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Post by Duragizer on Jun 25, 2022 19:51:01 GMT -5
In the name of fairness, Bruce Banner shoud have been renamed "He-Hulk"
He could have had a crossover with He-Man (another of my least favourite character names ever).
To be fair, almost all the MOTU characters have atrocious names. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2022 21:26:38 GMT -5
It's only among those inured to the silliness of comics from long experience wearing the rose-tinted glasses and drinking the Kool Aid that something like Spider-Man, Batman or The Thing is accepted as less absurd for a character name than He-Man or She-Hulk.
-M
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Post by berkley on Jun 25, 2022 22:53:47 GMT -5
It's only among those inured to the silliness of comics from long experience wearing the rose-tinted glasses and drinking the Kool Aid that something like Spider-Man, Batman or The Thing is accepted as less absurd for a character name than He-Man or She-Hulk. -M
Not at all. It is obviously possible to talk about a different level and/or special quality of silliness within the broader silliness of superhero naming conventions as a whole, just as we sometimes talk about certain costumes being especially silly within the general absurdity of superhero costumes as such.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2022 22:58:28 GMT -5
It's only among those inured to the silliness of comics from long experience wearing the rose-tinted glasses and drinking the Kool Aid that something like Spider-Man, Batman or The Thing is accepted as less absurd for a character name than He-Man or She-Hulk. -M Not at all. It is obviously possible to talk about a different level and/or special quality of silliness within the broader silliness of superhero naming conventions as a whole, just as we sometimes talk about certain costumes being especially silly within the general absurdity of superhero costumes as such.
How is "The Thing" less silly than He-Man as a name? Or Man-Thing? or Swamp Thing? -M |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 25, 2022 23:04:46 GMT -5
With my name, I can't disparge other silly monikers
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Post by berkley on Jun 26, 2022 0:23:19 GMT -5
Not at all. It is obviously possible to talk about a different level and/or special quality of silliness within the broader silliness of superhero naming conventions as a whole, just as we sometimes talk about certain costumes being especially silly within the general absurdity of superhero costumes as such.
How is "The Thing" less silly than He-Man as a name? Or Man-Thing? or Swamp Thing? -M
For me, "He-man" is particularly silly because of its previous existence outside the context of comics or cartoons: "He's a real he-man", meant something like a childish idea of a "manly man" (also a silly phrase, IMO) - the very idea of which sounds questionable to today's sensibilities than they would have done, say 60 or 70 years ago. Gerber had a character named Macho in Howard the Duck and of course it was a parody of a bully and a wannabe tough guy. If someone introduced a superhero named Macho Man, wouldn't you think that a particularly silly name, even for a superhero (leaving aside the wrestling character)?
I think there's also a certain awkwardness in English to the phrasing, with He- or She- as a prefix. Then there's the redundancy of putting "He" and "Man" together, which is both silly in itself, in a way most other superhero names aren't, and also, for me, ridiculous in its over-kill, which seems to betray an over-anxiety to be considered strong and masculine.
Not that you have to agree with any of that: it's just my description of my own reaction, But to assert that, because all superhero names are silly from one POV, therefore none of them can be more silly than others, or even just silly in a different way to others, makes no sense.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2022 0:42:25 GMT -5
And my point is, if you went up to someone who wasn't "raised on comics" and introduced a character as The Thing or a dog named Lockjaw, or someone as "The Human Torch" or Mr. Fantastic, you would get the same eyeroll and snickering at the silliness of it as you would if you introduced someone as "He-Man" or She-Hulk. The only nuance in levels of silliness that can be seen are only seen by those who have been inculcated into comics culture. But those folks like to parse differences that others who haven't drank the Kool-Aid just won't see, like arguing the difference between a ret-con, a continuity implant and a character revelation that changes the character in some way that is unexpected based on past status quo. It's really all the same thing, but it labelled differently based on how the person inculcated in comics culture feels about the change. It's the same with names, they are all, for the most part, silly to the point of absurdity outside the context of that comic culture, but those inculcated in that culture will parse the relative silliness based on how well they like or how much they dislike the name. But in the end, they are all silly, but comic folk seem to have a need to parse such things to validate which things they like and dislike. Something someone outside the inculcated culture context would see absolutely no need for or merit in such discussions.
-M
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 26, 2022 1:12:37 GMT -5
The silliest of the silliest could be the real names of comic book characters where the writer wants that name to describe the personality
Victor Von Doom? Really?
Johnny Blaze? Did they know he's be a Lit-Up Ghost Rider from the start?
Jack Russell-Werewolf By Night? Let's name him for a dog breed because he'll eventually be furry
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Post by berkley on Jun 26, 2022 2:04:56 GMT -5
And my point is, if you went up to someone who wasn't "raised on comics" and introduced a character as The Thing or a dog named Lockjaw, or someone as "The Human Torch" or Mr. Fantastic, you would get the same eyeroll and snickering at the silliness of it as you would if you introduced someone as "He-Man" or She-Hulk. The only nuance in levels of silliness that can be seen are only seen by those who have been inculcated into comics culture. But those folks like to parse differences that others who haven't drank the Kool-Aid just won't see, like arguing the difference between a ret-con, a continuity implant and a character revelation that changes the character in some way that is unexpected based on past status quo. It's really all the same thing, but it labelled differently based on how the person inculcated in comics culture feels about the change. It's the same with names, they are all, for the most part, silly to the point of absurdity outside the context of that comic culture, but those inculcated in that culture will parse the relative silliness based on how well they like or how much they dislike the name. But in the end, they are all silly, but comic folk seem to have a need to parse such things to validate which things they like and dislike. Something someone outside the inculcated culture context would see absolutely no need for or merit in such discussions. -M
No, I think in your concern to point out the narrow, insular worldview of superhero comics fans (and I'm with you there, in many respects) you're still missing the point - which is that "He-Man" would be a silly name for a character in any context, because of its inherent nature and its history as an English phrase outside comics. IOW, it's silly both in the way that all such superhero names are silly and in another way that has nothing to do with the silliness of superhero conventions as such.
I remember an Irish rugby player, Simon Geoghan, a fast winger who happened to have fair hair, so his nickname was "the Blonde Bullet". That would be a very silly name if he started going around with it on his business card and introducing himself to strangers by it, but it wasn't particularly silly in the context of other sports nicknames. It was just something sportswriters came up with, something for tv announcers to use now and then to spice up their commentary.
But if there had been another rugby player, say a big, powerful prop, whose nickname was "He-Man", then I'd think that very silly in every context - even within the context of colourful sports nicknames. This seems so apparent to me that I'm wondering - was the cartoon the first time you ever heard the term "he-man"? Not impossible, if you were a small kid at the time. What if there were a superhero character named "Manly Man" or "Sexy Woman", would you find those names silly only in exactly the same way as other superhero names, not also in another way that has nothing to do with superheroes?
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Post by berkley on Jun 26, 2022 2:07:55 GMT -5
With my name, I can't disparge other silly monikers
Try being called Berkley - and it's my real name! |
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Post by dbutler69 on Jun 26, 2022 14:02:11 GMT -5
Anyone else have a nickname that is given to a character that just drives them crazy? Mine would be Hank Pym in early Avengers being referred to as Man -Mountain. I’m currently reading Avengers Epic Collection 43-56 and Hawkeye calling Hank Pym Man-mountain constantly, drives me nut. On the other hand, I loved when they called him High Pockets. That just tickles my funnybone. I don't know if this qualifies as a nickname, but I hate when characters refer to She-Hulk as "Shulkie." Just annoying. Edit: Now that I read through these, I see people have beaten me to these points already. Oh well. |
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Post by james on Jun 26, 2022 14:28:56 GMT -5
Anyone else have a nickname that is given to a character that just drives them crazy? Mine would be Hank Pym in early Avengers being referred to as Man -Mountain. I’m currently reading Avengers Epic Collection 43-56 and Hawkeye calling Hank Pym Man-mountain constantly, drives me nut. On the other hand, I loved when they called him High Pockets. That just tickles my funnybone. I don't know if this qualifies as a nickname, but I hate when characters refer to She-Hulk as "Shulkie." Just annoying. Edit: Now that I read through these, I see people have beaten me to these points already. Oh well. I hated Shulkie. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 26, 2022 14:56:22 GMT -5
"The Dominoed Daredoll" was pretty awful, but...  Slight thread drift: it's the second time I see a mention of Batgirl's brown belt (the first time being in Untold Legend of the Batman). For crying out loud... It's as if someone thought "let's be careful, here, wouldn't want to make her sound too competent or anything." She was just too busy to take her black belt test, because she was out kicking real butt. Thing of it is, anyone who has been around the martial arts world knows that belts are a pretty meaningless standard for actual fighting ability. Just ask this sensei..... |
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 26, 2022 16:00:23 GMT -5
Not at all. It is obviously possible to talk about a different level and/or special quality of silliness within the broader silliness of superhero naming conventions as a whole, just as we sometimes talk about certain costumes being especially silly within the general absurdity of superhero costumes as such.
How is "The Thing" less silly than He-Man as a name? Or Man-Thing? or Swamp Thing? -M At least "The Thing" not only was the way Grimm viewed himself, but it implied something horrible and/or dangerous-- alien, such were the sci-fi roots of the entire Fantastic Four concept. On the other hand, "He-Man" was (by some accounts) an early 19th century description of "an especially masculine fellow" instead of a formal name, so why would he (Prince Adam) call himself that as the I.D. of his alter-ego? |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 26, 2022 20:35:34 GMT -5
The silliest of the silliest could be the real names of comic book characters where the writer wants that name to describe the personality Victor Von Doom? Really? Johnny Blaze? Did they know he's be a Lit-Up Ghost Rider from the start? Jack Russell-Werewolf By Night? Let's name him for a dog breed because he'll eventually be furry One of the worst things about Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was that they canonized "Blackagar Boltagon" in the MCU! |
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