# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/41 "2023-10-30T15:56:09Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > 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. The length of Captain America’s time in the ice has shifted forward gradually. There’s a sort of tacit understanding that the history of the Marvel hereoes (from the Fantastic Four getting their powers to today) is about 14-20 years, I think…I’m remembering online debates about just this kind of minutiae back when I was a collector. All the heroes and several villains helped dig out victims at the World Trade Centre in an issue of _Amazing Spider-Man_. There’s a panel in which Captain America is staring at the carnage and Spider-Man comments in voiceover that Cap has witnessed the bombing of Dresden, and Spidey can’t imagine having to see something on this scale twice. I haven’t read a new comic in years, but I imagine that sooner or later Steve Rogers would have remained frozen in the ice until well past 9/11 to maintain the fiction of everyone’s ages. On a lighter note, there was an issue of _Marvel Team-Up_ in 1976 or so in which Spidey “teamed up” with the first-season cast of Saturday Night Live. Yeah…unless Peter Parker is in his 70s now, that’s been retconned out of history. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/42 "2023-10-30T15:58:03Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > 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. As an aside, they made it a spoken issue in that season: _“It’s part of her aging program: not only does she age in appearance like Data, her vital signs change too.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/43 "2023-10-30T16:00:46Z")
As I understand it, a non-canon, but hugely popular fan theory for James Bond is that it’s a codename for the role, not the name of the actual person. Quite a few story details seem to fly against that - especially in _No Time to Die_ where there are lots of callbacks and references to things that happened to Bond in previous movies. Apparently the franchise isn’t done yet, so it will be interesting to see if they reboot Bond with acceptance of this fan theory, or if they just reboot without saying anything. ---
**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, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/44 "2023-10-30T16:18:06Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > 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. The CGI folks did their level best to de-age Paul Reubens for **Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday**. ---
**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, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/45 "2023-10-30T17:01:31Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > There’s a panel in which Captain America is staring at the carnage and Spider-Man comments in voiceover that Cap has witnessed the bombing of Dresden, and Spidey can’t imagine having to see something on this scale twice. I think it was Pearl Harbor. Dresden belonged to the enemy and I don’t think Captain America would have felt that bad about it. In a way, the Fantastic Four’s origins work well in today’s era. An inventor who works on a private spacecraft is more believeable today than it was in the early 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/46 "2023-10-30T17:09:26Z")
In the early 1980s, a writer for DC and a fan had a conversation: **Fan:** How old is Superman? **Writer:** 39. **Fan:** But _Action Comics_ #1 was published over 40 years ago. **Writer:** Well . . . Uh . . . You see . . . He was born on February 29th, so he only has a birthday every 4 years. For a couple of decades, that was the explanation they would give (tongue firmly in cheek) whenever someone asked about it. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/47 "2023-10-30T17:26:42Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > River Phoenix waves (from the grave). Also Sean Patrick Flannery, Corey Carrier, and George Hall in _The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles_. Indy is aged simply by being played by different actors at different character ages. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > 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. Q as well, who appears in de-aged form and then ages his appearance to match Delancie’s own. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/48 "2023-10-30T17:31:46Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > Another well known example is Bart Simpson; a ten year old who’s been around since the eighties. > > A season four episode of the Simpsons showed Homer’s driver’s license giving his birth year as 1956. That would make him 67 and likely forcibly retired from the nuclear power plant by now. We’ve already passed the year Lisa was supposed to have grown up and gotten married. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/49 "2023-10-30T17:31:59Z")
Edgar Rice Burroughs addressed this for a couple of characters. In _A Princess of Mars_ John Carter states that he has no memory of childhood, and has always appeared to be his present age. I don’t think Burroughs ever said so, but many fans think that he is an incarnation of the Roman war god. In _Pirates of Venus_ as soon as Carson Napier arrives on Venus, he gets injected with immortality serum. Barsoom and Amtor are both violent places, and people never die of old age. But Burroughs figured that, with their advanced technology, people should be able to make it to 1000 years without medical problems. Tarzan, Jane, and a couple of supporting characters got a batch of immortality pills from a witch doctor in a Lost City in one of his adventures in the late 1930s. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/50 "2023-10-30T17:39:03Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > Agreed. Main universe Batman didn’t age like that. He did get a bit older, one presumes, as Dick Grayson seemed to age from 12ish (there’s a whole lot of conflict on his original age, but I’m not buying the 8 year-old argument) to 16 pretty quickly. Then to college. But Bruce had gone from maybe early or mid 20s to late 20s. Even thirties was fine by the late '70s/early '80s. I believe that it’s semi-canon that Bruce Wayne/Batman is now 45-ish, but still at peak physical condition thanks to the rejuvenating effects of being healed by someone with metahuman powers after Bane broke his back. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/51 "2023-10-30T17:42:47Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I believe that it’s semi-canon that Bruce Wayne/Batman is now 45-ish, but still at peak physical condition thanks to the rejuvenating effects of being healed by someone with metahuman powers after Bane broke his back. The Super-Soldier Serum is the explanation for Captain America not aging, as well as the slowed-down aging of both Nick Fury and The Black Widow, if memory serves. ---
**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, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/52 "2023-10-30T17:44:54Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I believe that it’s semi-canon that Bruce Wayne/Batman is now 45-ish, but still at peak physical condition thanks to the rejuvenating effects of being healed by someone with metahuman powers after Bane broke his back. They tried to de-age him to (I think) 30 for the New 52. But too much alienating old fans without enough new fans to compensate, so it didn’t stick. Seems an oft-repeated issue with comics these days. At least DC. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/53 "2023-10-30T17:46:01Z")
Easiest answer: “Kryptonians age differently than Earthlings.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/54 "2023-10-30T17:47:26Z")
And, uh, Lois Lane, who was already a star reporter at the newspaper when he showed up looking for a job…? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/55 "2023-10-30T18:03:30Z")
I’m currently reading the latest _-In Death_ novel by J.D. Robb, and it’s sort of an anti-example. We’re now up to book #57 in the series (not counting short stories and novellas that have appeared in anthologies); the first one was published in 1995. Yet in-universe all of these adventures have taken place in a little over three years measured by anniversaries and the turn of the seasons. IOW, it’s canon that all of the stories are taking place back-to-back with no intervening time, at an average rate of about two and a half weeks per book. This would mean that Lieutenant Eve Dallas has had the most spectacular heroic career in the entire history of law enforcement. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/56 "2023-10-30T18:08:45Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > The Super-Soldier Serum is the explanation for Captain America not aging, as well as the slowed-down aging of both Nick Fury and The Black Widow, if memory serves. Nick Fury’s serum is called the Infinity Formula, and was invented by a different Scientific Genius than the Super-Soldier Serum. Fury has to have an annual dose. Cap does not. Black Widow’s youth is attributed to various medical experiments while she was a Soviet agent. Doctor Strange acquired eternal youth when he became the Sorcerer Supreme. Considering how widespread Magic!, Science!, and Mutants! are in comic books, I think the publishers should just say, “A small percentage of the planet’s population have extremely long lifespans. Your next-door neighbor might be one of them. Don’t worry about it.” ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/57 "2023-10-30T18:13:07Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Nick Fury’s serum is called the Infinity Formula, and was invented by a different Scientific Genius than the Super-Soldier Serum. Fury has to have an annual dose. Cap does not. Ah, it has indeed been a while. I’m certain I saw Fury’s and Rogers’ fountain of youth conflated somewhere, but like I said, I haven’t collected in eons. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/58 "2023-10-30T18:16:58Z")
Not surprising. A large number of Marvel characters owe their powers to somebody attempting to replicate the Super-Soldier.Serum (including the Man-Thing, believe it or not). The vast majority of experiments kill the test subjects, but every now and then, somebody gets lucky. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/59 "2023-10-30T18:25:58Z")
> [@solost](#): > > In the Jack Reacher novels his advancing age is kind of hinted at but kept somewhat murky. Not that murky. When it comes up, it is explicit that he is getting older and beginning to show the toll of decades of abusing his body (fights, wounds, getting knocked unconscious, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/60 "2023-10-30T18:30:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Another well known example is Bart Simpson; a ten year old who’s been around since the eighties. Pretty much every show with “kids” runs into the same problem; what do you do when the kids grow up? I think _My Three Sons_ started the trend of bringing in new kids to fill in gaps, although the most famous instance is probably Cousin Oliver on _The Brady Bunch_. In any event, the show changes. You don’t have this problem with animation, which is one of the reasons _The Simpsons_ is still around after almost 40 years. _Family Guy_ even parodied this, sort of, by having Stewie and Brian go back in time 10 years and meet themselves, despite the fact that, 10 years ago, neither of them would have been born yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299.md?page=4)