(bright music)
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If you're not reading Marvel's Spidey comic,
you really should be.
It is great and follows a young Peter Parker
around the time he first gains his powers
and starts to become
that crime fighting web slinger we know and love.
But there are a few inconsistencies with the timeline.
I mean, Spiderman was a hero
when The Ed Sullivan Show was airing new episodes
and John Belushi was on SNL.
This new Spidey series,
which is still meant to be in continuity
with those same comics from the '60s and '70s,
shows a world with smartphones, Twitter,
and the Game of Thrones TV show.
How is that even possible?
How does time in the Marvel Universe work?
(energetic rock music)
Originally, Marvel's continuity worked
basically in real time.
When the world was thrown into war, so were the comics.
Captain America fought Hitler and the Nazis in the 1940s,
then later fought communists in the 1950s.
The Fantastic Four's origin was entrenched in the Cold War.
Iron Man's in Vietnam.
As Marvel went on to introduce
some of their most popular characters,
they initially aged in real time.
Peter Parker was a high school student
when he first debuted.
And it only took him a full 28 issues,
from 1962 to 1965,
to graduate and enroll in college.
But time in comics is weird and inconsistent.
It follows no rules.
It wasn't long before stories
stopped happening in real time.
And in 1967, we got the first reference of Marvel time
in a letters column regarding a fan asking
how long it would actually take for Sue Storm
to finally give birth to her son, Franklin Richards,
whom we'll talk more about in a bit.
In their response, Marvel explained, quote,
"We can't stand this battle between real time
"and Marvel time another second (real time, that is)!
"So we're gonna sock it to ya straight!
"Although a complete story may take place within a day,
"that doesn't necessarily mean the next story
"takes place the very next day.
"The following yarn could begin the next week,
"the next month, or even the next year!
"Then, on the other hand, the next 20 issues
"might occur within a period of 20 days."
This makes nailing down exactly how much characters age
from story to story pretty complicated.
In Sensational She-Hulk,
a character named Weezy tries to make it a little simpler,
explaining that characters remain roughly the same age
so long as they continue appearing in comic books.
She, herself, used to be the golden age hero in the 1940s
named the Blonde Phantom,
married to a detective named Mark Mason.
Weezy explained to She-Hulk that she
and Mark stopped appearing in comics before the 1950s.
They started to grow older.
The two waited and waited for their chance
to make a return to the pages of superhero comics, but
they waited too long.
Mark passed away in his old age.
Quote, "But you see, if we'd still been in a comic book,
"he'd still have been 35."
At the time it might have just been easier for Marvel
to age their characters in real time,
but that presents some problems.
Most notably, Marvel had no idea
they'd still be making new stories
about their then freshly thought up heroes
over 50 years later.
After a handful of years,
they realized that their characters were aging too quickly.
If Spiderman really was 15 in 1962,
and he aged at the same rate we do,
he'd be nearing his 70s today.
I'd be impressed if the spandex still looked as good.
Marvel didn't wanna risk retiring the characters
that had made them a cultural phenomenon,
and so they had to come up with a plan.
Time in the Marvel Universe had to slow down,
keeping their heroes younger for longer.
Even though Spiderman graduated high school in real time,
the next four years of his college life
spanned across 13 years of our time
from 1965 to 1978.
But this solution creates its own set of issues.
It's one thing for Marvel to make time run slower,
but that would mean that their characters
would be forever stuck in the 1960s and '70s,
where most of them first appeared,
potentially making their heroes
and the world they live in less and less relatable
as time in the real world moves forward.
However, Marvel decided that keeping their world
consistent with our own was important.
So they had to do something a little counter-intuitive
and kind of clever.
They had to disconnect the timelines
of the world's they created
and the characters who live in it.
To demonstrate this, let's look at Iron Man,
a character whose origin initially took place
during the Vietnam War.
To keep Tony Stark from aging,
Marvel could have just framed all of his stories
in this same time period forever.
But they didn't.
Tony lives in a world that resembles closely our own.
Iron Man and the world he lives in
progress at alarmingly different rates.
Time seems to slide past him.
To compensate, Marvel has to update his origin,
compressing the events forward in time.
No longer was he captured during the Vietnam War,
Stark was now captured during the war in Afghanistan.
And that'll only continue to change,
and possibly become more vague.
Punisher, a Vietnam vet,
who was even featured in Marvel's The 'Nam comic,
had his origin updated as well,
so he that was never even serving in Vietnam.
Comic writer Greg Rucka explained that they changed it
because they, quote, "Wanted to make Frank younger,
"because if he fought in Vietnam,
"he'd be in his 70s,
"and I get more mileage out of him being in his early 40s."
He went on to explain, quote,
"In that broad brush vague Marvel Universe sense,
"there's always the war, whatever it was.
"If that put him in the Middle East
"rather than South East Asia,
"I think that matters less
"for the purposes of the Marvel Universe," end quote.
It's the same sliding timescale
that allows us to see Spidey's origin
both in a time with The Ed Sullivan Show and Twitter.
Peter remained the same as the timeline moved forward.
This does present another problem, however.
As the characters in the Marvel Universe
refuse to age normally,
all of their adventures over the past 50-plus years
of continuity seem to have all taken place within
(grumbles) 10 or so years?
The timeline of their heroic triumphs
and their depressing failures is compressed.
This has the problem of taking power away
from what should be powerful events.
Aliens invade now every few weeks it seems.
There's a possible world-ending event every other month.
It's, you know, it's just what happens.
Characters would die and come back to life
in the blink of an eye.
Or on the off chance that someone did stay dead,
the compressed timeline means that we, as observers,
might see other characters mourning their tragic loss
for years, when really, it'd only be,
you know, a couple days.
There's just no breathing room.
No time for anything to sink in
before we move on to the next big story.
Which, I don't know, maybe is intentional.
It mirrors the life of a superhero.
As Spidey asked, "Can super heroes ever take the day off?
"Asking for a friend."
Marvel's attitude of maintaining the status quo
and never seeing their heroes truly progress
seems almost childish.
So it's no wonder that many have drawn comparisons
between the editors at Marvel
and one of their own characters, Franklin Richards.
The son of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman,
Franklin Richards was born with incredible powers.
He can effectively control everything.
He can create a manipulate entire universes.
Much like real life Marvel writers and editors,
Franklin controls the very fabric
of their comic book universe,
and doesn't want it to change.
Franklin arrived on the scene
in Fantastic Four annual number six from 1968,
around the period when Marvel Comics
stopped progressing in real time.
Since that day he has barely aged.
His birth marked the slowing down of time
in the Marvel Universe.
Afraid of change, it's Franklin who keeps everyone young
as the world progresses around them.
Well, at least characters that he slash Marvel care about.
(popping)
Sorry, Weezy.
Marvel Comics is Franklin Richards.
And Franklin Richards is a child.
He doesn't want the world to change.
He doesn't want to risk people growing up and moving on.
Franklin likes things the way they are,
so he keeps them that way by jumping through hoops
and coming up with crazy, convoluted stories
that ultimately maintain the status quo.
We think we see change,
but all we really see is the illusion of change.
Time in the Marvel Universe moves forward,
but the characters in it hang back.
Because Franklin is too scared of losing those close to him.
Which is to say that Marvel itself is too afraid
of once and for all closing the books
on their beloved characters.
They might have to sooner rather than later.
Not in the comics, but in the cinematic universe.
The actors are aging,
and only so many movies can be made each year.
How many more stories with Iron Man
and Captain America and Black Widow do we have left?
Eventually, contracts will expire
and the actors will find work elsewhere.
And Marvel will be left with the decision
of either recasting
or finally allowing their heroes to grow up and move on.
And if it's met with a favorable reception,
who knows?
Perhaps we might see their comic book counterparts
follow suit, at long last getting that day off
that they have earned.
What do you guys think about Marvel time?
Would you like to see heroes progress in real time?
Or kept young?
Do you Marvel Studios should continuously recast roles?
Or let the actors end their hero's journey naturally?
Let's talk about it all in the comments down below.
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If you like this video,
we've put together a whole playlist of time related videos,
featuring The Flash, Dr. Who,
and that one time
that Lois Lane almost became Superman's mom.
Yes, that's pretty weird.
We've also got this other playlist of videos
on the history of the comic book industry
that you should absolutely check out
by clicking either right here,
or the link in the description down below.
And make sure you hit that big sexy subscribe button,
so you don't miss out on all the new videos we make for you,
every Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
that explore the history, science, art,
and philosophy behind your favorite comic book superheroes.
My name is Scott, reminding you to read between the panels,
and grow smarter through comics.
See ya.