Fun With Acronyms / Comic Books

• Those who didn't like Frank Miller's job with All-Stars Batman And Robin often get a sick glee out of pointing out how the title spells A.S.S.B.A.R..
  • Similarly, fans of Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman enjoy mentioning how much they enjoy "Grant Morrison's ASS".
  • All-Star Squadron, a DC super-teamup comic in the 1980s (taking place during World War II), had similar acronym issues.
    • This was lampshaded by the Golden Age Superman in one of the first few issues, where he says that people should be careful how they abbreviate the group's name.
• The Incredibles' first comic book series has the Henchmen's Association of Treachery and Evil.
• M.O.D.O.K., the Mental Organism Designed Only For Killing, a frequent foe of the Avengers and head of A.I.M., Advanced Idea Mechanics.
  • In one variant of M.O.D.O.K.'s origin story, he was originally named M.O.D.O.C., with the last initial standing for "Computation".
  • In the Lighter and Softer series Marvel Adventures: The Avengers he is known as M.O.D.O.C., with the last initial standing for "Conquest". (It's really more in-line with his personality anyway.)
  • A.I.M. has a splinter group called R.A.I.D. or Radically Advanced Ideas in Destruction.
  • After M.O.D.O.K.'s death (he got better later), A.I.M. created a more efficient female version called M.O.D.A.M. ("Mental Organism Designed for Aggressive Maneuvers"); there also was M.O.D.O.G, who was 'designed for genocide', and M.O.D.O.T. who was originally conceived to talk A.I.M. command into raising the budget for his local branch of the organization.
  • The kid-friendly parody The Superhero Squad Show was actually able to use its Never Say "Die" policy to have some fun with this:
    Gray Hulk: Ah, M.O.D.O.K. The Mental Organism Designed Only for Kick-ball.
    M.O.D.O.K.: Yes, it—Hey! That's not what it stands for!
    • In another episode, however, he says the "K" stands for "Kick-butt."
  • And then there was the holiday special where he tries to sweet-talk a cute office temp by claiming his name is actually M.O.D.O.F., and as she storms off angrily he claims pathetically "FUN! It stands for FUN!"
  • In Captain America Vol 5 #8, M.O.D.O.C. stands for Military Operatives Designed Only for Combat.
  • West Coast Avengers 2018 sees him pretending to be Bio-Robotic Organism Designed Overwhelmingly for Kissing
  • What A.I.M. stands for also changed several times for example Avengers Idea Mechanics (when Sunspot bought the organization), or American Intelligence Mechanics (when they got government endorsement).
  • The Unbelievable Gwenpool has a mercenary organization with the same initials as M.O.D.O.K. (the character), but in the group's case, the letters stand for "Mercenary Organization Dedicated Only to Killing".
  • New Avengers (2015) has another A.I.M. splinter group called T.I.M.. They're not sure if they're going with Total Idea Mechanics or Transatlantic Idea Mechanics, a point that becomes moot when the White Tigers beat them all up.
• Captain America has other foes like this:
  • One '70s-era story had him battling the Committee to Restore America's Principles, a thinly-veiled version of the Committee to RE-Elect the President (see the Real Life section). Assemble the acronym yourself, and remember that "to" doesn't count…
  • He also fights U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M., the Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind.
• The Marvel Universe has S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury's U.N.-backed paramilitary and intelligence organization. The acronym originally stood for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-enforcement Division but this was changed in the early nineties to stand for Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate. Within the confines of the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Ultimate Spider-Man has admitted that he has no clue what S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for, even though he has regular encounters with them and Nick Fury.
  • And in the Marvel Cinematic Universe it stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Ironically enough, they apparently went from World War II to the present day without referring to it by its acronym as standard, which led to a Lampshade Hanging in Iron Man from several characters who commented on how unwieldy the actual name was.
    • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had a similar lampshading:
      Maria Hill: What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward?
      Agent Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
      Maria Hill: And what does that mean to you?
      Agent Ward: …It means somebody really wanted our initials to spell "shield".^note This might even be the truth, since in the MCU S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded by former colleagues of Captain America after his believed death.
  • In order to get even more mileage out of the acronym, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s extraterrestrial-focused counterpart was known as S.W.O.R.D., the Sentient World Observation and Response Department. Marvel UK had the British equivilent S.T.R.I.K.E., the Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies, and in the 90's Marvel novels gave the UN-backed S.H.I.E.L.D. a US-backed counterpart: S.A.F.E., the Strategic Action For Emergencies. S.A.F.E. has apparently since been replaced by H.A.T.E., the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort.
    • Hank McCoy's lampshading of S.W.O.R.D. in AXM #6:
      Abigail Brand: I head the Sentient Worlds Observation and Reaction Department.
      Hank McCoy: The government and their acronyms. Honestly, it's adorable.
    • Marvel UK later replaced S.T.R.I.K.E. with D.U.C.K., the Department of Unknown and Covert Knowledge. Who in turn were supplanted by W.H.O., the Weird Happenings Organisation, whose name tied with their being led by a Brigadier Stuart. Somewhere in the middle of all that there was also the Europe-wide S.T.O.R.M.; Special Taskforce Omega Response Mandate. (Marvel UK in the 90s was really a mess of agencies that replaced STRIKE, apparently created by different writers without much communication between them.)
  • There's also A.R.M.O.R., the Altered-Reality Monitoring and Operational Response, which is like S.W.O.R.D. for other dimensions rather than space.
  • At least one spoof had Silly Humans In Extremely Lethal Danger
  • Spoofed with H.A.M.M.E.R. which after Osborn named it, hired someone to come up a meaning for it. It was never given an explanation in the short time it existed.
    • Much more darkly spoofed in Dark Reign: Zodiac, in which Zodiac quizzes a H.A.M.M.E.R. Agent on what the acronym actually stands for… and when he doesn't answer, he kills him.
      "It's stitched on your colorful new uniform and you don't even know. Well, here's what blind faith will get you."
    • Also spoofed in the first issue of Bendis's run on Mighty Avengers. In Tony Stark's narration, he states what S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for, and mentions that there's going to be voting on a new meaning.
  • The 2010 S.H.I.E.L.D. miniseries has the Retcon that "The Shield" is an Ancient Tradition dating back to Ancient Egypt, which presumably implies the relatively recent S.H.I.E.L.D. incarnations were backronyms within the story. This is also suggested by a story in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man, which is about untold tales from the character's early days, where a footnote explaining the acronym uses the original meaning and claims that's what it stood for "back then".
  • Averted with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s biggest enemy organization, Hydra. Though some erroneously write it with all-caps, making it look like it could be an acronym, it's actually named for the mythological creature — "Cut off one head, two more will take its place."
  • The 2015 anniversary issue has the S.H.I.E.L.D. operative who goes by the name of "The Man Called D.E.A.T.H." — Da Vinci Elavating Agents To Helm. And yes, the fact that "Da" means "Of" gets a Lampshade Hanging.
    Agent Coulson: "Da Vinci" is a place — "Of Vinci", a town in Florence, Italy — not a name.
    D.E.A.T.H.: Fury liked his shorthand. He meant Leonardo.
  • The opening splash of the above story is Jack Kirby's first, previously unused, image of Nick Fury as a spy, and originally "The Man Called D.E.A.T.H." would have been Fury himself, as Director of External Atomic Threat Headquarters, before they came up with S.H.I.E.L.D. instead.
  • Played straight and mocked in 2023's Fury one-shot with the new Z.O.D.I.A.C. (Zero-Order Distributed International Anarchist Coalition), apparently the newest form of the Zodiac group. Their front-person, S.C.O.R.P.I.O. (Special Combat Operative Reserved for Primary Intelligence Objectives) tries outlining the reasoning behind their name, but Nick Fury tells her to knock it off — he knows they just wanted a cool-sounding acronym.
    Nick Fury: Ya made up a word to fit the Z in there. We all do it.
• Parodied in Jim Valentino's normalman which had a superspy organization dubbed S.C.H.M.U.C.K., but as the footnotes claim, the name "Stands for Nothing in Particular."
• In Mega Robo Bros, Alex and later Freddy end up working for R.A.I.D., which stands for Robotics Analysis, Intelligence, and Defense.
• In Catstronauts, the titular team works for a space organization known as C.A.T.S.U.P.: Center for Aeronautical Technology and Space Underlying Programs.
  • In "Race To Mars", three more programs are revealed.
    • S.O.C.K.: Society Of Cosmic Kittens.
    • M.E.O.W.: Modern Explorers of Other Worlds.
    • C.O.O.K.I.E.: Center Of Obvious Knowledge and Interstellar Exploration.
• The Avengers vs. X-Men storyline saw the formation of the Phoenix Five — Pyotr (Colossus), Emma Frost, Namor, Illyana (Magik) and Scott (Cyclops.) The first letters of each of their names smells out P.E.N.I.S.
• In DC Comics' Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., the writer didn't bother to figure out what S.T.R.I.P.E. stood for. A fan suggested Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer, which DC adopted.
  • Possibly at least partially Justified by the creator of the S.T.R.I.P.E. suit being Pat Dugan, a.k.a. Stripesy, the former sidekick of the original Star-Spangled Kid. He may not have thought about what STRIPE meant either, it being a Shout-Out to his hero days.
• S.T.A.R. Labs (Itself an acronym for Scientific and Technological Advanced Research) has a device called the Ambient Nuclear Ultra Spectrograph. Lampshaded when Jimmy Olsen says that it's an overly long name and they should just use the acronym. The scientist operating it replies “You just think about that…”
• The Legion of Super-Heroes character Wildfire was originally known as Energy Release Generator 1, or E.R.G.-1.
• In Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol issues, they battled the Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E., agents of "normalcy" who only spoke in acronyms that spelled out "nowhere". At least it wasn't incomprehensible, like those guys who spoke only in anagrams, e.g., yelling "THIS!" when surprised.
• Similarly, in Matt Fraction's Casanova, Casanova's father works for E.M.P.I.R.E. which battles W.A.S.T.E. (a reference to Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49). It's never revealed what they actually stand for, but it's said that W.A.S.T.E. has multiple meanings.
• DC Comics also has the H.I.V.E. or Hierarchy for International Vengeance and Extermination. In alternate universes where they are ''good' they are the Hierarchy for International Virtuous Empowerment.
• A Krusty the Clown comic involved the titular character in a spy spoof, with the A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. suit on the first page (entirely spelled out in footnotes) setting the tone for a Running Gag.
• In DC Comics' spy genre parody Codename: Knockout, the heroine's mother leads the espionage agency Global Organization for the Obliteration of Dastardliness and her father leads the criminal organization Extralegal Vendors of Iniquity and Licentiousness, and during one adventure she runs into agents of Heroic Englanders Against Villainy, Evildoing and Nastiness.
• Molly Danger: The organization that houses and assists Molly in her heroics is known as D.A.R.T. (the Danger Action Responce Team).
• The sidekick of the revamped Fighting American was a cyborg named S.P.I.C.E. (Super Prototype Intelligent Cyborg Entity).
• Top 10 has the city where everyone is a superhero, and the super-disease plaguing it is called "STORMS": Sexually Transmitted Organic Rapid Mutation Syndrome. It's a metahuman venereal disease that spreads through the city's super-prostitute population.
• An early issue of DC Comics' L.E.G.I.O.N. had Strata propose L.E.G.I.O.N. as the name for the team, then spend several pages trying to figure out what it might stand for. Eventually they settled on Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network.
  • And when L.E.G.I.O.N. was taken over by Brainiac II's evil son, Revolutionary Elite Brigade to Eliminate L.E.G.I.O.N. Supremacy was formed.
• The Chuckling Whatsit features GASH or The Goul Appreciation Society Headquarters. Although, the main character later learns that the acronym stands for The Global Association for Sabotage And Homicide.
• DC Comics' Hawkman used to fight CAW, the Criminal Alliance of the World.
• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Several things relating to the Junior Woodchucks (specifcally, the ranking titles) are in the form of acronyms, including the title of the Don Rosa story: W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N., or When Huey And Dewey And Louie Originally Thought To Adapt Junior-Woodchuck Attitudes, Regulations, and Grandiose Organizational Nomenclature!
  • The Disney Comics database I.N.D.U.C.K.S. was rendered as an acronym as a shout out to the ones used by the Junior Woodchucks. Eventually they settled on the expansion: International Network of Disney Universe Comic Knowers and Sources
  • And of course, Rosa's signature D.U.C.K. which he likes to hide in his various stories, and stands for Dedicated to Unca Carl from Keno
• Joe Carioca's recurring "villains" are ANACOZECA, Associação NAcional dos CObradores do ZE CArioca, or in English, the National Association of Joe Carioca's Debt Collectors. It cheats a lot (and thus usually isn't written with dots), but at least you can pronounce the acronym as a word.
  • It should be noted that this particular acronym is meant to emulate the abbreviations used by many government institutions and programs in Brazil, where Joe comes from.
• In Twisted Toyfare Theatre, the government agency created to enforce internal security by Megoville mayor George W. Bush (elected in 2005, look it up) and led by the Green Goblin is designated B.A.D.I.D.E.A., the Bureau of American Defense, Intervention, Deployment, Enforcement, and Analysis. "I think Mayor Bush's B.A.D.I.D.E.A. is a great idea!"
• One of the first and most famous acronyms in comics comes from the wizard Shazam!'s name (also Captain Marvel's magic word), which indicates Captain Marvel has the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury.

  • In one story, Atlas was killed and Apollo was brought in as a replacement.

  • In another story that happened in the wake of Darkseid's death Capt Marvel had to call on a new set of gods for his powers: S'ivaa (named after the Indian god Shiva) for strength, the Martian fire god H'ronmeer for fire, the Siberian reincarnation goddess Anapel for compassion, the Old God Zonuz for power, the Greek god of mischief Ate for courage, and the Australian lightning god Mamaragan for power. As seen here, it's pretty bizarre.
  • Captain Marvel's evil counterpart, Black Adam, uses the same word to draw on the power of ancient Egyptian gods. He has the stamina of Shu, the swiftness of Heru (Horus), the strength of Amon (Amun), the wisdom of Zehuti (another name for Thoth), the power of Aton (Aten), and the courage of Mehen.
    • Some stories replace Horus with Hershef (for strength) and Aton with Anpu (Anubis, for speed) and Mehen with Montu (for courage).
  • Referenced after DC Comics sued Captain Marvel's creators, Fawcett Comics, out of existence by DC itself. In the 1960s, Superman fought an antagonist named Zha-Vam, who was created by the gods Zeus, Hercules, Achilles, Vulcan, Apollo and Mercury. (Note he shares all but two of those with Shazam, but Vulcan and Apollo substituted for Solomon and Atlas. Suitably Superman defeated him with the help of Atlas.)
  • When Billy Batson's sister Mary became Mary Marvel, she had her own acronym; the grace of Selina, the strength of Hippolyta, the skills of Ariadne, the speed and flight of Zephyrus (a male god but let that pass), the beauty of Aurora and the wisdom of Minerva.
  • Captain Thunder, a Captain Ersatz version of Captain Marvel who appeared in Superman #276, had the magic word "Thunder!", which was formed by the power of a Tornado, the speed of a Hare, the bravery of the great Mohegan chief Uncas, the wisdom of Nature, the toughness of Diamond, the flight of an Eagle, and the tenacity of a Ram. He got his powers from a Native American shaman rather than an ancient wizard, understand.
  • In Scooby-Doo! Team-Up, the wizard Shazam granted Shaggy and Velma Captain Marvel-like powers. Shaggy was granted the power of Zeus, the knowledge of Odin, the flight of Icarus, the depth of Neptune, the strength of Kronos and the persistence of Sisiphus while Velma was granted the dominion of Juno, the magic of Isis, the justice of Nemesis, the strength of Kali, the love of Ishtar, the courage of Electra, and the foresight of Sibyl. And, in case you're wondering? It's "Zoinks!" and "Jinkies!"
  • In DC Comics Bombshells, Miriam, a young Jewish girl, became Miri Marvel, taking her powers from the stories of some of the great women of the Old Testament: Shiphrah, Huldah, Abigail, Zipporah, Agenath and her own namesake Miriam. When the Bombshells version of Black Adam is introduced (with the same powers), we're told any names of power work, as long as they form the "SHAZAM" acronym.
  • The villain Ibac has the terror of Ivan the Terrible, the cunning of Caesar Borgia, the fierceness of Attila the Hun, and the cruelty of Caligula.
  • The villain Sabbac has the strength of Satan, the invulnerability of Aym, the wisdom of Belial, the flames of Beelzebub, the courage of Asmodeus, and the flight of Craetis.
• Grendel, in the later arcs involving Eppy Thatcher and Orion Assante, features the corrupt Confederacy Of Police. All of their equipment says "COP" on it, in case you didn't get it the first time around.
• With S.H.I.E.L.D., S.W.O.R.D., and A.R.M.O.R. temporarily out of the picture in Marvel comics after Secret Invasion, Mighty Avengers introduced a new secret acronym organization: The Global Reactionary Agency for Mysterious Paranormal Activity. Enter Hank Pym: Agent of G.R.A.M.P.A.
  • More likely Hank Pym, The Man From G.R.A.M.P.A.(riffing on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.).
• The Order faced the mysterious MIB The M.A.N. from S.H.A.D.O.W. He's eventually revealed to be working for the Super Human Development and Operation organization, SHDO; apparently writing it as "SHADOW" is just an aesthetics thing. The "M.A.N." part doesn't mean or stand for anything, it's just to make him seem even more mysterious.
• Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents: The Higher United Nations Defence Enforcement Reserves.
• Mortadelo y Filemón:
  • The two agents work for T.I.A. which when pronounced in Spanish sounds similar to tía (aunt), making it both an allegory to the CIA and a Shout-Out to The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Its meaning is Técnicos Investigación Aeroterráquea (Aero-ground investigation technicians); one of the older nemesis organizations was the A.B.U.E.L.A. ("grandmother")^note Agentes Bélicos Ultramarinos Especialistas en Líos Aberrantes ("Overseas War Agents Specialized in Aberrant Trouble"), and "La Vuelta" featured one-off villains T.I.O.^note Trojans Invictus Orbi, which prompted some lampshading from Mortadelo:
    “T.I.O.? Ha, ha! T.I.A. against T.I.O.? Hey, why don't you put the matter in hands of one of those ‘marriage counselors’ and have them air their dirty laundry?”
  • The story El Brujo ("The Warlock") introduces another villain organization, the F.E.A (Federación de Espías Asociados, "Federation of associated spies"). Fea means "ugly woman" in Spanish, and in general an ugly or bad thing of feminine gender.
  • Taken up to eleven in the story about the 2015 general election in Spain, when almost everyone in the T.I.A. staff is setting up their own parties to run for president. For example, Professor Bacterio reveals himself as the candidate for "Científicos Unidos Liberando el Orbe" (United Scientists Freeing the Orb), which results in the acronym C.U.L.O. ("culo" is Spanish for "butt"). Unsurprisingly, Mortadelo bursts out laughing when he notices. Also, Spanish socialist party PSOE gets renamed as PSAO (which in Spanish sounds similar to "pesado", that aside from meaning "heavy", is used to describe a really boring and/or annoying person.)
  • In a short story, the duo ask about the Súper's whereabouts, and another agent tells them he's at the bar. The duo start mocking the Súper, saying: "What could you expect from such a drunkard? Always at the bar!". Suddenly, a very sober Súper appears and explain: "Exactly: I was at the B.A.R. offices", B.A.R. standing for "Búsqueda de Agentes Raptados" ("Search for abducted agents").
• A subversion happens in the Swedish comic James Hund with the supercomputer KENT (which, thanks to phone taps and a tendency to take everything serious, ends up killing hundreds by public demand). His inventor is interviewed on TV and the talk show host asks what K.E.N.T. stands for, but the inventor reveals that he actually named it "Kent" because it's a nice name and he used to have a budgie named Kent.
• Classic Strontium Dog had an organisation called the Committee for Ultimate Retribution.
• Marvel's super-man The Sentry had a super-computer which allowed him to decide which disasters to respond to in order to save as many lives as possible — CLOC, the Centrally Located Organic Computer, which only received this illustrious name with the second volume of the series. In the same series, the Sentry's evil twin the Void was revealed to possess COLC, the Computer for Obliterating Life Completely.
• Green Lantern: Once after Hal Jordan went crazy and Kyle Rayner became the only Green Lantern, the real life organization dedicated to undoing this development was called HEAT. Hal's Emerald Advancement Team.
• Empowered has the pirate-themed group Advanced Restraint Research.
• And then there's DC Comics itself. When the company first began in 1937, it was called "Detective Comics, Inc." Fans quickly began calling it "DC Comics," and eventually the company took this name officially. This has the unfortunate side effect of the company's full name being "Detective Comics Comics."
• Played with in Dork Tower with Gamers For Personal Hygiene — explained here.
• A spoof comic by Michael Kupperman has a boy encounter an old man who promises to give him powers whenever he says SKREWPA. The old man explains the word is an acronym and starts listing what it stands for, but after E, the boy points out, "Those are all porn movie titles!" The old man admits he forgot the actual words.
• In Quantum and Woody, Team Pet Vincent Van Goat has the alias HAEDUS — Heavily Armored Espionage Deadly Uber-Sheep.
• A.C.R.O.S.T.I.C.: A Cabal Recently Organized Solely To Instigate Crimes, enemies of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!. Although what it stands for actually changes every time it's mentioned.
• The Kingdom of Loathing comic mentions the Familiar Underground Community of the Kingdom. Jill lampshades it: "What a long name… weird how they never came up with a clever acronym."
• Thunderbolts has F.A.C.T., the Federal Advisory Committee to Thunderbolts.
• "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" featured a group of rednecks known as Americans Secretly Serving Higher Order Law Enforcement Subservience. Yeah, you can figure that one out.
• Spider-Man: After being vague as possible about just what happened on Peter and MJ's wedding day in the new timeline caused by the One More Day Cosmic Retcon, Marvel announced that a new storyline and sequel of sorts to One More Day would be released. As One More Day was considered to be an absoulte train wreck with the whole Peter and MJ were now never married thing and served as a vehicle to do little more than break up the pairing, this was a bit of a hot button topic. The story in question was called One Moment In Time. Word of God said it was intentional. The fandom was not amused (especially not so when the story turned out to be, if possible, even crappier than One More Day).
• In SpyBoy, the heroic superspy organisation is called S.H.I.R.T.S., the Secret Headquarters International Reconnaisance, Tactics, and Spies. Its rival is S.K.I.N.S., the Supreme Killing Institute. S.H.I.R.T.S.' Japanese counterpart was M.A.N.G.A., the Middle Asian Network of Global Activities.
• There has been no indication as to what N.O.W.H.E.R.E. stands for.
• Also from the New 52, A.R.G.U.S. — which seems to replace Checkmate as DC's S.H.I.E.L.D. counterpart — is the Advanced Research Group Uniting Superheroes… currently. In the last issue of the A.R.G.U.S. miniseries, they turn out to have been around for longer than anyone suspected, being founded in The American Revolution as Armed Revolutionaries Governing Under Secrecy, and changing their name in The Wild West to Anonymous Ranger Group of the United States. Possibly they had another name in the 20th century, but if so it hasn't been revealed yet.
• Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars! regularly involves the S.P.A.C.E. organization: Sentient Protoplasm Against Colonial Encroachment.
• Averted in Richard Comely's Captain Canuck, where the title character was an agent of the Canadian International Security Organization, or C.I.S.O., an almost-blasphemously realistic name for a comic book spy agency.
  • Ironically, the fictional C.I.S.O. predated the creation of Canada's real civilian counterintelligence agency with an eerily similar name, C.S.I.S., the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
• The good guy superspies in the later independent Canadian superhero series Northguard work for an idealistic private corporation, Progressive Allied Canadian Technologies, or PACT.
  • Northguard's enemies belong to an extreme right-wing terrorist group called ManDes, an acronym composed out of the first syllables of the phrase "Manifest Destiny".
• The Society of Super-Heroes, aka S.O.S from Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World #1.
• Both factions in Tank Vixens: The Pan-Vulpine Coalition^note guess what their uniforms are made from, and the Vole IMPerium.
• New Avengers (2015) introduces a new villainous scientific organisation, W.H.I.S.P.E.R. – referred to in dialogue as "a world headquarters for international scientific/philosophical experimentation and research". One issue has the narration reusing that acronym with a different meaning each as a running gag.
  • A time travel story in the same series introduces the A.V.E.N.G.E.R.S., full meaning undisclosed.
• Ms. Marvel: The All-New, All-Different Marvel relaunch in 2015 introduced a villainous organization called Hope Yards Development and Relocation Association. Gee, sounds familiar.
• Albedo: Erma Felna EDF has lots of them, due to the fact the author was a former USAF member.
  • Extraplanetary Defense Force (EDF, the organization the titular heroine belongs to)
  • Independent Lepine Republic (ILR)
  • Confederation of Planets (The Federation)
  • Autonomous Combat Vehicle (ACV)
  • In Exo-Genesis, a short novel published in the Refractions fanzine, the military organization the human creators belongs to is named United Humanspace Colonial Service (UHSC).
  • From the same novel, the anthropomorphics are named AB (pronounced Aybee): Anthropomorphic Bioforms.
• In Prez, the United States' response to rising sea levels caused by global climate change is the Habitat Allowance for Lost Farmland And Sinking Shoreline: HALFASS.
• Madballs
  • Dr. Frankenbeans and his dim-witted assistant Snivelitch work at R.U.I.N. (Research Unlimited In Nucleonics).
  • The ninth issue had Frankenbeans and Snivelitch team up with several other villains to form I.N.C., Inc. The "I.N.C." stood for International Network of Creeps.
• Another long-runner for Marvel is Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., short for: Potential Energy Group/Alternate Sources/United States.
• The Batman Adventures: A fan letter published at Issue #16 has "Batman Adventures — Terrific covers Magnificent Artwork Never A Dull moment Very Exciting New stories The Ultimate Rendition of Everyone's favorite Superhero. I Salute you!!! #1
• Missile Mouse has the Rogue Imperium of Planets in "The Star Crusher".
• The title of C.O.V.E.N., an Italian comic series, refers to a team of government employed superpowered people. In one issue, there is a Running Gag of the members brainstorming over what the name is an acronym for. In particular, Lissie keeps insisting it's not an acronym, just the word "coven," meaning a group of witches. It's actually the initials of the team's founding members: Coco, Ofelia, Victor, Erebus and Nolan.
• In the Italian translation of Asterix, Obelix's Catchphrase is translated as "Sono Pazzi Questi Romani" ("They are mad, these Romans") The letters SPQR, which originally stood for "Senatus Populusque Romani", still appear on street furniture in modern Rome and it's long been a joke there that the letters stand for Sono Pazzi Questi Romani. Since the original French words are "Il's sont fous, ces Romains", echoing the Italian closely, it seems reasonable to assume that this was in René Goscinny's mind all along.
• In A Voice in the Dark, the radio station call sign is KILL. They lampshade it with their tagline "Killer Campus Radio".
• Too many to list in The Scrameustache, but the most notable one is Scrameustache himself: Sujet Créé par Radiations Artificielles et Manipulations Extra-Utérines Sans Toucher Aux Chromosomes Héréditaires Endogènes. This roughly translate to: Subject created by artificial radiation and ectopic manipulation without affecting Hereditary Endogenous Chromosomes.
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel) has B.A.T.s and B.A.A.T.s; B.A.T stands for "Battle Android Trooper", while B.A.A.T stands for "Battle Armored Android Trooper".
• Superman:
  • In the Supergirl (2015) tie-in comic Adventures of Supergirl, Brainiac is a hacker called Vril Dox who tries to deceive Kara by pretending to be a digital personal assistant named Virtual Remote Integration Logistics.
  • In the Supergirl storyline Death & the Family, S.T.A.R. Labs builds a miniaturized termite-like spy robot. It is called a Batesian Universal Ground retcon unit.
    Dr. Light: In the thick of things, we released this. A Batesian Universal Ground recon unit. "B.U.G." for short.
• Absolute Carnage: Attempted by Dylan for the Maker's codex extraction machine; taking his explanation of its "symbiote codex isolation and thermo-heated extraction process" and dubbing it "S.C.I.T.H.E.". The Maker shuts it down, deriding the practise as being "for children and comic books". (Even though he founded the aforementioned W.H.I.S.P.E.R.)
• On August 19th, 2019, Marvel Comics teased a new superhero team called "Doc Justice and the J-Team", with an image citing them to be in the mold of The Avengers, The Defenders, and the Thunderbolts. A video was released later in the day showing an image of the team itself and the book's editor talking about them. Accompanying the video is the description, "Revolutionary! Unstoppable! NEW! A wondrous and youthful squad! Look for Doc Justice and the J-Team in the pages of Marvel Comics coming soon!" Take the first letter of the first four sentences, and you'd get "Runaways". As it turns out, Doc Justice and the J-Team are part of Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), with the Runaways themselves becoming the J-Team.
• Red Xmas: Ellie works with an organization called the American Santa Society (A.S.S) to try and take down Santa Claus.
• Western Publishing's Big Little Book series featured Tom and Jerry in a story where Tom becomes a secret agent who calls himself F.E.L.I.N.E., or Fearless Enforcer of the Law with Interminable and Never-ending Energy.
  Jerry: Huh. Then that'd be F.E.O.T.L.W.I.A.N.E.!
• Brazilian comic Monica's Gang has resident crazy person Louco, known in English as Nutty Ned, who has given his full name as Licurgo Orival Umbelino Cafiaspirino de Oliveira.
• In Deathstroke Inc. T.R.U.S.T. stands for Transparent Researchers United for Strategy and Technology.
• In the comic series of Sonic X, there's an anti-Sonic group hanging about by the name of the Society for Observing and Neutralizing Interdimensional Creatures and Xenomorphs. S.O.N.I.C.X. The blue blur himself finds this rather hilarious.
• WildC.A.T.s originally stood for Covert Action Teams. The Infinite Frontier-era DCU version are the Crisis Aversion Tactical Squad.
• The prequel comic for Bumblebee, being a pastiche of 60s spy movies and TV shows runs hog wild with this one, giving us: P.R.O.G.R.A.M.M.E (Preemptive Resistance Operating Globally Reacting Against Malevolent Military Efforts), a subsidiary organization of B.A.S.E.S.T.A.T.I.O.N., with its tactical specialists the E.G.G.H.E.A.D.S.. They fight the fiendish E.I.D.O.L.O.N. (Espionage Intelligence Directorate: Offensive Law and Order Neutralization).
• In The Unstoppable Wasp, Nadia decides to create a group of female geniuses after learning that there were so few out recognizable out there (The highest on SHIELD's list, barring #1 Lunella "Moon Girl" Lafayette, was #27) called G.I.R.L., or Genius In action Research Labs.

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