Unclear Description: Dark Age Of Supernames

Looks like this page is actually Two and a Half Tropes meshed together under one name:

1. X-Treeeme superhero names. A staple of the "x-treme" phase of 90s superhero comics. Those are one-word names made by merging together two words with scary or aggressive themes: usually Blood, Death, Kill, or a combination thereof. E.g. Deathshot, Killrazor, Bloodpouch. This is what most examples on the page are about.
2. One-word superhero names. It might seem like chairs, but I think it's an exiting trend in comics, created to distance from campy-sounding Something Person or Captain Superhero names of the Golden/Silver Ages. The thing is, they're not a 90s invention. One of the notable examples are the X Men, who were given codenames like that... in 1963. I think it'd be possible to remake it into a separate trope, maybe noting that it became somewhat popular in the Dark Age.
3. Superhero names with Xtreme Kool Letterz. It's just Xtreme Kool Letterz, But More Specific. This can just be mentioned on the Xtreme Kool Letterz page.

Also, some examples in the example list are just Names to Run Away from Really Fast of any kind, unrelated even to the aforementioned 2.5 meanings described in the description.

My suggestion:

• Restrict this trope to Bloodpouch-esque "x-treme" superhero names.
• YKTTW a trope for single-word superhero codenames (maybe a Useful Notes, though?)
• Clean up all misuse.

Thoughts?

edited 5th Aug '15 6:17:57 AM by Rjinswand

40% of the original 1963 X-Men had Something Person names (Iceman and Marvel Girl), so I'm pretty sure they weren't trying to deliberately avert old-style names. The other three (Angel, Cyclops, the Beast) all were named with words that are at least the names of living creatures. I think there's something different going on with names like "Cable", though I'm not sure how to define it precisely.

That aside, I agree with your proposals.

edited 5th Aug '15 8:00:14 AM by tbarrie

Thanks for the input!

Good point, yeah, not all X-Men had one-word names. As for the difference between Cyclops and Cable... I don't know, if we want those to be separate tropes (one for Cyclops, Beast, Angel, and another for Cable, Domino, Feral), we need to state very clearly what the difference is. If the difference is "living/non-living", then e.g. Storm is an example of the latter?

There seem to be examples of both types:

• 1st Gen X Men:
  • Living: Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Mimic
  • Non-living: Havok, Polaris
• 1st Gen X Men enemies:
  • Living: Toad, Mastermind
  • Non-living: Magneto, Quicksilver
• 2nd Gen X Men:
  • Living: Wolverine, Banshee
  • Non-living: Storm, Colossus

etc.

edited 6th Aug '15 5:51:23 AM by Rjinswand

Locking as part of New Years Purge.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick