Given the historical framework laid out in preceding sections, it is possible to determine the ages of a great many DC characters. Some have been explicitly presented in stories; others require more deduction, but the logic should be fairly clear with the main Chronology as reference. Keep in mind, though: even with real-time dating, not all of these people have aged naturally! Extraordinary longevity and uncanny youthfulness are downright common in the DC Universe.
(In fact, it’s sometimes necessary to distinguish among three different types of age: a character’s chronological age (years on the calendar), biological age (years of wear on the body), and experiential age (years lived through and remembered). For most characters, of course, all of these are identical, but for some (e.g., Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen) all three are different. When necessary, I’ll distinguish one or more of them with a superscript “c”, “b”, or “e”.)
A few guiding principles should be made clear: I’ve tried to limit this list to significant 20th-century characters (for whom age information can be determined, naturally), disregarding immortals and supernatural beings. Everyone is assumed to be alive unless evidence of death has been published. In the absence of specific contrary evidence, I’ve also assumed that people typically graduate from high school at age 18, and from college at age 22. Precise birthdates, unless cited from specific post-Crisis evidence, are derived from the dates given by E. Nelson Bridwell in the 1976 Super DC Calendar (and thus marked with an asterisk*, as they may be more subject to revision).
When assessing age-related evidence, I place greatest weight upon story information that is:
• Derived from the character’s origin, and/or
• Written by the character’s original or canonically definitive creator(s), and/or
• Consistent with the preponderance of other post-Crisis evidence.
Thus, for example, Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One carries greater weight than other Batman stories, and Tim Drake’s age of 13 as established in “A Lonely Place of Dying” trumps later contradictory evidence. That said, when a date is in doubt, I’ve resolved ambiguities by making the character as young as logically possible. Hence a few entries simply establish a “limit” for characters who could in fact be older. (The symbol “<” is used to indicate that a birthdate is no later than the given year; the symbol “>” is used to indicate that a character is no younger than the given age.)
Finally, it’s unavoidable that some characters can be safely pegged to “real time,” while others are lodged in a compressed “sliding” timeline, meaning (bizarrely) that their “present” age may stay relatively constant while their birthdates move. (As in other sections, the distinction will be indicated with the usual black bar at the left.) In light of this, I’ve included a “double” column indicating living characters’ current ages respectively as of either January 1, 2000 or January 1, “Year 18”… although, for now, those remain simultaneous points. (Somewhat arbitrary, perhaps, but that’s the last point in history confirmed in an “official” DC timeline—i.e., Guide to the DC Universe 2000 Secret Files <3.00>, tracking events through the end of “No Man’s Land”—and one for which even DC seems to have accepted a calendar date.)
DC seems to want to “freeze” many characters around the age they were at that point… but events have moved on so much that it’s just not plausible. Although time passage since then is undeniably more arguable, I’m fairly confident of my framework, and have therefore also included a column indicating characters’ ages as of the beginning of 2006/Yr24—just beyond the “present moment” at this writing, leading into events immediately following the “One Year Gap” following Infinite Crisis. (I note incidentally that, by that point, all of the current Teen Titans should be thoroughly finished with high school. Suffice it to say, there’s a very strong case that if DC wants to continue to have a slate of characters in the high-school age bracket, it’s well past time they create some new ones.)
Finally, there is a column for known deceased characters, indicating age at and date of death. I hope the individual “notes and references” will help clarify any remaining ambiguities.
Some of these characters may appear to be older than some readers think they “should” be. I can only reiterate that my reckoning is derived from the published comics: take up any inconcistencies with DC! I think the diverse age spectrum of DC’s characters is an intrinsic aspect of having a shared reality that, when looked at in context, opens up the potential for some fascinating stories. Let’s hope we see some of that potential explored by DC creators in the days and years to come!
Home | Introduction | Section I: In the Beginning | Section II: The Golden Age | Section III: The Quiet Years | Section IV: The Silver Age | Section V: The Modern Age | Section VI: The Future | Section VII: You Say It’s Your Birthday | Section VIII: Title Key, Acknowledgements, and Links | Contact Me | SmartMemes.com Home Page
Last updated 10/06/2005.