Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Worst 90s name update?

Andromeda is also the name of a character from Greek mythology: a princess who was chained to a rock after her mother boasted how beautiful she was. This makes me think of Laurel's early postboot personality and how she was imprisoned after the White Triangle storyline.

Another interesting connection is suggested by Wikipedia. "Andromeda" means literally "to think of a man," which is fitting since Laurel was conceived as a female version of Mon-El and replacement for Supergirl (a female Superboy).

I haven't even voted yet because I can't choose between ALCHEMIST and LEVIATHAN. HATED those.

Actually since Alchemist got dumped post-boot for the original name Element Lad but the Colossal Boy name didn't return until late 3boot, I might go with Leviathan...

regardless of Leviathan being a biblical sea monster or mythical beast and nothing to do with a guy that grows really tall...

when i was 11 years old and reading Legionnaires #1 for the first time, I had no idea how to pronounce it!!

Le-VIE-a-thon? Levi-a-thon? Levy-a-thon? to a fourth grader, that's IMPOSSIBLE to figure out

also, the name just doesn't sound super heroic...

Yes, I know. I was just trying to have a little fun with these.


Ok, I got a little carried away in including Apparition in the visual thing. You're right.

Micro Lad to me will always be the reject who joined to LSV. I understand this latest Gim could shrink down to six feet, but he was still macro size if you ask me.

What's wrong with a fourth grader looking it up in a dictionary or encyclopedia?

One of the "icing on the cake" appeals that comics always had for me was in learning new words or ideas. I remember thinking that Magneto was pronounced "mag-net-o" (instead of the accurate "mag-neet-o") and being astonished when I found out that it was a real word.

Likewise, I didn't figure out that the accent on Sub-Mariner was on the second syllable and not the third until long after I first encountered the character.

Learning how to pronounce difficult names in comic books can even have a positive real-world application, as it can make kids receptive to words or names that don't readily conform to the grammar rules we are taught in grade school. One of my favorite bands, Jefferson Airplane, had a guitarist named Jorma Kaukonen. I learned some years after I discovered them that I had been pronouncing his name wrong. It's "YOR-ma COW-kuh-nen"--which is how it is pronounced in Finland, where Jorma's family is from. Whereas some of my friends and family members would get embarrassed at learning they had mispronounced a word--or dismiss the correct pronunciation because it didn't fit in with what they had been taught--I always regarded such times as "a-ha!" moments.

Kids are going to encounter difficult names or words sooner or later; introducing such names in a comic book setting was, to me at least, a fun way of getting started.

Umbra and Gossamer. I actully liked alot of the new names. Triad, Apparition, Inferno, Andromada were all pretty good in my opinion. That and some dropping the boy, lad and such like Chameleon and Ferro.

I went with Lightning Lad to Live Wire, not only is Live Wire such a STUPID name, but also I don't see why you would change it for Lightning Lad and not Cosmic Boy or Saturn Girl, the change really seems pointless. But if those three are going to be your founders and important, don't give one of them such a stupid name and don't just change it for one of them.

although Gossamer and Alchemist and Liveithan were also pretty stupid, especially Gossamer because it's such a horrible name, much less for a Super hero, just, yuck.

Honestly if they couldn't think of better names then why change them to begin with?

Leviathan just never worked for me. It was even worse when Violet became LeVIathan. And this is coming from someone who loves giant woman stories. But the name really stank.

I think the only one I would have really had a problem with would have been "Gossamer." As a card-carrying WB cartoon snob since almost the day I was born, that name will never bring anything to mind but a giant orange-furred monster in white tennis shoes.

There's crossover potential there, now that I think about it... [snerk]

I didn't think there was a problem with the names. But, then again, I was born in the start of the 90s, so...

And I didn't include Andromeda because Laurel Gand never really had a superhero name before that.

I'm one of the few that voted for Umbra.

I'm honestly surprised it didn't get more votes. I don't get why anyone would like it. Umbra. Umbra. It doesn't even sound nice. Or look good on paper. Not to mention that its meaning is probably even more obscure than Gossamer.

The other thing I hated about it was that Tasmia had a fantastic costume at the time with a great big 'S' on it yet her name began with a 'U'. Annoying.

There were a bunch of bad names to choose from though.

Despite him being my fave version of my all-time fave Legionnaire I never liked the code-name Leviathan either. There must have been so many better ones to choose from for Gim too. And don't get me started on LeVIathan.

Other non-faves were Dreamer, Chameleon, Ferro, Sensor (they sound incomplete without the Boy/Girl parts) and Triad, which immediately brings up Chinese-gang connotations in my mind rather than plucky super-girl.

I actually didn't mind Gossamer. Or Alchemist. Though I found it harder to picture Jan with anything other than his original code-name than I did Ayla.

Conceptually, I think pretty much all the 90s names were better (Gossamer, as I mentioned, being the notable exception) - even besides the Lad/Lass fetish, nearly all the 60s names are too. damn. long. Codenames are for spouting out quickly and clearly - by the time you've got to the end of the longer names, you've probably been clobbered, or your signal's been jammed and you've spent time on a pointlessly long name. [It's how Al Gore's daughter got stuck with the Secret Service codename "Smurfette" - she got asked for a two-syllable word starting with "S" within the next thirty seconds, and she said the first thing that came into her head]

I like the sound of Umbra, actually. And the "S" was never a hangup for me - for one thing, it's highly stylised so that it's basically a wavy line, and two... it looks even less like an interlac "S" than it does the latin "S".

Do you have a problem with the reboot Jan having a chest symbol that looks nothing like an "E" (Interlac OR Latin)? Or howsabout the hourglass-styled stripe on Vi's last costume?

Sensor, I'll give you - but not because of how it sounded, but because it didn't actually make any sense, since Jeka didn't have any sensor-related powers (I would rather have seen the illusionist get an abstract codename). The others... nope.

Here's the first definition in the dictionary I have to hand:
[Gangs are 4 of 5, after "In Pythagoreanism, the number three." and "Mus. A chord of three notes, consisting of a given note with the third and fifth above it. M18."]

I thought reboot Jan's symbol was always quite obviously a stylised 'E' (for Element Lad) so I never had any problem with that aspect of his costume.

On an aesthetic level though, I thought the design and colours of his costume were among the worst to grace any Legionnaire ever so in that regard, yes I did have a huge problem with his costume.

Can't quite picture Vi's hourglass stripe that you mention but don't think I would've had a problem with it. The general dullness of all of Vi's reboot costumes though, were a bit of an issue for me.

That may be so but it was never the first definition that sprung to my mind when I saw the name Triad.

This is probably a regional thing but down here in Perth, Western Australia we have a huge Chinese/South-East Asian immigrant population (they being our closest neighbours and all) and during the 90s there was a lot of reactionary talk in conservative newspapers (probably wrongly) that a lot of the rising crime in the city was the fault of the famous Chinese criminal organisation, the Triads (similar to the Sicilian Mafia or the Japanese Yakuza or the 30th Century Taurus Gang).

So, since I was reading this book in the late 90s, that was the first conotation that came to mind when I saw the name Triad. Dictionary-philes might have immediately thought of the definition you mention though.

This is a good point. Another consideration is that if you're going to go into battle against the Fatal Five, you want a name that's going to engender respect, if not fear. Let's face it: Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Matter-Eater Lad do not cut it.

(Of course, Ferro, Triad, et. al., may not engender fear or respect, either, but at least Tharok is less likely to snicker over them.)

Another aspect of the '90s codenames that I appreciated is that they weren't too obvious. They made you think or even do some research to figure out how the name applied to the character. If kids learned new words such as "gossamer," "umbra," or "leviathan," so much the better. But even us older folks benefited, I think, by looking at the characters in a different way and seeing how their powers might relate to other concepts.

About Umbra: I confess that I hated the name for an entirely different reason. Years ago, I came up with a different character with that name, only to have to change it when DC started using it.

I'm trying to think of the last time in my life I heard the word "gossamer". Umbra, whereas, I'm familiar with. Amateur astronomy background... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=1506563 I know the feeling. I came up with characters called Dark Angel and even Power Girl before I knew comic characters already existed with those names.

Recognizability of a name is an issue. I once mentioned Ferro Lad to a non-Legion-reading friend, and she said "Feral Lad?" Then, "ferro" isn't really a word, only in combination with something.

Recognizability is important, but I don't think it should be a primary or even secondary consideration when selecting a name.

If we take it for granted (as DC and Marvel seem to) that the first readership for comics is young children, then most names are going to be new to them. Should creators then keep the names simple so kids can recognize them, or should should creators try for something more creative and bit beyond a child's level so readers can "grow into" the characters?

I suggest the latter approach is better. Otherwise, Sub-Mariner might have been called "Fish Man" and Cyclops might have been called "Mr. Eye-Beams." Kids, of course, may know what a cyclops is, and they may equate Namor's name with a submarine (I did, which was the reason I mispronounced it as a child), but these names were not immediately recognizable in terms of what the characters could do. (Namor could not fire torpedoes, for example. Scott only vaguely looked like he had one eye when he wore his visor.) It's worth discovering that "mariner" refers to someone who travels by sea, and "sub-" means, of course, underneath.

Besides, names can take on their own meanings once fans become accustomed to them. Someone once pointed out that "The Beatles" is a very silly name, and it is. But it's taken on a life of its own.

The more I think about it, the more I like "Gossamer." Not only does it describe Ayla's power, it also rolls off the tongue. If young readers were not familiar with the word, I bet it didn't take them long to figure out what it meant.

I liked Dreamer, Spark, and Gossamer. Hated Alchemist, Leviathan, and Apparition.

Inferno was okay. Didn't like Sensor or Ferro. Umbra is short, appropriate, and sounds feminine, but I missed calling her Shady.

I think Waft would be a good name for Light Lass. It's short and to the point and it means "to carry lightly and smoothly through the air" or "to send or convey lightly, as if in flight."

^ With my slight dyslexia I read your 'Waft' above Jim as 'Fart'. Wouldn't that be an inappropriate name for Ayla.

Time's almost up... anyone else?

Four years too late for this, but I do like the shorter codenames as well. I can get why the obscure Gossamer and Umbra are not liked, but I always thought Live Wire was a cool name.

I find "Sensor" annoying on a similar level as "Cosmic Boy" or "Saturn Girl", whose names are hardly descriptive of what powers they have.

No doubt at some point there will be another big push to drop the lad/ lasses etc. No doubt fuelled by what the marketing guys say - "No they all have to flight wings, not rings. Wings are cool this year."

I wondered if the shorter names would be more appropriate for the Adult Legion. You get the best of both that way. There comes a point when the Lad and Lasses look odd. Then you can use the other names.

Nothing's stopping them from simply changing Boy/Girl/Lad/Lass/Kid to Man/Woman, though.