Why are major supervillains so often older than their superhero counterparts?

Lena, who had feelings for Lex, refused and for her trouble was beaten to death by her father.

Gracious. Murder -- what a bother!

I think it's interesting how most of the recent Marvel and DC movies have decided to go down this route too. Off the top of my head, in all of these movies the villain is clearly older than the hero(es), and sometimes even an older relative or a parental figure:

Iron Man
Iron Man 2
Captain America
Thor 2
Captain America 2
Guardians of the Galaxy
Doctor Strange
Spider-Man
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Spider-Man
Thor 3
Man of Steel
Wonder Woman
Justice League

And in Avengers 3 they're gonna fight Thanos, who's the step-father of the two of the protagonists.

Avengers 2 and Captain America 3 are kinda bordeline, cos in the former the villain is an ageless robot, and in the latter there's is a mastermind roughly the same age as the heroes, but really the antagonists are the other heroes. Iron Man 3, Avengers 1, Thor 1 and Ant-Man feature antagonists who are pretty much the villainous counterparts of the heroes and around the same age. Superman vs. Batman is the only example I can think of, where the villain is younger than the heroes.

I wonder if this is a larger trend in science fiction (Darth Vader comes to mind), or something unique to superheroes? In fantasy this kinda makes sense, since the antagonists are often (demi)gods/wizards/etc, who'd you expect to be ancient, but in superhero stories there usually still human, or at least the same race as the hero.

This is also true of basically every myth throughout recorded history, though. The oldest superbeings have always hated humanity. Civil War subverts this trope by having the older super face off against the younger one, ie Cap's greater faith in people vs Tony's weary, utilitarian cynicism. There's very little else, in any genre, that's done so.

in Little Orphan Annie you have the youngest and the oldest executing a flanking maneuver against some middle-aged assholes. Orphan narratives frequently do that, I guess.

i.e. Moses & God vs Egypt (imagines the pharaoh as an alcoholic foster parent singing about how much he hates kids)

"What's the matter with kids Jews todaaay"

Btw I’ve just learned about Tim Tangherlini so I haven’t checked all this out but it seems like good stuff

http://ucla.academia.edu/TTangherlini

This is also true of basically every myth throughout recorded history, though.

Is it, though? In the Bible, for example, Satan is greated by God, and therefore is one of his children. In Norse myths Loki is typically depicted as younger than Odin, and some of the big bads (Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Hel) are Loki's children, so clearly of a younger generation than the heroes.

Civil War subverts this trope by having the older super face off against the younger one, ie Cap's greater faith in people vs Tony's weary, utilitarian cynicism.

Are you referring to Cap as the older one here? Because even though Steve was born before Tony, Tony is physically older and has spent more years in a conscious state. He's also the oldest of all the superheroes involved in the conflict, so it makes sense for him to be the world-weary, realpolitik type. While Steve is literally a remnant of a more innocent, black-and-white era. So I don't think the movie subverts the trope at all.

Something that goes against this trope is the original Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in which Hyde is at first depicted as smaller and younger than Dr Jekyll

In the Bible, for example, Satan is greated by God, and therefore is one of his children

NT = Satan is the older bad guy, Jesus is the younger hero (would also accept God as older bad guy)

Because everybody wants to beat up their dad, that's why.

Odin kills Ymir, who is definitely older

also Loki is not Thor's brother - he's *Odin's* brother, making him technically the uncle of his traditional enemy (Thor)

anyway, Tombot is right, the "kill your parents/older generation" strain is super-common in mythological systems the world over

These sorts of things occur a lot, right? When I was a kid, I used to wonder why it was the small guy in the cartoon duo who was the brains of the operation while the big guy was slow and bungling, when in real life it was my (slightly older, taller) friend who had all the smarts.

(maybe also worth noting that Satan is not in the OT, where God is nominally the metaphysical protagonist. When Satan does finally show up in the NT, Jesus is the younger protagonist)

xxp

Peter Parker fought some hella old dudes at the beginning, when he was at his youngest -- the Vulture, The Tinkerer. Disparity in ages was pretty extreme. [I know the Tinkerer was really a Skrull or something.]

J.J.J. was also an old guy. The Lizard was a professor. And of course the Green Goblin wasn't just a metaphorical father figure, but literally the dad of Pete's buddy.

Of course, when you're in high school, most people are older than you. But Pete was surrounded by old/older folks... even on the good side (Aunt May).