Line #8 OlderThanTheyLook/ComicBooks


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8	* ''ComicBook/AdamLegendOfTheBlueMarvel'': Adam Brashear, the Blue Marvel, looks like he's in his early 50s at the oldest, when he's actually upward of eighty, having grown up during TheGreatDepression.
9	* ''ComicBook/AgentsOfAtlas'': The original Agents of Atlas consisted of characters that had been around since the 1950s. For various reasons, none of them actually look it:
10	** The elderly Jimmy Woo was severely injured in a ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} operation gone bad. Marvel Boy used alien technology to heal Jimmy's body, but because the mechanism's last recorded imprint of Jimmy's genetic structure was from 1959, it revived him at the physical age he would've been back then.
11	** Marvel Boy (also known as the Uranian) is himself an example of this trope. He was born in the 1930s, but spent decades living as part of an alien HiveMind on Uranus. Because of this, he looks to be in his late 20s at the absolute oldest despite being well over 80 by now.
12	** Venus is the immortal daughter of the Greek river god Achelous, and thus always looks like a young woman.
13	** Gorilla-Man was a GreatWhiteHunter who was cursed to spend the rest of his life trapped in the body of a gorilla. The curse also prevents him from dying of natural causes, meaning he'll never get old or succumb to any sort of Earthly illness.
14	* ''ComicBook/{{Amulet}}'': [[spoiler:Max Griffin]] looks like he's somewhere in his teens. He's actually well over 50 years old [[spoiler:due to being kept alive by the Amulet spirit as part of a deal.]]
15	* ''ComicBook/{{Artesia}}'': Artesia has a very good example, with [[https://40.media.tumblr.com/cf17895d0286b64da9767aba8334f312/tumblr_o4ajddLO0e1rk0k4co1_540.jpg one of her commanders]].
16	* ''ComicBook/ArtOps'': Isabella is a pop sensation from TheEighties who looks like she hasn't aged a day since then. She was tasked by the Art Ops with watching over a pop music video full of hostile art beings until it faded from the public consciousness. In return, she wanted to be forever young, which the Art Ops granted her.
17	* ''ComicBook/BlackCanary'': The second Black Canary owes her existence to this trope. In the early 1980s, DC decided to explain why Black Canary still looks 20 despite being active since the '40s. The reason was a convoluted explanation involving body-swapping with a never-before-implied identical daughter and eventually it was streamlined into Black Canary being a LegacyCharacter.
18	* ''ComicBook/BlackWidow'': Black Widow has been handwaved as being experimented on with something to keep her young. It explains how she could be a spy during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar and still not look a day over 30.
19	** Similarly to the Nick Fury example below, the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse sidesteps the issue altogether by making Black Widow an ex-mercenary who just happens to be from Russia, rather than a former Soviet spy.
20	** Lampshaded in ''Film/IronMan2'':
21	--->'''Tony Stark:''' You have a quiet reserve. I don't know, you have an old soul.
22	* ''ComicBook/{{Blade}}'': Blade was born in 1929 and barely looks out of his mid 30s due to being half vampire.
23	* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'':
24	** Steve Rogers. The man was at least in his late 20s when he was frozen at the end of WWII, and in modern times, is depicted as being probably mid-thirties. He's actually close to 100 years old.
25	** Bucky Barnes was a teenager during WWII, and is portrayed as a man in his late twenties in modern times, but he's actually at least 80 years old by this point. This is due to being kept in cryo between missions after WWII by the Russians. Later on, he was given a blood transfusion of the infinity formula by Nick Fury in order to save his life from a massive injury in ''ComicBook/FearItself''. This also means that Bucky will retain his age for a while as well.
26	** Baron Helmut Zemo is the son of a Nazi war criminal, and was initially depicted as having already been born around the time of World War 2. Even with ComicBookTime in effect, his father's connections to WWII have remained despite Helmut himself looking fairly young. A flashback story in a special issue of ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' suggested that Compound X, the chemical developed by his father, had special regenerative effects that had kept Helmut's body young. He later used the moonstones to repair his hideously disfigured face for a time ([[StatusQuoIsGod though it eventually wound up getting burnt again]]), which may have had the side effect of making him appear more youthful as well.
27	* ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange'': Doctor Strange was born in the 1930s but remains 40-something (since that was his age when he met and accepted Death just prior to becoming Sorcerer Supreme). His apprentice and lover Clea appears to be in her twenties, though she's [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld a century or two older than that]].
28	* ''ComicBook/{{DV8}}'': Copycat is, like the rest of the Deviants, 19 give or take a year or two. However, she's very small and somewhat physically underdeveloped; as her teammate Frostbite puts it, "ain't an ID fake enough to make her look older than ''thirteen.''"
29	* ''ComicBook/{{Ghostopolis}}'': Cecil, [[spoiler:at first]]. He looks approximately 10 years old, despite being the ghost of a 60 to 70-year-old man.
30	* Most of the surviving [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] DC characters have had a few decades taken off as a result of various adventures and continuity paradoxes. Notably not used with Wesley Dodds AKA The Sandman.
31	** At this point, the remaining survivors actually have it built into their powers. Strangely, back when older versions of DC's Big Three were part of the team, they aged normally despite having the most leeway to excuse slow aging.
32	** John Byrne's Generations series had several characters with this including a superpowered immortal Batman.
33	* ''ComicBook/IHateFairyland'': Gert looks six, but is really in her thirties.
34	* ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'': After Oliver Queen was killed in the 90s, his old friend [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Hal Jordan]] resurrected him. However, because Ollie's body had been [[NotEnoughToBury atomized by the explosion that ended his life]], Hal was forced to completely reconstitute it from scratch. Since Hal chose to recreate his friend back as he'd been during the famous "Hard Traveling Heroes" era, the resurrected Oliver was consequently about 10 years younger than his chronological age.
35	* ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'': Monster Girl is 29 and looks about nine. Every time she uses her powers she gets younger but her powers get stronger. She manages to regain her approximate age later on and becomes a MsFanservice.
36	* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'':
37	** The team has been active since the early 1940s, with some of its members pushing 100 at this point. Initially, this was explained to be the result of the JSA having spent years in a magical alternate dimension that rejuvenated their bodies. However, this was undone during ''ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime'', where Extant forcibly reaged most of the team, resulting in the deaths of the Atom, Hourman and Doctor Mid-Nite. While ComicBook/DoctorFate, Johnny Thunder and Sandman were physically aged to such an extent that they could no longer fight crime and had to retire, a few other members like [[ComicBook/TheFlash Jay Garrick]], ComicBook/{{Wildcat}} and Ted Knight got off lucky, only aging to their late 50s or early 60s. This was later {{Lampshaded}} in James Robinson's ''ComicBook/{{Starman}}'' series:
38	--->'''Ted Knight:''' We all grew older, but clearly some of us less than others. You know how old I should be, don't you, Jack? But how old do I ''look''? Late 50s? Retirement age? No older.
39	** For a while, [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Alan Scott]] was kept young by the Starheart, the source of his power. Even after this was undone and his physical body became closer to his chronological age, he ''still'' looked far younger than he should've, complete with his hair still being blond.
40	** The Carter Hall version of ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} is technically ''thousands'' of years older than he looks, having been reincarnated multiple times throughout history, dating all the way back to ancient Egypt. Despite this, he's usually drawn as a man in his late 30s or early 40s at the oldest.
41	* ''ComicBook/KangTheConqueror'': Kang the Conqueror is chronologically in his 70s, but appears several decades younger thanks to the advanced futuristic technology at his disposal. His future self, Immortus, [[TheAgeless is significantly older than that]], but still appears at most middle-aged.
42	* ''ComicBook/LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': Mina Murray, who's immortal due to her bath in the fires of youth at the lost city of Kor (from ''She: A History Of Adventure''), and thus always looks to be in her twenties. This might lead to her becoming Really700YearsOld after awhile but, at the time of the Victorian-era comic book, it just means she looks really good for her age.
43	* ''ComicBook/LenoreTheCuteLittleDeadGirl'': Lenore looks like she is 10 years old and her friend, Ragamuffin, looks like he is a 25-year-old guy. ''[[UndeadChild She is actually 100]] and [[TheAgeless he is 400]].
44	* ''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}'':
45	** Johnny Bates spent most of his adult life in his Kid Miracleman form, meaning that he appears as a young teenager after finally reverting to his human form.
46	** By the events of ''ComicBook/MiraclemanTheSilverAge'', Miracleman's daughter Winter Moran is around 20 years old, but prefers to still be a child physically.
47	* ''ComicBook/MsMarvel'': In ''ComicBook/MsMarvel2006'' #21, [[Characters/MarvelComicsBeast Hank "The Beast" McCoy]] says that Carol is functionally immortal, stating that her regenerative powers will keep her in her prime "forever".
48	* ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}'': Parodied with Dirk Anger, who was 90 years old and kept alive with drugs and pureed live chickens.
49	* ''ComicBook/NickFury'': Nick Fury was a World War II combat sergeant and hero, heading up the ''[[ComicBook/SgtFuryAndHisHowlingCommandos Howling Commandos]]''. By the time he became "Agent of ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}" in the 60s, he was taking a special "infinity formula" to explain why he had barely aged a day since then without some outlandish retcon. However, after the man responsible for the formula was killed, Fury was forced to stopped taking the formula. Fury would later use up the remaining formula in his blood via blood transfusions to save the life of Winter Soldier., causing him to rapidly age.
50	* ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'':
51	** Rangi is the mother of Angus Fangus (a full grown adult, probably in his forties), but she doesn't look much older than him.
52	** Everett Ducklair. He already had two daughters when [[spoiler:he first arrived on Earth and lost his memory]], but he was mistaken for a late teenager/young adult.
53	* ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}'': There are certain characters called "century babies", that are born at midnight of a century's initial year (i.e. 12:00 a.m. January 1, 1900, etc.). These characters can still be killed, but once they reach a certain point in adulthood, they stop aging and it's never made clear if they can in fact die of old age. Century baby Elijah Snow looks about 40 but is (at the time of the book) in his late 90's; Jakita Wagner and Anna Hark are the daughters of century babies (Lord Blackstock and Hark, respectively); both are in their mid-70's and neither look a day over 30, with Anna predicting that she will live for at least three hundred years. Spy John Stone has been aging at about 1/5 normal speed since his 40s. Then there's [[Literature/DocSavage Axel]] [[{{Expy}} Brass]], who figured out how to [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower stop his aging]] when he was 43. Jenny Sparks from ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' is also a "century baby" and stops physically aging at the age of 19, though she looks to be in her mid-20's.
54	* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': Frank Castle is heavy into this trope, mainly because the character is so firmly tied to the Vietnam War. In the comics involving the mainstream Marvel Universe, he's generally depicted as mid-to-late 30's, and each writer who has the character for any length of time will invariably mention his fanatical fitness regime and adherence to a balanced diet. Nick Fury has the Infinity Formula, and both Cap and Bucky were frozen for decades, but Frank has been active and kicking ass since his introduction. The last American troops left Vietnam in 1975, so even an 18-year-old soldier who was there only briefly in 1975 would be 65 and eligible for Social Security benefits as of 2022. Frank's background, however, involves multiple tours and coming home to a wife, as well as two children who were well out of the toddler stage. When Frank gets together with men he knew during the war, they are depicted as having aged appropriately and even commenting on Frank's youthful appearance. "Frank, what is it with you? You don't look a day over 45!"
55	--->'''Frank''': My work keeps me young.
56	** It's actually becoming an issue in the mainstream universe, as writers are aware of the conundrum and try to avoid mentioning his Vietnam service, and instead just referring to him as having extensive military experience.
57	** The ''ComicBook/HistoryOfTheMarvelUniverse'' miniseries fixes the issue by creating the Siancong Conflict, establishing that characters that were originally written as having fought in Vietnam (Punisher, War Machine, Arclight, etc.) as well as certain characters previously stated to have fought in WWII (Reed Richards, Ben Grimm) had actually fought in the Siancong Conflict.
58	** The ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' series depicted Frank as the 50 to 60-year-old man that he was, who relied on massive firepower and methodical planning to kill his opponents, but was nevertheless still extremely dangerous in hand to hand combat. The final (and extremely well-done) MAX story showed Frank's age (and mental problems) finally catching up with him, although he stayed alive and kicked ass long enough to get the job done.
59	* ''ComicBook/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'': Max looks, acts, and sounds (in the game and cartoon adaptations) like a child, but he's actually an adult.
60	* ''ComicBook/ScottPilgrim'': Neil Nordegraf is generally known as "Young Neil" among his friends due to being the youngest of the gang (at least before Knives Chau showed up). [[spoiler:This was played with to such an extent that when Scott finally acknowledged him simply as "Neil" in the final volume, Neil thought it was the best day of his life]]. Many people will, however, argue that a lot of other characters in the series look younger than they're made out to be due to the comic's art style, and due to ArtEvolution, it becomes less and less obvious. [[http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=29430&Title=Scott%20Pilgrim%20VS%20The%20World Also, the ESRB even mistook Scott for a child in their parental guide for the video game adaptation.]]
61	* ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiersOfVictory'':
62	** The members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory spent over four decades lost in time after a fight with the Nebula Man. As a result of this, the Star-Spangled Kid (later Skyman), Stripesy, Crimson Avenger, Shining Knight and Stuff the Chinatown Kid [[YearOutsideHourInside all aged roughly a week despite having been gone more than forty years]]. This is explicitly acknowledged in ''ComicBook/InfinityInc'' #50, where Skyman is incensed to learn that his teammates are celebrating his 61st birthday despite him physically being in his early 20s.
63	** ''ComicBook/{{Seven Soldiers\|OfVictory2005}}'':
64	*** Ed "Baby Brain" Sargard. In flashbacks to the Newsboy Army, he's a [[BrainyBaby superintelligent baby]]. In the present, he looks like a baby who's got old without maturing.
65	*** [[http://www.writeups.org/fiche.php?id=3941 Sally]] [[http://www.comicvine.com/sally-sonic/4005-54310/ Sonic]] is 15 years old, [[WhoWantsToLiveForever permanently]]. In her human form. Her [[OlderAlterEgo super]] [[SexierAlterEgo form]] is very[[MostCommonSuperpower ...adult]]. (The female characters in the series are deliberately drawn in a fanservicey fashion.)
66	* ''ComicBook/{{The Shade\|DCComics}}'': The Shade hasn't aged since gaining his powers in the mid 1800s.
67	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
68	** ComicBook/KravenTheHunter looks to be in his thirties or forties, but in the ''ComicBook/KravensLastHunt'' story arc he reveals he's actually in his mid seventies; he looks young because of the various potions he's taken over the years that enhance his strength and endurance.
69	** Adriana Soria looks to be in her twenties or thirties but is a veteran of World War II, having been selected as part of an attempt to create a new Captain America-style super-soldier and been the first woman to see active combat. Exposure to the fallout of the Operation Crossroads Bikini Atoll nuclear tests activated her latent mutant powers but drove her insane.
70	* ''ComicBook/SpiderWoman'': Jessica Drew, also known as the first Spider-Woman, went into cryogenic stasis to speed up the effects of an experimental spider serum her dad injected her with. She went into stasis when she was four, spent at least thirty years in it, and came out looking seventeen.
71	* ''ComicBook/{{Starman\|DCComics}}'': Jack Knight looked like he was somewhere in his late 20s, when he was really in his mid 30s. It's not that drastic, but they do lampshade it a few times.
72	* ''ComicBook/SubMariner'': Namor was born in 1922 and fought alongside Captain America during UsefulNotes/WorldWar2. However, due to being half-Atlantean on his mother's side, he possesses slowed aging and physically looks to be in his 30s or 40s at the very oldest.
73	* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'':
74	** Supergirl, at least in modern adaptations; she also made the journey from Krypton to Earth, but [[ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton1959 unlike in Pre-Crisis continuity]], she took longer to reach Earth and be released from suspended animation. As such, when she lands in ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'' and ''ComicBook/LastDaughterOfKrypton'' she looks and thinks like a 16-year-old girl, but is actually a good few years older than Superman himself. In ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'', Kara insists that she's mentally and emotionally older than she looks.
75	--->'''Supergirl:''' My entire planet was destroyed. My civilization is gone. That makes you grow up fast.
76	** ''ComicBook/SupermanSupergirlMaelstrom'': At one point, Kara complains that her adult cousin treats her as a baby only because she looks like a teenager due to suspended animation, even though she is older than he is.
77	** Supergirl's villain Blackstarr, who made her first appearance in ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl1982 Supergirl Vol 2]]'', looks like a 20-year-old woman, but she is in her fifties.
78	** ''ComicBook/WayOfTheWorld'': In a scene set in an alternate future, Kara is a sexagenarian who looks like she is in her late twenties, at most.
79	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
80	** The Man of Steel himself in some continuities. In the ''Film/SupermanFilmSeries'', it's said that the voyage from Krypton to Earth took "many thousands of years" (it was an experimental starship, after all), during which Kal-El aged only slightly--from swaddling infant to toddler. Stories taking place in the future generally show Superman's aging to be much slower than that of humans, and that's if he ages at all, with generally the worst of it being him getting some gray hair. One particular storyline says that he actually shouldn't age at all, and he only does so because he grew up thinking he should.
81	** Jimmy Olsen generally falls under VagueAge, but in ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' #865 he's captured by [[ActuallyADoombot a version of Toyman]] who is an adult-hating child. Toyman says that he can trust Jimmy, since they're both kids--and Jimmy angry kicks him, noting that he's 23.
82	** ''ComicBook/TheImmortalSuperman'': After using a defective Time Bubble to travel to the year 101,970, Superman looks like a seventy-year-old, but he is over 100,000 years old.
83	* ''ComicBook/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': Number 5, thanks to TimeTravel is a 40-something old man trapped in the body of a 10-year-old. Despite this whenever 5 does anything violent or he's in a bad mood he’s drawn looking older. In the [[Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy Netflix adaptation]] Number 5 becomes particularly pissed off when he gets invited to a kid’s birthday party at a bowling alley.
84	* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Most of the heroes are starting to show their age, but Doctor Manhattan is immortal and ageless, while Ozymandias is the epitome of the CharlesAtlasSuperpower trope and is in terrific shape for his age. The Ultimate Watchmen edition contains commentary suggesting that he might live to be 150 through simply staying really fit!
85	* ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'':
86	** Logan's son [[Characters/MarvelComicsDaken Daken]] counts (while Wolverine himself, being born in the 19th century, just tips the scale at Really700YearsOld). Daken was born in 1946, which makes him old enough to be the father of most of his teammates when he served with the ComicBook/DarkAvengers. He barely looks like he's in his early 20s [[DependingontheArtist most of the time.]]
87	** Wolverine's daughter/OppositeSexClone, [[Characters/MarvelComicsLauraKinney X-23, shares the same mutation and will eventually join them if she hasn't already (ComicBookTime being what it is).
88	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': While Wonder Woman and the other Amazons tend to skirt and bypass Really700YearsOld when her Earth-One ([[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]]) [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 iteration]] travels to Earth-Two she finds that her local [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 iteration]] has formerly left Paradise Island to live out the rest of Steve Trevor's life with him and is thus aging, but at a much slower rate than a normal human and therefore looks decades younger than her similarly aged husband.
89	* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
90	** [[Characters/MarvelComicsProfessorX Professor X]], as DependingOnTheArtist Charles is either a handsome bald man or a somewhat wrinkled bald man, neither of which is indicative of a person who in his prime was fighting ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} Nazi Baron Von Strucker alongside Magneto shortly after WWII. This gets HandWaved later as Charles is resurrected into a younger (non-disabled body) justifying his appearance.
91	** Charles' stepbrother Cain Marko aka [[ComicBook/JuggernautMarvelComics The Juggernaut]] was the same age as Charles when they met but years later Marko hasn’t aged a day and is fit as ever, though given the magic nature of the Gem of Cyttorak this to be expected.
92	** [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]], despite having white hair for most of his adult life, is actually physically in his late thirties/early forties, thanks to being reverted to infancy by Alpha the Ultimate Mutant when he was [[SarcasmMode Absolutely Finally Defeated]] in an issue of ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'', then later re-aged to his physical prime by the Shi'ar agent Eric the Red after the ''X-Men'' series was UnCancelled under Creator/ChrisClaremont. Neither of these events gets mentioned much anymore, though.
93	** [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] is self-admittedly at least 80 years old, but her ShapeShifting powers greatly mask this fact. We learn later Mystique was [[UnreliableNarrator lying]], in fact ''she's way older'', given she meets her girlfriend Destiny ([[Literature/SherlockHolmes Irene Adler]]) in Victorian times and played [[OutlawCouple Bonnie to Wolverine's Clyde]] for a good many years as well. This makes Mystique well over 200 years old the same as Logan. [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]] (her son) at one point reminds her how old she is and Mystique [[VanityIsFeminine gets pissy with him]].

Context OlderThanTheyLook / ComicBooks