Welcome to week seven of our look at under-represented heroes in the Marvel Universe. If you want to check out the other weeks, click below (but none are needed for understanding of today’s piece):
Heroes with Physical Disabilities, Bad Side of Body Size Representation, Good Side of Body Size Representation, Heroes with Dwarfism, Jewish and Muslim Heroes or, Heroes with Sensory Disabilities
This week, we’ll focus on the representation of characters who are seniors. Nailing down a character’s age in the Marvel U is tricky (due to the Sliding Timescale), so I will be looking at physical appearance, age of children/grandchildren, and major historical markers that he or she was involved in as determining factors (leave any questions in the comments and I’ll get back to you).
Look deeply enough in almost any title and any reader is bound to come across characters who possess immortality or greater-than-average lifespans. Most of these lucky devils are also kept eternally youthful, so for the sake of clarity, those characters will be left out of our discussion.
Instead, we’ll take a look at the roles that senior characters fulfill and what that can tell us about how they are perceived by the writers and audience. So, let’s jump right in, shall we?
Ancillary/Support Characters
Many different titles have older characters who act as supporting cast members. From Spider-Man’s Aunt May or Madame Web, to Daredevil’s Stick, to Doctor Strange’s Ancient One, to the Fantastic Four’s Agatha Harkness these characters primarily act as teachers or advice givers to the younger generation.
However, just because these characters act as teachers does not mean they aren’t capable of defending themselves. Stick is known for his martial arts prowess (which he is currently showing off in the alternate reality rumbles of Contest of Champions), while Agatha Harkness—a powerful sorceress alive since the time of the Salem Witch Trials—was capable of going toe-to-toe with Annihilus.
In the last five years, we’ve also seen the aging of two iconic legends: Nick Fury, Sr. and the former Captain America, Steve Rogers. While the stories are too convoluted to get into here, how Nick Fury relates to the topic at hand is that he is now acting as a “Watcher” of humanity instead of being the active head of SHIELD.
Of these two men, Steve Rogers is of particular note. Although he finds himself aged when the Super Soldier Serum is taken from his body, he has not stopped defending our country.
In the pages of the on-going Uncanny Avengers, Steve still leads the team, but he relegates himself to more of a support role. Given his years of military experience, and decades more as a superhero, his strategic insight is invaluable.
Teammates
The next step up in our groupings would be those seniors who are defined primarily by their active involvement in a team.
The first example chronologically would be the sometimes-villainous-sometimes-heroic mutant precog Destiny. She served at Mystique’s side (as her lover, advisor, and strategist) through her incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and the government sponsored Freedom Force. Not only did Destiny use her abilities to give her a fighting edge over her opponents, but she also wielded a crossbow with deadly efficiency.
The casual reader will be forgiven for not knowing our next example, Centennial. He briefly was a member of a rebooted Alpha Flight; however, he is unique on this list for two reasons. He is the oldest hero (at the age of 96), and he only gained his powers at that age, having lead a normal life as a police officer beforehand.
If any hero shatters preconceived ideas of age, it’s Centennial, who would jump into any fight he could find.
This year, two new seniors are in the new Marvel releases: Astrolabe—an Iraqi enhanced human member of Guardians of Infinity and fan-favorite Old Man Logan.
An alternate reality hero who not only migrated to the main Marvel U but is a member of Storm’s Extraordinary X-Men and is heading his own on-going series, Old Man Logan has returned to stay. Even though Extraordinary X-Men is still only a few months out, Logan has already proved time and time again that he is made of sterner stuff—that he won’t allow age to stop him from being the “best there is at what he does”.
Leaders
However, one thing that Logan struggled with was being in-charge; yet, these next three characters have been defined from early on in their career as leaders.
The time-traveling son of Cyclops known as Cable was just the man to step in and transform the naïve New Mutants to the tactical X-Force. While his age, initially, could be debatable, in recent years he is at least 16 years older (gauged by his time spent raising Hope from infancy to young adulthood). Artists have also began depicting him as less of an Anderson Cooper and more of an Andy Rooney.
Another man more-than-capable of running a team is the powerhouse known as Red Hulk. When the character was first introduced, his identity was kept secret. However, when he first transformed on panel, he was none other than General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, longtime enemy of the Hulk.
Using his military genius and knowledge of the Hulk, Red Hulk was able to take down the green goliath before starting his own mercenary squad appropriately dubbed the Thunderbolts.
Saving the best for last, Magneto is not only one of the most powerful mutants on the face of the Earth, but probably one of the oldest active heroes. His age is a tricky business (as some artists draw him like a 30 year old), but it is considered continuity that he was in a concentration camp during WWII (which was over 70 years ago).
He has vacillated from hero to villain and back again, but over the years he has proven to be a consistent leader. Through various incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, to a brief stint over the New Mutants, to the zealous Acolytes, Magneto was always a man with shrewd calculated insight. He once again is taking the reins of leadership—this time with a team of X-Men—in the on-going Uncanny X-Men.
In a society that is youth-obsessed, it is easy to forget the value of the older generation. Unfortunately, more and more stories of our older citizens being abused, neglected, shut out of jobs, and denied opportunities are coming to the forefront. While such stories are heart-rending, the true tragedy is that their experiences, their wisdom, their insights, their connection to history are a quickly fading resource.
Just like our news cycle, if a topic is out of the public eye for too long, it is neglected. Fortunately, Hollywood is beginning to produce more movies with senior-aged actors and other media—like comic books—are following suit. By having senior characters front-and-center, hopefully hearts and minds will begin to change.
Join us next time for a look at heroes who are non-gender binary in comics! Can’t wait? Put in your two cents in the comments below!
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