AI Reveals What Superheroes Look Like When They Get Older

What happens when superheroes become senior citizens? The same thing that happens to most other people — at least, that's the case if you ask AI content generator midjourney.man, who has shared what some of Marvel's and DC's most famous good guys might look like when they become older.

The short AI clip starts by introducing a stocky, gray-bearded Superman whose frayed costume has seen better days, as has Batman, who's next in line. The Dark Knight's iconic cowl is intact, and his expression is as stern as ever, but the ravages of time have not been kind, and he looks a good deal older and more frail than his Kryptonian crime-fighting colleague. We also see another version of an aged Batman who looks far larger and angrier.

For the Marvel Comics representatives of the "elderly hero" genre, midjourney.man has interestingly chosen two heroes who age very differently from baseline humans. As a result, they look comparatively fresh. The slow-aging Wolverine looks like a slightly more grizzled version of the character fans have known for decades, while the functionally immortal Hulk looks more or less like you'd expect him to, save for a few extra wrinkles and pronounced jowls. Of course, considering that the whole concept is showing what these characters look like when they get older, this approach makes sense for both.

Telling stories about older versions of popular superheroes is a longstanding comic book tradition. In fact, all four characters in the AI clip have had their share of famous tales featuring old versions of themselves. Mark Waid and Alex Ross' 1996 DC miniseries "Kingdom Come" features Superman, Batman, and other superheroes in a setting where they're 20 years older than usual. Frank Miller and Klaus Janson's 1986 story, "The Dark Knight Returns," is arguably the most famous comic to feature an older Batman (who, incidentally, looks a fair bit like one of midjourney.man's versions.)

It's the same on the Marvel side of things. One of the best-known Wolverine comic arcs is Mark Millar, Steve McNiven, and Dexter Vines' dystopic 2008-2009 miniseries "Old Man Logan," while the Hulk meets his terrible bearded Hulk counterpart — the elderly Maestro – in Peter David and George Pérez's 1992 series, "Hulk: Future Imperfect."

AI creators, on the other hand, often focus on a different sort of experimenting with time and superheroes, looking more to the past than the future. We've seen AI create the perfect 1990s "Justice League," as well as a spectacularly weird 1950s "Spider-Man" trailer. With all these anachronistic AI superheroes flying around, it's interesting to see midjourney.man's AI take on more or less contemporary superheroes who are simply older. Just don't pay too much attention to Superman's costume, which, for some reason, seems to be painted on the guy.