# Characters that Don't Age (and how they explain it, if at all) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [October 30, 2023, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299 "2023-10-30T12:36:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/21 "2023-10-30T13:50:35Z")
Fu Manchu was seventy years old when he first appeared. He apparently kept going through use of the “Elixir of Life”. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/22 "2023-10-30T13:55:22Z")
Scrooge McDuck was very old when first introduced. The recent series had him frozen in icebergs twice, amongst other methods to have him so old he could have had all those original adventures. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/23 "2023-10-30T13:57:05Z")
There has been some aging in the comics recently, if only by inference. I would point out that both Superman and Batman now have sons who are old enough to be superheroes themselves. Clearly, some significant amount of time must have passed since their debut, and they must be pushing 40 by now, if not past it. Batman doesn’t seem to have become any less spry despite that, however. Superman, you could probably assume that he might age differently than earth folks do. _Doctor Who_ was very clever in making the change of actor an actual, in-universe part of the show. Unlike James Bond, they don’t have to keep hiring actors of the same physical type, and they don’t have to pretend that it’s all the same guy. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/24 "2023-10-30T14:05:17Z")
James T. Kirk is being prepped for resurrection–see a recent Star Trek film. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/25 "2023-10-30T14:07:10Z")
Charlie Brown debuted in 1950 as a preschooler (not quite 5 years old). By the time _Peanuts_ finished its run in 2000, he had grown to around 8 years old. It only took him 50 years. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/26 "2023-10-30T14:10:12Z")
In _Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me_, Dr. Evil travels 30 years into the past to meet the 1969 versions of his underlings: > Number Two, you look so healthy and youthful. Frau, you look so…[_realizes she looks exactly the same_]…right. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/27 "2023-10-30T14:26:18Z")
Blondie and Dagwood haven’t aged since they were introduced in 1930. Alexander was originally a baby, but only grew up to be a teen, where he stayed. Dick Tracy is only a few years older than when he was introduced in 1931. This is extremely common in classic newspaper strips. Indeed, it was a big deal when _Gasoline Alley_ characters aged normally each year. It looks like they’re still keeping that up, with new generations of characters, though it may have slowed. But newspaper strips were not about long-term continuity. There could be stories running months, but the characters usually returned to square one at the end. When they were big, audiences didn’t care about continuity. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/28 "2023-10-30T14:33:44Z")
Calvin’s dad, to Calvin: > I know, you think you’re going to be six all your life. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/29 "2023-10-30T14:36:09Z")
Well crap. I am not a morning person and was posting while working. Still, I made some mistakes. Mea culpa. Antemeridian. Uncameridian. All the little Meridians. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/30 "2023-10-30T14:37:29Z")
My kid is a big reader of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, about a kid in middle school, and I got curious about this because the first book covers all of 6th grade. There’s been 15 or 16 books since then so that’s a lot to squeeze into two remaining years (or otherwise change the series paradigm by putting Greg Heffley in high school). The obvious reason here is that author Jeff Kinney probably didn’t expect his original book to take off like it did and become a sixteen book, and growing, saga of awkward middle school travails. I asked my kid once and he said they’ve been cramming it all into those 7th & 8th grade years. I looked at the Wiki and did some cursory websearching just now and it seems that, a few books back, the author finally just had him loop his 8th grade year without explanation. The books start with a month (“September”) and, taken chronologically, Greg should be 16 by now but he’s stuck in a forever 8th grade loop at 14 for the time being. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/31 "2023-10-30T14:37:30Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Another well known example is Bart Simpson; a ten year old who’s been around since the eighties. This was explained by one of the creators of the Simpsons with words to the effect of “We don’t show Bart growing up as lets face it, its probably going involve him being tried as an adult” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/32 "2023-10-30T14:47:32Z")
Ramona Quimby aged about six years over five decades’ worth of books. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/33 "2023-10-30T14:48:34Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > My kid is a big reader of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, about a kid in middle school, and I got curious about this because the first book covers all of 6th grade. > [@griffin1977](#): > > This was explained by one of the creators of the Simpsons with words to the effect of “We don’t show Bart growing up as lets face it, its probably going involve him being tried as an adult” Interesting juxtaposition. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/34 "2023-10-30T14:48:56Z")
James Lee Burke’s detective Dave Robicheaux, a Vietnam vet cop in Louisiana who’s been fighting crime and beating up criminals (and often getting beaten up himself) well into his 80s. The passing of time, represented by major Louisiana events like Hurricane Katrina, is represented in the book series, but Robicheaux is somehow always a late-middle aged Vietnam veteran, no matter the year. Great books, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/35 "2023-10-30T14:57:52Z")
In the Jack Reacher novels his advancing age is kind of hinted at but kept somewhat murky. He’d be chronologically around the actual age of Tom Cruise who played him, I think, and since older action heroes are pretty common these days, I guess it still works. I think I read something in an interview with the author Lee Child when they asked him about Reacher’s age, he said something like “I wanted to make him in his prime when I started writing the novels- not too young, not too old. I didn’t know I’d be writing them this long”. > [@Mahaloth](#): > > I heard the show even re-booted how Marge and Homer met, moving it in the 1990’s, after the show actually began airing. > > Simpsons has no continuity. I believe Bart should be Supreme Court Justice by about now? There’ve been episodes of young Homer, of Marge and Homer meeting, or from very early in their marriage, from the 70s, 80s (when Homer was in a retro-revival barbershop quartet) and 90s (when Homer was in a grunge band). there may even be more recent ‘young’ Homer episodes from the early 2000s by now-- I haven’t watched the show in years (except for the Treehouse of Horror eps). The lack of continuity has become something of a standing in-joke in itself. I remember at least one throwaway gag where Bart was reading the Sunday funnies, and said something like “those poor ‘Hi and Lois’ kids-- stuck in a hellish limbo of never aging”. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/36 "2023-10-30T14:59:36Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Dick Tracy is only a few years older than when he was introduced in 1931. Yeah, but Junior grew up and got married (to a Moon Lady, who was later conveniently forgotten). How the hell old is The Phantom, anyway? Running around the jungle in purple tights (great camouflage) must be his secret to eternal youth. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/37 "2023-10-30T15:02:16Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > Comic books operate on the same principle, really. It’s been called “Marvel Time,” and explains why Peter Parker was a teenager in 1963 but it currently in his late twenties and so forth. Unlike DC, Marvel always had quite the habit of connecting their chracters to events in real life. The Punisher is a Vietnam veteran who should be in his 70s by now, the US stopped testing nuclear bombs in 1992 (I think) so there goes Hulk’s origin, Magneto is is a Holocaust survivor and has got to be pushing 90, and while Captain America still works a bit, any storyline where he meets up with people he loved after his long absence isn’t going to work for very long. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/38 "2023-10-30T15:20:50Z")
Captain America’s occasional love interest, Sharon Carter, was introduced in the 1960s as the younger sister of his World War II girlfriend, Peggy Carter. Eventually she became Peggy’s niece, and then her grand-niece, as the War receded further and further into history. They’ve kind of stopped mentioning that Reed Richards and Ben Grimm were also WWI vets, and that Peter Parker’s classmate Flash Thompson fought in Vietnam. I’m not sure what they’ve done with the Fantastic Four’s origin, which was heavily tied to the Space Race. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/39 "2023-10-30T15:22:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Running around the jungle in purple tights (great camouflage) I read here on the SDMB, that the costume was originally meant to be grey. Nobody consulted with the creator when the presses went to color ink and the suit became purple. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/40 "2023-10-30T15:51:05Z")
A character who doesn’t age, played by an actor who does: Data. He doesn’t age, of course, because he is an artificially-constructed being made of non-organic parts. In ST:TNG the actor’s aging was already an unspoken issue by the end of the 7th season. You can only do so much with makeup. I gather that in Picard, Data’s appearance has aged, and there was some hand-waving reason for it (he re-programmed his own appearance so that, I don’t know, he wouldn’t stand out as so different, or something). In-universe, it makes me wonder whether, when all his old shipmates have died off, he will revert to his original, relatively young, self, and start over. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299.md?page=3)