Here’s a post from the old Marvel blog where a reader tries to work out a consistent scale for the passage of time in the Marvel Universe. I soft-peddle it at the top, but it’s impossible to do this, because as time moves on, we’re always continuing to pack more and more incident into a relatively small space–so even now, a decade later, these numbers don’t quite hold up any longer.
November 18, 2008 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General
I received the following e-mail recently, and
even though I don’t agree with all of it (you can’t build a formula for the
passage of time in the Marvel Universe backwards–it only works if you build it
forwards) I thought it was worth sharing and opening up to the rest of the
world. Plus, this makes for an easy blog entry for the day.
Fun With Character Aging In The Marvel Universe
or
‘The Pryde Scale’
by Edward Gore, AKA: WinterRose
I was catching up on Uncanny X-Men today, hoping Ed Brubaker had meant when Sam
Guthrie said he was 21 years old in a bar that he’d meant he was OVER 21. Yeah,
I’m persnickety about The New Mutants and always have been. When the character
debuted in 1982 in the Graphic Novel ‘The New Mutants’, he was 16 years old and
working in a coal mine. The character of Kitty Pryde was introduced in 1980,
and was described at the time as being 13 and a half. She was also described as
being 14 in 1983 when The New Mutants got their own ongoing title. So far this
is all stuff you already know. I WILL get to the point.
My own take on it was that if Kitty Pryde was 21 years old at the time of her
alleged termination (Yeah, we’ll see how long THAT lasts.), then she’s taken 28
reader years to age 8 character years. Breaking that down, (and ignoring the
fact that there’s been a Christmas issue every year in Marvel Comics since
1980), that would mean she’s aged one character year for every 3.5 reader
years. As well, everyone who was IN the X-Books since then should have aged at
least 8 years since Kitty Pryde was introduced in 1980. I’m calling it ‘The
Pryde Scale’ for easy future reference.
THE PRYDE SCALE
1 Character Year = 3.5 Reader Years
For Easy Reference:
Pryde Age / Reader Year
13 / 1980
14 / 1983 & 1/2
15 / 1987
16 / 1990 & 1/2 (Legal Adult, UK)
17 / 1994
18 / 1997 & 1/2 (Legal Adult, US)
19 / 2001
20 / 2004 & 1/2
21 / 2008 (Status: Unknown. Presumed Dead)
(Note: This could also be reasoned out to some degree with the aging of Katie
Power from Power Pack, who debuted in 1984 at 10 years old, and as of 2007 was
17 in ‘The Loners’. Her rate of age breaks down to 1 year per 3.2 reader
years.)
28 reader years. With a Christmas issue every year. I don’t care how ya slice
it, that’s a lot of Chaunukkah candles. But we’ll forgive this. If she’d aged a
year for every reader year, that would have made Joss Whedon’s favorite little
Shadowcat a whole 41 years old. Dem mutants do be agin’ slow, Miss Daisy. Might
as well be walkin’.
As Kitty Pryde is/was at least 21 nowadays, Sam Guthrie should be at least 23.
Here’s a note for Peter David as well. Rahne Sinclair is old enough to have a
beer now. Kitty was serving alcohol in Chicago in MekaniX (2002-2003), which
you have to be at least 18 by law in Illinois to do. On the Pryde Scale, Kitty
was 19 years old then. Kitty was only a year older than Rahne, who was 13 back
in 1983. So if Kitty was/is 21 when she caught the big bullet train out, then
Rahne should be 20 years old.
One also hopes that when Kitty was sleeping around with Pete Wisdom back in her
time with Excalibur that he waited to do that with her til after about the
middle of 1997. Unless of course Pete Wisdom was having relations with a minor.
Of course, the Pryde & Wisdom mini happened in late 1996, and Kitty was
talking about how it was likely that her mom might shoot Pete on sight when she
introduced the chain smoking cradle-robber to her family. Lucky for him the age
of consent in the UK is 16 years old.
Let’s take this a step further shall we? Since I’m having fun at Marvel’s
chronological expense. Emma Frost has gone on record as saying that she’s 27
back in Grant Morrison’s ‘New X-Men’ in 2003. On the Pryde scale, this would
mean mean she’s 29 going on 30 today. This also means that back in 1980, when
she took on the Phoenix masquerading as Jean Gray in her Phoenix Saga debut,
she was a whole 21 years old.
This would make Emma a mere 22 years old when she kidnapped Kitty, The New
Mutants and took in Firestar in the early 80’s. She was also already
Headmistress of the Massachussetts Academy (1985). Barely 6 years older than
both Angelica Jones and Sam Guthrie who were supposed to have been of the same
age then. (See: Firestar: limited series)
Also, Cyclops said he was 25 back in X-Men #51 (1996). Whee! More dates to work
with! Kitty was 17 then. (Bad Wisdom! Hot Knife Hands off the Loli!) Meaning
Scott was ALSO 21 like Emma was in 1980 when Kitty was 13. How nice. He and
Emma are the same age!
And of course, what age rant would be complete without poking a little fun at
Franklin Richards? Incomplete! That’s what! Franklin appears ALLLL the way back
in 1968. And was not named until 1970 according to his wiki page. Okiedokie.
Let’s see what his proper age is on the Pryde scale. Little Franklin has been
around for 40 years! 40 / 3.5 = 11.4. So he should be eleven & a half on
the Pryde Scale. So… Franklin’s depiction as a little boy all this time
really isn’t really all that off the mark if his aging is consistent with that
of Kitty Pryde.
What other characters’ ages could be figured out on the Pryde Scale then? In
X-Men (v2) #20, Hank McCoy was apparently angsting about turning 30 years old
in the reader year, 1993. That makes him 27 all the way back in 1980, which
makes him 34 now. But he was introduced all the way back in 1963 with Scott.
Let’s figure a little more…
2008 – 1963 = 45 reader years.
45 / 3.5 = 12 Character Years
Current Age = 34 – 12 = Introductory Age of 22 in 1963.
And if Scott is 5 years younger than Hank now (29 going on 30 with Emma) that
means Slim was 17 all the way back in 1963 when Jean was wearing poodle skirts
and Cyclops had all the physique of a wire hanger. FUN!
Yeah. I suppose I’m easily amused. And I admit that I have way too much time on
my hands. Character aging is an old bone I gnaw on from time to time, and being
a Kitty Fan, with dates where they’ve mentioned her age from time to time, it’s
something to practice my geek-fu on. I hope this helps. Or at least finds you
well.
-WinterRose
More later.
Tom B
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