AMINE AND MANGA

Black Widow (Чёрная вдова, ‘Chyornaya vdova’) (Natalia “Natasha” Alianovna Romanova, also known as Natasha Romanoff) is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe. She was created by editor and plotter Stan Lee, scripter Don Rico and artist Don Heck, and first appeared in Tales of Suspense #52 (April 1964). Natasha Romanoff is featured in the 2010 motion picture Iron Man 2, where she is played by Scarlett Johansson.

Vampirella

Susan “Sue” Storm Richards (also known as Invisible Girl and later, Invisible Woman) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superheroine created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby. The character first appeared in Fantastic Four #1 in November 1961, and was the first female superhero created by Marvel in the Silver Age of Comics. Like the other founding members of the Fantastic Four, Sue received her powers after being exposed to a cosmic storm. Her primary power deals with light waves, allowing her to render herself and others invisible. However, she can also project powerful fields of invisible psionic energy which she uses for a variety of offensive and defensive effects. Sue plays a central role in the lives of her brother, her husband, her children (Franklin Richards and Val Richards), and her friend, Ben Grimm.

Catwoman

Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941). The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously since the company’s 1944 inception, except for a brief hiatus in 1986. Wonder Woman is an Amazon (based on the Amazons of Greek mythology) and was created by Marston, an American, as a “distinctly feminist role model whose mission was to bring the Amazon ideals of love, peace, and sexual equality to a world torn by the hatred of men.” Her powers include superhuman strength, flight, super-speed, super-stamina, and super-agility. She is highly proficient in hand-to-hand combat and in the art of tactical warfare. She also possesses an animal-like cunning and a natural rapport with animals, which has in the past been presented as an actual ability to communicate with the animal kingdom. She uses her Lasso of Truth, which forces those bound by it to tell the truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets, and an invisible airplane.

Elektra

Mystique (Raven Darkhölme) is a fictional character associated with the Marvel Comics’ franchise, X-Men. Originally created by artist David Cockrum and writer Chris Claremont, she first appeared in Ms. Marvel #16. Throughout most of her history, Mystique has been a supervillain, founding her own Brotherhood of Mutants and assassinating several important people involved in mutant affairs. Mystique herself is a mutant, a shapeshifter whose natural appearance includes her blue skin and yellow eyes. At one point, she mentioned she is over 100 years old. Mystique is the mother of the villain Graydon Creed, the X-Men hero Nightcrawler, and adoptive mother of the hero Rogue. She was forced to abandon Nightcrawler, but raised Rogue for a number of years and the two women have mixed feelings towards one another.

Rogue

Sure, Kitty Pryde has been going by Shadowcat for a long time now, but there was a time that she was known as Ariel and Sprite. While I will agree that coming up with a superhero name for somebody with her powers that isn’t ghost themed is tricky, she eventually came up with Shadowcat, so why she started with Ariel and Sprite is beyond me. Neither of these imply what her powers are (which the X-Men names tend to do), so I’m beyond curious as to where they came from.

Not withstanding DC Comics obsession with adding “Lad” to names, this is what happens when another comic book company has an idea for a character and steals the name that you wanted. While I, as a grown-up realize without ever seeing this character that he is going to do something with iron, most 8 year olds probably don’t understand that Fe is the atomic symbol for iron, or that “ferrous” is an adjective referring to iron. While I appreciate DC Comics trying to educate comic book readers, sometimes you just have to dumb it down.

Ok, so he’s not a superhero so much as a villain, but work with me here. While the name is appropriate given his real name, Mortimer Toynbee, and his powers, it’s still a terrible name. The fact that he lets himself be saddled with it in the story just feeds into his boot-licker image and is probably why nobody in the comics or out of them really respects him.

A self-named character that realized he was making a joke choosing the name, the fact that the writers thought it was amusing is the sad thing. There’s a reason that almost everybody in the world of X-Men calls him Guido (his first name) instead of Strong Guy, many of them refusing to call him that on the basis of its stupidity.

At first glance, Doreen Green is a pretty cool character. Superhuman agility, retractable claws, a prehensile tale (a bit inconvenient, but great for balance), and even talking to squirrels could be handy when you consider the sheer number of them. But Squirrel Girl? It’s just not going to inspire fear into somebody like Magneto, or Apocalypse (a name that will inspire fear). I do appreciate Marvel thinking outside the box a bit on her powers, but I really want to believe that they could have come up with a better name for her.

In what world, is a small, migratory bird, a suitable name for a sidekick to a character with a name like Batman? Now, when Dick Grayson grows up he changes his name to Nightwing, a far more awe-inspiring name, but the fact that Batman has kept calling his junior sidekicks Robin implies that he thinks his name is too scary and he’s trying to lighten up his image, or he’s hoping that while everybody is laughing at the name of his sidekick he and Robin will be able to pummel their opponents into submission.

While he’s back to calling himself Luke Cage, at one time this New Avenger actually wanted people to take him serious as Power Man. His costume probably didn’t help things, but pretty much any superhero could use the name Power Man as they almost ALL HAVE POWERS! It’s just uncreative and unbecoming of a pretty good character with lots of depth. Definitely a wise choice to switch back to calling himself Luke Cage.

This is what happens when you let goth kids name themselves. Not only is the name a mouthful, it in no way represents her powers (telepathy and precognition). This is easily one of the worst names ever applied to a comic book character.

Sticking with the Fantastic Four, we have Reed Richards – Mr. Fantastic. In the running for the most pretentious superhero name of all time, he’s basically turning the team into Mr. Fantastic and the Fantastic Four given that his superhero name is also the name of the group. Tone down the ego a bit Reed and change your name that lets people know that you can stretch and bend to amazing lengths.

And so we’re sticking with the whole “Lad” thing. Not only did they saddle him with “lad”, but they also gave him an almost stupidly descriptive name. At least Ferro Lad had a name that while descriptive, didn’t come out and say “I turn into Iron”. Matter-Eater Lad, on the other hand, has exactly zero mystery to what he can do. If you tell somebody that Matter-Eater Lad is coming to help, you can pretty much guess how he’s going to help – he’s going to eat something. The fact that they couldn’t go with with Jaws or something dental in nature is just lazy writing.

Considering that almost nobody in the Fantastic Four actually goes by their alter-egos – given that they don’t hide their identities – it’s almost sad that Johnny Storm, a character with a great REAL name, has such a lame superhero name. Firestorm would have been great had it not been taken, but even just Torch would be fine – most people actually call him that anyways.

Quite possibly the dumbest superhero name ever. While Jean Grey is certainly loaded with powers even when she’s not walking around with the Phoenix Force, it’s hard to be inspired to follow anybody into battle when there’s the possibility of shouting “Marvel Girl, watch out!” While it was great when Jean got the Phoenix Force and used Phoenix as her name, the Marvel Girl was a failure that was probably just thrown in there by Marvel writers to associate her with the comics. I wonder if the characters within the books wonder what the hell a Marvel is from time to time.

One of those that you can respect the powers, but the name is just lacking. While Batman and Superman are still referred to by their alter-egos even by those that know them as Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, I don’t think anybody has ever called Martian Manhunter anything but J’onn J’onzz. If nobody calls you by your superhero name, it’s sorta time to abandon it.

Never mind that she’s also sporting some incredibly bad powers (back when she had them anyways), but her real name is Jubilation Lee. They really just yanked out the -ation and gave her a name. Her superhero name sounds more like a childhood nickname than anything to be called on the field of battle, and in fact almost everybody – superhero, villain, and random man on the street, all call her Jubilee.

Kurt Wagner is an X-Men favorite. One of their most loved characters, his ability to teleport is something that we’ve all wished for at least once, and his ability to accept people that hate him not only for being a mutant, but because of the way he looks is nothing short of inspiring. But naming him after a worm? It’s actually a bit insulting to such a great character.

A character that mimics both Catwoman and Batman all at once. Mimicing the cat motif of Catwoman, while sporting a costume that looks like Batman with a different color scheme, Catman went ahead and combined both their names into one, making him one of the most unoriginal characters of all time. With any number of large cats out there just waiting to have their names used, it’s sad that he went with Catman.

With the exception of Captain America, anybody named “Captain…” is foolish. Given that I’m pretty sure none of them are actual Captains in a military force, I don’t know why Captain Marvel, Captain Marvell, Captain Fear, Captain Destiny, Captain Cold, Captain Comet, Captain Atom, Captain Boomerang and ALL the others that use the Captain moniker keep at it. At least Captain America was i the military and had the actual rank of Captain.

It’s bad enough being the sidekick to arguably one of the most mocked superheroes in history – I mean the Aquaman jokes are legendary. But to just take his name and switch out the “man” for “lad” is not only lazy, it’s uninspired. Hell, calling yourself Minnow, or Guppie, or just about any other small creature of the sea would be preferable to Aqualad. Not only does it perpetuate DC’s unhealthy obsession with “lads”, it also forever associates you with the failure that is Aquaman.

Hank Pym has used a lot of alias’ through the years, but he was, first and foremost, Ant-Man. While I do like the idea of creating a character that can alter his size, my first thought would be to grow (which he would eventually be able to do, taking the name of Giant-Man and Goliath). However, Marvel let Pym shrink, and then topped it off by letting him talk to ants. Sure, there millions of the things around at any given moment, but much like Squirrel Girl, it’s just not a name that inspires fear.

He’s probably more popular now than ever, though with a terrible costume, questionable powers, and a name that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, it’s hard to imagine how. His only real function in the past decade has been his ability to spot Skrulls, otherwise I think it’s fair to assume that the 3-D Man would be off living a 2-D life.

Renji “Range” Murata (born October 2, 1968 in Osaka) is a Japanese artist and designer, known for his unique style combining Art Deco and Japanese anime elements. He is best known for his conceptual design work on anime series Last Exile and Blue Submarine No. 6.