Basic Trope: A superhero past their prime gets back to crimefighting or has never retired in the first place.
- Straight: Captain Awesome continues defending Troperville from evil and injustice even while he's in his mid-60's.
- Exaggerated: Captain Awesome is still an active crimefighter at the age of 96.
- Downplayed:
- Captain Awesome is middle-aged.
- While no longer field capable due to his arthritis, Captain Awesome can still be relied upon to figure out the villains' plans.
- Cool Old Guy
- Justified:
- Captain Awesome really loved helping people as a hero and felt that retirement just wasn't for him.
- Captain Awesome might not be as spry and quick-witted as he used to in his youth, but he still has his super powers, and as such he is still a force to be reckoned with.
- Captain Awesome wants to retire, but until at least one of these whippersnappers rises to a decent level of skill, he's all that keeps the city safe.
- Inverted:
- Emperor Evulz continues being a supervillain even though he's old enough to be a grandfather.
- Captain Awesome starts his career as a superhero when he's only an infant.
- Captain Awesome retires from being a super before he is even old enough to drink without injury or loss of power to blame.
- Subverted:
- Captain Awesome considers getting out of retirement, but becomes disillusioned by how selfish and ungrateful many people are today.
- Captain Awesome is faking being aged because of previous negative reactions to his natural unaging appearance making him resemble Oberon.
- Double Subverted: He is given a Rousing Speech by a younger hero who looks up to him, which makes him decide that maybe getting back in the saddle is worthwhile after all.
- Parodied: Captain Awesome is a Grumpy Old Man and the villains constantly harass him by stepping on his lawn.
- Zigzagged: Some older generation heroes are retired and some continue fighting crime for as long as they are alive.
- Averted: No elderly superheroes are shown.
- Enforced: "The audience will probably wonder who defended Troperville before Trope Man came along, so how about we have an older superhero be his mentor?"
- Lampshaded:
- "Just because I'm wrinkled and gray doesn't mean I can't kick evil butt anymore!"
- (To a younger villain): "Go away, sonny! You're a hundred Years Too Early, come back when you can hold your own in a fight against ME!"
- Invoked: Captain Awesome decides to get back into action after finding his retirement life boring.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz takes advantage of Captain Awesome's old age by terrorizing Troperville while Captain Awesome is taking a nap or receiving necessary medical treatment.
- Defied:
- A law is passed making it mandatory for every hero to eventually retire.
- Captain Awesome refuses to come out of retirement, informing the younger heroes that he's had his day in the sun and that they're on their own.
- Discussed: "I don't get it. Captain Awesome's in his 70's and he's still beating up criminals? Why hasn't he retired yet?"
- Conversed: "Maybe he's gotten so used to fighting crime that he can't imagine life without it."
- Implied: The current generation heroes allude to taking advice from the heroes of older generations.
- Deconstructed:
- Captain Awesome's old age puts him at a disadvantage because he's senile and his body is more brittle than it used to be.
- Values Dissonance start making Captain Awesome look like an evil jackass to modern eyes. A sexist, homophobe with more questionable racial moments than you can shake a stick at. People start to think he should have retired long ago because of his attitude. He lacks the benefits of comic book retcons.
- Reconstructed:
- Captain Awesome knows that being elderly will give him limitations, so he focuses on the strategic side of fighting crime and allows the younger heroes to help him with cases he can't solve by himself.
- Captain Awesome may be old and weak, but he's doing this since his youth. He basically knows all the tricks an enemy could pull off, and his experience greatly makes up for his brittle bones.
- Captain Awesome gets stronger and wiser with age, and as such, he is actually more capable than he was in his youth.
- Okay, sure, Captain Awesome may have been a bit of a bigot back then. That's still not changing the fact that he's a hero, and if dropping his bigotry like a bad habit, or at least trying his damn hardest not to spew out a quick offensive joke is gonna start helping him become a better hero, then so be it. Or even better: Captain Awesome wasn't even bigoted in the first place, everyone (ironically) assumed he was due to being a white cisgendered male from the olden days and never really thought he was that accepting towards others.
- Played For Laughs: Captain Awesome asks Emperor Evulz to reschedule his Evil Plan because he promised to take his grandkids to the zoo.
- Played For Drama: Captain Awesome's refusal to retire is because he's still troubled by the death of his father that motivated him to becoming a crimefighter in the first place and he's still unable to let go of the past.
Let's go give the Old Superhero a hand before he sprains his back.
