Marvel Comic's sliding timeline & its problems

[Nerys Myk]

At what point did Magneto become a Holocaust survivor? I thought that was always there once his origin was established.

I would argue that the Punisher has to be a Vietnam Vet. So much of his characters and his old stories were built into the madness and corruption that went on in that war. I remember reading a lot of stories about him going after other 'Nam vets who went rogue.

IIRC it dates back to the 80s. Some 20 years after his first appearance in X-Men #1. The real problem is that his wife Magda is said to give birth to Wanda and Pietro shortly after WWII, meaning Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver must be in their 60s!!!!! Thats what happens when you tie one character to specific dates and then tie that character to other characters. Not smart.

 

[Skellington]

^ Yeah, the holocaust thing was a Chris Claremont addition. Wanda and Pietro were born in either 1948 or 1949, according to an issue of The Avengers (I believe) which had a time capsule opening after 25 years to reveal their brother Nuklo.

That's all canon fodder now, though . Magneto's kids are probablly in their early-to-mid thirties.

 

[Myasishchev]

Which, interestingly, cuts the other way for their first appearances. I don't remember, were the X-Men also that ridiculously young? I mean, teenage, yes, fourteen, that's just weird.

 

[Skellington]

^ Think that Marvel had accepted the sliding scale already at this point.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Which, interestingly, cuts the other way for their first appearances. I don't remember, were the X-Men also that ridiculously young? I mean, teenage, yes, fourteen, that's just weird.

I think Bobby Drake was 14, the others were 16 or older. Hank was probably 18.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Bobby was supposed to be the youngest X-Men when he joined. The others were all older. I think Jean was 16 or something like that. Scott and Hank were oldest I believe.

 

[ReadyAndWilling]

every story is its own timeline

 

[EJA]

I think the Unofficial Chronology of the Marvel Universe estimates the birth of Wanda and Pietro to be sometime around the late 1960s.

I'm not sure about altering Magneto's WW2 background; it seems too deeply imbedded in his character to me. The sliding timeline does still make his age a problem when he first appeared in the early X-Men comics, and this is why I posited earlier that the date of the dawn of the age of heroes on Earth-616 should be shifted further back in time from now, so it occurs in the mid-80s. That way Magneto wouldn't have been that old when he first befriended Charles Xavier circa 10 years prior to FF#1, and still wouldn't have been too elderly when he first fought the X-Men. Another quandery is whether a Magneto in his late 40s-early 50s would relate to an Xavier in his mid to late twenties. I'd like to know people's opinion on this.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Erik's WWII background has never been altered far as I know. I always think of him as being in his 70's. Charles is significantly younger, maybe ten or fifteen.

 

[Myasishchev]

Which, interestingly, cuts the other way for their first appearances. I don't remember, were the X-Men also that ridiculously young? I mean, teenage, yes, fourteen, that's just weird.

I think Bobby Drake was 14, the others were 16 or older. Hank was probably 18.

For some reason I thought they were all high school grads. And that Xavier's was a college that mainly taught tolerance, and how to kill people when tolerance failed.

 

[Skellington]

^ I think that Wolvie was the one who brought killing to the party.

 

[JoeZhang]

Which, interestingly, cuts the other way for their first appearances. I don't remember, were the X-Men also that ridiculously young? I mean, teenage, yes, fourteen, that's just weird.

I think Bobby Drake was 14, the others were 16 or older. Hank was probably 18.

For some reason I thought they were all high school grads. And that Xavier's was a college that mainly taught tolerance, and how to kill people when tolerance failed.

No Jean was 16 and Prof. X was in love with her - he always made that costume for her where you can see her knickers. The guy should be on the sex offenders register.

 

[Skellington]

She's 23 or 24 at the time of Fate Of The Phoenix (1980) as indicated in the first panel of the following issue. As a kid I always thought that this made her 12 or 13 when the X-Men began, as 137 monthly issues would have meant eleven years of the X-Men.

 

[Admiral_Young]

The issue of Xavier being in love with Jean is an intriguing and disturbing one. I think in one of the Onslaught Prelude issues where Jean discovers that he has been repressing his feelings it is stated that Charles has been in love with her since she came to the school. It was treated as a secret shame that he'd repressed and that recent stress was bringing it to the surface again. It was one of the things that triggered Onslaught into being if I'm remembering correct.Ultimate Xavier also showed interesting feelings towards Jean as well. I don't think anything ever happened resulting that in the UU.

 

[Myasishchev]

^Now I'm positive they were college-age in Millar's X-Men (or almost all of them were).

I think Bobby Drake was 14, the others were 16 or older. Hank was probably 18.

For some reason I thought they were all high school grads. And that Xavier's was a college that mainly taught tolerance, and how to kill people when tolerance failed.

No Jean was 16 and Prof. X was in love with her - he always made that costume for her where you can see her knickers. The guy should be on the sex offenders register.

Ah, heck, considering his powers, we should just count ourselves lucky he hasn't conquered the world and impregnated half the species. I mean, Onslaught was pretty terrible overall as a piece of art, but it succeeds in making a case as to why mutants on Xavier's level should be slaughtered at birth.

 

[EJA]

The more I look at it, the more the Marvel chronology resembles that of Hercules/Xena, i.e. totally nonsensical and all over the place.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Pretty much.

 

[EJA]

I can't help finding this kind of thing intensely annoying. It does kind of spoil my enjoyment of the stories.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Yeah I was the same for a long time when I was kid...but now I just enjoy the stories where Marvel is concerned. DC kind of has an official timeline that gets updated every few years that condenses their events. It's kind of annoying too.

 

[EJA]

It's times like this that part of me wishes Marvel did a Crisis on Infinite Earths-type scenario to straighten out all the nonsensical crap that the sliding timeline propagates.

I have to admit, I'm finding myself on the verge of giving up on Marvel totally, as it's just too ridiculous.