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The Defenders are one of Marvel’s strangest teams, and that’s saying something. Long known as the “non-team,” its original roster consisted of the Hulk, Dr. Strange, Namor, and Silver Surfer. Since then, various heroes have joined the team, everyone from Asgardians like Valkyrie to mutants like Beast to street-level heroes like Daredevil. The team has been around a long time, and they’ve had some titanic adventures.
One of the most fun parts of comics is trying to figure out the ages of the characters. The Defenders have always run the gamut of hero types, and their ages can be ascertained with just a little work.
9 Daredevil Is In His Mid To Late Thirties
Daredevil is one of the easier heroes when it comes to figuring out his age. It all comes down to his law degree and having his own practice. A law degree takes about three years to earn on its own, so figure about seven years in total university time, from freshmen year to graduating law school. However, let’s assume that Matt Murdock was an excellent student and did it in five, although it could have been shorter than that.
That puts him at twenty-three upon graduation. Factor in a couple of years to get his name out there and start his own practice, during which he would have been Daredeviling. It’s widely recognized the modern Marvel Universe has been going on for fifteen years, and he’s been around since almost the beginning. At the youngest, he’s about thirty-six, and at the oldest around thirty-eight.
8 Nighthawk Is In His Early Forties
Nighthawk is a very interesting Defender, as his first appearance wasn’t as a Defender. The first Kyle Richmond that fans met was in the Squadron Supreme and from an alternate universe. This original version was in his thirties, and readers know this because he was elected President in the Squadron Supreme maxi-series of the mid-80s.
While this is a different version of Nighthawk, it does give Kyle a baseline age to work with. Figure the Defenders have been around for about ten years since their debut. Kyle didn’t start with the group and was a copy of the alternate universe version, created by the Grandmaster. If the Grandmaster made an exact copy, Nighthawk would have been in his mid-thirties and is probably now in his early forties.
7 Valkyrie Is At Least A Millennia Old
Valkyrie is most likely the oldest member of the Defenders. Brunhilde’s code name isn’t just Valkyrie; that’s her job in the Norse pantheon. She’s been ferrying dead Viking warriors to Valhalla for a long time while also helping fight the battles of Asgard. She has more experience than any other member of the team and is actually one of the smartest Defenders for this reason.
Valkyrie has been around for at least a thousand years, possibly longer. It’s hard to know exactly when the Valkyries came into being in Asgard, but one would assume that it coincided with Viking times since their entire job was bringing worthy Viking warriors to Valhalla. This puts Valkyrie in the millennia age range.
6 Moondragon Is In Her Mid To Late Twenties
Moondragon has long been one of the most powerful Defenders, and she possibly has the most tragic backstory. Thanos killed her family on a whim, and Mentor took her in to make up for his son’s brutality. This is where she gained her telepathic powers. Eventually, she’d join the Defenders and later the Infinity Watch and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Moondragon was a young girl when Thanos killed her family. Mentor certainly wouldn’t have thrown her into being a superhero at too young of an age, so she was at least eighteen when she joined the Defenders. By now, she’d probably be somewhere in her mid to late twenties, most likely around twenty-six.
5 Beast Is At Least Thirty, Possibly A Little Older
Outside of the founding four, Beast is easily the most important Defender. While he’s since become a rather shady customer, as liable to help commit atrocities as stop them, for a time, he was just a lovable superhero, bouncing between the X-Men, Avengers, and Defenders. His age is actually pretty easy to figure out as he’s been around since the beginning of the modern Marvel Universe.
Beast was probably about fifteen at the time of X-Men #1, although it’s possible he was old as seventeen. Add fifteen to that, which would put him anywhere between thirty and thirty-two. This makes him among the oldest of the original X-Men.
4 It’s Impossible To Know How Old Silver Surfer Is
The Silver Surfer is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. He’s easily the most powerful Defender, with the Power Cosmic giving him a wide variety of powers. However, that doesn’t make it easy to figure out how old Norrin Radd is. To begin with, it’s impossible to know how his people age or what the length of their solar years are compared to Earth’s.
One can assume that Silver Surfer is in his thirties, but without knowing the baselines for his species and planet, an age can’t be figured out. It’s also impossible to know how long he was in space with Galactus before coming Earth, as well, so the whole process is futile.
3 Namor Is Around A Hundred Years Old
Namor is one of the strongest aquatic superheroes in comics, although he isn’t always a hero. A half-Atlantean/half-human hybrid, he’s a mutant with prolonged aging. He’s also one of Marvel’s first superheroes, debuting in the Golden Age and fighting in World War II alongside Captain America, the original Human Torch, and the Invaders.
He was already King of Atlantis at this point, so one can figure he was between twenty and thirty when he came to the surface world. While Marvel’s sliding time scale affects some things about the individual characters’ lives, it can’t affect the date of World War II. This puts Namor around a hundred and as old as hundred and ten.
2 The Hulk Is In His Late Thirties
The Hulk has changed a lot over the years, always mutating into a new Hulk. One of the first Marvel heroes of the Silver Age, his age is actually easy to figure out. A physics prodigy, one can assume that he graduated from college earlier than most other doctorate students. He was probably around twenty-two with a PhD in physics, working for Ross and the US government almost immediately after graduation.
From there, one just adds fifteen to that, and he’s around thirty-seven, give or take a few years for a margin of error. He’s probably the youngest of the original four Defenders since it’s impossible to know how old Silver Surfer is.
1 Doctor Strange Is In His Late Forties
Doctor Strange is no spring chicken and never has been. It’s actually kind of hard to figure out his age since he’s always had the grey sideburns like Reed Richards. One can make some inferences, though, from context clues. For example, he was already a successful neurosurgeon and one of the most powerful sorcerers ever when he debuted, two things that took a lot of studying.
So, he was probably between thirty and thirty-four when he debuted, giving him time to get his degree, become well known, have his accident, and learn magic. All of that would contribute to him going grey a bit early, so adding fifteen to that estimate would put him in his late forties.
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