Once & Future: Why We Need More Aging Comic Book Heroes
In Once & Future, a comic series created by Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, and Tamra Bonvillain, Arthurian mythology comes to life in the modern day U.K. with disastrous results. When a local news report announces that a sword has been stolen from an archeological site, Bridgette, a retired monster hunter, recognizes the signs of etherial danger brewing. She inevitably gets pulled back into the fray and drags her earnest, but oblivious grandson along with her.
Bridgette is a flawed and unconventional hero, but her story reveals why older adults can be great additions to comic book adventures.
1. She has more room for a compelling backstory
Bridgette has a complicated past with more than one skeleton in her closet. Given her age, there is a longer timeline that can be filled in with surprising secrets, relationships, and mistakes. This gives older characters like her a lot of potential for an intriguing backstory, making their adventures that much more compelling.
Duncan is shocked when he learns about his grandmother’s real profession. She intentionally hid this aspect of her life from him, but it can also be easy for younger people to forget that older generations have lived full lives before we came along. We tend to think of our grandparents at the age that we got to know them and ignore the part of the story that we missed. This illusion is broken rather abruptly for Duncan when Bridgette reveals her stash of weapons and vampire-slaying past.
2. It takes a lot to unnerve her.
As mythic forces cause violence and chaos across the U.K., Bridgette is able to keep a level head because she’s seen it all before. When facing a personal or professional challenge, older people like Bridgette have a much broader set of experiences to pull from to help process and manage the situation. There is also evidence that as we age, we get better at regulating our emotions.
Her ability to control her panic allows them to act quickly and definitively. However, that doesn’t mean her actions are rash.
3. She’s made all of the mistakes already.
Once Duncan has been brought into the fold and gets on a monster slaying streak, he wants to go all in and try to end the battle as quickly as possible. However, Bridgette is able to guide them towards more strategic fights and predicts Duncan’s mistakes because she’s made a version of them herself.
In comic books, we often expect the hero to rush in to save the day (Magnus in the Adventure Zone is a great parody of this), but that isn’t always the wisest move. While Bridgette blames her physical limitations for not wanting to traipse around in the dark looking for trouble, it’s also a better idea in the long run to not waste energy on fruitless tasks.
There are many reasons why older characters can contribute to exciting comic book adventures, but unfortunately characters like Bridgette are not that common or easy to find. Given the growing older population in the U.S. and around the world, I hope more writers will start to see the value of including wider age ranges in their stories.
Stay tuned for more on representations of aging in comic books by following my page.
