Meaningful Name/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

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* Comic book villain T. O. Morrow. Thomas Oliver Morrow is a [[Mad Scientist]] from the future and creator of Tomorrow Woman.

* ''[[X-Men]]'' has a few despite tending to avoid this trope:

*** His real last name was eventually retconned as Eisenhardt - "eisen" is German for "iron."

** Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men, though it's his fault instead of it being coincidental within continuity. He swears (depending on the era) that the name X-Men stands for "extra" power or for the X-factor gene, not his name. (Somehow, it took a villain deliberately outing him after ''years'' for people to [[Genre Blindness|get the hint]] that bald, wheelchair-bound Professor Xavier and bald, wheelchair-bound Professor X were the same guy... though there were other villains who already knew, but for various reasons had no interest in outing him.

** En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse) is the first mutant, and his name is said to mean The First One. However, in our universe, it is Arabic for 'the morning light', ie. dawn. However, though it would be grammatically incorrect by modern understanding (it should be El Sabah Nur and Sabah and Nur are more commonly girl's names), Apocalypse was born in ancient Egypt, long before the modern Arabic language existed. At least in the Marvel Universe, "En Sabah Nur" meant 'The First One' and the language only changed after he had lived for hundreds of years, if not thousands.

** Emma Frost is an "ice queen", though her powers are not ice-related. (She does take over Iceman's body at one point, though...) There's also the later addition of turning herself into a diamond (frost sorta being related to ice, which doubles as a slang term for diamonds).

** [[Name of Cain|Cain]] Marko, as in "the Mark of Cain", Professor X's jealous stepbrother (aka the Juggernaut). Less well known, the Mark of Cain was meant to ''protect'' Cain from being harmed (albeit indirectly). In Marvel he's a [[Nigh Invulnerable]] [[Implacable Man]].

** [[Wolverine]] (who may be James Howlett) may have been born in Canada during the 1800s. It was apparently revealed in the miniseries "Origin" that he was the son of a wealthy landowner who was murdered by their groundskeeper. Although James later called himself Logan, then later recieved the nickname 'Wolverine', he resembles more of a wolf (rather than an actual wolverine) in some illustrations through the years, which was highlighted in a several books. [[Healing Factor]] is also a mutant ability for this guy. 'Howl'ett is also an allusion to wolves which was the last animal seen by the end of "Origin" travelling with James in the Canadian wilderness.

* Most of the Wolfrider elves in ''[[Elf Quest]]'' have meaningful names. Cutter is good with a sword (and also likes to cut through hypocrisy and bullshit), Skywise is a stargazer, Pike and Redlance are spearmen, Strongbow and his son Dart are archers, Treestump is short and stocky (and also stubborn and unyielding), One-Eye -- well, for obvious reasons, and Bearclaw... well, I guess he just likes pastries.

** Justified in that Wolfriders do tend to name themselves after their deeds, changing name when they perform a huge one (e.g. Redlance used to be called Redmark until he saved his chief using, yes, a lance). The other tribes tend to have non-meaningful names.

* Kimiyo Hoshi, the female Dr. Light, received her powers from a star. Again, "hoshi" is Japanese for "star".

** The wordplay only works in English, but her name combined means 'I am a star'.

* ''[[Steel]]'', the armoured, hammer-wielding African American hero, whose real name is ''John Henry'' Irons - after the folk hero who was stronger and faster than a machine.

** Some more examples: Edward Nigma (E. Nigma, AKA the Riddler... though his real name is Edward Nashton in the current continuity), Dr Victor Fries (presumably pronounced Frees, AKA Mr. Freeze), Dr Simon Ecks (Dr. Double X), Joe Rigger (AKA explosives expert Firebug), Hammond Carter (AKA the map loving Globe), Warren White (The Great WHITE Shark), Liam Hawkleigh (AKA Gunhawk), Humphrey Dumpler (AKA Humpty Dumpty), Johnny Witts (The Crime Boss who's always one step ahead of the Batman), Lyle Bolton (AKA Lockup), Margaret Pie (the Magpie), Joe Coyne (the Penny Plunderer), Anthony Lupis (the Werewolf) Deever and Dumphrey/Dumson Tweed (Tweedledee and Tweedledum)...

** There is also the none-too-pretty cop Dan ''Turpin'' (taken from the Latin for ugly/corrupt), though he is technically a [[Superman]] character.

* The ''[[Asterix]]'' comics. Every name at least means ''something'', from [[Dreadful Musician|incompetent bard]] Cacofonix to Briton chieftan Zebigbos.

** With a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for translators with Obelix's dog. In French, he is Idéfix - similar to the phrase for "fixed idea". In English, the name is Dogmatix, which adds a pun and keeps the meaning.

* [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|DOOM]] is FURIOUS that [[Doctor Doom|Victor Von Doom]], main villain from the ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' was not the very first example! Seriously, what were his parents thinking? According to the original canon, he was [[Once-Acceptable Targets|Roma]], and they had to have it sound European. It was not uncommon in the past for Romanies to have two names, one used within their community and another used with outsiders, so his ancestors may have adopted 'Von Doom' to blend in with (the presumably Germanic-speaking) peoples around them.

** And in the French version, the same character was named Ezdanitoff, which could be translated as "isn't that awesome" in the ''Flemmish'' dialect. Well, well.

* In ''[[Midnight Nation]]'', the detective who will choose which way to tip the [[Balance Between Good and Evil]] has the last name of Gray. I wonder why...

* Namor the [[Sub-Mariner]]'s name means "avenging son" in Atlantean. Avenging is all he does. His cousins Namora (avenging daughter) and Namorita (... little avenging daughter, one assumes) are less prone to ludicrous amounts of rage.

** Namor is also Roman backwards, referring to the fact that Atlantis has some similarities with Rome.

* A villain from ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'', ''Diablo'', real name ''Esteban Diablo'', supposedly a Spanish alchemist born in the 9th century (or 19th, depending on the source). His name translates to "Stephen Devil". [[Did Not Do the Research|No one could use such a surname in Spain]], even less in a more religious era. Later his name was retconned to Esteban Corazón del Diablo, meaning "Stephen Devilheart" or "Stephen Heart of the Devil". Now Mom's surname is "Of the Devil"; not a great improvement. Even later, Spanish-born comic-book artists working for Marvel apparently campaigned to change the surname to "De Ablo", meaning absolutely nothing but at least that would not require an execution.

* Many characters from [[Carl Barks]]'s Duck comics, including the miserly, Scottish Scrooge McDuck; [[Bungling Inventor]] Gyro Gearloose; and the mean, greedy Flintheart Glomgold.

* In Marvel's ''[[Man-Thing]]'' comics, there was a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] named F. A. Schist, dedicated to anti-environmental policies. Because that's what a fascist is.

* [[Scamp|Disney's Scamp]] is a scamp. The only one of his siblings that looks exactly like his father the Tramp, his name is also the only one that rhymes with his father's.

* In ''[[Thunderbolts]]'', it's revealed than the axe-wielding Headsman's real name is "Cleavon Twain", as in "cleave in twain" (or in simpler terms, "cut in two").

* Loud Boy's real name is Daniel Boom.

*** The compassion entity is called Proselyte. This is based off prostrate, which may tie into the subtle hints of it being connected to religion in Green Lantern #52(namely, a cross-shaped light when its backstory is examined).

*** Nekron, Lord of the Unliving. His name is based of necrosis, representing his connection to death and the general coldness of darkness.

* Many of the villains in ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' famously had nicknames describing their physical appearance or criminal specialty, such as Flattop, Pouch, Pruneface, the Brow, the Mole. During the first fifteen years of this long-lived strip, it was also commonplace for characters to possess names that become descriptive when spelled backwards: a midget named Trohs, a bandleader named Seton, a playboy named Kroywen, an honest man named Toirtap, a crook named Doolb, and (long before [[Stephen King]] was born) a killer named Redrum.

** Genovese is also the name of a major Mafia boss/family.

* The title character in ''[[Werewolf By Night]]'' is named [[wikipedia:Jack Russell Terrier|Jack Russell]].

* Victoria Hand, Norman Osborn's right hand (wo)man in ''[[Dark Avengers]]''.

* The twins in ''[[Crossing Midnight]]'' are named Toshi and Kai. Toshi, "mirror". And Kai is the reflection.

* The second Foolkiller's real name was Greg Salinger. He was a poet and very attuned to literature. He instructed his predecessor to say that he was picking up a package for Pierre, J.D. A reference to Pierre Salinger and J.D. Salinger, both of whom are also known for something literary.

* In ''[[Cul De Sac]]'' there's a girl who combines this with an [[Ironic Nickname|ironic (nick)name]] -- her name is [[wikipedia:Slow loris|Loris]] Slothrup and she's an artist who does things about four times faster then normal a la ''[[Wayside School]]'''s Bee Bee Gunn.

* The real name of Fenway, a [[Deadpool]] supporting character who is obsessed with baseball, is Homer Unn. Clearly it's supposed to be bad, but that's just... eugh. Ironically, his nickname comes from one of the hardest ballparks to hit a homer in, due to Fenway Park's infamous "Green Monster".

** His middle name, Edward, means 'rich protector'.

* [[The Mighty Thor|Thor's]] hammer, Mjolnir, translates to ''Crusher''.

* Ray Palmer, [[The Atom]], had two notable enemies who shared this trait: The Bug-Eyed Bandit (Bertram Larvan), and the Floronic Man (Jason Woodrue). The Bug-Eyed Bandit had a son, Bertram Larvan, Jr., who would become his [[Legacy Character]].

* Lampshaded in ''Albion'', where Zip Nolan doesn't believe the Spider's real name is Alfred Chinard because "A. Chinard" is an anagram of "arachnid." "It's a phony name!" The Spider then sarcastically claims his true name to be "Arthur O'Pod" -- arthropod.

 

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[[Category:Meaningful Name]]