Some names are too on-the-nose, too silly, too alliterative, or too derivative of other heroes.
Name one you don’t like. Real name or alias.
I’ve always disliked “Mister Terrific”. Which is weird because I like Mister Miracle, and the character himself is cool. For some reason I always take this guy a little less seriously with that name. I’m on board with the “Fair Play” stuff but I can’t get past the Terrific part. Did that sound cool in the 40s? I’m not well read on him/them so that might be part of the problem.
This is a challenge
So to start it would be with Deathstroke. He has a stupid name and knowing the kind of creep he is, I think Slade having stroke at the end of his codename is perfectly in character for him.
One of my biggest pet peeves is full grown women calling themselves “X-Girl” It makes it sound like they are scared of being called old. So I have a problem with Power Girl, many iterations of Batgirl, and several others.
To my knowledge Terry Sloan was never very popular.
There are plenty of issues where Geoff Johns gives him lines that make the name sound really cool, but other than that his name never sounds very cool. Even Justice League Unlimited often just called him “Terrific.”
You’re welcome. If it is not going to the exact spot then skip to the 50 second mark.
I’ve never like those star shape villain Starro, I thought it was a dumbest villains ever made, goes on hero’s face to control them, the writers couldn’t come up with the good idea at the time, and say what if there’s aliens that look like Starfish. No thanks.
Now to be clear. I actually like her. I think she’s low-key super interesting and one of my favorite members in the Justice league Detroit team. But her name absolutely sucks. It’s offensive even if the character was Romani or not.
I always thought a replacement that could work way better for her was Chameleon Girl because of her powers being described as “chameleon like.”
I’m definitely with you and Yara on this one. Especially if they don’t really have a secret identity to protect. Just use your real name. Yara Flor, Donna Troy, and Cassie Sandsmark are perfectly awesome names.
Yara’s the best. I feel like she’s often written as the voice of the reader–always pointing out the absurdity of situations when all the veteran heroes act like it’s not weird.
She’s like “Ok I get that we’re superheroes, but why do we have to do…XYZ…it’s doesn’t make any sense.”
Me: “Yes Yara. Exactly. Thank you!”
Starro always makes me think of this TV Tropes entry. Literally so.
Never heard of him but I feel like he must get a lot of joking at his expense e.g. “Hey Microwave Man! Can you heat up this Hot Pocket for me?”
Not a character, but a team: Suicide Squad. For me, the name just conjures depressing, disturbing images of people committing suicide. Yes, I am aware that it is a real-world term, but still. It’s not the kind of thing that I think should be used for something that should ostensibly be entertaining (superhero/villain media). That name should have been left in the Silver Age when the team was relaunched in the '80s, and the team/comic should have just been called Task Force X, which is a much, much cooler name anyway. With the renewed focus on, and sensitivities surrounding, mental health in recent years, I’m surprised that DC hasn’t considered ditching the name entirely. I dunno. Maybe I’m just too sensitive. Does anyone else have this particular problem with the name?
I think a lot of names come down to how they sound. Batgirl sounds better to me than Batwoman. The syllable emphasis is on the “unique” or “family” part of the name vice the generic girl/boy/man/woman end tag. Wonder Woman is one of the exceptions to ‘-girl’ sounding better for me both because of the alliteration and because both name halves are balanced in terms of syllables.
Also, I had a name that disappeared from my mind after I wrote this… I’ll try to think of it!
