Just a thought that came into my mind when I was trying to sleep last night.
How old are certain comic book characters supposed to be?
Bruce Wayne - I'd assume 36 or so, same with Clark Kent.
Dick Grayson - Roughly like 23 maybe?
Wally West - ?
Peter Parker - ?
Punisher - ?
Wonder Woman - ?
Kyle Rayner - ?
Jimmy Olsen - ?
Tony Stark - ?
Suspension of dibelief means we're just supposed to not think about it much. Characters age, but between retcons, re-inventions, and the nature of comics....1 real-world year = about 5 days for some characters.
Suspending our suspension of disbelief, obviously lol. I think that's what these forums are for. Otherwise we wouldn't argue about so much stuff haha. Their sliding time scales seem to adjust all the time, what with Peter aging a few years out of a few decades and such.
Bruce Wayne - I'd say early to mid thirties
Dick Grayson - late teens to early twenties
Wally West - late twenties
Peter Parker - mid to late twenties
Punisher - early thirties
Wonder Woman - thousands of years?
Kyle Rayner - late twenties
Jimmy Olsen - early to mid twenties
Tony Stark - mid thirties
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I'd say that Dick and Wally are about the same age as they were about the same age when they joined the Titans. also I'd say Peter's older (27-29) as he's been married for quite some time and almost had a kid and he must have graduated college before all of that.
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In Ellis' run on Iron Man where Extremis was introduced, it was stated in a flashback that Tony was 19 during the Gulf War so Tony's probably about 35.
In Garth Ennis' Punisher MAX series Frank is nearing 60. In the current Punisher War Journal, I'd say he's portrayed more as very fit late 30s.
In some cases we can work out more or less actual ages for some of the characters, others are near impossible. In one of Dan Slott's issues of the Thing, Ben had a bar mitzvah, celebrating around 13 years of Ben being the Thing. I would say Ben and Reed are between 35 and 40 then, Sue early 30s and Johnny about 27-28, same as Peter Parker as I believe they're supposed to be about the same age. Are these the ages they're written at? Johnny for his age is very immature, as is Ben but in more of a "I'm a grown up so I can goof around" way.
Although this means that the FF debuted in about '94, but Tony's retooled origin (taking place in the Gulf War instead of the Korean War) would then take place 3 or so years before the FF, but Iron Man debuted after them in continuity. Confusing and irreconcilable.
There are hundreds of other characters I could go into regarding age and the paradoxical affects that their ages and portrayals take on continuity.
As an aside, I've always felt it was tragically humurous that because of our present society's cyclical nature of war, just as many character's origins start to become outdated, we can simply change the conflict in which they were birthed. Tony Stark went from the Korean War, to the Vietnam War, his origin date lingered in limbo for awhile and was recently updated to the Gulf War. Same can be done for Punisher if need be, Jim Rhodes, Red Wolf and others can be similarly updated. Give it another few years and they're origins will be keyed into the present day conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
How old are certain comic book characters supposed to be?
Bruce Wayne - thirty something in his early thirties perhaps
Dick Grayson - early 20's
Wally West - if this is the flash he acts like he's in his 20's
Peter Parker - also in his 20's
Punisher - 30's
Wonder Woman - centuries of thousands of years old
Kyle Rayner - early thirties or late twenties
Jimmy Olsen - early twenties im guessing
Tony Stark - late thirties maybe early fourties
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Jun 27th, 2007 09:33 PM
