Exactly how old is the Punisher? ***SPOILER**** Punisher #3

[Marvelous]

There are a few things that I know after reading Born and current Garth Ennis written Punisher comics. In Born, if I remember correctly, he served in Nam in 1968 as a Marine Captain. Since he was an officer, that most likely means he had a college degree. So at the bare minimum he was 23-24 years old in 1968 if you assume he went to college when he was 18 and graduated when he was 22 and was promoted from 2nd lieutenant to 1st lieutenant to Captain while in Nam over a period of a year or two. Is the Punisher a 59 to 60 year old Hero? Even if he went to Nam as an enlisted Marine as a private at 16 or 17 years old with his parents permission and received a battlefield commission to the Officers ranks he still would be at least 52 to 53 years old. Why didn't Marvel update his origin to the Gulf War or something? What is the origin of the Punisher character in the movie coming out this April? The actor looks pretty young to be in his 50s.

 

[g-man]

in the ASM #129,135,161,162,174,175...to me he looks like 35-40.......

 

in "today's Marvel time...." who knows?

[Marvelous]

Looks in his early to mid-thirties in some comics and early 40s in others. Maybe Marvel should just be a little generic about tying characters to events in the real world. Say the Punisher was in a war, but don't be specific about what war.

[Marvelous]

I seem to recall reading a Nick Fury Agent of Shield comic book in the mid-80s. In the comic they came up with the idea that Fury was taking a version of the super serum that created Captain America that kept him from aging. Maybe Ennis will come up with some idea like that for the Punisher. I could be reading into issue #3 more than what it is, but are they hinting in the story that he might be possessed by some spiritual force. Maybe there is some mystical force possessing Frank that is keeping him from aging a la Ghost Rider.

[FlyingDonut]

SPOILER WARNING!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Punisher 3, the age of his dead kids is given as 37 and 33, and they make allusions to him being 60, which would make sense from a timeline perspective. He would have been 28 or 29 in "Punisher: Born", which makes sense, 30 or 31 in ASM 129, which makes sense, and so on. The story line definitely refers to the Punisher as being in Vietnam, as the characters talk about his "third tour", which, I'm assuming, is the Punisher: Born series. That makes sense.

 

However, that also means that "Marvel Time" doesn't apply to the Punisher, because if it did, Peter Parker would be 50 or so.

[Marvelous]

*****Spoiler*****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No doubt that Spider-man, Fantastic Four etc... would be 50-60 or more in real time. I think last FF issue a reference was made that Sue Storm was 30 and Franklin celebrated his 8th birthday. They can do that because those characters aren't tied to an event like the Punisher is to Vietnam. I don't even think Ironman was tied to Vietnam. If I remember correctly it is open to interpretation where he was in Asia.

[Aces]

*****Spoiler****

No doubt that Spider-man, Fantastic Four etc... would be 50-60 or more in real time. I think last FF issue a reference was made that Sue Storm was 30 and Franklin celebrated his 8th birthday. They can do that because those characters aren't tied to an event like the Punisher is to Vietnam. I don't even think Ironman was tied to Vietnam. If I remember correctly it is open to interpretation where he was in Asia.

 

 

Reed and Ben fought in World War 2!

Ben was a fighter pilot and Reed was an intelligence officer helping out the underground in occupied Europe.

 

Even if they were 18 or 19 in 1944 this would make them nearly 80 years old now...

[MMMarvel-migration]

*****Spoiler****

No doubt that Spider-man, Fantastic Four etc... would be 50-60 or more in real time. I think last FF issue a reference was made that Sue Storm was 30 and Franklin celebrated his 8th birthday. They can do that because those characters aren't tied to an event like the Punisher is to Vietnam. I don't even think Ironman was tied to Vietnam. If I remember correctly it is open to interpretation where he was in Asia.

 

 

Reed and Ben fought in World War 2!

Ben was a fighter pilot and Reed was an intelligence officer helping out the underground in occupied Europe.

 

Even if they were 18 or 19 in 1944 this would make them nearly 80 years old now...

 

Did not know that Reed and Ben were tied to WW2. What issue is this shown in?

[Aces]

Major Reed Richards is in Sgt Fury 3 and Ben being a WW2 fighter pilot I think was mentioned as far back as FF 1 but off hand I can't give you a quote.

 

I'll have to do some cheking...

[DDPGambit]

I'm pretty sure that "Marvel time" is 5 years in comics per every 25 years real time. This would be about right if Franklin is 8, and he first appeared towards the end of the 60's. However, the Beast is around 30 years old (In X-Men 24 in 1993 he mentions that he is about to turn 30) and was between 17 and 19 when X-Men #1 hit in 1963. So at the 30th anniversery of X-Men, Beast had aged around 11-13 years.

I know that at some point I had it all figured out, but then those crazy mutants keep messing it up! Dang Kitty Pryde aging, but Jubilee doesn't!