Superhero's active working lifespan

[Dude]

Police officers and firefighters are your best comparison set. Although their jobs are dangerous, most of their long-term damage comes from the pounding associated with running, falling, jumping, and climbing. And especially carrying gear in awkward places at heavy loads. Almost every cop I know, retired or active with more than a few years, has back problems. Real back problems, not just general soreness.

In terms of fights, cops who wear body armor do tend to fare better than those who don't. Nonetheless, young cops who decide to be old cops quickly determine that standing toe-to-toe with anyone, even a less capable opponent, rapidly ages the body. Hence, disengagement, multiple officers piling on, nightsticks, pepper spray, and guns.

Whoever the superhero would be would need to learn how to disable their opponent quickly or keep a distance and not use their body to defeat their opponent. And they would need to minimize jumping, climbing, and falling injuries, and running without warming up and (counter-productively), without boots.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Sounds like the Turtle from Wild Cards.

I'm not really sure mutants are as vulnerable to injury as we are. They logically should be (with exceptions), but I swear I've seen them take more of a beating.

Well, so does Indiana Jones. There's always a certain amount of artistic license. But I would consider most of those guys, as well as guys like Johnny Storm, Sue Richards, Hank and Jan Pym and so on, to be normal Humans aside from their powers.

 

[Davros]

I'm not really sure mutants are as vulnerable to injury as we are. They logically should be (with exceptions), but I swear I've seen them take more of a beating.

I would assume that it would depend on the nature of their mutation.

 

[Forbin]

Good points - just because you have eye beams or telekenesis, is no reason to assume any other supernormal ability.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I'm not really sure mutants are as vulnerable to injury as we are. They logically should be (with exceptions), but I swear I've seen them take more of a beating.

I would assume that it would depend on the nature of their mutation.

Well, that's my point. It doesn't seem to be based on the nature of the mutation because all sorts of mutants take pounding from Sentinels and other mutants that normal people shouldn't survive.

Unless you assume that these mutants also have mutations giving them increased durability, which was my suggestion.

 

[Gov Kodos]

One might assume that, but it is stepping out of the real world scenario that I took the OP's idea to be. Mutants are much like Batman and others, fictional license. Lord knows John McClane is near indestructible as far as real life would be concerned every bit as much as Batman. I can't imagine either one really surviving a repeat of their average night more than once or twice.

 

[Forbin]

Si, my question is about the "reality" of a normal human living that lifestyle.

 

[Gotham Central]

A couple of thoughts on Batman...

Its been speculated that Batman is NOT in fact a mundane human. It has been speculated that he is some form of physical adept (I think the likes of Captain America falls explicitly into this category). This is relevant because one of the things that is occasionally explored in the DC is the idea that humanity is undergoing some kind of transformation. That, in fact, was the whole point on the Dominator invasion (and at the heart of the plot of Young Justice: Invasion). It has been noted in DC continunity that all humans have the metagene and that trauma can be one key to brining certain abilities out. That would apply to Batman. Its also usually applied to super intelligent mundanes as well.

The other thing about Batman that people forget is that he is NOT out brawling with criminals every night or even most nights. The whole point of his theatrics, from the gadgets to the costume itself, is to help him avoid fighting. Your average criminal in Gotham is afraid of Batman and will run away. Even against well armed foes, Batmin will use his gadgets to avoid having to fight. Most of the wear and tear that he suffers is from acrobatics and hard landings.

One of the things that I liked about the Kingdom Come miniseries was that it showed that Bruce had so damaged his body over the years that he needed an exoskeleton just to function.

 

[Super55]

Full-powered heroes like Superman who are virtually indestructable and don't really show signs of aging. I'll put Thor in this category, although he probably can get hurt. They can go decades or centuries without problems as long as they don't die.

Thor can be hurt , be he can't be hurt by normal humans or the weapons of normal humans. He is a god who has been fighting for over a thousand years. He can survive a nuke, for example:

While most of Marvel's most popular heroes fall into the no powers, low powers and mid range powers categories, they do have their fare share of insanely powerful, almost invincible powerhouses. Thor, Hulk, Hercules, Wonderman, The Silver Surfer, Namor and Thing to name a few.
Some of their low to mid ranged powered heroes have good explanations for how they can stick in the superhero game for so long as well, such as Wolverine, Spider-Man and Deadpool with their healing factor's, or Luke Cage with his bullet proof skin.
Captain America is an interesting case, just because his super soldier serum is somewhat ill defined. How much it helps him keep up with the daily wear and tear, if at all, is hard to say. It's stated several places that he is immune to fatigue toxins, though that would more help him stay in individual fights longer, as opposed to helping him deal with the cumulative injuries of the superhero profession.

 

[Kaijima]

I think Nolan's Batman does a decent job of justifying a RL man going through those kinds of hardships and how busted up he'd be after a decade of it. Remember that Nolan's Bruce Wayne is using a custom, military-spec armor suit that protects against shock, friction, and likely compresses the body when worn. He also trained with a group of monk-like martial artists to enter into Bruce Lee-like peak physical condition.

And with less than a decade of stunts, leaping off buildings, and hardcore brawling, he was using a cane and his kneecaps where busted.

In terms of comics, it's probably a good argument that Batman mostly avoids fighting and the all-out brawls we see him in, in a given comic issue, are an unlucky once-a-month encounter when he gets into real trouble. Maybe even once every three or four months, if things have been quiet between issues. It may help that a lot of Batman's rogue's gallery are not fighters: enemies like Riddler, Scarecrow, Penguin, and most versions of Joker are intellectual opponents.

So a Batman-like hero, who spends most of his time as a super sleuth and detective outside the law, might in fact have a feasible working lifespan. He wouldn't automatically be dead in six months. It would be a fine line to walk however, and he'd have to remain lucky.

 

[A beaker full of death]

I love the opening scenes of the Daredevil film, where the first thing we see are his vicodin vials!