has been up and running. He's "real" age must be closer to 90 as far as I can figure!

[T Hedge Coke]

"I'm forty awake years old," has a ring to it.

[The Black Guardian]

When 40 is mentioned, that is of course the time when he has been up and running. He's "real" age must be closer to 90 as far as I can figure!

Depending on the story, 90 seems to be the lowball figure. His birth year has been given as 1922 (Civil War: The Confession), 1918 (movieverse), and 1917 (Sentinel of Liberty).

I still think that July 4th date is a load of propa-hooey.

[Omega Alpha]

I still think that July 4th date is a load of propa-hooey.

Yeah, the kind of thing that makes it hard to take the character seriously.

Anyway, one shouldn't be concerned too much with ages. In the MU, there's only 10 of them:

Old-As-Sin age: Apocalypse, Selene, the Gods, etc
WWII-aged: Cap, Wolverine, Namor, Nick Fury, Magneto etc.
Aunt May-age: Aunt May, and a few others, but not many
Sort of middle-aged ish, not old enough to be Peter Parker's daddy: Tony Stark, T'challa, Henry Pym, Reed Richards, Scott Lang, etc
Slightly older than Peter Parker, not middle aged: Beast, Storm, Susan Richards, Wasp, etc
Peter Parker-ish age: Peter Parker (duh), most of the original X-men, the Human Torch, Nightcrawler, etc.
Slightly younger than Peter Parker: Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Nova, some of the eldest New Mutants, etc.
Teenager: There's a whole lot of them, and they usually die.
Child: the Future Foundation kids, a few others. They usually get aged to adulthood or to teenager through unnatural means.
Franklin Richards: A category into itself.

[Mindworm]

Slightly related, what was the story about Dum Dum Dogan? He also fought in the war, but never seemed like a very old man in modern times?