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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 11:46am | IP Logged | 1  

TEEN TITANS, if we put it in context, was one of the first steps onto the slippery slope. The title itself acknowledge what some fans were already insisting upon -- that the characters were aging.

Preposterous, is it not, that Dick was 12 years old for about 25 years, then in about 10 years doubled that?

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Scott Richards
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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 11:52am | IP Logged | 2  

> Preposterous, is it not, that Dick was 12 years old for about 25 years, then in about 10 years doubled that?

Heh.  Maybe he contacted a strain of SORAS disease.  They get it on the daytime soaps all the time (Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome).

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Eric Lund
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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 11:53am | IP Logged | 3  

Wasn't it Denny O'neil who aged Dick Grayson? I think however that the TV show had alot to do with it because of Burt Ward and his popularity... They might not have been trying to follow the camp of the show but it seemed that it was there that the character aged considerably to be of college age and then the comics followed suit...
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Jeremy Nichols
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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 11:55am | IP Logged | 4  

I think the mistake is trying to make everything FIT... like there's
a master chronology or something. I'm sure there isn't... I can't
imagine DC having a bible that says "From 1962-1984 Dick
Grayson was 16 years old" or whatever. If you read "ten years
ago" in a comic, it can't be assumed to "apply" to anything other
than that story, because that's when the author needed it to
apply. Does Archie have these problems? Do the Simpsons?
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 12:00pm | IP Logged | 5  

TEEN TITANS predates Denny's "aging" of Dick by several years -- and, remember, the latter was done specifically to make it possible to send Dick off to College as a way of getting Robin out of Batman's life (death not being an option in those more sensible times).

Unfortunately, since the loudest segment of fandom was rapidly being filled up with brain-dead morons who didn't "get" the simplest rules of their own beloved hobby, this just led to more crap from the "They Must Age" camp.

Factor in the unproffesionals who didn't "get" it either, and delighted in sabotaging everyone else's books by slipping in all the real time references they could and -- well, you end up here, today, with a whole different set of "teens" making up the Teen Titans. "Teens" who, if Wonder Girl is anything to judge by, are rapidly approaching the point where they will not be "teens" any longer.

S.T.U.P.I.D.

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James C. Taylor
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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | 6  

 Jeremy Nichols wrote:
Does Archie have these problems? Do the Simpsons?

It doesn't seem to bother anyone who reads Archie in the slightest that Archie never ages. No one cares that only Jughead now wears a style of cap that was common in the day he first came to be. If there are adult readers of Archie (and there may be; I don't know), they don't demand Archie grow with them. Consequently, I can pick up an issue of Archie today, and even though there will be characters I never heard of when I was a kid (Chuck, Cheryl), Archie will still be Archie.

Not sure exactly where things need to be backed to (I'm used to a sixteenish Robin myself) but let's back them up and freeze them and let the fanboys pick up a novel.
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | 7  

Does Archie have these problems? Do the Simpsons?

****

Ask this of your average drooling fanboy and he will curl his lip and sneer "Those are just cartoons. They're not realistic." Indeed. Because the adventures of Archie and his pals in Riverdale have never been a whit as true to life as, oh, a teenager who gets bitten by a radioactive spider, and so goes on to become a superhero.

You know, I kinda [u[miss the days when the lunatics were running the asylum. Certainly a step up from what we have now!

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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 12:05pm | IP Logged | 8  

...Archie never ages...

*****

Small tweak, for historical accuracy. When first
introduced, Archie was about 10, maybe 12 years
old. He and the gang "aged" up to High School --
and then stopped.
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James C. Taylor
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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 12:09pm | IP Logged | 9  

 John Byrne wrote:
Small tweak, for historical accuracy. When first introduced, Archie was about 10, maybe 12 years
old. He and the gang "aged" up to High School -- and then stopped.

You mean stuff happened before I was born?
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 12:10pm | IP Logged | 10  

Nothing really important, James.
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Lance Hill
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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 12:10pm | IP Logged | 11  

I don't see why there was a need to get Dick Grayson into college. Couldn't they just do Batman stories where Robin simply does not feature?
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Glenn Greenberg
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Posted: 14 February 2006 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | 12  

<<I think however that the TV show had alot to do with it because of Burt Ward and his popularity... They might not have been trying to follow the camp of the show but it seemed that it was there that the character aged considerably to be of college age and then the comics followed suit...>>


Burt Ward certainly wasn't the first actor to play Robin as older than he was in the comics.

Ever see the Batman serials of the 1940s? You can't tell me that version of Robin was 12 years old--not only did he look to be past college age, he looked to be past GRADUATE SCHOOL age!

:-)



Edited by Glenn Greenberg on 14 February 2006 at 12:23pm
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