Help?

[illuminatius.livejournal.com]

 Hey y'all. First post, yay. *ahem* 

I got a question about Tony's age. I know Steve was 27 when he got frozen, and is probably 30 (not counting the decades during which he was frozen) at this point, but how old is Tony? I can't find a birthday on Wiki, and I don't know if it has been mentioned in the comics. Anyone here know/have a rough estimate? 

Comments

[seanchai.livejournal.com]

Like everything else in comics, characters' ages are pretty fluid, in the Extremis arc, Warren Ellis sets Tony's age as 34 pretty specifically, and that was about a year before current canon. And as of The Confession, working backwards from Steve claiming he's 87, he'd actually be about 35-36 years old (because I'm sorry Steve, but years in frozen stasis don't count.

And of course, if you want to get into really confusing, and kind of lolarious canon, due to the Reborn-'verse, everybody who died and came back actually came back a couple of years younger then they were initially. For one thing, in the Reborn-'verse, they were all pretty much just getting started as superheroes, and were all accordingly younger. And when Franklin Richards brought them back, he kind of... reset them; it's why Tony actually has a real, functional heart at the beginning of Volume Three (though he quickly ends up with new, different heart problems). Of course, that's only physically, and probably doesn't really matter for what you're asking, and I've just revealed how much of a geek I am ><.

[muccamukk]

As opposed to Natasha, who actually is 83, just wears it well -g-

[tavella.livejournal.com]

I thought he said 85 in The Confession? He's definitely born July 4, 1922, according to current Marvel canon and the Handbook.

[seanchai.livejournal.com]

There are three dates for Steve's birthday: July 4, 1917, July 4, 1921, and July 4, 1922. And what the writers are using as canon varies by, like, the issue sometimes ><.

Though it's pretty widely accepted that the 1917 date was only thrown out there once because it was when Jack Kirby was born, and pretty much no one ever uses it since there's no way Steve was 25 when he joined the Super Soldier project.

And according to Elspeth, he actually says he's 86 in The Confession. Thank God I've got her, 'cause I've got a sucky memory.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Dammit, now I want to look at the panel, but my hardcopy is in a box and my pdf is on another computer drive. He definitely was 1922 on the statue and in the last Handbook, so that's the canon Marvel is currently rolling with as a company. Brubaker's apparently rolling with 1920, but I think 1922 makes more sense for the character, having him immediately try to join the Army as soon as he reached legal age.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

...or Brubaker's rolling with 1921 and moving Project Rebirth into 1941, despite that being after the actual first publication of Captain America. He's kind of handwavy about canon.

[seanchai.livejournal.com]

Brubaker's apparently rolling with 1920, but I think 1922 makes more sense for the character, having him immediately try to join the Army as soon as he reached legal age.

I definitely agree; it seems like such a Steve thing to do, especially since it's not like Germany wasn't trying to play Evil Overlord with Europe long before 1941. Plus, it means that you don't have any random, unaccounted for years in Steve's backstory, and that's generally a good thing.

And really, since Brubaker's been being Creepy McNon-Con lately, I feel no guilt in ignoring anything he's written that I don't like.

[illuminatius.livejournal.com]

And I just got another reason for reading Heroes Reborn. And geeks rule.

I'm going with 35. It seems to be the most agreed upon age for Tony. And Steve gets to keep his 87, for the senior citizen discount.

Thank you for the information. =)