History Main / OldSuperhero

* The extremely short-lived ''LegendsOfTheSuperheroes'' had, as its second and final episode, a CelebrityRoast for "Retired Man".
* ''SaturdayNightLive'' had a few sketches featuring Mike Myers as "Middle-Aged Man," whose superpower ''was'' that he was old and thus had more wisdom and experience than young people.

* The video for the song "Kryptonite" by Three Doors Down was built entirely around this trope.

* A variant of this occurs in ''OsuTatakaeOuendan 2'', where one stage revolves around an elderly version of the Japanese folk hero Momotaro being called out of retirement to once again drive away the ''oni'' from Onigashima. He goes and fights them, then for some reason convinces them to open a theme park. Seriously.
* Captain Blue in ''ViewtifulJoe'' visually matches this trope, but can still fight with the best of them.

* Paco from ''{{Anachronox}}''. He's not old, he is a depressed drunkard, but still.

* Are we forgetting ''EvilInc''? Captain Heroic and Evil Atom, for starters.

* ''GunXSword'' has the El Dora V, a CombiningMecha piloted by a FiveManBand (well, four- TheChick of the team is dead) of old guys who come out of retirement to protect their town. Their first opponent constantly complains that their methods are obsolete, but they manage to win in the end. The show takes the opportunity to homage all kinds of SuperRobot shows from the '70s, '80s, and '90s, including Anime/CombattlerV and Anime/GaoGaiGar.

* ''GunXSword'' has the El Dora V, a CombiningMecha piloted by a FiveManBand (well, four- TheChick of the team is dead) of old guys who come out of retirement to protect their town. Their first opponent constantly complains that their methods are obsolete, but they manage to win in the end. The show takes the opportunity to homage all kinds of SuperRobot shows from the '70s, '80s, and '90s, including CombattlerV and GaoGaiGar.
* Mr Legend from ''TigerAndBunny''. An unusual variation—rather than being a young, athletic hero who since retired and let himself go, Mr. Legend performed many of his heroics whilst an overweight middle-aged man... and was no less effective for it. [[spoiler: Until he lost his powers.]]

* Both the animated version of ''TheTick'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}'' visited superhero retirement homes. The Tick met Golden Age-type characters including Captain Decency (a Captain America type), The Seeing Eye (who could shoot his eyes out of his head), Sufra-Jet (a play on 'suffragette', now an old lady in a jetpack), and The Living Doll ("I'm full of tinier men!"). Captain Decency had a few teenage sidekicks over the years, but they're all off on their own.

This can also be applied to [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks WWII-era]] heroes; the character is nearly the same except for the type of outdated slang he uses.

* The Alan Arkin movie ''TheReturnOfCaptainInvincible'' is equal parts this trope and ''RockyHorrorPictureShow'', attempting to play the whole mess for SoBadItsGood laughs. It vastly overshoots the mark.
* Chronically unappreciated All-American Boy in ''SkyHigh'' is the past-his-prime sidekick without the retired superhero. His assigned mentor, The Commander, is still operating at his peak, while All-American Boy is now teaching "hero support" classes in the eponymous hero school. Downplayed as All-American Boy is all but decrepit, and is still able to help the heroes.

** Worse, the first time we see him - in a flashback to how a young Kotetsu was inspired to become a hero - Mr Legend bears a certain similarity to, say, [[TheIncredibles Mr. Incredible]]. And then episode 16 comes around, and we find out just how badly [[spoiler: losing his powers]] affected Mr Legend. [[spoiler: Confronted with the reality of his fading powers and the fact that [=HeroTV=] stage arrests for him, Legend becomes an abusive alcoholic.]] Same Old Superhero, two ''very'' different sides.

* [[TheIncredibles Mr. Incredible]] is not as old as most of the examples shown here, but fifteen years after his forced retirement he is noticeably out of shape, and is still holding on to his glory days, even doing superhero work in secret.

* ''InHeroYearsImDead'' runs on this trope. The main character, Coyote is a retired superhero, and all the superheroes he knew from his glory day are retired as well.

* Chronically unappreciated All-American Boy in ''SkyHigh'' is the past-his-prime sidekick without the retired superhero. His assigned mentor, The Commander, is still operating at his peak, while All-American Boy is now teaching "hero support" classes in the eponymous hero school. Partially subverted as All-American Boy is all but decrepit, and is still able to help the heroes.

** And then there's the story "Old Times", where the aged Supersonic is called out of retirement to deal with one last crisis. It doesn't go so well because Supersonic isn't as sound of mind as he once was and can't think of a clever way to deal with the giant robot.
*** Better than that -- in the olden days, he'd come up with some clever way of taking down the seemingly-impossible enemy- probably a nonlethal way that gets it into somewhere safe to fight. Now, he just whales on it until it breaks, [[DestructiveSavior destroying six blocks of residential buildings]] in the process. Sounds a bit like the shift into gritty realism that normal comics have gone through...

* The Green Termite from ''TheAmazingExtraordinaryFriends''.

* The Swedish Advent Calendar series ''{{Superhjaltejul}}'' centres around retired superheroes Stålhenrik (Steel-Henrik) and Supersnällasilversara (Superkindsilversara), telling the story about their first adventure to their grandchildren Vega and Nova.

*** Better than that -- in the olden days, he'd come up with some clever way of taking down the seemingly-impossible enemy- probably a nonlethal way that gets it into somewhere safe to fight. Now, he just wales on it until it breaks, [[DestructiveSavior destroying six blocks of residential buildings]] in the process. Sounds a bit like the shift into gritty realism that normal comics have gone through...

*** Plus there's the first two episodes with Inque. In the first one, when she snuck into the batcave Bruce took her on with a firehose (While wearing the Gray Ghosts mask), and in the second, [[spoiler: When Inque catches Terry and demands "The old guy" come out so she can get him, Bruce arrives wearing a powered armor prototype he had earlier told Terry was much too stressful on its wearer to be used.]]

* In the short-lived ''[[Series/TheFlash1990 The Flash'', Paul Winfield played a retired judge who moonlighted as a vigilante named Nightshade in the late '50s. He came out of retirement to join the Flash in fighting one of his old enemies who had emerged from [[HumanPopsicle cryogenic sleep]].

* In the short-lived '80s version of ''Series/TheFlash'', Paul Winfield played a retired judge who moonlighted as a vigilante named Nightshade in the late '50s. He came out of retirement to join the Flash in fighting one of his old enemies who had emerged from [[HumanPopsicle cryogenic sleep]].

* The Jesus League of America, one of the many thing fought by ''MarshalLaw''. They're zombies.

This character rarely shows up in actual SuperHero [[ComicBookTropes comics]]. Instead, ComicBookTime usually applies; heroes don't age unless the story calls for them to or unless they don't appear in a comic for a while. If one does age, they'll usually still able to hold their own, often having their powers or equipment make up the difference. The original (Jay Garrick) [[TheFlash Flash]] and the (Alan Scott) GreenLantern are major examples of this; they may be in their 90s but between their adventures that led to their physical ages being slowed and their powers, they are respected elders in the TheDCU's superhero community. Others become still-active [[CoolOldGuy Cool Old Guys]], just look at the ''JusticeSocietyOfAmerica''.

* Pretty much one of the things that defines the JusticeSocietyOfAmerica is the amount of Golden Age superheroes (appropriately aged) that comprise its roster. Even though they've had young heroes like Stargirl and Damage, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about the JSA are the veterans: [[TheFlash Jay Garrick]], [[GreenLantern Alan Scott]], [[DoctorFate Kent Nelson]], Ted Grant (Wildcat) and so on. In a subversion, though, they still display the same degree of physical preparation and badassitude from the time they were created.
* ''TheDarkKnightReturns'' has an old superhero ''bar.'' The kicker is, the book is set in the future, so all the superheroes are (in the current continuity) young and active.

* The comic book series ''WelcomeToTranquility'' is based on the idea of a whole town full of old superheroes (and supervillains), more or less retired.

* Back when the eponymous hero of ''{{Nightwing}}'' still lived in Bludhaven, his downstairs neighbor was a hero from the World War II era, the Tarantula. Even having grown up with superheroes, Nightwing was still fascinated by the man.
* ''TheAuthority''. In response to the eponymous team staging a bloodless coup, a BigBad brings back a stable of WW2 superheros [[note]]Thinly veiled expies of the Comicbook/FreedomFighters team from DC[[/note]] who are decrepit and senile in a retirement home. He reverses their aging and turns up their powers and sets them loose to start a revolution. Things go very wrong. Now the leader of the team impales cops on the American flag and anyone who freely chose the Authority religion gets slaughtered.

* Rising Sun in TheDCU, an over-the-hill hero out of Japan who spends most of his time nowadays criticizing the current super-generation, specifically the SuperYoungTeam. He's become a paunchy alcoholic, a pathetic imitation of the paragon he once was. He eventually gets [[spoiler:possessed by a Mr. Mind parasite and becomes the ultimate threat faced by the Super Young Team]].
* One ''{{Superman}}'' comic featured a retirement home for supervillains, who sat around still dressed in their costumes remeniscing about their GloryDays.
* The Legionary, one of the Club of Heroes in ''Franchise/{{Batman}}: TheBlackGlove''. No older than the other heroes, but he has gotten fat and become a fame whore.
* A ''ComicBook/DarkwingDuck'' comic in ''DisneyAdventures'' featured a villain who stole the masks of other heroes. Gosalyn got some retired heroes whose masks were taken to help out.

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* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has Genghiz Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde, a group of barbarian adventurers (and one geography teacher), the youngest of whom is in his eighties. Other characters assume that their advanced age has left them feeble and incapable, conveniently forgetting that these guys [[BadassGrandpa have lived to be octogenarians in a career that kills most people that go into it before they reach age twenty-five]]. They don't move as quickly as they once did, but [[KungFuClairvoyance they don't]] [[GenreSavvy have to.]] Cohen and the Silver Horde are actually upset that they've reached old age since they would have preferred dying young and gloriously. The death of one of their members via choking on soup drives them to go on one last adventure to get payback on the gods for denying them glory.

* Rising Sun in TheDCU, an over-the-hill hero out of Japan who spends most of his time nowadays criticizing the current super-generation, specifically the Super Young Team. He's become a paunchy alcoholic, a pathetic imitation of the paragon he once was. He eventually gets [[spoiler:possessed by a Mr. Mind parasite and becomes the ultimate threat faced by the Super Young Team]].

* ''Slingers'' had the Golden Age character Black Marvel act as a mentor to the team. However, it later turned out that he was just manipulating them into preparing the public for his return, which naturally went disastrously.

* The French series Hero Corp, takes place in a whole village of such retired superheroes. Most of them are not that old, however, but their powers have certainly decreased a lot from their prime.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' had Gligarman, a {{Batman}} parody who tried to ''continue'' the superheroing business, but was completely useless except in selling his own merchandise.

* The Legionary, one of the Club of Heroes in ''{{Batman}}: TheBlackGlove''. No older than the other heroes, but he has gotten fat and become a fame whore.

* ''AstroCity'' is rife with examples of this trope, as it establishes a long history of generational superheroes. Some (e.g. The Confessor, The Hanged Man) are extraordinarily long-lived, but some have retired and still make appearances in various capacities (many of them at former hero [[GoodGuyBar K.O. Carson's bar, Bruisers]]). The oldest we know of was Coyotl, who was (presumably significantly) pre-Colonial native american. The oldest that we know is still alive is Iron Horse, a steam-powered automaton who's been active in some form since the 1860s.