Follow TV Tropes

Following

Superhero Sobriquets

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/action_comics_issue252_page029.jpg
Or the Maid of Might. Or the Last Daughter of Krypton. Or the Blonde Blockbuster. Or... you get the idea.

Look! Up in the sky! Not a bird, not a plane, it's Troperman! Also known as the Trope Knight, and your friendly neighborhood Lampshade Hanger!

Descriptive nicknames given to a character. This gets used a good bit for superheroes. Superman, the Man of Steel, for example. Because, we suppose, it is hard to squeeze all the required coolness into just one name. Stuffy literature majors refer to these as epithets.

If the nickname is just the hero's name with a descriptor in front of it, that's Sister Trope The Adjectival Superhero. See also: Red Baron.

In Film Adaptations, many of these may be exempt from the Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames clause, due to the fact that they're used more as a title than a "name".

Compare with "Burly Detective" Syndrome, as many of these sobriquets derived from breathless narrative captions that didn't want to keep repeating the hero's name.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

Heroic Handles

    DC Comics 
  • Batman: The Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, the Cowled Crimefighter, the World's Greatest Detective, the Bat of Gotham/Gotham's Bat, the Dark Avenger, the Dark Night Detective, the Guardian of Gotham, and, familiarly, Bats. Also called the Gotham Goliath in some late Golden Age and early Silver Age stories, plus the Masked Manhunter in some Bronze Age stories. Following the death of Adam West, the '60s television Batman was dubbed The Bright Knight.
  • Batgirl (Barbara Gordon): The Dominoed Daredoll.
  • Robin: The Boy Wonder, and eventually the Teen Wonder. (Oracle once called Nightwing the Twentysomething Wonder, but it never caught on.)
  • Batman and Robin: The Dynamic Duo.
    • Batgirl and Robin: The Dynamite Duo.
  • Batman Beyond: The Tomorrow Knight
  • Superman: The Man of Steel, the Man of Tomorrow, the Last Son of Krypton, the Metropolis Kid, the Big Blue Boy Scout, Big Blue, the Big Red S and, again familiarly, Supes. Other nicknames seen in The Silver Age of Comic Books and The Bronze Age of Comic Books were the Metropolis Marvel and the Action Ace.
    • Fun fact: many nicknames were the basis for the replacement Supermen in the "Reign of the Supermen" storyline:
      • The Man of Steel: Steel
      • The Man of Tomorrow: the Cyborg Superman
      • The Last Son of Krypton: the Eradicator
      • The Metropolis Kid: Superboy (Kon-El). Also known as just "the Kid". Sometimes also called "The Teen of Steel".
  • Superboy (Kal-El version): the Boy of Tomorrow, the Boy of Steel, the Smallville Sensation
  • Supergirl: The Girl of Steel, the Maid of Might, the Maid of Steel, the Last Daughter of Krypton, the Red Daughter of Krypton, the Girl of Tomorrow, the Princess of Power, the Blonde Blockbuster, and during her college years she was called the Stanhope Sensation.
  • Krypto the Superdog: the Dog of Steel.
  • Superman and Batman: The World's Finest Team (or just World's Finest for short).
    • These days, the two of them plus Wonder Woman are called The Trinity.
  • Elongated Man: The Ductile Detective, the Stretchable Sleuth.
  • Aquaman: King of the Seven Seas, Monarch of the Oceans, Marine Marvel, Marine Monarch, Sea Sleuth, Aquatic Aristocrat, the Sea King, Sovereign of the Seven Seas.
    • Incidentally, the "Sea King" is the name of his New 52 Earth-3 counterpart.
  • The Atom: Tiny Titan.
  • The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, the Scarlet Speedster. Also was occasionally called the Sultan of Speed, the Monarch of Motion, and the Vizier of Velocity. As a group, the speedsters strongly affiliated with the Flash - the Flash Family - are referred to as "Those Who Ride The Lightning".
    • Lampshaded in the 2014 TV show. When Barry meets Jay Garrick, the Flash of an Alternate Universe, Jay notes Barry's "Scarlet Speedster" nickname and comments that he's called the "Crimson Comet" back home.
  • Hawkman: Winged Avenger, Winged Wonder.
  • Green Lantern: The Emerald Gladiator, The Emerald Knight, and once, rather amusingly, the Aroused Crusader.note  Promotional material for the Justice League animated series mashed them up into Emerald Crusader.
  • Green Arrow: The Emerald Archer, The Battling Bowman
  • Captain Marvel: The World's Mightiest Mortal, the Big Red Cheese. (The latter is an in-story insult used by his enemies, particularly Dr. Sivana, but it's often used out of comics as an affectionate nickname)
  • Booster Gold has been trying to popularize "The Greatest Hero You've Never Heard Of". He's also been known as the Corporate Crusader.
  • Booster Gold and Blue Beetle: The Blue and Gold.
  • Wonder Woman: The Spirit of Truth, the Amazing Amazon, the Undaunted, the Bane of Ares, Lady of Justice.
  • Judomaster: The Crimson Crusher, the Scarlet Smasher.
  • Plastic Man: The Pliable Paladin, The Pencil Necked Geek, The Sultan of Stretch, The Indian Rubber Man
  • Ragman: Tatterdemalion of Justice
  • Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! has a few:
    • Captain Carrot himself was described in the comic's opening narrative as the Zoo Crew's "Leapin' Leader."
    • Rubberduck was nicknamed the Malleable Mallard.
    • Fastback was called the Terrapin Torpedo, as well as the Reptilian Rocket.
    • Little Cheese was dubbed the Micro-Mouse.
    • Pig-Iron was named the Porcine Powerhouse and the Swine of Steel (and also, in a reference to the Fantastic Four's Thing, once referred to himself as "the Idol of Dozens").
    • The Just'a Lotta Animals mostly used animal-themed variations on their Earth-1 counterparts' nicknames, thus Super-Squirrel was the "Squirrel of Steel," the Crash was "the Fastest Animal Alive," and the Batmouse's sidekick was named Boyd, the Robin Wonder.

     Marvel Comics 
  • The Avengers: The Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
  • Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Heroes, the First Family of Comics.
    • The Thing: The Idol of Millions as well as The Loveable/Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing. Sometimes, he refers to himself as Aunt Petunia's Favorite Nephew.
  • Sub-Mariner is a common moniker for Namor, but he's also occasionally known as "The Avenging Son of Atlantis"; "Avenging Son" is the literal translation of his name.
  • The Hulk: The Jade Giant, Ol' Greenskin, Ol' Jadejaws, The Green Goliath.
  • She-Hulk: The Jade Giantess, The Glorious Green Glamazon. (Also "Shulkie", but she doesn't like that one.)
  • The Sentry: The Golden Guardian of Good.
  • Deadpool: The Merc with the Mouth, The Regenerating Degenerate, and The Crimson Comedian
  • Captain America: The Sentinel of Liberty, the Star-Spangled Avenger, the Living Legend of WWII, or just plain Cap. The movie names him "The First Avenger", plus he gets "The Star-Spangled Man with A Plan" in-story as part of a USO campaign.
    • Nomad: The Man Without A Country
  • Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, Hornhead, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, and sometimes just "Red".
  • Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts, the Sorcerer Supreme (the latter is actually an official title granted to Earth's most powerful sorcerer. Strange has surrendered the title more than once). His lover, Clea, was sometimes called the Mystic Maiden.
  • Hercules: The Prince of Power, the Lion of Olympus. Herc's sidekick, Amadeus Cho, briefly inherited the "Prince of Power" title when it seemed that Herc was dead.
  • Iron Man: The Armored Avenger, The Golden Avenger, Shellhead.
  • Iron Fist: The Living Weapon, Young Dragon, and most recently he has become both famous and infamous for being "The Immortal Iron Fist, protector of Kun Lun, Sworn enemy of the Hand".
  • Spider-Man: The Webslinger, Wallcrawler, Webhead, the Arachknight, and yet again (and not coincidentally) familiarly, Spidey, and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, if you're not into that whole "brevity" thing.
    • Black Cat affectionately calls him "Spider".
  • Marketing materials refer to Comic Book/Spiderboy as the "Arachnid Kid", though Bailey doesn't particularly like being called "Spider-Kid" in-story. He's also called the "Webless Wonder" for being the only spider hero on Earth-616 to go without webbing of any kind.
  • The Mighty Thor: The God of Thunder, Thunderer, the Golden Avenger (seriously) and the Odinson. And, once more familiarly, Goldilocks (it's mainly Iron Man and Hawkeye who call him that).
  • The X-Men: The Children of the Atom, an acknowledgment of an earlier science fiction story which may or may not have been an inspiration for the team.
    • Cyclops: The First X-Man, Fearless Leader, Cyke, Scotty, Slim, One-Eye.
    • Wolverine: The Canucklehead, Runt, Berserker
    • Nightcrawler: The (Fuzzy Blue) Elf, The Demon, shares "Wallcrawler" with Spider-Man.
    • Gambit: The Ragin' Cajun, Gumbo (only Wolverine calls him that)note 
    • Storm, the Beautiful Windrider.
    • Xorn: The Man from Room X
  • 2010's entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have dubbed Thor "The Mighty Avenger" and Captain America "The First Avenger". New Iron Man merchandise during the period was also labeled "The Armored Avenger" to match.
  • The Punisher: In his first encounter with Captain America, the narration at one point referred to him as "The Ebony Executioner". However, this was the only time the title was used.
  • Carol Danvers, currently known as Captain Marvel, is billed as "Earth's Mightiest Hero" in her new ongoing series.
  • Nova: The Human Rocket.
  • Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, The Hellbound Hero, The Hellborn Biker, The Hellspawned Hero
  • Excalibur (Faiza Hussain): The Sword that Heals.

     Other Comics 
  • The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks, The Man Who Cannot Die
  • Empowered: Maid Man, being a Batman Expy, can't help but have a bunch of these: the Garter-belted Gladiator, the Dark Knight Domestic, the Delicate Cycle Detective, the Hard-hitting Hygenist, the Sanitary Sentinel, the Iron-handed Immaculist, the Manservant of Steel, the Squeaky-clean Samurai, the Corset-clad Crusader and the Velveteen Virtuoso of Violence.
  • From Alan Moore's Miracleman:
    • Big Ben, the Man With No Time for Crime
    • Miracleman, the Big Blue Banana (as Kid Miracleman calls him during their first fight
  • Also from Moore, his run on Supreme had Supreme be called a variety of alliterative sobriquets.
  • Paperinik (Donald Duck's superhero/antihero alter ego) is also known as the Devilish Avenger (from which the English name, "Duck Avenger" came from). Notable because he came up with it himself, and it caught on after he used it in public off-screen.
    • While not a superhero, Fantomius, who created the legacy that prompted Donald to become Paperinik, was known as the Gentleman Thief, as he decided that the best way to fight thieves parading as gentlemen was to become a gentleman disguised as a thief-and so had "Fantomius-Gentleman Thief" printed on the Calling Cards he leaves at the site of every heist.
  • Spawn hasn't picked up a lot of epithets, but he's known as the Angel of Armageddon and following Malebolgia's fall, the King of Hell.

     Anime and Manga 
  • In Tiger & Bunny:
    • Wild Tiger is the Crusher for Justice.
    • Rock Bison is the Bull Tank of the West Coast.
    • Blue Rose is the Idol of the World of Heroes.
    • Dragon Kid is the Lightning Bolt Kung Fu Master.
    • Fire Emblem is the Bourgeois Open Flame Broil.
    • Sky High is the Wind Wizard and the Wind Master.
  • Mazinger Z is the Invincible Tower of Black Iron.
  • Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero: Saber (Arthuria, or:King Arthur) is Kingnote  of Knights, Rider (Alexander) is King of Conquerors, while Archer (Gilgamesh) is King of Heroes.
  • In Codename: Sailor V (the manga that Sailor Moon was spun off from), those who actually know who Sailor V is have sometimes called her the "Goddess of Love" or the "Goddess of War".
  • Discussed in the early stages of One-Punch Man: The Hero Association gives names to its members, so Genos believes he'll be called something like "Blond Cyborg", while Saitama will probably get "Caped Baldy". Once the two join the Hero Association, Genos receives the hero name Demon Cyborg while Saitama gets... Caped Baldy.
  • My Hero Academia:
    • All Might is known as the Symbol of Peace. Several heroes have additional titles, even class 1-A dips into it. Some examples include Miss Joke, the Smile Hero, and the "18+ Only Hero", Midnight. Apparently these titles are retained even when they're clearly no longer accurate, since Recovery Girl is still known as the "Youthful Heroine" despite being visibly quite elderly.
    • The students came up with titles of this nature as well, though of course, they're not official yet; Ojiro goes with "The Martial Arts Hero", Toru with "The Stealth Hero", Tsuyu with "The Rainy Season Hero", Momo with "The Everything Hero", etc.
  • Vash the Stampede of Trigun is commonly referred to as "The Humanoid Typhoon".

     Fan Works 
  • A Running Gag in Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space with our hero Captain Proton, who introduces himself as "Spaceman First Class, Defender of Earth, Man of the Day After Tomorrow" and "Prince of Planeteers, Lord of the Rings of Saturn, Man of Bronzilithiocydronoxidothicideutroniumate-25." Later he's greeted as the "Hero of Science, Sleuth of the Spaceways and Queen of the Rocket Men" which Proton points out should actually be King of the Rocket Men!

     Films — Live-Action 
  • This line by Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:
    "Black and blue, fight night. The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. God versus man, day versus night, Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham!"
  • In The Batman (2022), Batman is sometimes called "Vengeance", because of his Badass Boast "I am vengeance".
  • Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Monster of Justice, New Century Monster King, among a dozen others.

     Literature 
  • Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire: Numerous to say the least:
    • Aegon I: The Dragon, The Dragonlord, The Conqueror
    • Ser Aemon Targaryen: Dragonknight
    • Daeron the Daring
    • Lyonel Baratheon: The Laughing Storm
    • Oberyn Martell: The Red Viper
      • His daughters (collectively): The Sand Snakes
    • Meria Martell: The Yellow Toad of Dorne
    • Rhaenyra Targaryen: The Realm's Delight; The Whore of Dragonstone; King Maegor with Teats; Maegor's Teats; The Half-Year Queen.
    • Maekar I: The Anvil
    • Baelor I: The Blessed
    • Daeron I: The Young Dragon
    • Aegon III: The Dragonbane
    • Maegor I: The Cruel
    • Daenerys Targaryen: Aegon The Conqueror with Teats, Stormborn, The Unburnt, Mother of Dragons, Mother, Mhysa, The Silver Queen, Silver Lady, Dragonmother, The Dragon Queen.
    • Robert Baratheon: The Usurper
    • Rhaegar Targaryen: The Last Dragon
    • Sandor Clegane: The Hound
    • Gregor Clegane: The Mountain, The Mountain That Rides
    • Olenna Redwyne: The Queen of Thorns
    • Corlys Velaryon: The Sea Snake
    • Rhaenys Targaryen: The Queen Who Never Was
    • Balon Greyjoy: The Twice Crowned, The Kraken
    • Euron Greyjoy: Crow's Eye
    • Victarion Greyjoy: The Iron Captain
    • Aeron Greyjoy: The Damphair
  • Don Quixote: The Knight of the Rueful Figure
  • Discworld:
    • Death: The Grave of All Hope, The Ultimate Reality, the Assassin Against Whom No Lock Will Hold
    • Granny Weatherwax: She Who Must Be Avoided, Go-Round-The-Other-Side-Of-The-Mountain
  • Captain Underpants: The Waistband Warrior
  • The Stormlight Archive:
    • Kaladin: The Stormblessed
    • Dalinar: The Blackthorn
    • Szeth: The Truthless of Shinovar

     Live Action TV 
  • Arrow. Oliver Queen is called "The Emerald Archer" by recurring villain China White.
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Doctor: The Oncoming Storm (in the language of the Daleks), The Beast, Vessel Of The Final Darkness, The Evil One, The Sandman, Umbrella Man, The Eighth Man Bound, and Shango The Lightning God, among dozens of others.
    • Rose: The Bad Wolf.
    • Amy: The Girl Who Waited.
    • Rory: The Boy Who Waited, the Last Centurion.
    • Clara Oswald: The Impossible Girl.
  • Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer, the Chosen One.
  • Power Rangers and Super Sentai occasionally fall into this when the Rangers' In the Name of the Moon phrases describe themselves rather than their powers or their mission of justice or something.
    • Power Rangers S.P.D.: Omega Ranger is "Force from the Future" and Shadow Ranger is "Defender of the Galaxy". Shadow's Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger counterpart, DekaMaster, is the "Guard Dog of Hell".
    • Most of the Mahou Sentai Magiranger include "The [color] Magician" as part of their announcements.
    • The Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger are (deep breath) The Fanged Hero (Red), The Bullet Hero (Black), The Armored Hero (Blue), The Slashing Hero (Green), The Horned Heroine (Pink), The Thunderous Hero (Gold), The Steel Hero (Cyan), The Clashing Hero (Grey), The Marine Heroine (Violet), and The Radiant Hero (Silver).

     Mythology & Religion 

     Video Games 

     Western Animation 

Evil Epithets

     DC Comics 
  • The Joker: The Clown Prince of Crime, the Thin White Duke of Death, the Harlequin of Hate, the Mountebank of Menace, the Murderous Mountebank, the Lord of Laughs, the Jester of Genocide, the Ace of Knaves. Grant Morrison's The Clown at Midnight has the Joker reflecting on the media names for him: the Laughing Leper, the Dandy of Death and the Clown Prince of Pain.
  • In the Deep Six, one of them is Shaligo, The Flying Finback.
  • The Riddler: the Prince of Puzzles, the Count of Conundrums, the Duke of Dilemmas, the Wizard of Quiz, Mister E.
  • The Scarecrow, the Master of Fear.
  • Lobo: The Main Man, the Last Czarnian, The Master of Frag, Archbishop of the Alpha-Centauri Diocese of the Church of the Holy Space Dolphin
  • Ra's al Ghul: his name literally translates to "The Demon's Head."
  • Lady Shiva, Deadshot, Deathstroke, The Wrath, Cheshire, Merlyn and The Black Spider have all been referred to as the "World's deadliest assassin."
  • Sinestro: The Terror God (mainly from Arkillo or other Sinestro Corps members, before his return to the GL Corps.
  • Doctor Polaris: Master of Magnetism almost four months before the first appearance of Magneto.
  • Darkseid, The Rock, the Chain and the Lightning; The Tiger-Force at the Core of All Things. Darkseid IS.
  • Brainiac, the Collector of Worlds, the Terror of Kandor, the Twelfth-Level Intellect.
  • Some of Captain Marvel/Shazam villains had nicknames. Dr. Sivana calls himself "The World's Wickedest Scientist" and Mr. Mind is "The World's Wickedest Worm". (In the Shazam! animated series, Mr. Mind was once called The World's Mightiest Mite)

     Marvel Comics 

     Anime and Manga 
  • Slayers: Lina Inverse, Queen of Destruction, Enemy of All Living Things, Dragon Spooker, and Bandit Killer. (She's a good guy, but she has a poor reputation).
  • In a similar vein, 3WA's "Lovely Angels" duo are better known, due to their reputations, as the Dirty Pair.
  • Seiichirou Kitano of Angel Densetsu starts collecting nicknames throughout the series. A LOT of nicknames:
    • Hekikuu's Guardian, the Greatest Guardian of Them All, the Demon of Hekikuu, the First-Year Guardian of Hekikuu High. The Devil Himself, manifested into our world. The Final Boss, the Ultimate Weapon. Also, the Human Weapon, the Last Boss, the God of Slaughter and Pillage, the Guardian of Hell, Bloody Saburo, and Exploding Goro. (The speaker kinda lost it on the last two.)
    • Kitano and Ryoko together are known as: The Most Powerful Violence Couple in History, and the Strongest Couple in Hekikuu.
    • As the cast grows, the collected group are known as: The Kitano family, or Kitano-san's Hekikuu army.
    • Back in the day, Kitano's father was known as the Devil Guardian.
  • In addition to "The Black Swordsman," Guts of Berserk is also known as the "Hundred Man Slayer" for his single-handed slaughter of a hundred Blue Whale Knights. Much like Lina, he's a good guy, but is as Byronic and antiheroic as they come.
  • In Dragon Ball, the epithet of Piccolo's collective familynote  is the Family Of Evil or the Demon Clan; King Piccolo is the Great Demon King (Piccolo Daimaoh), Piccolo is Demon Jr. (Ma Jr. or Majunia). Considering they were originally the same individual, Kami (and his martial arts style) is also considered part of the family.
  • The Gung-Ho Guns of Trigun have these appended to their names: Monev the Gale, Caine the Longshot, Zazie the Beast, and so on. In addition, although he's actually a good guy, Vash (the Stampede) is also known as "The Humanoid Typhoon" due to his destructive reputation, much like Lina Inverse and the Dirty Pair.

     Fan Works 

     Literature 
  • Professor Moriarty: The Napoleon of Crime
  • The Stormlight Archive:
    • Yelig-nar: Blightwind
    • Sja-anat: The Taker of Secrets
    • Dai-gonarthis: The Black Fisher
    • Re-Shephir: The Midnight Mother
    • Ashertmarn: The Heart of the Revel
    • Chemoarish: The Dustmother

    Live Action TV 
  • Doctor Who
    • Davros: The Great Healer, Dark Lord of Skaro
    • The Master: Death's Champion, Koschei.

     MMORPGs 

     Tabletop Games 

     Video Games 
  • Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories: Overlord Zenon: God Of All Overlords
  • Killer7 brings us Ayame Blackburn, a gun-toting Cosplay Otaku Girl who styles herself as a Magical Girl in Sailor Fuku and an anigao mask, and declares herself the "Chairman of the Education Guidance Council".
  • Metroid: The sadistic Space Pirate commander Ridley, a dragonlike creature referred to in some media as "The Cunning God of Death".
  • Silhouette Mirage has the protagonist Shyna, the self-proclaimed Messenger of Justice. To her enemies however she's the Messenger of Destruction.
  • Fallout: New Vegas has Joshua Graham, The Burned Man. His successor Legate Lanius is known as the Monster of the East.
    • And The Courier, depending on how you treat the Powder Gangers: The Grim Fucking Reaper.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ganondorf has many: Dark Lord, King/Prince of Darkness, Demon King, Great King of Evil, Gerudo King of Thieves, pretty much anything involving royalty and villainy.
  • Super Mario Bros.: Bowser, King of the Koopas. If you asked him, he's also the King of Awesome.
  • Super Paper Mario features Mr. L, "the Green Thunder"... who is just Luigi after having been given a Paper-Thin Disguise and being brainwashed.

     Western Animation 

Top