Now that the hero origins retrospective has gone through many heroes, I wonder: which are the ones with the longest ongoing career? And what about the villains?
So here’s the rules: I’m counting the heroes that, as 2024, can still be reasonably be considered as still active.
And it has to be the same character, at least in spirit even if it’s not TECHNICALLY still the same continuity. So not considering the legacy of a character’s name.
OLDEST HEROES
Some of the early superheroes are not counted for obvious reasons since they’re dead: Zatara, Crimson Avenger, the original Angel, Doll Man, Johnny Thunder and Bulletman.
Sandman, Blue Beetle and Hourman still have a legacy, but the originals are dead.
I’m not sure whether to count Ibis as still around or not; I’m not including him however.
I’m not counting the Spectre since the entity is still around, it’s no longer the original host.
So who’s left?
#1: Doctor Occult
Debut: 1935
Career length: 89 years
Longest gap: 47 years (1938 to 1985)
Who else could it have been? He’s cheating a little bit because he was gone for so long, but still counts.
#2: Superman
Debut: 1938
Career length: 86 years
Longest gap: none
He may have started after Dr. Occult, but there’s never been a year without Superman stories.
Heck there hasn’t been A MONTH without them.
#3: Batman
Debut: 1939
Career length: 85 years
Longest gap: none
The OTHER hero without any pause in publishing history.
#4: Human Torch
Debut: 1939
Career length: 85 years
Longest gap: 35 years (1954-1989)
The original Marvel superhero is outshined by his Fantastic Four counterpart, but he’s STILL active today… even if it’s on-and-off.
But he has another distinction: he’s the oldest character in this list that is still in the original continuity.
#5: Namor
Debut: 1939
Career length: 85 years
Longest gap: 7 years (1955-1962)
The OTHER Marvel hero still in the original continuity. But unlike the Human Torch, it didn’t take long for him to return from the Golden Age.
#6: Flash
Debut: 1940
Career length: 84 years
Longest gap: 10 years (1951-1961)
Considering the importance of the introduction of Earth-Two, it’s fascinating that technically speaking he was absent for less time than Namor. And Jay Garrick is still running.
#7: Hawkman
Debut: 1940
Career length: 84 years
Longest gap: 10 years (1951-1961)
Speculating on whether I should consider him the same character hurts my brain, so let’s just say he counts and move on.
#8: Captain Marvel
Debut: 1940
Career length: 84 years
Longest gap: 18 years (1954-1972)
Took him so long he can’t even use his original name anymore.
#9: Robin
Debut: 1940
Career length: 84 years
Longest gap: none
Sure he’s not Robin anymore, but he never stopped. Although unlike Batman there MAY have been months without a story featuring Robin, definitely it’s never been years.
#10: Doctor Fate
Debut: 1940
Career length: 84 years
Longest gap: 19 years (1944-1963)
One of the few significant Golden Age heroes that disappeared before the end of the war.
Several people have been beneath the helmet but I think it still classifies as the original.
OLDEST VILLAINS
This is a much easier list, since there are very few Golden Age villains that come back, and most of them are Batman villains.
I’m not counting the gaps in their careers since it’s very common for supervillains to skip years.
Notable villains missing from this list include Dr. Sivana (he’s WAY too different in the modern version, only the name remains), Prankster and Toyman (when the originals show up, and that’s rare, they’re clearly not the same), and Ares (he’s even called Mars in the original Wonder Woman stories).
#1: Ultra-Humanite
Debut: 1939
Career length: 86 years
Obviously the first Superman supervillain HAD to be on the top.
#2: Hugo Strange
Debut: 1940
Career length: 85 years
Most definitely NOT the only Batman villain on the list.
#3: Lex Luthor
Debut: 1940
Career length: 85 years
He’s completely surpassed the Ultra-Humanite, and that’s terrible.
#4: Joker
#5: Catwoman
Debut: 1940
Career length: 85 years
These two even debuted in the same issue.
#6: Scarecrow
Debut: 1941
Career length: 84 years
He only has TWO stories in the Golden Age!
#7: Red Skull
Debut: 1941
Career length: 84 years
The only Marvel villain in the list. I struggle to even think of a second Marvel villain from the Golden Age that’s still around.
#8: Penguin
Debut: 1941
Career length: 84 years
I still find it fascinating that he dressed like this because it WAS something a normal person could wear at the time of his first appearance, but it’s now become sort of a costume.
#9: Two-Face
Debut: 1942
Career length: 83 years
I just know that he’s dying for not being number 2 on the list, but he’s second-to-last!
#10: Dr. Psycho
Debut: 1943
Career length: 81 years
He barely beats Cheetah by one issue. Although she’s so different I wouldn’t count her.
But what about the ladies? That’s a much, MUCH more difficult list to make!
Today we would not consider the original Black Widow as a hero, and it’s been ages since Red Tornado ended her hero career.
I’m not counting Phantom Lady because the DC version is a different woman, and while I could count the Fox version that eventually ended up in Femforce she’s treated like a different person.
Speaking of DC, Liberty Belle would be #4 if she was still active. And I’m not counting Black Canary since theoretically we’ve been following her daughter for a while.
At Marvel, several heroines skip the top ten on technicalities: Miss America (dead), Hellcat (debuting as Patsy Walker in 1944, but wouldn’t become a hero until much later), Venus (the modern version and the one from the 50s were retconned to be different women).
Also, don’t take this section too seriously because I’m including a few dubious entries.
#1: Hawkgirl
Debut: 1941
Career length: 83 years
Longest gap: 10 years (1951 to 1961)
She debuted a year earlier in her civilian identity, but even starting to count from when she gets her wings she’s still the oldest superheroine still active.
Although once again I’m considering her because I don’t want the trouble of figuring out if we’re supposed to believe it’s the same person.
#2: Miss Victory
Debut: 1941
Career length: 83 years
Longest gap: 38 years (1946 to 1984)
If we don’t consider Hawkgirl to be the same character, then the main character of Femforce takes the spot.
Or I guess she brings the TWO main characters of Femforce.
#3: Wonder Woman
Debut: 1941
Career length: 83 years
Longest gap: none
The third longest superhero career that has never been interrupted, regardless of gender.
From now on most of the superheroines I’m going to mention have yet to show up in the retrospective, but be reassured they’ll all be included.
#4: Mary Marvel
Debut: 1942
Career length: 83 years
Longest gap: 19 years (1953 to 1972)
Pretty much like Captain Marvel, but she does keep her name.
#5: Namora
Debut: 1947
Career length: 77 years
Longest gap: 51 years (1955 to 2006)
Namor’s cousin wasn’t around for more than 50 years!
#6: Yankee Girl
Debut: 1947
Career length: 83 years
Longest gap: 38 years (1946 to 1984)
A superheroine from a lesser known publisher that faded in the public domain…
…guess why she’s still active today?
#7: Batwoman
Debut: 1956
Career length: 68 years
Longest gap: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ll have to go into the specifics during the proper review to understand how to consider the gap and whether or not the modern version is the same. But at the very least they do share the civilian name.
#8: Saturn Girl
Debut: 1958
Career length: 66 years
Longest gap: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s easy to forget, but Saturn Girl is among the oldest heroines still around.
There HAVE been years without Legion stories, but they’re either at the very beginning or they’re so recent I haven’t kept track. Yet.
#9: Supergirl
Debut: 1958
Career length: 66 years
Longest gap: 18 years (1986-2004)
I’m counting as a gap the years when Supergirl was not Superman’s cousin.
#10, 11 and 12: Phantom Girl, Triplicate Girl, Shrinking Violet
Debut: 1961
Career length: 63 years
Longest gap: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This really puts into perspective the fact that, when the Legion introduced THREE new heroines, there wasn’t a lot of competition!
Same point from Saturn Girl regarding the gap.
#13: Invisible Girl
Debut: 1961
Career length: 63 years
Longest gap: 3 years (2015 to 2018)
Just including her to show how few of the early superheroines are still active: we don’t even have to get up to 15 to reach the Marvel Silver Age!
With her only notable gap being the period following 2015’s Secret Wars where she vanished for a while.
SUPER-VILLAINESS
If you thought that doing these for the heroines was hard, it’s a complete mess for the super-villainesses. So I’m just stopping at the oldest five.
As already mentioned I’m not counting Cheetah, and Giganta is even MORE different.
And I’m not including Scarlet Witch since her villain days were very short.
#1: Catwoman
Debut: 1940
Career length: 85 years
She was the only woman in the OTHER list. In fact I can’t think of a single other female supervillain originating in the Golden Age.
She’s been an anti-hero for quite a while at this point, but she’s been a villain FAR longer than Scarlet Witch so I’d say she still counts.
#2: Madame Rouge
Debut: 1964
Career length: 60 years
#3: Enchantress
Debut: 1964
Career length: 60 years
For the longest time she was basically the only regular super-villainess at Marvel, which is why she ends up being in the Dazzler rogues gallery.
#4: Princess Python
Debut: 1965
Career length: 59 years
The Circus of Crime got most of the action in the 60s, but she still comes up from time to time.
#5: Poison Ivy
Debut: 1966
Career length: 58 years
I’m not the only one who constantly forgets that, as far as Batman villains go, she’s not THAT old.
Please keep in mind that I’m definitely leaving out some minor heroes and villains, and that whether you consider the current character to be the same of the original is a very personal choice in this matter.
For #10-13: 1961 was 63 years ago, not 66.
The only other GA supervillainess I can think of is The Huntress (later renamed Tigress), a JSA villain who married The Sportsmaster.
Whoops! Time flies 🙂
There’s at least one other Marvel villain who debuted in the Golden Age and survived into the modern age although he may be dead now, I’m not sure – Agent Axis.
The catch is, he actually started out as a DC villain, as Simon & Kirby created him in Boy Commandos. Then in the 60s, Kirby got a little confused as to where he’d used him back in the day and thought it was in Captain America, so brought him back as an old foe of Cap. If anyone at DC noticed that Kirby had transferred one of their characters to Marvel, they evidently didn’t care enough to make a fuss about it. Roy Thomas used Agent Axis a couple of times in the Invaders, and it looks like the Agent’s last appearance was in 2005 in one of the many Invaders relaunches.
Circus owner Kathy Kane was introduced as a love interest for Batman, to make him appear less gay. Military brat Kate Kane, Bruce Wayne’s first cousin, could never be involved in a romance with him. Besides being closely related, she’s a lesbian. Kate and Kathy ate definitely not the same Batwoman.
In fact, I thought the Grant Morrison run re-introduced the Kathy Kane Batwoman into continuity (or “continuity”) and declared her to have been Kate’s aunt and therefore clearly not the same individual.
There was one issue of Morrison’s Batman Inc which had Kathy as Kate’s aunt. I suspect no one other writer is ever going to refer to that relationship and Kathy is going to remain in comics limbo.
I’d never have remembered Princess Python was older than I am by a year. Really does go back a ways, which is kind of impressive considering her only trick is trained snakes and occasionally carrying a cattle prod. Well, snake prod.