Ok, now I'm not exactly a huge fan of the Nick Fury comics, but I do know that he started off with the Howling Commandos in WW2 and has survived all the way to the present day by the Infinity Formula, which keeps him physically young and healthy. One of his old friends from his WW2 days who serves with him in S.H.I.E.L.D. is Dum Dum Dugan. A story published in Marvel Preview #31 back in 1976 revealed that for decades Fury alone had been receiving the formula. Problem is though, with Marvel's sliding timeline in effect, Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D. days, even though they started being published in the 60s, supposedly began roughly a little over a decade ago as per current Marvel reckoning, so how could Dum Dum and the rest of Fury's pals from WW2 have survived such a long time and still be in relatively good health without using the formula?
This is just a "feature" of Marvel comics in general. I mean, Franklin Richards was born in the Fantastic Four comics in 1968, yet he's still portrayed as a little kid, over 40 years later. Everyone ages extremely slowly even though the look of the comics adapts to contemporary tastes over time.
Yes, but Franklin's birth isn't tied to any particular year, so it's okay to make his age flexible. Dum Dum is known to have fought in WW2, so he couldn't have been born later than 1920-1930, and cannot be less than 80-90 years old. The same is true for Nick, Namor, Captain America, Bucky, and lots of others, but Marvel has provided explanations for how each one has stayed young. Why haven't they explained Dum Dum?
They probably just forgot since he's not as important as those others are. I do wonder about Magneto though, they did explain how he occasionally gets de-aged to be between 20-30 but the first de-aging didn't happen for years. This means he aged normally until then but for his WW2 origin to work he has to keep showing up around 15 years ago. That means he didn't bother starting his crusade against humanity for decades after WWII. Unless they explain how he was de-aged between WWII and his first appearance soon he'll have been 100 years old when he began his career.
The X-Men were teenagers in 1963, and even now they don't appear to be any older than their 30's (maybe 40's). Has it ever been explained how they continue to look young? Let's face it, this issue has never been treated consistently. Best not to look too deeply at it, because there is no truly consistent explanation for "Marvel time." Some characters, we have explanations for how they've stayed young. Others, we got jack. There isn't a lot of rhyme or reason to it. It's not like anyone expected these comic book things to take off and run for decades on end!
The only answer I can think of regarding Magneto is that at some point he had already been rejuvenated when he first fought the X-Men. Whether or not he had been already been rejuvenated when he first met Charles Xavier is another matter. I believe Marvel has provided an explanation for how the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver can be his children and younger than they ought to be, by saying that the High Evolutionary kept them in suspended animation for a long time.
If you're asking these things it's time to find a different hobby. Seriously, Iron Man was initially tied to the Vietnam War. Reed Richards served in, I think, Korea with Ben Grimm. Jean Grey's grave marker in Uncanny X-Men #138 has DOB & DOD which incidentally would've made her too young when she joined Xavier's school. We saw sitting presidents too.
Actually, Reed, Ben and Nick were all tied together by WW2 at first. That was one of the first things to get retconned away. Why they keep the Punisher tied to Vietnam and not Iron Man Stark...who knows?
I've wondered about this as well - anyone tied to a time period has been given a specific reason why they are not old (Wolverine, Captain America, Bucky, Nick Fury) or they shift the time period (iron-man, the x-men) or they de-age them on-panel (magnus) - Dum-dum just seems to be very old..
I think the current line of thinking is that Frank Castle did not fight in THE Vietnam War of the 1960s-70s, but a separate military operation in Southeast Asia years later.
I seem to recall that an issue of X-Men Unlimited from 1993 or so put his year of birth at 1928. This would make him 81 or 82 at present. 1956 - 1980, wasn't it? I guess that she'd be 30 now,then, with the DOB being 1979 or 1980.
I don't recall that. Certainly the MAX Punisher is still a Vietnam veteran. I think that while you can shift world events around character moments like Iron Man's injury, some--Captain America in WWII, and Punisher in Vietnam--are simply too integral to the character to be easily transfered to a more modern conflict. I just accept it as a conceit of the fictional universe and move on. Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
MAX Punisher isn't in 616 continuity; the 616 Punisher has the same sort of sliding timeline, I believe. As to Dugan, no, they've never explained why the original Howling Commandos are still around and kicking (Gabe Jones is another one).
Heck, there was story back in the 80s where Captain America and Red Skull got exposed to something that made them age to their proper ages. They better retcon that so it was "it rapidly aged them" instead "true ages" otherwise soon people will wonder why they both didn't die immediately from extreme age.