Aging Heroes

January 12th, 2006

Filed under: Comics, Medicine

You ever notice that you rarely see super-heroes who age normally and die of naturally causes? Those that don’t die young seem to either have their aging slowed or reversed, or go out in a blaze of glory.

Certainly JSA has dealt frequently with older heroes, but even those have had their aging artificially slowed. The only storyline I can think of that really addressed the concept of elderly super-heroes was the “Old Justice versus Young Justice” story from Peter David’s Young Justice.

DC seems to have the most older super-heroes, but this is no surprise as they’ve been publishing super-hero titles longer. Still, many of their older heroes died in Crisis on Infinite Earths, and most who survived that died in Zero Hour.

I’m not saying this lack of aging heroes is wrong. Being a super-hero is a dangerous occupation, after all. Heroes are going to die in the line of duty or make enemies who will hunt them down after they retire. Frankly, I doubt there’s much interest in an elderly super-hero title, so I can’t blame anyone for not publishing one.

Still, it’s an interesting train of thought.

Here’s a list I’ve compiled of the aged/elderly heroes active in the past decade or so, and what happened to them:

Died in a Blaze of Glory or by Self-Sacrifice:
Starman*
Johnny Quick*
Wesley Dodds*

Slowed Aging or Renewed Youth:
Scarab
Green Lantern (Alan Scott)
Flash (Jay
Wildcat
Hourman (Rex Tyler)

Brutal Death:
Tarantula*

Didn’t Die but Instead Became Some Sort of Immortal Being:
Blue Diamond
Johnny Thunder

Aging Gracefully:
Liberty Belle
Ma Hunkle
Max Mercury**
Pat Dugan

Feel free to correct me or add any that I have missed

*”Aging Gracefully” until their death
**Is Max even still alive?

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13 Responses to “ Aging Heroes ”

  1. Andrew Burton
    January 13th, 2006 at 12:53 am

    Last I recall, Max Mercury was still with the Speed Force. I think Jay Garrick’s archnemesis (Rival?) was using his body, but I’m not wholly sure Yeah:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Mercury

  2. Andrew Burton
    January 13th, 2006 at 12:54 am

    Oh, sorry to post twice, but I just remembered. Dinah Lance, Sr. (Black Canary I) died of cancer, in a hospital. So, that’s at least one who wasn’t KIA.

  3. Bryan Long
    January 13th, 2006 at 11:09 am

    You could add the Crimson Avenger, Lee Travis, to the “blaze of glory” category. Others of the Seven Soldiers would get slowed aging, like Stripesy, Shining Knight, and Vigilante. Star-Spangled Kid would be in both “slowed aging” and “blaze of glory.”

  4. Bryan Long
    January 13th, 2006 at 11:14 am

    Oops, I see you do have Pat Dugan in “aging gracefully.” Actually, you might need another category, “time jumps,” to handle characters like the Seven Soldiers, Captain Atom and Max Mercury. And, as I think about it, isn’t Shining Knight immortal because of magic armor?

  5. Mike Loughlin
    January 13th, 2006 at 1:21 pm

    Al Pratt, aka the first Atom, died, and I’m pretty sure this was during Zero Hour. Hippolyta went out in a blaze of glory in the “Our Worlds at War” crossover. Jim Corrigan, the human half of the Spectre, went on to his eternal reward. I don’t know what happened to Kent Nelson, the first Dr. Fate, but it has happened in the last 20 years.

  6. iJusten
    January 13th, 2006 at 2:06 pm

    Just after Crisis, Nabu was potrayed as very nasty looking creature. He had manipulated Nelson into killing his father, and had since manipulated as Dr. Fate. In the first limited series Nelson is tired old man, who is only staying alive thanks to Nabu’s magic; he is also no longer truly a man; there is a huge evil looking mouth in his stomach, thru which Nabu speaks.

    To die, Nelson has to cheat someone else to take the mask. After some battles and conflics to which I will not dwell, Nelson finds thru his link to Fate that Fate was meant to be two people, not one; Nelson was supposed to link with his wife to form Dr. Fate, but Nabu didnt allow this because it would lessen his control over Dr. Fate.

    After the new Dr. Fate has formed, Nabu’s mouth vanishes from Nelson’s stomach; however, he asks Fate to remove the spells that keep him alive. Sad old man who has been manipulated from childhood, he just wants to die, now that he can do so. Which he promptly does.

    [ most of this miniseries and the following continuining series has been forgotten since. It does not potray Nabu in very positive light. In JSA he may well be very nice, but in these series he was an inhuman monster, not hero at all ]

  7. Anonymous
    January 13th, 2006 at 8:25 pm

    How about Yomiko Readman (since there’s a Read or Die manga as well as the animes)? In the R.O.D. the TV anime she’s 30-31 – barely younger than Bridget Jones, but for an anime woman that’s relatively old. One of the other characters, Nenene Sumiregawa, is several years younger – but when they meet again after a 6-year absence and Yomiko notices that Nenene’s now wearing glasses, she says “we’re both ageing.”

  8. Zach
    January 16th, 2006 at 2:25 am

    With regards to Nabu, he was portrayed as, while not necessarally an inhuman monster, still not a very nice guy who kept the formerly current Fate’s wife as well as some other people trapped in the helmet to control him.

  9. Kalinara
    January 16th, 2006 at 7:56 am

    Sanderson Hawkins sort of counts. The character originated in the forties after all, and was born in 1925. In his case, suspended animation *and* being turned into something not-human helped. But it probably still should count…

  10. Someone
    January 19th, 2006 at 9:27 am

    Bruce in Batman Beyond

  11. Superhawk
    February 10th, 2006 at 12:15 pm

    There should also be a “suspended animation” category for some heroes:
    Like Captain America I
    Bucky I
    Jack Frost

    General Glory would regain his youth when he turned into his heroic alter-ego, but could turn back into an old man. He died of old age after a while. Makes you wonder why he would ever turn back into an old man…

    The Blonde Phantom regained her youth.

    Sub-Mariner and Vision I are long-lived due to being of non-human extraction.

    Mr. Terrific I was slain by an old enemy.

    Iron Munro appears to age very slowly.

    Neptune Perkins died in a blaze of glory, as did Human Bomb.

    What happened to the original Doll Man?

    The Fin is retired and is depicted as an elderly man, helping the new Invaders.

    The original Union Jack died in a blaze of glory.

    Spitfire has regained her youth.

    Toro died in a blaze (no pun intended) of glory.

    Human Torch I is an android and does not age.

    The Whizzer died in a blaze of glory. Miss America died in childbirth.

    The original Hourman is back among the living due to time-travel trickery.

  12. dr pepper
    December 12th, 2009 at 8:04 pm

    In the mid 70’s there was a story (i think it was in Brave and Bold) in which Wildcat is feeling like a has been. But Batman beats him into a more positive mood.

  13. Bob
    May 19th, 2010 at 10:45 pm

    I think it might be necessary to give Jay Garrick partial credit here for his original Golden Age run. I can’t think of any time they ever came right out and addressed it, but he was pretty obviously older than the Justice Society average, even leaving out the ones that were clearly supposed to be young whippersnappers like Johnny Thunder.

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