Vague Age / Comic Books

• Emily Reilly from Anya's Ghost. Most descriptions and her appearance in the story state she was a "little girl" at the time of her death (which was in 1917 if the story is set in 2011), while most (readers and Anya) assume her to be around Anya's age. Either way, her age isn't clear.
• Asterix: Asterix himself is described as being "older than he looks." Between the art style used for all the characters, and the features of Asterix himself, he looks somewhere between 20 and 60. What that actually makes him is anyone's guess. Lampshaded in The Cauldron, where he's working for a wrestling promoter who actually describes him in his 'roll-up' pitch as being 'of indeterminate age'. (One short story strip of dubious canoninity - due to being outside of an official volume and containing some inconsistencies with other stories – states Asterix and Obelix are 35 "when their adventures begin".) Many other characters have ambiguous ages too.
• Batman:
  • Prior to DC Infinite Frontier, DC tried to keep it where Bruce Wayne himself appeared to be around his 20s or 30s, depending on the era, despite the multiple sidekicks and even fathering Damian Wayne — especially during The New 52 and DC Rebirth. That said, with Infinite Frontier, DC just gave up and decided to actually let Bruce finally be in his 40s with Batman (Chip Zdarsky) and Knight Terrors having Bruce dealing with feeling his age.
  • Alfred Pennyworth is typically already an adult when Bruce is a kid, but it's not really clear how old he's supposed to be, and adaptations can wildly vary in his age. Promotional materials for The Batman painted his age at around his early 50s even after Bruce has been Batman for three years, yet if Sean Pertwee's age is anything to go by, the Alfred in Gotham is around that when Thomas and Martha Wayne died. Michael Caine was 71 during the filming of Batman Begins, which features a Bruce Wayne who's 30 and just starting out as Batman; Jeremy Irons was 65 for the filming of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which features a Bruce Wayne in his 40s with a 20 year career as the Dark Knight; and Andy Serkis was 56 when filming began on The Batman (2022), which features a Bruce who's only into his second year as Batman. Greg Rucka's novelization of Batman: No Man's Land states Alfred couldn't be older than 60 when Bruce had been Batman for ten years.
  • Harley Quinn looks like she's in her 20s and acts like a teenager, but it's also been shown that she's Obfuscating Stupidity. Harley has graduated college and either became a psychologist or a psychiatrist Depending on the Writer. If the latter, then she finished medical school and is in her late twenties at earliest. Hell, in Rebirth we are introduced to the Arkham Knight aka Astrid Arkham who is explicitly stated to be in their late teens to early twenties. And in the flashback showing their birth, Harley is one of the Arkham inmates (pre-Heel–Face Turn of course) present...assuming she was in her early to mid-twenties at the time that would make her at least forty.
  • The Joker is never given a definite age, partly due to Comic-Book Time, although also as sort of a Riddle for the Ages. He usually appears to be in his thirties, but, as he might not even be human, he could be older than Gotham itself.
  • Barring Gotham, where's he's already an adult when Bruce is a kid, Matches Malone's age in unknown, but he's young enough that Bruce can successfully pull off a Dead Person Impersonation by posing as Matches to spy on his enemies.
  • Dick Grayson's age when he became Robin has ranged heavily. In older stories, he's clearly meant to be in his early teens at most, but many writers treat him as if he was at least a high schooler then.
• In Fawcett's Captain Marvel stories, the official guidelines for writers say that while Billy Batson is fourteen (twelve when the series started), his age should never be stated so that kids can relate to him no matter how old they are. Though he was 15 in Shazam!: The New Beginning and 10 in The Power of Shazam! graphic novel when he began his superhero career.
• Doctor Strange started out somewhere in his fifties, though the standard depiction is of a man somewhere in his mid-forties. Even so, the only real indication of his greater age are some lines on his face and the streaks of greying hair at his temples.
• Donald Duck:
  • Donald Duck's nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie in Carl Barks' comics. In one story they are in kindergarten; in another they are shown driving a car! (The "kindergarten" they are attending is a rather unusual one, however; in the background of the first panel, there appears to be an integral equation written on the blackboard.)
  • Also Donald Duck himself. It's obvious that he is not really young or old, but it's not clear (and it depends on the writer) if he's still somewhat young like in his late twenties or he is middle-aged.
• Franklin Richards, the child of Fantastic Four members Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, was somewhere between four and ten for many decades of comics. Whether his reality warp power cause the age vagueness or if the age vagueness causes the reality warping is up for debate. It's actually a Running Gag that his age is never stated. It has also been suggested that he is the source of whatever effect it is that has kept the Fantastic Four's maiden flight "about ten years ago" for the last thirty years or so. This eventually came to an end under Dan Slott, who aged him up to a teenager in 2018 (he was born in an annual in 1968, so this is still a case of massively slow aging).
• In Flash Forward, the returning Jai and Irey West appear to be in their mid teens, however, in the post-Infinite Frontier Flash series, their appearance and demeanour are more akin to preadolescents. This could be interpreted as them having to rapidly mature in a difficult situation and regressing back to childhood when safe at home. Or it could be a result of the various timeline shenanigans that affected the universe in general and their family specifically between those two books.
  • Then in The Flash (Dawn of DC) they, along with Maxine Baker, appear to have aged four years overnight and are suddenly on the other side of puberty.
• Gaston Lagaffe: Lagaffe is old enough to smoke and have a car, a job, and his own place, but young enough to constantly play around at work and bawl his eyes out over very little.
• Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Pal, would go back and forth between being old enough to drive, have a pilot's license and drink, and still being in high school, touching on every stage of life in between at least once. Lampshaded in Action Comics #865 where a childhood-obsessed, adult hating version of the Toyman tells his story to Jimmy Olsen alone because he doesn't trust anyone over the age of eighteen. Jimmy kicks him over and shouts that he's twenty-three years old exactly.
• The pygmies in Pocket God may appear to be small children given their size, but most of them don't act like it. They don't even know their own ages or how long they've been around; probably as a side effect of their Resurrective Immortality.
• Scott Pilgrim lampshaded this all the time with Ramona Flowers. While every other character would have their age blatantly stated every time they were introduced (especially Knives Chau, 17 Years Old), Ramona's introduction was always followed by "Age Unknown." At one point, Scott lampshades the lampshading when Ramona gets mad at him for not knowing how old she is. He defends himself with, "But your age is unknown!"
  • She is eventually revealed to be 24 at the end of volume four.
• Granted, The Smurfs are defined as 100 years old (with the exception of Papa Smurf who is 542, Baby Smurf who is two, and Smurfette and the former Naughties from the second live-action movie, who were created later), but what makes them an example of the trope is the fact that it's unclear which human age equals that; most of them have specific jobs inside the village, yet they frequently play ball and act immature. Maybe one thing or the other may be the consequence of living in a small village led by their father (Papa Smurf is no mere name — he raised the 98 Smurfs). They were more clearly defined as adults when three of them were age-reversed to Smurflings, which made the adult Smurfs behave somewhat more mature. This gets even more complicated with the appearance of Gutsy Smurf with his sideburns in the live-action movie, since most of his fellow Smurfs don't have facial hair.
• Spirou & Fantasio: Spirou spent the 1950s stuck in a limbo where he looked like a teenager (being one head shorter than his adult friend Fantasio), but drove a car and had his own apartment. He finally became unambiguously adult shortly before or after André Franquin left the series.
• Squirrel Girl was 14 years old when she was first introduced in 1992, but since it's nearly impossible to measure the passage of time in the Marvel Universe, subsequent writers couldn't seem to agree on how old she should be. New Avengers hinted at a past sexual relationship with Wolverine, implying that she was an adult and probably in her 20's, while The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl has her as a college freshman, which would indicate she's around 18.
• Tintin: It's never made exactly clear how old Tintin is. He is obviously young, but has no problems going round the world and getting into adventures without any mention of parents or the like, and he's old enough to drink. It is known that he works as a reporter, but he's not seen actually performing this job. He does live together with Captain Haddock in his castle, along with Professor Calculus. In response to this, Herge was actually asked to create a character with a family, mum, dad, little sister, pet, etc. in order to have a more "realistic" series of adventures. The result was Jo, Zette and Jocko, a fun, but less successful series. As Herge pointed out, it was much harder to keep track of all those characters. At least good old Tintin was unencumbered. Not everyone gets to be an orphan.
• Wonder Woman Vol 1: Etta Candy perpetually claims to be sixteen, despite every character that interacts with her knowing she's older. Since no one is sure just how much older than sixteen she is it works out for her, and she refuses to tell anyone her true age with the Holliday Girls having an annual 17th birthday party for her.
• Thanks to her Healing Factor being forcibly activated at the age of seven, X-23's age becomes much less clear. She looks about 17, but because her aging process is slowed by her mutation, she can easily be years older than this. However a closer look at the dates given in her various solo appearances does confirm an age of 17 by the time she joins the X-books proper: She escaped the Facility at 13, was 14-15 while staying with her cousin and aunt (which can be verified because Megan was still in high school, and is known to be a couple years older than Laura), and 15-16 during NYX.
• Weapon Hex: The first issue takes place over the course of 18-19 years, starting before Laura/Weapon Hex's conception and ending on what is presumably her 18th birthday. The second issue takes place over the course of less than a day. Ironically, during that time, Laura (a Composite Character of X-23 and Scarlet Witch) is the only character who visibly ages.
  • Hellhound's only physical change is that, when Laura is 10, Hellhound has a pair of horns that weren't there eight years earlier. Even her hair length stays fairly consistent. Justified, since she has a healing factor that most likely affects her aging.
  • Sarah's hair starts off short and spiky, staying like that from before Laura's conception to when Laura is 5. By the time Laura is 10, Sarah's hair is neck-length, and it stays that way until her death. Possibly justified, assuming whatever magic Herbert uses on himself can be used on her as well.
  • Herbert Wyndham is the biggest offender, going through absolutely no physical changes during the two decades that pass over the course of Issue 1. Even his mohawk stays the same length. Justified, since he has an assortment of magical abilities, some of which could easily allow him to slow down his aging or stop it entirely.
• Kitty Pryde is the original example of this in X-Men comics. Introduced the Tagalong Kid of the team, she slowly appeared to age up. This came to a head when Warren Ellis took the reigns of Excalibur and decided he wanted Kitty to be in a relationship with the very much adult Peter Wisdom. This sent the Marvel Offices into a panic because in their minds, Kitty was still a "teenager". Eventually, they found middle ground and decided to portray the romance as being like "Leia and Han Solo." Since then, writers have been extremely vague with exactly how old Kitty actually is, especially considering there's been other characters who were introduced as teenagers after Kitty who rapidly aged up to be the same age as her or even older.