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Stephen Robinson
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Posted: 29 October 2014 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | 1  

A flashback in a recent issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN stated
that Peter Parker gained his powers "13 years ago." Aside
from my preference for not using specific measurements of
time for comic-book characters (a simple caption stating
"THEN" would have served the same purpose), but Spider-Man
strikes me as the one hero who definitely *shouldn't* have
more than a decade's experience. Superman, Batman, Captain
America... fine, that all works for those characters (so
long as the writers can resist continuing to age them). But
Spider-Man? And he's now the age Superman should eternally
be?

I liked the wisecracking Spider-Man -- one of the things
that the Garfield gets just right -- but that only works for
a teenager or someone in his very early 20s.

I suppose I should accept that Spider-Man is a character who
has been truly gone for a very long time.
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Steven Legge
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Posted: 29 October 2014 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | 2  

I liked the wisecracking Spider-Man -- one of the things
that the Garfield gets just right -- but that only works for
a teenager or someone in his very early 20s.

Which is ironical as Garfield is 31.

Also, for an instant when I first read "Garfield", I thought you mean the cat.
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Brian Hague
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Posted: 29 October 2014 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | 3  

Garfield the Cat would be terrible as Spider-Man. The minute he spoke, everyone would know his secret identity as Carlton your Doorman.

Spidey is sadly going to continue to age so long as his audience and creators do so in step with him. A 28 or 29 year old Spidey probably makes all the sense in the world to the current staff since they knew him as a grad student and college instructor and that was years and years ago now...

In a few short years, they're going to start asking how Aunt May can even be alive this far into Peter's thirties. Well, given everything that's happened in their recent storylines, late thirties. Maybe even forties. Let's see, if Franklin in now 22 and married to the youngest member of the now-all-grown-up Power Pack, and Spidey knew the FF before Franklin was born, then.. There was also that emotional story where Lockjaw had to be put down and we discovered Medusa's been coloring her hair for over a decade now...

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John Byrne
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Posted: 29 October 2014 at 4:30pm | IP Logged | 4  

If Parker became Spider-Man 13 years ago, that pushes the FF's origin back to about fifteen. Which would make Reed and Ben about 55, and Sue about 45. Same range for Bruce Banner. Tony Stark. X-Men in their mid thirties.

Good thing the FF have been canceled, or the time would be just about right for someone to decide they were too old and needed "legacy" replacements.

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Andrew W. Farago
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Posted: 29 October 2014 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | 5  

I wouldn't get too hung up on it.  At least once every five years or so there's a blip that rolls back the clock a little bit.  Spider-Man got de-aged a little bit with the Mackie/Byrne/Romita Jr. relaunch, he got a few years shaved off with Brand New Day, and he'll probably get rolled back again after the next universe-wide crossover.  He's been a post-college twenty-something for about 40 years now, and creative teams flip back and forth about which side of his mid-twenties he's on. 
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Stephen Robinson
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Posted: 29 October 2014 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | 6  

Yet most media depictions of Spider-Man have featured him in
high school or college, which is closet to how he was created.

I concede Andrew's point that Peter Parker has been a "post-
college twentysomething" for decades now, but it still saddens
me somewhat.

I recall when the characters in their mid-to-late 20s were
mature adults. The Human Torch and Spider-Man behaved as they
did because they were *kids*. And perhaps that was because kids
were still reading the books. When I first started reading
comics, my teachers were in their late 20s.
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Steve De Young
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Posted: 29 October 2014 at 10:32pm | IP Logged | 7  

If Parker became Spider-Man 13 years ago, that pushes the FF's origin back to about fifteen. Which would make Reed and Ben about 55, and Sue about 45. Same range for Bruce Banner. Tony Stark. X-Men in their mid thirties.
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I personally prefer my superheroes as adult professionals, so those age ranges sounds fine to me.

It reminds me of a discussion I got into in a chat room with Dan Jurgens after Zero Hour came out and he had done away with the 'de-aged to their 50's' JSA. I asked him why he did it and he said that, "A bunch of old codgers in their fifties running around in costumes fighting crime is silly." Since he was writing a Teen Titans reboot at the time, I asked, "But 15 year olds running around in costumes fighting crime isn't?"
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John Byrne
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Posted: 30 October 2014 at 2:26am | IP Logged | 8  

If Parker became Spider-Man 13 years ago, that pushes the FF's origin back to about fifteen. Which would make Reed and Ben about 55, and Sue about 45. Same range for Bruce Banner. Tony Stark. X-Men in their mid thirties.

----------------------

I personally prefer my superheroes as adult professionals, so those age ranges sounds fine to me.

It reminds me of a discussion I got into in a chat room with Dan Jurgens after Zero Hour came out and he had done away with the 'de-aged to their 50's' JSA. I asked him why he did it and he said that, "A bunch of old codgers in their fifties running around in costumes fighting crime is silly." Since he was writing a Teen Titans reboot at the time, I asked, "But 15 year olds running around in costumes fighting crime isn't?"

•••

Why do you even bother reading superhero comics? You so obviously don't get them.

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Steve De Young
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Posted: 30 October 2014 at 7:54am | IP Logged | 9  

Why do you even bother reading superhero comics? You so obviously don't get them.
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I don't get superhero comics because the idea of superheroes being in their 30's, 40's or 50's is fine with me? You'll have to explain that to me, JB.

When I was a kid, reading comics, all of the DC superheroes (with the obvious exception of the Teen Titans) were portrayed as established, adult professionals in whatever their career was. Same with most of the Marvel superheroes. I don't see the Nu52 drawing characters like Superman looking 10-15 years younger than he ever looked before as a positive move. And I can't watch the Flash because their 'Barry' looks like Infantino's Kid Flash, not the adult Barry in and out of costume.



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John Byrne
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Posted: 30 October 2014 at 8:22am | IP Logged | 10  

I don't get superhero comics because the idea of superheroes being in their 30's, 40's or 50's is fine with me? You'll have to explain that to me, JB.

When I was a kid, reading comics, all of the DC superheroes (with the obvious exception of the Teen Titans) were portrayed as established, adult professionals in whatever their career was. Same with most of the Marvel superheroes.

••

Superman was eternally 29. Batman around the same, and the rest in that neighborhood or younger. If you think superheroes in their forties and fifties is "fine," you are obviously one of those selfish readers who thinks the characters should be aimed at them, and not the widest audience possible -- not the mention a younger audience. "Hey, I'm forty! I want Peter Parker to be forty!"

Superhero comics are not supposed to be targeted at adults. They were created for kids and tweens. And kids don't want to read about their parents.

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Steve De Young
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Posted: 30 October 2014 at 8:42am | IP Logged | 11  

They were created for kids and tweens. And kids don't want to read about their parents.
-------------------------------
I absolutely agree that comics shouldn't be targeted at adults. I disagree that having the characters be adults means that they're targeted at adults.

Elsewhere, when talking about your feelings about Robin, you've decried what seems to be the exact same reasoning you're using here. Batman was created for kids and tweens, kids don't want to read about their dad, so we have to introduce a teen character they can identify with?

I, as a kid, was perfectly happy reading about adult superheroes because they were serving the purpose of being role models, people whose character you could aspire to when you grew up. It had nothing to do with being able to 'identify with their problems'.

The idea that a young audience has to 'identify with' characters in order to enjoy them is what's given us things like JJTrek (replacing a bunch of adult professionals with character to aspire to with a bunch of identifiable younger rebellious misfits) and now this new Fantastic Four movie debacle, where Reed, Sue and Ben apparently have to be teenagers like Johnny. If there were ever comic characters who were your parents, it was Reed and Sue.
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Greg Woronchak
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Posted: 30 October 2014 at 8:49am | IP Logged | 12  

I personally prefer my superheroes as adult professionals, so those age ranges sounds fine to me.

That's the crux of the matter; comic characters should be timeless, without appealing to a very narrow demographic. When I started reading comics, I didn't have any 'preference' for how old they should be, nor what job they held.

I rolled with what the creators portrayed, enjoying the yarns as they were.
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