Heroes, villains, supporting casts and their names!

[Patroklos]

This is a small, silly query that has occupied me for the last few hours, and since I haven't been able to completely get it out of my mind I thought I'd turn to the superior comic book scholars of this particular messageboard. The thing is, Joe Shuster seems to having had a habit of naming his Superman-characters with the same starting letters in both their given name and surname, like Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Clark Kent (I guess he couldn't think of a surname starting with a hard "C") and Lex Luthor. Kane/Finger stayed away from this practice with Batman and his supporting casts of allies and villains, while Stan Lee went completely berserk with it in the 70's (Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, J. Jonah Jameson, Curt Connors, Stephen Strange, Otto Octavius, Reed Richards, Robbie Robertson and probably a lot more...) My question is just WHY? Why did they keep to this silly practice? Is it just a coincidence or have any of them spoken about this in interviews? Now that I actually saw this silly little detail I'm growing more and more annoyed with it, and kindly asks anyone who knows to spill the beans!

[Jezebel Bond]

Some quick internet digging uncovered these....

Here's a snippet of a Q&A with Stan Lee around the premier of Spider-Man 2 that explains it all:

And we can chalk up all the alliterative names in the Marvel universe to Stan Lee's one failing. "It would be hard for you to believe this, because I seem so perfect: I have the worst memory in the world," Stan said. "So I finally figured out, if I could give somebody a name, where the last name and the first name begin with the same letter, like Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Matt Murdock, then if I could remember one name, it gave me a clue what the other one was, I knew it would begin with the same letter."

What is the L. L. connection for Superman?

A remarkably large number of characters in the comics have the initials L. L. Most notable are Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Lana Lang, and Lori Lemaris. A rumor says that these names were chosen because Joe Shuster's first girlfriend had the initials L. L.

[pinkfloydsound17]

Some quick internet digging uncovered these....

Here's a snippet of a Q&A with Stan Lee around the premier of Spider-Man 2 that explains it all:

And we can chalk up all the alliterative names in the Marvel universe to Stan Lee's one failing. "It would be hard for you to believe this, because I seem so perfect: I have the worst memory in the world," Stan said. "So I finally figured out, if I could give somebody a name, where the last name and the first name begin with the same letter, like Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Matt Murdock, then if I could remember one name, it gave me a clue what the other one was, I knew it would begin with the same letter."

What is the L. L. connection for Superman?

A remarkably large number of characters in the comics have the initials L. L. Most notable are Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Lana Lang, and Lori Lemaris. A rumor says that these names were chosen because Joe Shuster's first girlfriend had the initials L. L.

Stan makes a similar quote in Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters and Marvels Documentary with Steve Smith from 2002...it can be viewed on Netflix and is a pretty cool bit, or so I felt anyways

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

Is it a silly practice? And if so, why?

Not being picky, but as I prefer alliteration in poetry and prose and practice it periodically in my posts, I can't say if it's silly or serene. Sometimes it sounds good to me.

I don't think Jerry Siegel set out to use alliteration in all the names. Sometimes people are named alliteratively in real life and sometimes not. Depends on the parents I guess. Yes you have Clark Kent (though that isn't a heavy alliterative sound) and you have Lois Lane. But then you have George Taylor or Sgt. Casey or Curly Bard or Susie Thompkins. Lana Lang came ten years later and she was intended to be a mirror of Lois Lane--the counterpart in Clark's early life--so the sound of the name signals the association with Lois to the reader.

Luthor was named just Luthor for twenty years before he finally got a first name. And by then the editors had noticed the LL thing and decided to use it for Lex. This was a kind of trademark of the Silver Age for Superman. But other characters of the Silver Age didn't seem to practice alliteration (Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris, Barry Allen, Iris West, Ray Palmer, Jean Loring).

When Siegel and Shuster invented Jor-L, I'm sure they didn't see any significance in the letter L. Or maybe Siegel was thinking of his own last name (Sieg-L).

I have a sister whose name is alliterative, while the rest of us have non-alliterative names. In all the years I've known my parents, none of us have ever thought to grill them on why they would dare to use alliteration for one of us and not the others.

[Patroklos]

Is it a silly practice? And if so, why?

Not being picky, but as I prefer alliteration in poetry and prose and practice it periodically in my posts, I can't say if it's silly or serene. Sometimes it sounds good to me.

I don't think Jerry Siegel set out to use alliteration in all the names. Sometimes people are named alliteratively in real life and sometimes not. Depends on the parents I guess. Yes you have Clark Kent (though that isn't a heavy alliterative sound) and you have Lois Lane. But then you have George Taylor or Sgt. Casey or Curly Bard or Susie Thompkins. Lana Lang came ten years later and she was intended to be a mirror of Lois Lane--the counterpart in Clark's early life--so the sound of the name signals the association with Lois to the reader.

Luthor was named just Luthor for twenty years before he finally got a first name. And by then the editors had noticed the LL thing and decided to use it for Lex. This was a kind of trademark of the Silver Age for Superman. But other characters of the Silver Age didn't seem to practice alliteration (Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris, Barry Allen, Iris West, Ray Palmer, Jean Loring).

When Siegel and Shuster invented Jor-L, I'm sure they didn't see any significance in the letter L. Or maybe Siegel was thinking of his own last name (Sieg-L).

I have a sister whose name is alliterative, while the rest of us have non-alliterative names. In all the years I've known my parents, none of us have ever thought to grill them on why they would dare to use alliteration for one of us and not the others.

I guess Shuster/Siegel could be let off the hook with the real spectacular naming practice of theirs being the "L.L" thing (I'm impressed with your knowledge on the subject, by the way), but I certainly think Stan Lee's frequent use of it warrants curiosity. I am however somewhat embarrassed that the answer was apparently very easy to find!

[Dizzy D]

Some quick internet digging uncovered these....

Here's a snippet of a Q&A with Stan Lee around the premier of Spider-Man 2 that explains it all:

And we can chalk up all the alliterative names in the Marvel universe to Stan Lee's one failing. "It would be hard for you to believe this, because I seem so perfect: I have the worst memory in the world," Stan said. "So I finally figured out, if I could give somebody a name, where the last name and the first name begin with the same letter, like Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Matt Murdock, then if I could remember one name, it gave me a clue what the other one was, I knew it would begin with the same letter."

And even then it didn't always work out: Hello, Bob Banner!

[dan bailey]

Sometimes people are named alliteratively in real life and sometimes not. Depends on the parents I guess.

A couple of years ago, while watching the movie (based on an actual serial-killing case) The Alphabet Killer, I remember a bit of dialogue in which one cop character told another that the victims' alliterative names were strongly indicative of a pattern, because a surprisingly (to me) low number of people have them. Can't remember the figure, but memory tells me it was under 10 percent.

[Cei-U!]

Note, too, that those Marvel heroes whose origin stories were scripted by Larry Lieber do not have alliterative names: Henry Pym, Donald Blake, Anthony Stark. It really was a specifically Stan Lee affectation.

Cei-U!
I summon the tell-tale clue!

[Dizzy D]

Note, too, that those Marvel heroes whose origin stories were scripted by Larry Lieber do not have alliterative names: Henry Pym, Donald Blake, Anthony Stark. It really was a specifically Stan Lee affectation.

Cei-U!
I summon the tell-tale clue!

He did avoid it on some of the team books though: Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm (but there he at least had Sue to help him out), Jean Grey, Robert Drake, Charles Xavier.

[Patroklos]

And even then it didn't always work out: Hello, Bob Banner!

And don't forget the infamous "Peter Palmer" of Amazing Spider-Man #1...

[The Darknight Detective]

Kane/Finger stayed away from this practice with Batman and his supporting casts of allies and villains,

Vicki Vale is the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

[dan bailey]

Kathy Kane says "hi."

[The Darknight Detective]

Kathy Kane says "hi."

Yep. Forgot about her. Good one, Dan.