Kid: Hey, it's Black Falcon!
Sam Wilson: Just Falcon, kid.
Kid: No, no, my daddy told me it's Black Falcon.
Sam: Is it because I'm black and I'm the Falcon? [...] So are you, like, Black Kid?
Sam Wilson: Just Falcon, kid.
Kid: No, no, my daddy told me it's Black Falcon.
Sam: Is it because I'm black and I'm the Falcon? [...] So are you, like, Black Kid?
A superhero and masked hero naming convention where the hero has a color as part of their name.
Generally, this color is incorporated into their powers, their appearance, or their costume in some way. Expect it to be pointed out if it isn't. Most names of this type take the form of Color Noun.
A Sister Trope to Something Person, where the hero or villain has his power or defining trait as part of his code name. May or may not be Color-Coded for Your Convenience. Wanders into Added Alliterative Appeal on occasion.
Different colors tend to signify different things. A few of these characters are from the Cold War era and are colored red because they come from, or represent, a communist nation. Black can indicate a Captain Ethnic or an Anti-Hero.
See also Colourful Theme Naming, All Your Colors Combined. When combined with Animal Theme Naming, this is Color Animal Codename.
Examples:
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Multiple
- Super Sentai and Power Rangers are of course built on this. Individual monikers (such as Zeo Ranger IV Green or Gokai Pink) often reference their colors, but even when they are identified by, say an animal, they collectively are usually identified as [Color] Ranger(s) for the franchise overall.
- While not exactly heroes, the crème de la crème of the Fixers in Library of Ruina are given titles that follow this scheme, and are aptly called Color Fixers or just as Colors. Those currently known are the Red Mist, Purple Tear, Blue Reverberation, Black Silence and Vermillion Cross. It is unknown why this trend was chosen in-universe.
Bronze
- Bronze Tiger - Suicide Squad
- Bronze Monkey(s) - DC Comics
Pink
- Pinky - Mina Ashido's hero name in My Hero Academia
- Pinky (sidekick to Mr. Scarlet) - DC Comics (previously Fawcett Comics)
- Pink Starlight - M9 Girls!
- Pink Five - Star Wars fan film
- Pink Pummeler - Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
- Pinkie Pie - My Little Pony (G3) and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Red
- Crimson Scorpion - Steam Detectives
- Crimson (or Red) Lotus Alchemist - Kimblee's alchemist title in Fullmetal Alchemist
- Red Riot - Eijiro Kirishima's hero name in My Hero Academia.
- Name inspired by Crimson Riot, who also counts.
- Red Arrow - Green Arrow
- Red Barbarian - Marvel Comics
- Red Bee - DC Comics
- Red Blazer - Harvey Comics
- Red Cross - Holyoke Publishing
- Red Demon - Harvey Comics
- Red Devil - Teen Titans
- Red Dragon - Street & Smith
- Red Dragon of Earth-8 as identified by The Multiversity Guidebook #1.
- Red Dragon - Wonder Woman
- Red Ghost - Marvel Comics
- Red Hood - Batman
- Red Hulk - Red Hulk
- Red Inferno - Red Tornado
- The Red Lanterns - Red Lanterns (a Green Lantern spinoff)
- Red Lotus - X-Men
- Red Mask - Better Publications
- Also a very minor character in Animal Man
- Red Mist - Kick-Ass
- Red Panzer - Wonder Woman
- Red Raven - Marvel Comics
- There's also a Red Raven in DC Comics, a member of the International Club of Heroes.
- Red Robbins - Fox Features
- Red Robin - Kingdom Come
- Tim Drake is now Red Robin in the main DCU.
- Red Ronin - Marvel Comics
- Red Rocket - Four Star
- Red Rover - Wildguard
- Red Rube - Archie Comics
- Red Rush - Invincible
- Red She Hulk - She-Hulk
- Red Skull - Captain America
- Red Sonja - Red Sonja
- Red Star - Teen Titans
- Red Tornado - DC Comics
- Red Torpedo - Quality Comics
- Red Torpedo - Red Tornado
- Red Volcano - Red Tornado
- Redwing - Marvel Comics
- Rocket Red - DC Comics
- Crimson Avenger - DC Comics
- Crimson Cowl - Marvel Comics
- Crimson Cougar - Astro City
- Crimson Dynamo - Marvel Comics
- Crimson Fox - DC Comics
- Crimson Knight - Batman
- Crimson Phantom Vengeance - Wildguard
- Durham Red - Strontium Dog spinoff
- Cure Rouge - Yes! Pretty Cure 5, Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!
- Madame Rouge - Doom Patrol
- Mr. Scarlet - Fawcett Comics
- Omega Red - X-Men
- Scarlet Arrow - Harvey Comics
- Scarlet Avenger - Archie Comics
- Scarlet Beetle - Marvel Comics
- Cure Scarlet - Go! Princess Pretty Cure
- Scarlet Nemesis - Harvey Comics
- Scarlet Phantom - Harvey Comics
- Scarlet Spider - Spider-Man
- Scarlet Witch - Marvel Comics
- Superman-Red - Superman
- Woman In Red - Better/Standard Publications originally, now Project Superpowers
- Red and Crimson (Kid) - The Red Ten
- The Scarlet Pimpernel - The Scarlet Pimpernel
- The Red Rook - Rook (justified, since it's a retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel)
- Crimson Clown - Pulp series
- Ipslore the Red - Discworld novel Sourcery
- Red King - Ultraman
- Red Python - VR Troopers
- Chapulin Colorado (Red Grasshopper) - El Chapulín Colorado
Myths & Folklore
- Will Scarlet - Robin Hood
- Red Jaguar - Halt Evil Doer!
- The Red Shadow - The Desert Song
- Red Star - The Red Star
- Scarlet the Brave - Phantom Brave
- Red Devil - The Red Devil
- Red Panda - Strange City Heroes
- Ruby Dragon, from the same series.
- Son Red - Strange City Heroes
- Crimson Crossbow - League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions
- Robot Redshirt - League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions
- Red Panda - Red Panda Adventures
- Crimson Chin - The Fairly Oddparents
- Red Action - OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
- Red Claw - Batman: The Animated Series
- Red X - Teen Titans (2003)
- Scarlet Scarab - Batman: The Brave and the Bold
- Red Torpedo, Red Inferno, and Red Volcano - Young Justice (2010)
Yellow/Gold
- Golden Bat - Golden Bat
- Blonde Phantom - Marvel Comics
- Booster Gold - DC Comics
- Golden Archer - Marvel Comics
- Golden Arrow - Fawcett Comics
- Golden Girl - Spark Publications
- Golden Girl - Captain America
- Golden Glider - The Flash
- Golden Guardian - DC Comics
- Golden Lad - Spark Publications
- The Golden Women - Wonder Woman
- Goldface - Green Lantern
- Yellow Claw - Marvel Comics
- Yellow Dragon - Street & Smith
- Yellow Peri(l) - Superboy
- Yellowjacket - DC Comics (previously Charlton Comics)
- Yellowjacket - Ant-Man
- Kamen Rider Gold Drive - Kamen Rider Drive
Myths & Folklore
- Gamble Gold - Robin Hood
- Golden Queen - Skylanders
- Golden - M9 Girls!
- Gold Star and Golden Cape - Strange City Heroes
- Golden Jane - Everyday Heroes
- Yellow Queen - Whateley Universe
- Yellow, Gold Shield, the Golden Marvel
- Yellowjacket - How to Hero
Green
- Emerald Empress - Legion of Super-Heroes
- Green Arrow - DC Comics
- Green Falcon - Archie Comics
- Green Flame (then Green Fire, now simply "Fire") - DC Comics
- The Green Geni - Wonder Woman
- Green Ghost - Invincible
- Green Ghoul - Archie Comics
- Green Giant - Pelican Publications
- Green Goblin - Spider-Man
- Green Lama - Prize Comics
- The Green Lanterns - Green Lantern. However, the mythology has expanded so that the franchise now fits under "Spectrum", below.
- Green Knight - Harry "A" Chesler
- Green Mask - Fox Features
- Green Sorceress - Novelty Press
- Green Turtle - Rural Home
- Jade - Green Lantern
- Jade Canary - Lady Shiva
- Green Ghost - Pulp series
- The Lady of the Green Kirtle - The Chronicles of Narnia. Sometimes also called the Green/Emerald Witch.
- Green Hornet - The Green Hornet
- Green Thunder a.k.a. Mr. L a.k.a. Luigi - Super Paper Mario
- Green Avenger - The Green Avenger
- Green Hammer - No Capes
- Green Witch - Whateley Universe
Blue
- Blue Rose - Tiger & Bunny
- Blue Beetle - DC Comics (previously Charlton Comics)
- Blue Blaze - Marvel Comics
- Blue Bolt - Novelty Press
- Blue Bowman - Batman
- Blue Bullet - Marvel Comics
- Blue Bulleteer - AC Comics
- Blue Circle - Rural Home
- Blue Diamond - Marvel Comics
- Blue Devil - DC Comics
- Blue Fire - Centaur Publications
- Blue Flame - Four Star
- Blue Jay - DC Comics
- Blue Lady - Centaur Publications
- Blue Marvel - Marvel Comics
- Blue Shield - Marvel Comics
- Blue Snowman - Wonder Woman
- Blue Streak - Holyoke Publishing
- Blue Streak - Prize Comics
- BlueBird - Untold Tales of Spider-Man
- Blue Bird - Batman
- Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys - DC Comics
- Superman-Blue - Superman
- Blue Rajah - Mystery Men. His costume has little to no blue in it, which is Lampshaded at least once.
- The Blue Meanies - Yellow Submarine.
- While Blue Senturion from Power Rangers Turbo is an example of this, his Sentai counterpart, Signalman, isn't.
- On Smallville, the media begins referring to Clark Kent's superhero identity, not as Superman, but as the "Blue Blur" (or "the red-and-blue blur," or just "the Blur").
- Captain Blue- Viewtiful Joe
- Blue Destiny - M9 Girls!
- Blue Kotatsu - The Escapades of The Blue Kotatsu
- Blue Rhino - Strange City Heroes
- Blue Bowman - Batman: The Brave and the Bold
- Blue Falcon - Dynomutt, Dog Wonder
- The Blue Spirit - Avatar: The Last Airbender
Purple
- Purple Girl (aka Persuasion) - Alpha Flight
- Purple Man - Daredevil
- Purple Mask - Marvel Comics
- Purple Priestess - Wonder Woman
- Indigo - Batman and the Outsiders
- Indigo - Supergirl (Rebirth)
- Shrinking Violet - Legion of Super-Heroes
- Violet - Robin (1993)
- Purple Panda - Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
- Purple Space - M9 Girls!
- Shrinking Violent (whose real name is "Violet") - Everyday Heroes
- Iron Violet of Iron Violet: The Shy Titan
- Purple Pimp - Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Brown
- Brown Bomber - DC Comics
- Bomber Brown and Brown Falcon - Strange City Heroes
- Brown Streak - Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony, a fictional character from its universe. Given the franchise's humor, this is clearly a scat joke.
- Brown Hornet - Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
Black (colour)
- Black Cat - Black Cat
- Black Pepper - Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure
- Cure Black - Futari wa Pretty Cure, Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart
- Black Adam - Shazam!!
- Black Alice - Birds of Prey
- Black Avenger - Marvel Comics
- Black Axe - Marvel Comics
- Black Badge - Astro City
- Black Bat - the second identity of Batgirl (2000)
- Black Batman (a Hong Kong comics knockoff of Batman).
- Black Beetle - Booster Gold
- Black Bolt - The Inhumans
- Black Canarynote - Black Canary
- Black Cat - Harvey Comics
- Black Cat - Spider-Man
- Black Cobra - Dynamic Comics originally, later Four Star
- Black Condor - Quality Comics originally, then DC Comics
- Black Crusader - Street & Smith
- Black Cuervo - Astro City
- Black Diamond - AC Comics
- Black Dwarf - Harry "A" Chesler
- Black Flame - Superman
- Black Fox - Marvel Comics
- Black Hand - Green Lantern
- The Black Lanterns - Blackest Night
- Black Hood - Archie Comics/DC Comics
- Black Jack - Archie Comics
- Black Knight - Marvel Comics
- Black Lightning- DC Comics
- Black Lion - Fox Features
- Black Marvel - Marvel Comics
- Black Mask - Batman
- Black Orchid - Harvey Comics
- Black Orchid - Black Orchid
- Black Owl - Prize Comics
- Black Panther - Centaur Publications
- Black Queen (Selene) - X-Men
- Black Racer - New Gods
- Black Racer (Ariana Saddiqi) - Captain America
- Black Rapier - Astro City
- Black Rider - Fox Features
- Black Rodent - Fawcett Comics
- Black Seven - Archie Comics
- Black Spider - Ace Magazines
- Black Spider - Fawcett Comics
- Black Spider - DC Comics
- Black Tarantula - Daredevil and Spider-Man
- Black Terror - AC Comics
- Black Thorn - DC Comics
- Black Venus - Holyoke Publishing
- Black Widow - Holyoke Publishing
- Black Widow - Marvel Comics
- Black Zero - DC Comics
- Blackfire - Teen Titans
- Blackhawks - Blackhawk
- Flying Black Batman (a Hong Kong comics knockoff of Batman).
- Super Black Conqueror (a Hong Kong comics knockoff of Martian Manhunter).
- Black Bat - Black Bat
- Black Paralysis - Two Percent Power
- The Black Torrent - Relativity
- Blackadder was originally this, until his descendants adopted it as their family name.
- From Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider BLACK and Kamen Rider BLACK RX
- Kamen Riders Kurokage ("black shadow") and Black Baron - Kamen Rider Gaim
- Black Tiger - masked gimmick played by Eddie Guerrero in Japan
- UltraMantis Black - CHIKARA
- The Black Fox - Dragon Age
- The Black Mudpuppy - Black Mudpuppy
- Black Wraith - Whateley Universe
- The Man In Black - League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions
- The Black Raven - Wakfu (actually lampshaded).
- Black Siren - Justice Guild member on Justice League.
Black (Used by a Black Captain Ethnic)
- Black Badge – Astro City
- Black Goliath – Ant-Man (he eventually managed to switch to just "Goliath")
- Black Lightning - Black Lightning. Though it was later Ret Conned so that his lightning itself is black, which is supposedly the source of his name.
- Black Mantanote – Aquaman
- Black Mass - DC Comics
- Black Panther - Black Panther
- Played with by White Wolf from the same series, who got his name for the same racial reasons as the various "Black" heroes listed here; but he's a white man in a majority-black country instead of the other way around.
- Black Samson – Invincible
- Black Spider note - Batman
- Blackwing – Huntress (on Earth-Two)
Live Action TV
- Referenced in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where some civilians address Sam as "Black Falcon" instead of just The Falcon. As it comes from people who are also Black, Sam takes it in good humor and just playfully teases them about the mistake.
- Averted in Spinnerette: Tiger is a large black super hero, but his name is just "Tiger". The reason this comes up is because everyone always calls him "Black Tiger".
"It's just Tiger, damnit!"
- Black Vulcan – Superfriends
- Parodied in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, where he complains that he used to go by "Supervolt" before the Superfriends stuck him with the racist name.
Silver
- Silver Agent - Astro City
- Silver Brain - Astro City
- Silver Banshee - Superman
- Silver Centurion - Iron Man
- Silver Deer - Firestorm (DC Comics)
- Silver Fox - Marvel Comics
- Silver Monkey - DC Comics
- Silver Sable - Spider-Man
- Silver Samurai - X-Men
- Silver Scorpion - Marvel Comics
- Silver Streak - Lev Gleason originally, now Project Superpowers
- Silver Surfer - Marvel Comics
- Silver Swan - Wonder Woman
- Silver Sword - Superboy (1994)
- Silverclaw - Marvel Comics
- Silvermane - Spider-Man
- Silversmith - Astro City
- Silver Shroud - Fallout 4
- Silver Maiden - League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions
- Silver Serpent - Whateley Universe
- Silver Cyclone - Batman: The Brave and the Bold
- Silver Skeeter - Doug
Grey
- Grey Gargoyle - Marvel Comics
- Grey Ghost - DC Comics
- Grey Goblin - Spider-Man
- Greyshirt - WildStorm
- The Grey Lady, Fenrir Greyback - Harry Potter. Though the latter may just be a fitting surname.
- Gandalf the Grey, also known as "Mithrandir" which is Sindarin elven for "Grey Wanderer." - The Lord of the Rings
- The Gray Lensman - Lensman
- The Gray Fox - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- Grey Ghost - Batman: The Animated Series.
- Grey Matter - Ben 10.
White
- Cure White - Futari wa Pretty Cure, Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart
- White Canary - DC Comics
- White Lioness - DC Comics
- White Magician - Wonder Woman
- White Queen (Emma Frost) - X-Men
- White Rabbit - Spider-Man, Superman/Steel and Batman
- White Streak - Novelty Press
- White Tiger - Heroes for Hire
- White Willow - Batgirl
- In these two cases, they do have true Kamen Rider names, but are called by these In Series Nicknames.
- The White Wizard (Kamen Rider Wiseman) - Kamen Rider Wizard
- The White Armored Rider (Armored Rider Zangetsu) - Kamen Rider Gaim
- White Rose and White Thorn - Freedom City
- White Energy - M9 Girls!
- White Witch - Whateley Universe
- White Pantera - El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera
Spectrum
A form of Theme Naming when most or all of the cast is named after colors.
- The Red Ribbon Army from Dragon Ball.
- The title characters from Action Heroine Cheer Fruits have Colorful Theme Naming, but on top of that the characters they play in their stage shows all have color-themed names like Medica Red, Deep Purple, Platinum, etc.
- Green Lantern now has Lantern Corps of every color in the spectrum. Though it should be noted that the yellow and violet corps dodge the color naming; being the Sinestro Corps and the Star Sapphires respectively. Some of the corps leaders also have color-themed aliases:
- Agent Orange (Larfleeze)
- Black Hand
- Indigo-1
- Green Lantern's Alternate Company Equivalent from the Squadron Supreme is actually called Doctor Spectrum.
- Red Tornado of DC Comics now has several other color counterparts.
- Color Kid - DC Comics
- Rainbow - Centaur Publications
- Rainbow Boy - Eastern Color Printing
- Rainbow Girl - Legion of Super-Heroes
- Rainbow Raider/The Rainbow Raiders - The Flash
- Rainbow Triumph - Soon I Will Be Invincible.
- Power Rangers and Super Sentai. Note, though, that Sixth Rangers often have their own non-color codename. There have been a few times in Super Sentai where the heroes, while still all wearing different color suits, weren't codenamed for them, such as Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger and Gosei Sentai Dairanger where they were called things like "Tyranno Ranger" or "Shishi Ranger".
Puppet Shows
- Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: the organisation is even known as Spectrum.
- The characters in VVVVVV are all named after colors, more specifically colors that start with V: Viridian (cyan), Violet (purple/pink), Vitellary (yellow, named after a scientific term for egg yolk), Vermillion (red), Verdigris (green, named after the green corrosion found on copper objects like pennies and the Statue of Liberty), and Victoria (blue, named after a blue type of flower).
- Disgaea has the Prism Rangers, themselves a parody of Power Rangers and Super Sentai.
- The Yakumos have a colour theme doubled with Bilingual Bonus - namely, Chen means orange, Ran means indigo and Yukari means violet. This gets VERY meaningful - Yukari is the most powerful of the 3, Chen is the weakest, and THAT'S just the game of their introduction. In the 8th game, Yukari is half of the border team, the other half being the predominantly red-wearing Reimu, making the team name very meaningful.
- Main heroes of The Wonderful 101 are Wonder-Red, Wonder-Blue, Wonder-Green and so on.
- The Squirrel Girls in Sequential Art.
- In the Whateley Universe stories about Silver Ghost, she gets involved with SPECTRUM, the superhero group of Cincinnati. They have theme naming (Green Witch, Yellow Knight, Azure, etc), which really ticks off Tawny - she'd rather have a name like Lioness.
- Rainbow Dash - My Little Pony (G3) and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Rainbow Brite - Rainbow Brite (including Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer)
Referenced
- This trope is referenced in Larry Boy and the Angry Eyebrows when we meet "The Scarlet Tomato" as it only works when you name yourself after the color that that object or animal is not.
