Comic Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Difference between revisions

However, because the producers don't want to ''completely'' alienate the comic fans which supported the character to begin with, they add a little [[Shout-Out]] [[Pandering to the Base|just to appease them]]. "Grass Man" was definitely in the movie, even if that wasn't officially his name. However, sometimes this trope gets taken [[Up to Eleven]] and the superhero name is never used ''at all''.

 

 

{{examples}}

* Several examples from the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]]:

*** Averted by The Hulk, who is called "Hulk" four times. The first time comes after the Culver University fight, where some college students refer to him as a "big hulk". Later, the military guys chasing the transformed Blonsky through New York mistakenly report that "the Hulk is in the street." Blonsky explicitly uses that name after the Hulk shows up for the final battle and the Hulk himself uses his [[Catch Phrase|patented "HULK SMASH!"]] at the end of the fight.

**** The second ''Avengers'' movie indicates that the name Hulk is common, but that they don't use it around Banner out of respect for his issues, continuing to refer to him as "the other guy". When Tony needs to find out where his fellow Avenger is, he does a news search for "Hulk".

** ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'' himself doesn't get called that name until the end of the first film and it's only used once or twice in the various movies to follow. It's usually attached more to the suits than it is to Tony himself ("the Iron Man suit, an Iron Man suit").

**** War Machine eventually becomes an aversion, since Rhodes has apparently taken it as his callsign. He's referred to specifically as War Machine by the President... just before he's rechristened Iron Patriot. He apparently still prefers War Machine and goes back to the old color scheme (and presumably callsign) by the end of ''Avengers: Age of Ultron''.

** Inverted in ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'', as the character once had a civilian identity in the comics, but the movies don't bother. So "Thor" is used all throughout the movie, while the name "Dr. Donald Blake" is the one that only gets [[Mythology Gag|a few token mentions]].

*** They do call him "Cap" a lot, which in the comics is used almost as much as his actual codename, so it's almost as good.

*** Johann Schmidt gets called "The Red Skull" (by ''Hitler'', no less) one time as an insult, much to his annoyance. For the rest of the movie, only his real name is used. (Though they do just call him "the Skull" a few times.)

*** Technically, this is also true of Montgomery Falsworth, aka "Union Jack", the British counterpart to Captain America. However, Falsworth is not a costumed hero in this movie so there would be no reason to say the name at all.

** The same concept can be applied to the [[MacGuffin]] of ''Captain America'' and ''The Avengers''. In the movies, it's called the Tesseract. They never use its comic book name, the "Cosmic Cube".

* During the live action film adaptation of ''[[Neo-Human Casshern|Casshern]]'', the titular hero only refers to himself as "Casshern" once, and it isn't even near the climax of the movie.

** His father was kind of a [[Composite Character]], with powers similar to the Absorbing Man's. He even turns briefly into an electrical humanoid like old Hulk's foe Zzzax. [[Justified Trope|Think about which of those names would have been]] ''[[Justified Trope|less]]'' Camp...

** Which is funny, seeing how "Doctor Doom" would be a perfectly sensible thing to call a person with a doctor's degree, whose last name is "Doom".

*** Interestingly, in some of the dubs his line "Call me Doom" is changed to "Call me Doctor Doom". The Brazilian one, for example.

** It also addresses the inherent [[Fridge Logic]] with Ben Grimm's codename, calling him "The Thing" is seen as unnecessarily cruel.

** An entire scene was dedicated to naming Doctor Octopus, only for him to mostly go by his real name or the nickname "Doc Ock" for most of the movie.

** [[Venom (Comic Book)|Venom]] is known only by his real name, Eddie Brock, throughout all of ''Spider-Man 3''. Similarly, Flint Marko is generally known by his real name for most of the film until a reporter calls him "the Sandman" during the final battle.

* This trope is played with all over the place in the ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' series:

** Cyclops' codename is mentioned but he mostly goes by Scott throughout all of the movies.

** The name Nightcrawler is only mentioned when "Kurt" expounds about his time in the circus.

** Angel (Warren) and Beast (Hank) never use codenames in ''[[X-Men: The Last Stand]]''. Hank does eventually use the name towards the end of ''First Class'', however.

** It gets a bit tricky with Angel (the ''First Class'' member as opposed to the one mentioned above); in the comics, her code name is Tempest, and Angel is her real name, but in the movie she explicitly states that Angel is a stage name.

** Lady Deathstrike is never used. Her real name (Yuriko) is only mentioned in passing.

** The members of the Brotherhood seem to go mostly by their codenames with the odd exception of Magneto who wants mutants to go by their "real names". He refers to himself as Magneto at the end of ''First Class'' and it is brought up in the first flick but he has no problem being called Erik by Mystique and Xavier, and as they're whom he he has the most meaningful dialogue with, we hear "Erik" ''much'' more than we hear "Magneto."

* Averted ''and'' played straight in ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]].'' Batman and Ra's al Ghul are commonly referred to as such. Oddly enough, in the comics, Ra's al Ghul is a real name but in the movie {{spoiler|it's a false identity}}. Nobody knows the Joker as anything else, but Scarecrow and Two-Face mostly go by their real names. Jonathan Crane briefly calls himself Scarecrow while under the effects of his own gas and in Two-Face's case, it's referring to an old nickname of Harvey Dent's.

* ''[[Kamen Rider the First]]'' and ''[[Kamen Rider the Next|The Next]]'', [[Darker and Edgier]] modernized retellings of [[Kamen Rider (TV series)|the original series]] and ''[[Kamen Rider V 3|V3]]'', never use the name "Kamen Rider"; Takeshi Hongo and Hayato Ichimonji are called Hopper 1 and 2 respectively, while Shiro Kazami is simply called V3 (which, in the movie's universe, stands for Version 3).

* ''[[Ghost Rider (film)|Ghost Rider]]: Spirit of Vengeance'' never refers to {{spoiler|Carrigan}}'s character as [[Walking Wasteland|Blackout]], which was his name in the comics.

 

 

* Discussed in-universe in ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'', especially after Ted and Yonber try to sell Voyager-themed merchandise behind everyone's backs. Pinkella finds the "Stellar-Ella" dolls to be quite offensive, and nobody but Ted and Yonber dare call her by that name. The others are given names like "the Red Voyager," making them sound like [[Power Rangers]]. Naturally, as the Voyagers are diplomats and not true superheroes, they find it quite offensive. The only characters that seem to prefer going by their nicknames are the Mechanical Pencils, who are usually named after the model of mechie that their S-chips are inserted into. Consto, upon gaining the semi-transparent Cybomec body, went entirely by Cybomec the entire time afterward except by Neone, who insisted on calling him "Consto." Likewise, Ribando became "Cy" to his friends after gaining the opaque Cybomec body. Technitel is hardly known at all by his real name, neither is the Down-Pen known as Tempest. And while "Crimson Owl" may be Laura and Vaneesa's proper titles under the Crimson Owl protection, only Astrabolo insists on ever actually calling them that.

* The Comprehensive Gerosha ''Ciem: Vigilante Centipede'' has a different take on things than the [[Ciem Webcomic Series]].

** Inverted with the Chinese spies, whose real names were not revealed [[All There in the Manual|until they were published to the wiki in 2011]]. Black Rat, Tin Dragon, Teal Hog, and Stung Hornet are known almost exclusively by their codenames, even to each other. Possibly justified in that they're spies.

 

* In ''[[The Incredible Hulk (TV series)|The Incredible Hulk]]'' TV series, Jack McGee is the only one who ever calls Hulk Hulk. Most everyone else refers to him either as something synonymous to "that green monster", or as "David" if they know that it's really David Banner under there.

* In ''[[Smallville]]'', Clark Kent is never referred to as Superman, though the word is mentioned multiple times in reference to Friedrich Nietzsche. The traditional "Superman Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster" message appears in the intro.

** [[Kamen Rider Decade]] is definitely the biggest aversion, obviously. Not only are the other Kamen Riders often identified and referenced by codename, but Tsukasa's primary catchphrase is "I'm just a passing-through Kamen Rider", and he's often called Decade by anyone that recognizes him.

 

* Due to [[Never Say "Die"]], DC villain Deathstroke went by his civilian name "Slade" throughout the animated ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' series.

* The [[Martian Manhunter]] is only called by that name once in all five seasons of ''[[Justice League (animation)]]'', only being referred to as J'onn or "the Martian."

** Though again, this may simply be keeping up with the comics, where the rest of the League has used his name almost solely for some time. Similarly, [[Wonder Woman]] is usually just "Diana" to the others, both in the comics and [[DCAU]].

 

== Notable Aversions ==

** While on cases, the BPRD paranormal agents usually use names such as "Sparky" and "Blue". His is "Red".

** It should also be noted that in Hellboy, demons have the whole "[[I Know Your True Name|bound/released by their names]]" deal going on; going around calling himself Anung Un-Rama would be the equivalent of legally changing your name to your social security number.

* Averted in the ''[[Blade (film)|Blade]]'' series. The audience learns that Blade's real name is Eric but it is rarely mentioned.

** Ditto for ''[[Blade the Series]]''. The only mentions are the flashback episodes to his childhood and when he meets his father, who will not call his only son "Blade".

* In the original Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher ''[[Batman]]'' films, [[Batman (film)|The Joker]], [[Batman Returns|Catwoman]], [[Batman Forever|The Riddler]] and [[Batman and Robin (film)|Poison Ivy]] give themselves their names, while the [[Batman Returns|Penguin]], [[Batman Forever|Two-Face]] and [[Batman and Robin (film)|Mr. Freeze]] have had their names given to them sometime before the films begin.

** With The Riddler, there's a scene dedicated to him thinking up a code name for himself.

** This trope is justified for the Penguin in ''[[Batman Returns]]'', as even he doesn't know his human name and is an urban legend to the public. When he reveals himself and discovers his true name (Oswald Cobblepot) he begins to use it and is known by both depending on who you talk to, only to angrily go back to Penguin after his [[Villainous Breakdown]] when Batman foils his scheme.

*** Actually, Batman believes he already knew who his parents were and just wanted to make a scene out of "discovering" their identity, in order to be granted private access to Gotham's public records. His ''real'' goal was to get a record of all the first born children of Gotham so he could murder them, but this goal was sidetracked when Shreck offers him the chance to be Mayor.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Media Adaptation Tropes]]

[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]