@toa_deserok said:
Here is my question: Why couldn't Marvel just allow a major marriage (like storm and T'Challa) and something of a child being conceived in the process of that marriage? If they did that with the proper writer flow and emphasis, it could actually prove to be a unique and engaging story builder.
There are a variety of reasons that having children is usually a major no-no for major characters in the main continuity:
1. It "ages" the characters. Teens are likely to be less likely to relate to a parent.
2. The "Franklin Richards" syndrome - It's VERY difficult to handle the aging of said children once they're born, as once again, doing so ages their parents to a point many readers might find less relatable. The sliding timescale is designed to keep all characters in their "prime" and having children is a major stumbling block for that same timescale. Comics have already had problems stemming from teen sidekicks "growing up" while their mentors don't age, and children tend to cause the same problem only magnified.
3. It's often a narrative dead-end. Unless "family" is a major theme of the book (ala Fantastic Four) the kid just tends to be a plot device, and is usually unceremoniously taken out of play in some manner before long (to avoid the problems above) whether through death, plot-induced age-up, or being sent away "someplace safe" and then conveniently forgotten about.
Basically, most of it stems from the need to keep the major characters "young" enough to be marketable. While some would enjoy a Marvel Universe where everyone ages and new generations take over, from a business/marketing perspective it would be sidelining your most profitable icons in an environment where creating truly successful new characters is VERY difficult.
Children can sometimes be pulled off (though even then they tend to cause problems, see Franklin Richards above), but generally they become more of an inconvenience for writers rather than a useful plot element.
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