The Monovocalic Ms. Marvel (2 of 2)
Continued from the last post...
I (That’s the vowel “i,” capitalized)
Nightwing, Thing, Living Lightning, Sif, Blink, Isis, Ibis, Skin, Stick, Mimic, Lilith, Stitch
v.
Wink, Jinx, Grid, Dr. Light, Kingpin, Griffin, Kirigi, Mr. Fish, Sin
With I, I let in a few more “Mr.” and “Dr.” names, but the 21 entries above are still respectable. The most prominent hero and villain, Nightwing and the Kingpin, also go by “i” names out of costume—Dick (Grayson) and (Wilson) Fisk. Both characters are at home in a more realistic, less superpowery kind of hero story. Nightwing was Batman’s first Robin, and the Kingpin usually fights Daredevil, the closest thing Marvel has to a Batman. So they’d make excellent foils for each other, if only they didn’t belong to different companies. (Image source here.)
A few other “i” characters share the same sort of urban-crime backdrop as Nightwing and the Kingpin: Kirigi (who even works for the Kingpin), Stick, Mr. Fish…it’s a minor trend, but it might be of interest.
U
Bug, Buzz, Hulk, Dust, Kull, Puck v. Murmur, Ubu, Lupus, Hush, Flux, Knull, Skrulls, Surtur, Unus
As expected, the “U” names were relatively few and short, a total of 15 entries averaging not quite 4.5 letters in length. An uncommon number of those seemed to be all about brute force without much clear thinking—Hulk, Kull, Ubu, Knull, and Surtur, primarily. But they’re more dangerous than the goofy monsters found in the O’s.
Actually, I could see the dumb version of the Hulk using monovocalic dialogue pretty naturally. “HULK PUNCH HUSH. HULK CRUSH SKRULL SKULL! CRUNCH, CRUNCH! HULK SMUSH!”
E
Tempest, Speed, Creeper, Hermes, Hex (X-Men, Defenders) (Dexter Bennett, Ned Leeds)
v.
Mr. Freeze, Beetle, Grendel, Jester, Steel Serpent
In written English, E is usually the most prominent letter of any kind and therefore the most prominent vowel, way ahead of U. Astonishingly, here it comes in dead last of the full-time vowels, with 10 entries…or 12 or 14, if you’re being generous.
The maybes are the X-Men and Defenders, both of them full super-teams whose memberships sometimes overlap, and Dexter Bennett and Ned Leeds, both supporting-cast members for Spider-Man.
Also, at fifteen letters, The New Defenders may be the longest comic-book title that’s all one vowel. Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes aside, comic-book titles tend to be short.
Y and None
X-23
v.
Mr. Mxyzptlk, Ms. Gsptlsnz, Qwsp, Nyx
I had to allow a little extra space here for those eccentric comics characters that have no vowels in their names at all, or who only use “y” as a vowel. That latter group is probably just Nyx, though it depends on how you’re pronouncing “Mxyzptlk.”
Of the five here, X-23 (Logan’s clone) is the only hero…and she usually goes by Laura or Wolverine these days anyway, but her original name was too much fun not to include. Still, making your name wildly difficult to pronounce is usually a villain move, and a mischievous one at that. If you’re going to torment all us pitiful humans, why not start by tormenting the reader a little?
