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Lars Johansson
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 9:13am | IP Logged | 1  

And then there was this *d*ot I was working with who talked like this, preparing stories, let's for simplicity here call the guy he refers to as Vigilante, since it's pretty anonymous, "And then the Vigilantsucker comes and the Vigilantsucker does this and that" until the EDITOR came in and said "How much easier it would be to say his real name, Vigilante than the Vigilantsucker!"
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Paulo Pereira
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 9:14am | IP Logged | 2  

He sure is a vigilant sucker.
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Greg Kirkman
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 9:37am | IP Logged | 3  

Therein lies my principle objections to abbreviations like "Supes" or "Bats" or "Maggie". How much extra effort does it take, really, to type "Superman" or "Batman" or "Magneto"? In the case of the last, there, it requires but a single "extra" keystroke.
+++++++++++++++

Could this trend be the result of embarrassment which takes on the guise of "friendly familiarity" with the characters?

For example, I've personally noticed that some people who talk about their annoying/embarrassing co-workers or friends (whom I have never met in person) tend to use bizarre nicknames for them.

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Joe Zhang
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 9:40am | IP Logged | 4  

Bah ! I spell things however I please, John Bryne. 
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Brad Krawchuk
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 9:41am | IP Logged | 5  

Paulo - I think the hyphen is used so that we say the name correctly. Spider-Man is said as Spider/Man, not as one word.

While we say Batman and Superman the same way, really from the spellings we could be saying "Batmun" or "Supermun"...

Maybe that's not so clear... Okay, the hyphen means the words are separate.

Think of names like Dustin Hoffman, Felicity Huffman, Truman Capote. Do we say Dustin Hoff Man? Tru Man Capote? Nope. It's "Hoffmun" or "Hoffmen." Similarly, if someone were called Bob Superman or Jimmy Batman, we would say Mr. Supermun or Supermen.

Yeah, I know how Superman and Batman are pronounced, but from the way they are spelled they could be phonetically different. Spider-Man is Spider-Man - one follows the other quickly, but distinctly.

edited to add - Besides, everyone knows the hyphen makes him cooler than every other super-hero. Not that I'm biased.



Edited by Brad Krawchuk on 22 March 2007 at 9:44am
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Joakim Jahlmar
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 10:04am | IP Logged | 6  

Joe Franklin wrote:
"To me, it would be comparable to someone trying to spell my name 'Jo' instead of 'Joe' (it happens a lot). A simple correction usually works. Not sure why some folks insist that it's okay to spell something wrong, decrying it as no big deal, or as their 'right'."

Precisely. I mean if someone has only ever heard a name and never seen it written. This could be true as regards superheroes if the "fan" in question isn't a native English speaker and has therefore only ever encountered the name as given in his own country, eg. Spider-Man used to be "Spindelmannen" in Sweden though I believe he's called Spider-Man these days. But as soon as said person has seen it written, as soon as said mistake has been pointed out, there's no longer any room for defending the misspelling.
Arguably, it would be less offensive to use a correctly spelled Spidey, which is after all a nickname used by creator and character alike in many of these stories, than using a misspelled Spiderman instead of a correctly spelled Spider-Man. At least the nickname, while a nickname, is spelled correctlky and as such given due courtesies and respect, the misspelling is just a misspelling whichever way you look at it.

JB wrote:
"I have been mocked for 'pronouncing' the apostrophes in J'Onn J'Onzz. Juh-on Juh-owns.
I wonder how those people pronounce names like O'Brien or O'Hara?"

While I agree with your pronunciation of J'Onn J'Onzz, JB, I doubt these people would have such a hard time pronouncing O'Brien or O'Hara as apostrophes are more easily understood by most people if they follow a vowel rather than a consonant. I think it's the consonant + apostrophe that causes these people problems and then they are unable to deal with their own inability to pronounce it, so they pick on other people.

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John Byrne
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 10:24am | IP Logged | 7  

sigh
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Eric Lund
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 10:41am | IP Logged | 8  

What is interesting in the very first appearance of Batman in Detective they went with Bat-Man... and then later switched... I wonder if it has to do with the cadence of how you say the name... Batman sounds right as opposed to Bat.....Man...(accept on the "T") Where as Spider-Man Spider...Man...(accept on the "R") sounds right as opposed to Spiderman... which sounds kind of garbled if you say it to fast...

I also like the way Spider-Man looks in the logo visually it works much better

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Rick Bruni
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 10:50am | IP Logged | 9  

I'd say no hyphen or shortening the name usually means typing shortcuts, rather than jumping to a wild conclusion that there is embarassment over the character.
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Steve Horton
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 10:58am | IP Logged | 10  

Phoebe: Hey. Why isn't it Spiderman? You know, like Goldman, Silverman.
Chandler: Because, it... it's not his last name.
Phoebe: It isn't?
Chandler: No. It's not like Phil Spiderman. He's a spider *man*. You know, like Goldman is a last name but there's no gold man.
Phoebe: Oh, oh okay...
Phoebe: There should *be* a gold man!


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Stanton L. Kushner
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 10:59am | IP Logged | 11  

Perhaps the vehemence of the response has something to do with the way in which the error is pointed out.
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Kurt Anderson
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Posted: 22 March 2007 at 11:02am | IP Logged | 12  

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