First I have to say that I'm not a big FF fan so the Franklin issue really doesn't apply here,but I love the topic in general, I have been thinking about this for a few months now actually.
I am a huge marvel fan and while I don't read every title,I am an avid reader. I strongly believe that the characters we all know and love should age.
When I first started reading comics(about age 7) I was facinated by the vivid colors and the young heros that were depicted fighting against all odds,and at age 7 that is great,but now I'm creeping up on thirty and the characters I grew up relating to are only a couple of months older.
I understand that people have their favorite characters and these characters play a pivotal role in comics,but at some point there has to be a changing of the guard.
Allot of this thinking on my part comes from allot of my recent readings. I absolutely love the whole Earth/Universe/Paradise-X storyline and it's look at a possible future of the Marvel Universe. I also really enjoyed the Kingdom books from DC. Both of those books showed us what it would be like if our heroes did in fact age,and I loved every page of it.
I would love to see a more "real time" feel to comics. I know thats hard to do with only one issue a month or so but I think it's the next logical step in the comics world. I think that books like KC and EarthX show that maybe the comic companies may be looking at this as possibility in the future.
No offense to all the "age haters" but aren't you kinda sick of seeing a perfectly honed fighting machine every time you pick up a comic?
When is Batman going to be confined to his wheelchair for life? He has broken every bone in his body by now(twice probably) when will the arthritis kick in?
I want to see Clark Kent saddened by the loss of every person he has ever know,as they will age and die much faster than the immortal.
I want to see the day that Peter Parker throws his back out while swinging around the city,and realizing he is not that young kid anymore.
How many times can you actually stomach the FF fighting Doom in twenty years? They have spent more "Comic Time" fighting Doom than I have lived yet they still look twenty(Well Johnny anyway).
We have read tales of thes heroes for years,but yet they remain in a state of perpetual youth. While it is a very safe way to play it from a corporate stanpoint (why fix what aint broke), I think the fans deserve a litte more. Everytime a character is "brought back into the fold" they seem way too different.As an example: Iron Fist looks younger and badder now than he ever has. This is and other thing such as "Secondary Mutation" are just lame and show very little faith in the readers. The writers see an opening that needs to be filled but they are also afraid to try something new.So they take a character that they know is well liked enough and start messing with their powers or some other such nonsense,because they are banking on fans not turning their backs on a big character. While introducing a new character seems to be a crap shoot. The character might or might not work within the given situation,or fans just might not feel the character.
If a new character is say for instance introduced into the Avengers and after 10 issues or so the character is not well received by the fans they would likely find a way to pull the character and try to make up for it by bringing some long thought dead commrade back to life. This is also kinda how I see the whole Ultimates thing. We cant find writers good enough to bring our heroes into the 21st century correctly so let's just start over from scratch? That's a cop out.
I prefer to see our heroes age and have maybe their children start to fill the ranks or even bring in new blood,either way time as a presence needs to be felt in Comic Universes.I know they have tried stuff like this in elseworlds tales and stuff but they need to start doing it in continuity.
Sorry for the long rant but I have been thinking of starting a thread about the very same subject,so I had quite a bit of stuff stored up.
TheBeyonder
-At some point those that protect us must fail,so that we may learn to protect ourselves. :wink:
Enchantress Wrote:Sure, we all know he grows up to be Psi-Lord and all that...but let's see what happens in the mean time.
I thought the EarthX Franklin was even cooler.
I mean how cool is it that Franklin Richards became Big Purple? Seeing his interaction with reed was really cool.
If you have not read it I highly recommend it. But beware it is a very hefty read and ties in characters from 50 years of continuity so you if your not boned up on your Marvel History you might miss some stuff.I have read it like 4 times and every time I see something new.
