One Steve Limit / Comic Books

Not many peasants aspire for a unique name.

The following have their own pages:

• The DCU
• Marvel Universe

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Other Publishers and 'Verses

• The Adventures of Tintin:
  • There are two detectives that look nearly identical and are named "Thomson" and "Thompson" (Dupond and Dupont in the original French). This also a case of No Name Given, as neither has a first name ever mentioned that could be used to tell them apart.
  • Though in a straight example, a third character coincidentally carrying the same name, Allan Thompson, effectively got his surname erased in the English translation to avoid undue confusion.
• Inverted in Amelia Rules! series, the concept of the "Legion of Steves" being a group of people all named Steve.
• Barracuda: Maria's mother (who is a major character in the first volume) is Dona Emilia, and Emilio adopts the name Emilia first when he is Disguised in Drag and keeps it when he becomes a Wholesome Crossdresser.
• The Beano has a weird Decomposite Character aversion. After Dennis And Gnasher Unleashed gave Olive the school dinner lady an Age Lift, Race Lift, and Adaptational Attractiveness, the comic made the "new" Olive a Canon Immigrant, but kept the original Olive as well. So Bash Street School now has two dinner ladies, an older white woman and a younger Afro-Caribbean one, and they're both named Olive. (And both Lethal Chefs.)
• Be Prepared has Vera in a tent with two girls named Sasha who are best friends and have been coming to camp together for years.
• Subverted in Blacksad with the eponymous detective and his ally, Commissioner Smirnov: both of them share the first name of "John", though since the latter always goes by a Last-Name Basis, you wouldn't know that by reading the comics, only through suplementary material.
• Cartoon Network Action Pack featured stories based on Ben 10: Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien in its later issues. Two different stories from that part of the comic's run both had Ben fight an unrelated villain called the Collector (the first one being a collector of live heroes who resembled Comic Book Guy as a blue-skinned alien and the second one being a warrior who covets the Ultimatrix as an addition to his collection of powerful weapons).
• In the Judge Dredd comics there have been two completely separate characters with the incredibly specific name "Spikes 'Harvey' Rotten", and in addition to sharing the same name, both were reputed to be ruthless bikers and part of a biker gang called "The Muties." The only thing that really sets them apart is their physical appearance. The first Spikes "Harvey" Rotten was a minor character who died in an illegal street race through Mega-City One; the second accompanied Dredd on his trek to Mega-City Two during the "Cursed Earth" story arc.
• Averted in the Universe as a whole, but played straight in story basis in the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe. Since is also a Mythology Gag, the name Mortimer is used a lot. But, the Mortimers never interact and are keep in the boundaries of the story been told at the same time.
• In Ms. Tree, the heroine, her late husband and his son (her stepson) all share the same name: Michael Tree. To avoid confusion (both in-universe and out), Ms. Tree is usually referred to as Michael (her sister calls her Michelle), her late husband as Mike, and his son as Mike, Jr. There was a miniseries, The P.I.s, that paired her with Michael Mauser of E-Man; in the third issue yet another detective, Mike Mist, appears, quipping that he must have wandered into a convention for the Private Eyes Named Michael Association.
• Muppet Robin Hood had Kermit's nephew Robin lampshade this when he explains why his character is named Squirt, pointing out that it would be confusing to go by his regular name in a story where his uncle is playing a character also named Robin.
• Pearls Before Swine has its endless supply of "Bobs" in addition to Neighbor Bob and the fictitious Angry Bob. Stephan Pastis wrote in commentary that "Bob" is a funny name. It has two "b"'s ("b" is a funny sounding letter), it's a palindrome, and a verb.
• The Plain Janes: The five lead characters are all named Jane. They have adjectives attached to help determine who is who. Ex: Theatre Jane.
• Scooby-Doo! Team-Up:
  • The story "Scooby Doo When Are You?" features two Freds. Fred Flintstone and his contemporaries call Fred Jones "other Fred".
  • Fred being introduced to Starman:
    Fred: I thought Starman was a young hipster guy?
    Starman: That's the other Starman.
    Fred: You're his father?
    Starman: That's the other, other Starman.
    Fred: An earthling with a mullet?
    Starman: The other, other, other Starman.
    Fred: An alien Prince?
    Starman: The other, other, other, other Starman.
  • Starfire is neither the Russian superhero nor the barbarian freedom fighter.
  • When the gang meets a villain named Multi-Man, they remember having once met a superhero who also goes by that name.
• Scott Pilgrim has a second character named Scott, who is always referred to by the rest of the cast as "Other Scott". Regular Scott also has a tendency to mix up people with similar names, and for most of the second book confuses Lucas Lee (the villain), Lucas "Crash" Wilson (a member of the series' recurring "Quirky Miniboss Squad") and Luke Wilson (the actor) as well as when referring to Todd Ingram (the evil vegan ex) says "Todd Rundgren or whatever is psychic!"
  • There's also kind of a weird subversion to this principle at the end of volume 2. Scott is telling Ramona about how his ex-girlfriend Envy broke up with him and started dating some guy named Todd. Ramona says, off-handedly, "I dated a Todd once." Scott sarcastically replies, "Great story! Maybe they're the same guy!" They are.
• Most of José Carioca's various relatives are also named José (family reunions must be confusing). Fortunately, they all have unique last names that they can be identified by. For extra fun, José's rival (Who's not related to him) is also named José. This is probably because it's a stereotypical name for a Brazilian.
• Peanuts had two characters named Patty. The original Patty dates from the first strip, and wore a checkered dress and bow. The more memorable character was the later appearing Peppermint Patty. One would assume the Pun necessitated the exception, but Original Patty disappeared by the mid '70s. (Worth pointing out, too, is that Original Patty was Charlie Brown's very first antagonist in the first-ever Peanuts strip (when CB was something of a Jerkass, not the lovable emo kid we know and love), while Peppermint Patty was always portrayed as being madly and desperately in love with the clueless Chuck.)
• Played with in Fables. Jack Horner, Jack of the Tales, Jack o' Lantern, Jack Frost, Jack B. Nimble, Jack B. Quick, and Jack Giantslayer are all aliases for the same person. Every last fable about someone called Jack, with the exceptions of Jack Spratt, Jack Ketch and Jack Frost (in The Great Fables Crossover), seems to turn out to be him, and he magically becomes the central character of any story he's in, to such a degree they had to boot him out of the comic.
• Three Mikes in the coming-of-age book set in The '80s, The Copybook Tales.
• In an Americomics Blue Bulleteer oneshot, the heroine known as the Blue Bulleteer crosses paths with a hero also calling himself the Blue Bulleteer. Neither has ever heard of the other. She's had the name for longer, but he had it patented. By the end of the story they seem to have reconciled the fact that they operate under the same, because they both keep using it afterwards.
• Averted in British girls' comic Bunty, whose main strip The Four Marys was Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The girls went by nicknames based on their surname - "Raddy" (Mary Radleigh), "Cotty" (Mary Cotter), "Simpy" (Mary Simpson) and "Fieldy" (Mary Field.)
• Averted in Stray Bullets. The Killers arc introduces Virginia's aunt and Adam's girlfriend, both of whom are named Jane. Eli even comments on this.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) has both Ray the Manta Ray (leader of the Forty Fathom Freedom Fighters and Canon Foreigner) and Ray the Flying Squirrel (member of the Chaotix, originally from SegaSonic the Hedgehog). When the original Ray was introduced, the writers most likely hadn't heard of the game Ray (or weren't planning to ever use him). Even more confusing, there are two villains named Black Death: a Mobian cat sorceress encountered by Knuckles, and much later Black Doom's successor as the leader of the Black Arms.
• Deliberately averted with various minor characters in The Walking Dead, as it would really stretch suspension of disbelief to not have any repeating names among all the random groups of survivors.
  • In Brazilian Portuguese translation, both Jack Horner and Hansel are named João. Justified for two reasons: 1- That's how the original characters (from the fairy tales they're based on) have been traditionally known in Brazil for centuries; 2- Both translations are accurate, as Jack and Hansel are local short forms for variations of the same name (English: Jack–>John; German: Hansel–>Hans–>Johannes) and João is the Portuguese variation of the name.
• There are two different Transformers named Skydive in Transformers: Generation 1, an Autobot and a Decepticon respectively. Early in The Transformers: Robots in Disguise the Decpeticon is murdered and when Prowl is called in to investigate the crime he repeatedly confuses the two.
  • There are also two Cybertronians named Tankor, they are known as "Tall Tankor" and "Fat Tankor," though not to the former's face.
  • Dent, a minor character in Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, used to be named Prowl. He had to change it to avoid confusion with the more notable user of the name.
• In Rat Queens, the Four Daves are a party of four men, all of them named Dave. Others refer to them by race ("Orc Dave", "Smidgeon Dave", etc.), but within the group they just call each other "Dave".
• Referenced in The Wicked + The Divine when discussing the mythology. There's only one Baal in this recurrence, but until Issue #4 they don't know which Baal he is (it's Baal Hadad, by the way). There's also Tara, who might be the Hindu Goddess or a Boddhisatva.
• In Y: The Last Man Yorick sleeps with a woman with the same name as his fiancee Beth. As a result Beth II (or Other Beth) has a child she names Beth Junior. Eventually all three meet up in Paris.
  Hero: "I'm sorry Beth, but Beth has a right to know about... Beth."
  Beth: "What?"
  Beth 2: "I know it would have probably been easier if I'd named her Betty or Elizabeth, but I've never gotten along with chicks who go by the variations, have you?"
• Werner introduced three Günters within eleven years:
  • the malaproping protagonist of the "Spironolactonil-ratiopharm" Psychopharmaca Thriller (Oder was?)
  • one of the two TÜV inspectors who complain about nothing on Werner's bike being "original" (Eiskalt!)
  • finally, the Large Ham construction tycoon Günter Günzelsen (Ouhauerha!)
• Downplayed in Valhalla, which features two significant jotun characters whose name is 'Loki': Loki Laufeysson, the trickster god who became aesir by adoption, and Loki the jotun steadholder and warlord in Utgard, the homeland of the jotuns. The latter is consistently referred to as 'Utgards-Loki' to avoid confusion.

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