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Karl Wiebe
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Joined: 06 December 2015
Location: Canada
Posts: 172
Posted: 12 July 2018 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

This is a great topic -- I never really thought about unneccessary it is to age characters (from a writing standpoint).  I like the idea of "Metropolis" or "Gotham" because it is NYC without really being NYC.  So if NYC buildings, landmarks, mayors change in real life --it is an easy sell to keep Metropolis "timeless".  Not saing fans SHOULD be given an easy out, but I can see the appal of timelessness in the stories.
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 12 July 2018 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

I think, for instance, Clark and Lois can stay the same, but maybe the news/media world modernizes......

I'm even for time standing still. A classic series told in the SAME TIME they started, still to this day. Like imagine, it was still the 70s when...

•••

So close!

For decades, the world changed, but the characters didn't. And, since comicbook readers, on average, lasted about five years, they very rarely noticed. If Superman was 29, he was always 29.

Best model, but unacceptable to selfish fans. They wanted "their" characters to age, like them. Leave school. Get married. Get a kid and a mortgage. That was REALISTIC! All the while donning costumes to use super powers to fight gangsters and aliens.

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Adam Schulman
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Posted: 13 July 2018 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Curt Swan's Superman never looked 29. JB's did. José Luis García-López's did, but López was never the regular artist on ACTION COMICS or SUPERMAN.

So I don't know where the "Superman is eternally 29" trope came from. 
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John Popa
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Posted: 13 July 2018 at 1:41pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

My first exposure to Superman as a kid was the Superfriends cartoon and the George Reeves show. I always assumed Superman was supposed to be 40'ish.
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Andy Mokler
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Joined: 20 January 2006
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Posted: 13 July 2018 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

The fans who want the characters to age are the ones who have stuck around too long. They can't embrace the most basic tropes, and want the characters to reflect their own changing conditions.
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I suppose it's a reflection of me but I find it much more comforting and enjoyable that the fictional characters I care about to stay the same.  Would it be considered ironic that cartoons and comics seem so closely related but the former seems to "get" keeping the characters true to themselves while the latter seems to go out of it's way to change them at every opportunity and in almost every way imaginable?
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Adam Schulman
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Posted: 13 July 2018 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Just did some research. Found some letters columns from the early '60s in issues of SUPERMAN. The editor or assistant editor said that Superman was in his early '30s. 

In generaly I think the persistent aging of characters has been a bad thing -- assuming math works in the DC Multiverse like it does here, Superman and Batman and other founding Justice Leaguers must be in their 40s, despite being drawn younger than that. (Yeah, many died and came back, Batman took a dip in the Lazarus pit, there are other excuses, but I don't remember Lois Lane going through the same experience.)

That said, I preferred a Teen Titans made up of 18-year olds only because I never liked Robin as a brightly-colored 12 year old. "Robin the Boy Target." And yes, Dick should've remained Robin and never become Nightwing. Intellectually I get this, despite the fact that I really like Tim Drake. (He's smarter than Dick. He might be smarter than Batman.) 
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