I began to notice this as a kid, or, rather, I noticed the converse: Marvel Comics characters have cool names. There's something about the Marvel names that just sounds so good, so right. (I would guess that I'm reacting to a forced lack of ethnicity -- which is interesting given that all the characters were created by Jews -- except that I don't think that's quite it.) Anyway, DC gives us:
Clark Kent
Bruce Wayne
Hal Jordan
Wally West
Bart Allen
Oliver Queen
Dinah Drake Lance
Billy Batson
I mean, "Clark"? "Bart"? Oliver "Queen"? I have never met a "Clark," ever. Meanwhile, Marvel provides:
Peter Parker
Tony Stark
Jane Foster
Reed Richards
Ben Grimm
Matt Murdock
Rick Jones
Bruce Banner
Right? Now those are some names. (Maybe I'm not playing fair by omitting Donald Blake and Johnny Storm -- or "Pepper Potts" -- but those are still pretty cool. I mean, "Johnny Storm"? I can get behind it. And "Pepper Potts" is just so ridiculous that you can kind of dig it, you know?)
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I think those names are more consistent with the era. I mean, how many people do you know who are named "Blanche", for example (my grandmother's name)?
Before meeting a new patient I can often tell how old they are just by seeing their name. For example, every time I see the name "Ashley" I know that it's going to be a woman born in the 80's
I think it's funny that Stan Lee likes to repeat letters in Marvel villains like "Doctor Doom", "Green Goblin", "Baron Blood", "Black Bunny Brigade", "Doctor Dredd"...
Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Lana Lang
I think the alliterative name thing is a superhero trope that goes beyond Stan Lee, although he is a big reason for it. But don't forget that most of the people Superman knows have the initials L.L. Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Lana Lang, Lori Lemaris, uh... Lizarro, Laniac.
I think Jordan's point is on target and JPX's age/name point is, too. But of course I feel I can name plenty of counterexamples to push Jordan's point either way.
Lois Lane... who's named Lois anymore? Superman's buddy Pete Ross... pretty normal. Lana Lang -- nope, don't think I've ever met a Lana (although I have met a Clark).
But what about Johnny Blaze? Reed Richards? Thanos? If you ever meet a guy named Thanos you know he's, like, 300 or 400 years old.
Dang, Jordan beat me to the L.L. punch.
I forgot Happy Hogan.
Here's a list of every Marvel villain, http://marvel.com/universe/Category:Villains
It'd be funny if the L. L. initials actually did apply to "most of the people Superman knows." (Like, dozens of people? Hundreds?)
Lerry Lite, Limmy Lolsen...
I'd say Nick Fury makes the case for Marvel's name realness. Even with the "Fury," you don't get more "real guy" than Nick.
I forgot Steve Rogers. That's another good one. (They're all such good names!)
The names are so important. "Captain James Kirk" is a cool name (and I know that they struggled with pages and pages of alternatives before settling on that one). What the hell kind of choice is "Commander John Koenig"?
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