Marvel Comics General

So, random question, but how old is Reed Richards supposed to be? He has to be in his forties, right, he's got those iconic graying temples.

I'm asking because I think I seriously overestimate Marvel characters' ages; I was off by more than a decade on Beast, for instance.

If memory serves, an early issue of Lee and Kirby's run says that Reed's grey hair was a product of the cosmic rays. That said, I think at least ten years have passed since Franklin's birth, and Reed's, like seven years older than Sue, I'd put him in his late 30s/early 40s, maybe?

I did some Googling. Wikipedia says he was around 25 when he went to Central City to build his rocket, but there's no citation. John Byrne, on his forum, says that back in the '60s, Stan Lee said Reed and Ben were in their 40s, and Sue in her 20s. Someone else on that thread mentioned Byrne's run including Reed's 40th birthday. That was obviously a while ago, so he'd be in his mid-40s now, if we assume that's still the case. Sue was aged-up a bit during Fraction's run, to make her closer in age to Reed, because he felt the Byrne story - a 10-year-old Sue falling in love with a 20-year-old Reed - was kinda creepy, by today's standards.

So, yeah, best guess, Reed's probably 40-45, Sue 35-40.

Gotcha. I thought Beast was around the same age now, but you said he's only in his early 30s and I trust you on most things X-Men.

Does that mean Scott's not out of his 20s yet? Wow.

As someone who saw absolutely no mention or evidence in the actual comics themselves that Reed's sideburns were caused by the Cosmic Rays(TM), I always figured him being in his early-mid 40's from the start. As for how old he is now, I also always figured that stretchy characters don't really age, the reasoning for this being that their bodies must have been altered into a substance similar to plastic or rubber in order for their powers to work, at least on the inside. And since plastic and rubber doesn't really age, the people with those stretchy powers shouldn't age either, which means Reed would still be in his forties.

Beast was the oldest of the original X-Men, at 18. Which does mean he's in his early 30s now. Scott was 16, I believe, so he's probably 30 now.

The joys of the sliding timeline.

Ever hear that theory that Franklin Richards is deliberately slowing down time with his powers to allow his friends and family to stay young and fit for a long time?

Someone told me there was something in one of the Handbooks that hinted this was actually happening, but then again that someone was an X-Boards regular...

edited 21st May '15 9:37:55 PM by HamburgerTime

Yeah, you're right. Just checked my Essential volume and Reed's hair is a result of stress during WWII or something◊. So, it's safe to say that explanation's been retconned away. (I remember reading the explanation in that story, but I must've got it confused with the 2005 movie).

From the previous page, I liked that quote from Firestar. She's one of the heroes I wish Marvel would do more with, she has an interesting history and perspective and people know her...but she keeps getting shunted around and they finally just stuck her with the X-Men to probably go out with Bobby before Bendis outed him.

Is it too much to hope that she shows up in a movie or Agents Of SHIELD? She's a mutant, but not primarily associated with the X-Men...actually I envision a New Warriors movie with young Inhumans who don't want to follow SHIELD's program or the Inhuman Kingdom but that's neither here or there.

So am I the only one who was kinda underwhelmed by A-Force #1?

I also found it underwhelming. It didn't have any particular hooks that weren't there before I read it, and some of the choices of characters used were odd to me. She-Hulk in particular was an odd choice for leadership, and this iteration of her is different enough that a number of other heroines could have been used in her place. (Like. Y'know. Jan. The former Avengers leader that seems to just keep on being passed over by writers who don't want to build on her better-written runs.)

Some of the really over-the-top stuff was great, and in general this seems like a good series through which to enjoy the Battleworld concept (if only because no other series besides Thors is immediately hooking me). But there's not much that I liked that wasn't just "Battleworld is a Crazy Awesome silly and fun concept."

I am also a big Firestar fan, and glad she got to have a big moment. Now if only her Perez-designed costume, or something based on it, could become her standard outfit instead of her original.

Fraction had an interview and talked a bit about Hawkeye among other things:

Spider-Verse mainly hooked me for Gwen's plotline. Seeing Anya again was also pretty neat, but unfortunately - as was established at the end of the event - she's backing up Billy Braddock, who is a fun concept but a fairly bland character.

Ultimate End is fun, especially with the conflict of alts between the Ultimates and who I think are the 616 Avengers but it's hard to tell because in Battleworld there's like a million versions of everybody. Spidey was super-douchey, though, which bugged me - though I did like when he demanded to know who in the room actually knew his identity, and the entire Ultimate cast raised their hands, as well as 616 Emma Frost with a huge, shit-eating grin; the gag was ruined five seconds later, however, when he announced his name in front of all the people who didn't.

Battleworld was kind of meh. Trying to keep track of who's who in Secret Wars is already confusing enough.

Loki was funny as usual, but I'm not entirely sure I like this new Loki or how he came about, which tremendously confused the issue of what happened to Kid Loki. It was presented previously that Old Loki created Ikol as a sort of backup so that he could reclaim his body once Kid Loki had changed his place in the world, but then last issue happened and we had Old Loki and Kid Loki alongside New Loki who is apparently NOT Old Loki after all. The New Loki's been trying to disguise who he is from Thor and others because he's Old Loki but I guess he didn't have to do that because he's not Old Loki after all, but then New Loki killed himself and now we have annoying punk rock Loki who is a woman now because why not. I have no idea what's going on anymore with Loki's character.

Also, after having been too busy to keep up even though it's an awesome series, I finally caught up with Ms. Marvel and I'm glad I did. I love how much this kid has fully embraced the crazy that comes with the superhero business. A giant, teleporting dog follows her home and she thinks there's nothing unusual about that at all. XD

Oh! And put me down as liking the Thor reveal. I desperately wanted it not to be Roz Solomon just because I hate when stories introduce a brand new character five minutes before they take the Legacy Character crown and snubs the much more deserving cast that's been around and built up a fanbase for ages. Roz is way too new to the cast for me to accept her claiming Mjolnir and becoming the new Thor over countless much more deserving characters.

edited 22nd May '15 8:57:44 AM by TobiasDrake

The Loki's are Kid/Murder Victim!Loki who is almost a blank slate compared to the classic Loki, Copy/Murder Weapon!Loki who in his quest for change bit off more than he could and ended up becoming more heroic due to his time with the Young Avengers and Old/Murderer!Loki who is old Loki. This is what I gather at least.

edited 22nd May '15 9:25:42 AM by LordofLore

Yeah, but in Loki's mind where Murder Weapon Loki had to kill himself and birthe the new Punk Rock Loki, there was a Kid Loki AND Original Flavor Loki both as separate characters from Murder Weapon Loki, implying that Original Loki was not Ikol who supplanted Kid Loki but is, in fact, still dead and gone, and Murder Weapon Loki is a third Loki unrelated to either Kid Loki or Original Loki. That's what makes it confusing.

As I understood it, there should only have been a Kid Loki, because Original Loki is Murder Weapon Loki.

edited 22nd May '15 9:34:28 AM by TobiasDrake

The Ballad of Loki's:

Original Loki created Ikol as Personality Backup. He then went through Siege and died, with Thor bringing back a Blank Slate Kid Loki. Eventually Ikol manipulated Kid Loki into letting him take over, killing Kid Loki. However has Ikol was only a "Backup" and not "true" Loki, the resultant takeover created what is essentially a variant of Original Loki that actually feels bad about what he did. The Backup essentially got corrupted by the new medium. By Plan it would have created a New Loki that is virtually identical to Original Loki and when that happens, that's the difference? or elaborating on the whole Narratives as Magic, if New Loki is virtually identical to Original Loki, does he *become* Original Loki?

This New Loki, Teen Loki from hereone after, eventually decided he didn't *want* to be what Original Loki was and tried to change. In one timeline this didn't take and he eventually turned back into what is for all intents and purposes Original Loki. That is King Loki, or Old Loki.

Old Loki then decided to go back in time to secure he would come out of it and manipulate Teen Loki into becoming him with a vengeance. This backfired spectacularly when Teen Loki, with some advice from Odin, decided to Take A Third Way and stop being "Loki, God of Lies" and become "Loki, God of Stories" (On the logic that all Lies are Stories, so he essentially turned himself into the god of the Meta concept of Lies)

My Personal theory is that with Secret War occuring when Old Loki was in 'our' Time, he will take over the spot of "Original Loki" post SW while Teen Loki retains his position as "Not-Original Loki", allowing Marvel both to have a "Anti-hero/villain" Loki to pander to the Hiddleston fans and "Total bastard Loki" who like the classic one.

edited 22nd May '15 9:36:56 AM by 3of4

I feel the same way about A-Force's version of Nico. They've changed the way her powers work, wiped out her family and friends, and made her Loki's ward, and I feel like they might as well have created a new character rather than screwing up a character who's already been subjected to too much screwing up as it is...

edited 22nd May '15 3:19:06 PM by StrixObscuro

And I just realized exactly the issue with A-Force to me: it's a Themiscyra pastiche. Replace Jen with Wonder Woman, replace Dr. Doom with Zeus and Dr. Strange with Hermes, maybe use Green Lanterns instead of Thors, and switch out America for Artemis, and it's the Amazons. And in fact, it would work better that way. Pastiche is fine, but I would rather see the Avengers acting as themselves and a celebration of the great female Avengers that are already there, not a Wonder Woman story with different names.

It works as a nice Take That! to DC for killing off the Amazons over and over, at least - showing that Themiscyra is a perfectly viable setting.

-Remembers Marvel killing of Xandar and the Novas a bunch of times-

If they don't want them to take part in the stories why did they bring them back all the time?

edited 22nd May '15 3:31:37 PM by LordofLore

So they could have some planet/people blowed up good for events

Maybe it's just because I've never particularly cared all that much about the Runaways, but I don't see it as a big deal. It's an AU. When the story returns to the mainline continuity (assuming the past continuity is intact) then I'm sure they'll reconcile the differences.

To me complaining that an AU story has a version of Nico who is not a Runaway is like complaining that the X-Men all died in Days of Future Past.

that's not really the same thing. a better comparison would be age of apocolypse. or house of m.

It really doesn't matter. The point is that it's not the proper universe so it's not really important that she no longer has ties to the Runaways in this continuity. The whole point is that everything on Battleworld is different.

From what I understand, A-Force will continue after Secret Wars ends, and thus this version of Nico is likely to become the "New MU" version, so I do see it as a big deal that Wilson is making so many changes to her.

Doesn't this assumption presumes all the characters in the book will become the official version of the "New MU"?