If the characters actually aged in real time how old would they be now in 2010?

A little background. I'm thinking of starting a roleplay campaign in a world where the Marvel characters exist, but didn't put on costumes and aged normally from the point at which they appeared. So Peter Parker was 15 in 1962 and so in 2010 would be 63, and able to be a grandfather to a character in the campaign.

So working on that basis how old would the iconic characters of the MU have been on their first appearances, and with a little maths how old would they be now? Any help/guesswork would be appreciated.

Most of the classic Marvel characters began in the early '60s and many of them were World War 2 veterans (Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Tony Stark among others)
A few were as young as Spidey (Johnny Storm and Iceman) and the other X-Men a year or two older, but for the most part the major heroes of the Marvel Universe would be between 63 and 86 years old!

As a side note, I was born in 1954 so I'm 55 and have read comics since I was a little kid. When I was in elementary school I remember Reed and Sue getting married, Peter and Johnny going off to college, and Sue getting pregnant. As I got older and they stayed the same it got a little curious to me. I graduated college before Peter did, and now I have grey in my beard and Reed still just has a little around his temples.

In 50 years they've probably aged about 10 years. Maybe.
Nice trick, wish it could work in real life!

That's the thing that really bugs me. Historical events move at the same rate, but birth dates keep moving. It gets really messy when you start thinking about Wolverine, who really is supposed to be old and has met tons of other characters during different eras. I can just see him hanging out with Cyclops and being like "Remember back in the 70's when we met Dazzler and went to a disco?" and then Cyclops being like "I was born in 1982..."

And what about Black Widow and Nick Fury and the other blatant World War 2 guys? I can suspend reality and believe that technology is keeping them fresh, but when they start pushing 100, I think I'll be out of tolerance. They're not relatable anymore. They're no longer grizzled vets, they're just people who are out of their time period. They might as well be Wild West cowboys or King Arthur's knights.

And then there's people who just don't make sense anymore. Luke Cage is supposed to be a hardened guy from Harlem. A huge part of his history involves operating out of Times Square when it was dangerous... the problem is that in the last 20 years (Assuming Cage is now in his 30's), New York has been super safe, and Times Square has been super expensive. "Realistically," there's no way the 70's era Luke Cage comics could have happened. Again, I can suspend reality and say that comic New York is different than regular New York (Prices must be lower with constant attacks...), but I don't really want to admit that, since it will damage the semi-realism that makes Marvel fun.

Ah well, I'm confusing myself.

In some ways I wish a lot of them hadn't aged even that much. I still miss the "early" Spider-Man, when Parker was in college, Captain Stacy was alive, and Gwen, and Maryanne was just "one of the girls" --and a carefree party girl at that.

Something about Parker being a kid --or at least barely an adult, did more for me than the young adult version we have now.

One of the more interesting "reverse-aging" tricks has been with Hank Pym.

I remember in the 80's he was around his early 40's ("twice as old as Jan"); I'm pretty sure that's been reduced a bit.

Doesnt Nick have the immortal life serum?

Namor was born around 1920, so he's 90. So was Cap (actually a little youger, late 80's like 87).
Strange is more like 1936 so 74
Professor X would be about 80-ish
Wolverine was born between 1835 to 1880, so old. really old
Exodus was born circa 1716.
Magneto is almost 80
Mystique about 1885 or so (her and Destiny met in 1901) so 125
Sabertooth is pushing 200.
Apocalypse is like 5000.

Punisher is 70 or late 60's

Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, and Dr. Strange have powers that by there nature should allow them to age at a dramatically slower rate than even Spider Man (Spider Man's healing powers slightly slow his aging process). Then there are guys like Apocalypse, Juggernaut, and The Hulk who will probable never age. Most of Marvel's super seniors will be those without great power like Iron Man, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Black Panther, others might resort to becoming vampires rather than face life in a nursing home sipping coco.

My favorite Marvel hero Daredevil came out in April 1964 and assuming Matt Murdock and his partner Foggy Nelson had just finished law school and opened their law office just before the book started. Then I believe it would have both of them being born in either 1938 or 1939. That would make both of them 71 or 72 years old today.

Also Elektra went to Columbia with Matt, so she should be in her mid to late 60's.

So all 3 of them would be old enough for grandkids and great-grandkids.

Aunt May = three days older than God.

He does, but the point I was making is that his history is becoming pointless. When he was new, he was a cool character since he was an old tough guy right out of the war. It was believable and something people could relate to.
Nowadays when he mentions his World War 2 experiences it's like "So what? That was only 4 years of your life and the stuff you've done since then has been much more intense."

It's just getting played out. He's not like a tough grandpa anymore. He's just some sort of immortal phantom.

So Machine Man was built in 2001 in 1977... Wait... Um...

*head explodes*

I'm just starting to get that feeling. When I was at uni I was a big X-Men fan and the original guys were being portrayed as in their late twenties, about ten years older than me. Now I'm 34 and Cyke is about 30. I've overtaken him somewhere along the line.

When I mentioned this idea to my brother his suspension of disbelief cracked when I told him that in this universe Franklin actually grew up!

I wish I could rep you for that, but I must have done so for something else recently!

Cheers for these. They mostly tally with what I thought (though I pegged Matt Murdock as being early thirties right from the beginning to now and was thinking of him as being 79ish).

Some of the approximate ages I came up with were:-

Steve Rogers - 90
Reed - 85
Ben - 85 (with Reed at college)
Sue - 73
Johnny - 65
Doom - 85 (see Reed and Ben)
Bruce Banner - 77
Donald Blake - 76
Tony Stark - 78
Stephen Strange - 82
The X-Men First Class - 62-65
Colossus - 51
Storm - 55
Nightcrawler - 56
Luke Cage - 62
Punisher - 66
The New Mutants - 42-44

The biggest quandries I have are Professor X and Magneto. Forgetting any later back stories that were retconned in how old are they in their initial appearances in X-Men 1? Looking at him the Professor could be anywhere from late 30s to mid-to-late 50s. What do I place him as? And what about Magneto? What age is he supposed to be in those early appearances? Any thoughts?

I thought both Prof X and Magneto were WW2 Holocaust survivors, making them just slightly younger than Nick Fury, Reed and Cap - so in the late 70's to mid 80's range.

Don't quote me, but I believe it was said that 5 years of comic time had passed between Amazing Spider-Man 150 (clone saga) and the return of the clone (400's?).