Should the characters grow with us?

[jackfaire]

I got into comic books when I was 11 years old in the year 1991. It was a unique time be into comic books if like me you were a DC fan.

Flash was Wally West who had replaced his uncle when I was 5 years old. Hal Jordan had gray in his hair had been around for a long time and was about to be replaced by Kyle Rayner.

Tim Drake took over the position of Robin and in 93 got his own solo title.

It was a time of new characters being introduced some around my age. This meant a lot to me but I wouldn't know it for a long time.

I always seemed to be at an age where characters I liked were around my age. Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, How I Met Your Mother etc.

In the shows I liked the characters would age with me. We would grow and go through a set number of years together until the show would be cancelled.

Others though well I am now nearing my 40s and Tim Drake is a member of the Teen Titans. Wally West lost a good 10 years of age and Kyle Rayner hasn't been seen around in awhile.

At the same time comic book companies are finding it harder and harder to sell their books or at least the ones with heroes that have been around for decades without aging.

In my opinion what should happen is every so many years a set of characters should be introduced that effectively grow and age with their readers. This allows a range of say 10 years. Like tomorrow introduce a set of characters and you will have readers on 5 years above that and 5 years below that relating to the characters and following them into the next stages of life.

The problem is instead you look up and one day the problems the character you related to is dealing with are no longer problems you can relate to. Now Tim Drake is dealing with issues my daughter is more likely to have than me.

Tim Drake should like Dick Grayson have become another "Batman" creating an adult persona for himself picking a city and giving me stories to read.

This doesn't stop people from reading comic books but it results in like with me moving away from those comics. Around the time I turned 20 those characters that were 20 something I kept reading. Rayner, Danvers, West. But the others the still teens I dropped moving onto other titles.

So what do you think should the characters age with us or should we just move away from the hobby that we love?

[s_stabeler]

I partially agree. The thing is, to an extend, far too much emphasis is put on keeping, say, Bruce Wayne as Batman, when it could be far more interesting if there was, in fact, a succession- that is, Robin either becomes a hero in their own right- like Dick became Nightwing- or the current Batman retires from Batman- possibly becoming something along the lines of Oracle, or providing training to the next generation of heroes- while a newer generation takes up the mantle of heroics.(it's also be more realistic because over time, combat takes a greater toll on somebody's body. have former superheroes and supervillians retire, and show how a new hero- with their own background- takes on the task of combatting a new generation of supervillain.)