Superhero ages

[Goldenbane]

I'm just wondering what some people's opinions are of how old some superheroes are. I don't mean the age of their comics, but how old the characters are about in their actual adventures. If you all don't mind, please try to go by the "stereotype" age heroes are portrayed as. For 70 years Superman has always looked like he was maybe 35 or so...and in the new 52, he almost looks maybe 19 in some of the art I've seen. Also, I know it's impossible to get an exact age, so I'm just looking for guesses or estimate here.

Superman
Batman
Spiderman
Captain America
Iron Man
Hulk/Bruce Banner
Human Torch
Thing
Mr. Fantastic
Invisible Woman
Giant Man
Wasp
Green Lantern Hal Jordan
Green Lantern John Stewart
Flash (EDIT: Sorry, I should have specified better. Wally West)
Aquaman
Cyclops
Dr. Strange
Jean Grey

[Amazing Kitsune]

Superman - 34
Batman - 37
Spiderman -17-26
Captain America - 25 (Not counting his time frozen)
Iron Man - 34
Hulk/Bruce Banner - 36
Human Torch - 23
Thing - 35
Mr. Fantastic - 35
Dr. Doom - 34
Invisible Woman - 23
Giant Man - 30
Wasp - 29
Green Lantern Hal Jordan - ?
Green Lantern John Stewart - ?
Flash - ?
Aquaman - ?
Cyclops - ?
Dr. Strange - 53
Jean Grey - ?

[shaker]

I'm only a DC fan, but based on the new 52 timeline, I think something like this works:

Superman - 29. Went to Metropolish right out of college, which was a year prior to the Justice League's first adventure, which happened 5 years ago.

Batman - 29. I think these 2 have always been paired as being the same age. Fits with Zero Year, too - Bruce starts being Batman (with purple gloves!) around the same time Superman hits Metropolis, and is seen as a young college punk by a lot of people.

Hal Jordan GL - 32. Always seemed a few years older than Bats and Supes, especially given his Air Force experience.

John Stewart GL - 35. Total spitballing here based off the fact that he's been military and worked in the private sector.

Flash - 30. About the same as Supes and Bats, became Flash ~5 years ago while a new lab tech just out of school.

Aquaman - 32. Spitballing again based off the 5 years ago Justice League formation.

Those seem like good fits in relation to each other and how they're portrayed. Batman's a good example - in the new 52 he's crazy competent but still can make mistakes, whereas Bats ~10 years ago never screwed up anything and seemed a very old ~35 or so.

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

Superman -35 (even with the "5 years" thing he can't be any younger than 30; no way is he the same age as the 23-25 year old Nightwing)
Batman - AT LEAST 40
Spiderman - 27 or 28 (he feels like the same age as me)
Captain America - technically almost 100, but physically about 40-45 (see Iron Man)
Iron Man - 40-45, somewhere in between. he reads as far too mature to be any younger
Hulk/Bruce Banner - 40
Human Torch -27 or 28 (roughly the same as Spidey)
Thing - 45 (see below)
Mr. Fantastic - 45 (always read him as being among the oldest of the Marvel crew)
Invisible Woman (38-40, I don't care at all for the "they were in a relationship when she was 16 and he was almost 30" crap a lot of writers have spewed; oddly enough, Mark Millar, who I f***ing hate, was the only one that ditched this in favor of them both being at college around the same time and within a couple years of each other, which I thought was refreshing)
Giant Man (38-40, basically a bit younger than Cap and Tony, but not by much)
Wasp (about 30-35, somewhere in there; she's younger than Hank enough for it to be signigicant, but not younger than him to the point where their early relationship would've been creepy)
Green Lantern Hal Jordan - 35 (same age as Superman)
Green Lantern John Stewart - 37-38 (a bit older than Hal but not significantly so; FWIW Kyle's about 25 or so, putting him with Wallyy West/Flash and Dick Grayson/Nightwing- once again I'm ignoring the "5 years" thing that causes way too many problems)
Flash - Barry's about 32 or so; Wally is 25-ish (Barry was always "Wally's ultra-cool uncle" but if you read the old stories and even the way Wally talks about Barry in Mark Waid and Geoff Johns' runs, he always felt more like the cool big brother Wally never had, suggesting they were much closer in age than Bruce was with any of the Robins, or Ollie was with Speedy)
Aquaman - 30 (and pre-New 52 he wasn't much older; he always read as being one of the younger JLA guys to me)
Cyclops - 33 (he's been an X-man for almost 20 years and he started when he was 16 or so; as an aside, if you believed Emma Frost when she said she was only 27 in Grant Morrison's New X-men, I have a bridge I'd like to sell because she's probably at least 35. it's also perfectly in character for her to lie about it, which may have been what Morrison was going for)
Dr. Strange - 50 or so, but he's been doing the Superhero thing only roughly as long as Tony/Hank/Bruce
Jean Grey - 33 (roughly same age as Cyclops is canon)

good luck figuring out how holocaust survivor Magneto only looks about 55 or so, though.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Superman- 32, 33
Batman- a very fit, ultra tough 38 to 40
Wolverine- 200+ in canon, but body wise he seems to be drawn as a short, hairy 35 year old
Spider-Man (Peter Parker)- 17 during high school, 24 with Daily Bugle. Depends on the Peter being written
Captain America- 27, 28 before the freeze
Wonder Woman- 27
Aquaman- 31
The Hulk/Bruce Banner- 37
Iron Man- 38
Dr. Strange- 48 to 50
Dr. Doom- 42
Mr. Fantastic- 40 (it's the greying)
Invisible Woman- 39
Human Torch- 34
The Thing- 36
GL Hal Jordan- 28
GL John Stewart- 35
The Flash- 25 (especially the DCAU Flash)

Also, maybe not a superhero in the "cape/tights" sense, but Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog- 18

[A Platypus Rave]

Mar 11, 2014 13:20:31 GMT -5 Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!! said:

Captain America - technically almost 100, but physically about 40-45 (see Iron Man)

Technically wasn't he only like 18 during World War 2... and then frozen at the end of WW2...

I guess it depends on when he was unfrozen.

Also I think all the original x-men were supposed to be about 16, so Jean, Hank, Iceman and Scott would be around the same age.... Jean gets tricky becuase do you count the time she spent dead as part of her age?

[Goldenbane]

Mar 11, 2014 13:34:02 GMT -5 Clash, Never a Meter Maid said:

Superman- 32, 33
Batman- a very fit, ultra tough 38 to 40
Wolverine- 200+ in canon, but body wise he seems to be drawn as a short, hairy 35 year old
Spider-Man (Peter Parker)- 17 during high school, 24 with Daily Bugle. Depends on the Peter being written
Captain America- 27, 28 before the freeze
Wonder Woman- 27
Aquaman- 31
The Hulk/Bruce Banner- 37
Iron Man- 38
Dr. Strange- 48 to 50
Dr. Doom- 42
Mr. Fantastic- 40 (it's the greying)
Invisible Woman- 39
Human Torch- 34
The Thing- 36
GL Hal Jordan- 28
GL John Stewart- 35
The Flash- 25 (especially the DCAU Flash)

Also, maybe not a superhero in the "cape/tights" sense, but Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog- 18

I want to thank you for your imput. The reason I didn't include characters like Wonder Woman, Wolverine, Thor, or Hercules is because they're the "immortal" type characters and it seems extremely difficult to put an exact number on their ages. I like your numbers for assuming what age they appear. Here's my guesses:

Wonder Woman: 26-28 in appearance
Wolverine: 30-35 in appearance
Thor: About 30 or so in appearance
Hercules: 30 to maybe 33 or so in appearance

[austinariesfan88]

I believe Hal and John are around th same age because in Green Lantern: Secret Origins they were both in the military and got into a bar fight, I always put Superman, Batman, Hal, John, and Barry at all around the same age of about mid-to late 30s, while guys like Kyle and wally were in their 20s.

[clifford]

I've always put Batman at late thirties/early forties in any media depiction of him, except when those depictions are explicitly stated as being early in his vigilante career (Year One, Arkham Origins etc.)