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Re: Jack Harkness.
1. One of his wives, Lucia Moretti, died of old age; another, Estelle Cole, was killed by fairies.
2. Jack's daughter, Alice Carter, appears to be the same age that he is, but remember, he’s 2000+ years old when we meet her.Reply
Just recently read "Forever" which was rather interesting, if not very similar in some ways to Highlander, though much better researched. But in any case the main character is a young Irishman witnessing the entire history of Manhattan. It's also often rather violent which it's soft glow book cover betrays.Reply
Oh, and if we're talking comic books, there's also the entire cast of Fables. Not only are they eternally youthful, but depending on how popular their stories are, some can even survive a point-blank gunshot wound to the head.Reply
First up: Mr. Immortal from the GLA (who basically has the exact same powers as Captain Jack, except dies even more frequently and painfully)
Second: The Immortal (from the 1970 TV Series). Hunted by a dying billionaire who wants to use his miraculous Type-O super-blood, Ben Richards travels from town to town, always one step ahead of his pursuers, just like his buddies The Fugitive and The Incredible Hulk. Ironically, Richard's blood grants him super-immunity to diseases and renders him ageless, but it doesn't make him indestructable.Reply
Wolverine over Superman? Are you kidding. Superman has been seen either aged in the 31st Century (Kingdom Come), ageless in the 853rd Century (DC One Million) and in an issue of the Flash is around to watch the sun die. Wolverine has nothing on the big, blue, boy scout for longevity.Reply
In Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentleman series, Mina Murray, Allan Quartermain, and Orlando have all bathed in a mystical pool that grants youth and immortality.
In DC Comics, several Golden Agers are still kicking around and fighting fit: Alan Scott (Green Lantern), Jay Garrick (The Flash), and Ted Grant (Wildcat).
I don't know if he counts as a hero, but the immortal Hob Galding was always one of my favorite characters from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series.Reply
@CJG: Mina Murray isn't a vampire, she is just a normal (yet extraordinary) woman who survived a vampire attack. Shame what that movie did to such an awesome comic.
The only thing that movie did right was to cast an Indian as Nemo- seriously, how many movies are going to cast an englishman as Nemo?Reply
It really pains me to think that they are going to try and remake Highlander. Sure, you can have better FX, but how can you replace: a Frenchman speaking with a mangled Scottish accent, a Scotsman pretending to be Egyptian, a rockin' Queen soundtrack, and last but not least, Clancy Brown.
You can't, so don't even try it.Reply
That thing about Captn' Jack being the Face of Boe seems kinda like a last-minute thing, not thought out very well. In the Doctor's and Boe's previous encounters there is talk about "boekind" and other stuff that indicate that the Boe is a species or something, also coming from a specific planet.
Then again, the flipside is that the Face of Boe has been living for an eternity (or is it lives? Or had? Timetravel....), and a lot happens in that timeframe. Add some RTD fantasy and you might as well end up with Jack being the beginning of a whole new species.
Also, if Boe is Jack, how can he die? So, his life support jar broke, but c'mon, the guy regenerated from a pile of basically nothing in CoE.
Here's hoping that Moffat includes the face of Boe in the new series, he's definitely one of the more interesting characters.Reply
@MrThunderfield: Technically, the Face of Boe could be 'the last of his kind' and still be the Jack. Recall that true humans have all died out by that time (as we see in all the Cassandra episodes). Though of course you then have to wonder if Jack technically is (pure blooded) human or if he comes from too far in the future himself.Reply
@CJG: There's also no telling what Jack goes through over millions of years. He could easily encounter powers great enough to alter his physical state, his immortality, whatever - countering the "fixed point in time."Reply
@MrThunderfield: I don't think it's really understood that Jack is definitely immortal, in a mythic sense, all we know for now is that he "can't die", based on the fact that he hasn't died YET.
He's referred a few times to "a few more grey hairs", so it does seem that he's aging, albeit really, really slowly. I take it that after millions or billions of years of living Jack either ages/evolves into something new, or his life force (as you will) is altered by time or events and his position as a "fixed point" changes. I think the suggestion is that if you live as long as Jack/Boe, there's no way that you can be the same thing you started off as.
Also, we see the Face of Boe die and assume he stays dead because the Doctor seems sad about it. it's possible that he didn't stay that way...Reply
@Miss. Money-Sterling: I always thought he said that just to not make people around him feel bad about their own mortality.
But I totally agree that everything imaginable could have happened to him during those million billion years.Reply
@CJG: Yeah... But people also talk about "boekind" on Dr. Who, implying that there are more like him.
Again, a lot of stuff happen in a multi-billion year timeframe.Reply
@Elijah: Agreed. And easier to understand, better-looking, and after all (SPOILERS if you're a decade behind) turns out he was The One Who Can Only Be.Reply
@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.:
Not quite fair. Duncan had a TV series devoted to him. Six seasons is a lot of air time devoted to fleshing out a character.Reply
Re: Jenny Sparks/Wildstorm heroes - didn't Warren Ellis (in 'Planetary') introduce the idea that a bunch of post humans, not just Jenny Sparks, but Elijah Snow, Doc Brass, and others, were long lived/functionally eternal? Something to do with being born at the beginning of the century and Earth providing itself (herself?) with a type of superhuman immune system?
Also there was the 1970's tv character 'The Immortal', based on some short stories by James Gunn.
Would the 'original' Jack Harkness, Captain Scarlet (and Captain Black), or the long-running paperback hero Perry Rhodan count?Reply
john carter awoke on barsoom with whole new body. And still aged on earth.
Connor Macleod was the original and the best ( in the highlander series ).
for god sakes , does she ever take off the cheerleader out fit ?!
didn`t Takeshi Kovacs get new bodies in the book series?Reply
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