Last time I talked comics, I chatted about the name “Kamala Khan” and its integration into comics’ tradition of alliteration. But there’s another aspect of “Kamala Khan” that has no such tradition attached—it’s a monovocalic. There’s no vowel in it but a.
There are many words that have only one kind of vowel in them because they have only one vowel, like “night,” “stop,” and “tub,” but the population thins out quickly once you get into longer words and phrases. For reference, there’s my hometown of Manassas, the condition of gingivitis, the Book of Job, and uh…huck up mucus? Sorry for that last one, allergy season is in full swing. But also, a “u” monovocalic is even more challenging than one using another full-time vowel.
Monovocalics have fascinated me since reading Christian Bök’s Eunoia, which has a piece of monovocalic writing for each vowel. I’d like to do a similar piece someday, but I don’t feel like I’m ready for that quite yet.
Still, inspired by Kamala, I thought I’d do a survey of other superheroes and supervillains whose names fit into a monovocalic spread. I quickly gave up on using their real names, because Kamala is close to unique in that regard, but with code names, I could make more headway.
Tracking superheroes is a bit like tracking celebrities: there are the megastars everyone knows, the distinguished B- and C-listers who get regular work, and then…the rest. To cut myself off before this exercise became my life, I limited the exercise to heroes and villains who had some presence on Wikipedia or who just sprang to mind. Still, I expect a lot of these names will be unknown to many readers.
So what does “A” turn up?
A
3-D Man, Adam X, Ant-Man, Batman, Black Cat, Blackhawk, Darkhawk, Darkstar, Dawnstar, Drax, Dr. Manhattan, Flash, Hawkman, Hazmat, Katana, Karma, Karnak, Ka-Zar, Satana, Sabra, Skaar, Spawn, Tarzan, Wasp, X-Man, Zatanna
v.
Abra Kadabra, Atlas, Ava Starr, Black Adam, Black Dwarf, Black Flash, Black Hand, Black Mamba, Black Manta, Black Swan, Blacklash, Blastaar, Cat-Man, Dr. Trap, Draaga, Jackal, Kang, Karn, Madcap, Man-Bat, Madman, Phantasm, Shark, Warp
I found my most fertile ground in the “A” section, with 49 entries, and heroes slightly outnumbering villains, 25-24. It’s hard to get examples more famous than Batman and the Flash. Between those two, Hawkman, and Zatanna, there’s four representatives of one super-team on the list, the Justice League of America. Though including the whole team under its sometime abbreviation, JLA, feels like a little much.
Ava Starr was a troubled villain in the Ant-Man films. Tarzan felt close enough to superhero status to count, especially since his analogue Ka-Zar is hanging out with the X-Men, like, all the time.
Man-Bat and Cat-Man, whose names both draw pointed Batman comparisons, are two “flexible moral alignment” types who could’ve gone into either hero or villain categories. So’s Dr. Manhattan, really. So depending on how you look at it, this could be an even fight—though whichever side Dr. Manhattan ends up on is likely the winner.
O
Blok, Broo, Doop, G’Nort, Groot, Jolt, J’onn J’onzz, Lobo, Longshot, Mondo, Photon, Rom, Storm, Thor, Thorn, Zorro
v.
Chronos, Chthon, Coldblood-7, Doctor Doom, Doctor Bong, Ghost, Glow Worm, Goom, Grog, Hood, Ord, Orrgo, Owl, Roxxon, Spot, Xorn, Zod & Non.
The next most common vowel was “O,” with 32 entries. Still, there were many more one-syllable names here than in the A’s.
The two with the most in common here are probably Storm and Thor, unless you ask Doctor Doom, who feels no one is more like a god than himself. A number of “o”-characters seem to be kinda goofy monsters or monster-like aliens: Blok, Broo, Doop, G’Nort, Groot, Lobo, Mondo, and Orrgo. (Lobo walks the line between badass and goofy a bit, and he’s another one who’s a hero or villain depending on the day.)
The Kryptonian villain Zod is sometimes referred to with his title, General Zod, and sometimes not, but his grunt Non only gets the one name. Roxxon is a corporation, not a villain, but that makes it capable of more evil rather than less, even in the Marvel universe. And it’s often trying to kill superheroes. I’d say it counts.
Concluded tomorrow…
If we were to limit ourselves to a character's first names - at least those who adopted a code name - I thought of a few from your list who meet the criteria. Ororo for Storm popped out without conscious thought, and after a bit of consideration, Bruce for Batman, Barry and Wally for Flash, Hank and Scott for Ant-Man... there may have been some I missed.
Edit: My brain was still in the process of turning itself on when I wrote this yesterday morning, and I should not have included "Bruce" as an example. *boggles at self* I may have been thinking of Dick's brief stints wearing the cowl. Whoopsy!