That's unfortunate.
Marvel Comic's sliding timeline & its problems
- Thread starter EJA
- Start date
I'm sorry, I just can't help it. I like things to be logical and to make sense.
Oh well, at least I can still enjoy the movies. Their histories aren't half as horribly jumbled as the comics.
I'd still like to know people's opinions on my idea of shifting the current Marvel stories back in time, so stories published in 2010 take place around 1994 on Earth-616. The general idea is that in Marvel Time, FF#1 (i.e. the dawn of the superhero age) was about 13 years before the "present". In my proposed system, Year 1 would have been 1981. I'm aware it would require ignoring a lot of the recent dates given in the comics, but it's the best I can come up with right now.
I have thought that perhaps certain people, e.g. Magneto and Gabrielle Haller (a Holocaust survivor and mother of Xavier's son, Legion), were abducted by extra-dimensional aliens around the late 1950s, and returned to Earth decades later at the same age they were when they were taken. But then, it would be unthinkable that people would fail to notice these people's miraculous youth; word would spread, and they would be carted off to labs and be experimented on by scientists to discover the secret of their youth.
I have thought that perhaps certain people, e.g. Magneto and Gabrielle Haller (a Holocaust survivor and mother of Xavier's son, Legion), were abducted by extra-dimensional aliens around the late 1950s, and returned to Earth decades later at the same age they were when they were taken. But then, it would be unthinkable that people would fail to notice these people's miraculous youth; word would spread, and they would be carted off to labs and be experimented on by scientists to discover the secret of their youth.
^ You're describing DC's timeline formula. Marvel's doesn't really work like that.
So I can have a rationale for the way things are. Nothing wrong with that.
Could you please explain this in more detail?
^ DC has used a "Year One" type timeline since Zero Hour I believe. You might want to check this site out. It's pretty cool and is updated to I believe last years events.
http://dcu.smartmemes.com/
http://dcu.smartmemes.com/
The problem can never be addressed until characters age and die, replaced by new characters not defined by long-past historical events like World War II or the space race. There is no other solution.
Since the audience rejects that, there is, effectively, no solution. Thus comics as they are.
Since the audience rejects that, there is, effectively, no solution. Thus comics as they are.
In Marvel Time, as of the present day, 13 years have passed since the FF and Spider-Man made their debut. 2010/11 - 13 = 1997/98. Xavier first met Magneto and Gabrielle Haller circa 10 years before FF#1, so late 1980s. Assuming Gabrielle was born around the early to mid-30s, she'd be well into her fifties by the time she gave birth to Legion, making her in her seventies now. Such a scenario is simply not possible; it's total lunacy. And in ten years time, it'll be even worse.
Well Marvel's policy has been that their characters do not age. Thus one of the reasons that went into the decision of breaking up Peter and Mary Jane's marriage. I do kind of point out that these are comic book characters who live fantastical lives. Kind of have to suspend your sense of reality with these things sometimes.
Won't disagree with you on that.
And let's not forget characters like Dum-Dum Dugan, Nick Fury's old buddy. Dugan was probably born in the mid to late-1910s, as he served with Fury in WW2. Fury started receiving the anti-ageing serum from that period, but Dugan didn't start getting it until an issue of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD published in 1975, while he was still serving in SHIELD. With the sliding timeline, this event probably occured around, what, less than ten years ago? That's insane. Dugan would have been in his late eighties, and no one that old (and without a repressed ageing process) would still be serving in a military organization at that age; he'd be in a retirement home, if he wasn't already dead. This is supposed to be the modern era, not the wondrous future of Star Trek: The Next Generation where people can be hale and hearty at 90+ years old.
Maybe you should warm up with The Simpsons or South Park.
In all seriousness, trying to make sense of the Marvel Universe probably wouldn't be conducive to one's continued sanity. We're dealing with a span of time that went from sixties-era segregation to having Barack Obama as President. In the Marvel U, a 13-year span would have meant an election every year or so.
So how about this: Every time a character travels in time in the Marvel Universe, "ripples" occur that shift surrounding events a little backwards or forwards. The FF's first flight has therefore been "dragged" 35 years or so forward due to all the abuse.
Seriously people, it's called "suspension of disbelief". Give it a try.
This, and this again.
Unless you want to see a 50 year old Peter Parker as Spider Man, time has to be "flexible."
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