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Some fans are always trying to figure out how much time elapses in these stories, and how many years have gone by since thus-and-such happened. Once upon a time, a reference to "months ago" was sufficient to cover any point in a character's career, but as the marketplace shrank the number of ARFs (Anal Retentive Fans) increased proportionately.

Around the time I joined Marvel, a general agreement was adopted, that it was "seven years" since the FF went up in their rocket (this was around 1975), and it would always be "seven years". No matter how much time seemed to pass "on camera", the Marvel Universe would always exist in this bubble that never went more than seven years past the FF's original launch. So, in 1975, this meant they went up in 1968. In 1990, this would mean they went up in 1983. Today, the launch would have been in 1999.

This worked fine, as it acknowledged, for those who needed such, that time had, indeed, passed, but it kept that time managable. Johnny Storm had been around fifteen when the FF went up. Seven years later would make him 22 -- which seemed to fit nicely with his apparent age. Ditto Peter Parker, the X-Men, etc. And, of course, if you were to take all the published adventures of the FF (even right up to this year) and actually clock all the elapsed time seen in the books, you'd end up with quite a bit less that seven years.

Unfortunately, there was one fatal flaw in the Seven Year Rule -- it assumed everyone would be professional, and play along. But, of course, there are always flies in the ointment. It didn't take too long before people were trying to slip in "real time" references, and often they succeeded. Then there were the ARFs who most determinedly didn't get it and turned the Seven Year Rule into a sliding scale. "Well, if it was seven years in 1975, by 1985 it must have been..." Thus we end up with a Peter Parker who's older than Superman.

There are some things that are bound to real time. Captain America is a product of WW2. The Invaders fought in WW2. So did Nick Fury. Various characters are linked to the past, but with some minor exceptions, it is usually easy to simply avoid mentioning that link (don't keep telling the readers that Reed and Ben fought in WW2), or worked around (when I was writing IRON MAN, I retold his origin without mentioning Vietnam). Sometimes, as with Cap's suspended animation, or Fury's Infinity Formula, there can even be a contextual explanation. (Under the Seven Year Rule, Cap came out of the ice sometime during W's first administration. Think about that!)

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