Thunderhead (from 'Ubelmann the Unknown') is at LEAST 98 years old.

[mechahamham]

This is Jim 'Thunderhead' Bartlett:

He's a hero who fought in World War 2 against the Nazis.

 

Your contact tells you this about him:

Quote

Turns out that the World War II era hero Thunderhead is still alive in retirement. Jim 'Thunderhead' Bartlett goes by his civilian name these days, it looks like someone's out to upset his retirement. His granddaughter just reported that he's been kidnapped by the 5th Column!

 

Given that the minimum draft and enlistment enlistment age in the U.S. was 18 at the end of WW2, and that 1945 was 80 years ago as of 2025, this storm/electric defender who likes to melee against 5th Column super soldiers is AT LEAST 98 years old.

 

In 2004, when this arc was brand-spanking new, his minimum age would have been a slightly more realistic 77 years. (I've personally met people that age who remarkably still play tennis.) 21 years later, his appearance and behavior is a little less believable.

 

But this is a game about superheroes, time travel, and other impossible shenanigans. We have several immortals in the cast of characters for Paragon City and its surrounds. I suggest that we alter the text of the mission to reflect Mr. Bartlett's advanced age.

 

"Mister Bartlett is amazingly spry and active for a centenarian, perhaps because of his powers. If he tries to help you fight the 5th Column, keep that in mind. Your priority will be getting him to safety."

Edited Saturday at 07:37 PM by mechahamham

[Rudra]

Then lets update all the contacts and other NPCs. (I'm being sarcastic with that line. Sorry.) You can't compare the time of City of Heroes to real world time. NPCs still make comments about whether or not their cell phones have photo capabilities. Another example is Maria Jenkins in Peregrine Island who is even older. She was Madam Danger fighting alongside Statesman back in the 1930s at least 7 years before World War II even started.(She either started in 1931 or 1932.) Then you have Penelope Yin who is both a child and a teen hero in the game at the same time, but are also at different points in the game's (admittedly very muddied now) timeline. The game's time line advances as the devs decide to advance it, not because our time is advancing.

[LightMaster]

Adding to what Rudra said, it’s a little thing called “Comic Book Time”, meaning that Superhero comic books advance at their own pace rather than real life time, and without completely moving away from the time period the comic has based on. Otherwise, we’ll end up in a situation like post Season 10 Simpsons where the setting have been updated to the time period, but the characters themselves have no aged one bit, making the situation increasingly awkward.

 

This is why I made my own characters’ birthdate and all as ambiguous, as to not ending up being too anachronistic (unless it’s a time traveller or a long-lived wizard, for example) with the timeline of CoX and allowing for flexibility on their usage. Take one of my characters, a leader of the rebellious Legacy of Light members called the Surgers… but when they left the larger Legacy Chain is something to be discovered first, as well as me looking things up for when the Legacy Chain is established.

[srmalloy]

2 hours ago, mechahamham said:

Given that the minimum draft and enlistment enlistment age in the U.S. was 18 at the end of WW2, and that 1945 was 80 years ago as of 2025, this storm/electric defender who likes to melee against 5th Column super soldiers is AT LEAST 98 years old.

Calvin Graham enlisted in the US Navy on August 15, 1942, becoming the youngest person to serve in WWII, being 12 at the time of his enlistment. Many recruiters didn't require presentation of a birth certificate, and at the time, there were still a large number of people who never received birth certificates at all. As long as you didn't do something to arouse suspicion, it was rarely checked. An example of this was Jack. W. Hill, inducted into the USMC on July 8, 1944 with the USMC service number 1,000,000; it later turned up that the induction board that had sworn him in had done so without a check into his background, based only on verbal statements by himself and his parents, and was 16 at the time of induction. He was quietly discharged in December 1944, re-enlisting in 1946 after he turned 18.

 

Assuming that the history of the CoH universe didn't change enough to knock Calvin Graham out of his spot as the youngest enlistee to serve in WWII, that would potentially make Thunderhead's age a minimum of 93 years old instead of 98. Not a change big enough to make any real difference, but possible.

[keyguardactive]

I don't see specifics of where he got his powers, but considering he shows up in Mutation origin contacts, lets make that our educated guess. Who is to say that his mutation doesn't make him extra spry in his advanced years? Marvel's Magneto was a child in WWII, and he's still running around punching people. 

[Biff Pow]

Surprised he's lived that long the way he charges groups of enemies and immediately gets defeated.

[Triumphant]

Yeah, I just assume his superpowers slow the aging process, so you still retains a degree of physical youth and vigor.

[UltraAlt]

On 11/15/2025 at 2:36 PM, mechahamham said:

Given that the minimum draft and enlistment enlistment age in the U.S. was 18 at the end of WW2, and that 1945 was 80 years ago as of 2025, this storm/electric defender who likes to melee against 5th Column super soldiers is AT LEAST 98 years old.

 

In 2004, when this arc was brand-spanking new, his minimum age would have been a slightly more realistic 77 years. (I've personally met people that age who remarkably still play tennis.) 21 years later, his appearance and behavior is a little less believable.

 

But I thought it still is 2004.

Look at all the CRT monitors, desk phones ... heck ... payphones on the street corner.

Those Menders meddling again ... I bet.

They are mangling the timestream and have you thinking it is 2025 when there is evidence all around you that it is 2004!

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, UltraAlt said:

Look at all the CRT monitors, desk phones ... heck ... payphones on the street corner.

Not just CRTs -- look at them; they're running Windows 95/98.

[Skyhawke]

He moisturizes. 

[Arbegla]

There are very few definite time table things in City of Heroes. I think it would make more sense to list the things that are constants (Statesmen/Sister Psyche's 'disappearance') then to list to ones that aren't (Darrin Wade's time table is most confusing, but referenced a lot these days)

[El D]

It's incredibly odd to hold CoH to comicbook time, or claim that very little of its content has specific dates, when it's always been in real time from the start.

 

The canon timeline advanced concurrently with the release of every Issue, and included numerous specifically dated historical events for many signature heroes along with real world events at the correct points in history. The Paragon Times catalogued changes as they occurred, similarly showing they happened when the content was released. Literally everything about the revamp of the Rikti War Zone, Hero 1, and Vanguard only worked if it occurred when it was released, years after the Rikti Invasion. Kallisti Wharf's introduction only works if the game's timeline is post-Praetorian War - there's enemy groups that don't exist yet, let alone have access to Paragon City, if the Incarnate trials haven't concluded by then. The Protest Too Much badge references events happening in 2018 that set up Blackwing Industries and the Bicentennial badge only works if 2023 has come and gone (conveniently tying in to when it was placed in-game via Issue 27). Many of the Bicentennial plaques specifically reference the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s, not to mention all the other historical badge plaques from Live pointing to things from colonial times to World War 2 to the War on Drugs in the 1970s & 1980s. The whole Piecemeal arc and the Dr. Aeon Strike Force literally can't exist concurrently with old content they reference as already having happened and there's content on Beta right now for Issue 28, Page 3 involving the revamped 'all the arcs from Live already happened' Striga and high level Skulls, who didn't exist as a thing until recently.

 

Rant aside, just make the longevity part of Bartlett's mutation. If he was that buff in his seventies, he can still be that buff in his nineties. Magneto manages, so why not Thunderhead?

[Rudra]

59 minutes ago, El D said:

Literally everything about the revamp of the Rikti War Zone, Hero 1, and Vanguard only worked if it occurred when it was released,

Correct, new events happen when they are released. That advances the game's time line. It does not change any previous parts of the game. Again, Penelope Yin can be found in the game simultaneously as a child in Faultline being protected by some Clockwork at her father's shop and as an older teen hero in Independence Port. The game's time line advances as the devs advance it, not as real time advances. And even when the time line advances in the game, previous content is still at its place in the game's time line.

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Rudra
Edited to add missed "and".

[lemming]

I just go with Ouro really messed up the timelines.

 

Mender Lazarus: "Man, sometimes I hate time travel."