Tomorrow marks the release of issue #3 of ‘Batman And The Signal’, and I still cannot for the life of me decide: Good Name or Bad Name? On the one hand,The Signal is a name with tons of Batman history and calls to mind an iconic part of Gotham City. On the other hand, it is reminiscent of Dr. Peter Coogan’s remarks on a superhero calling herself The Cape. You’ve entered a strange self-referential area that causes cognitive dissonance and makes for weird trademarks. That said, it’s better than just calling him Duke all the time, leading to today’s eponymous query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) has no such qualms about his A-plus, top-notch amazing costume, asking: Does the superhero sobriquet “The Signal” fall under Good Name or Bad Name?
5 Comments
I’m in the middle, but have minor leanings toward “good name”. It is different, but not so bizarre that it feels like it comes out of nowhere (like the Super Sentai hero “Zyuoh The World” or sometimes just “The World”, which just feels disconcerting as a superhero name and doesn’t really have anything to do with his theme or powers).
I have no idea why anyone would have an issue with either The Cape or The Signal.
I hate The Cape.
It’s the superhero equivalent of Boaty McBoatface.
I dont see the equivalence between those two. The Cape makes some sense for a fictional story and the other was a silly suggestion in the real world that made people smile. For Boaty, yes the name is stupid (and funny in a Dada way) but sometimes i love when social media marketing backfires.
i’m not necessarily against literal names like “the cape” and “the signal” (i mean, if you have a problem with “the cape,” do you have a problem with Cloak from Cloak and Dagger?).
i’m gonna lean towards “good name” with the caveat of Signal being a better name if he wasn’t so tied into Batman. it’s almost like naming a bat-family character “Grappling Hook.” like, i feel like the bird names (Robin/Nightwing, Bluebird) work way better. maybe if Signal was…i dunno. Canary, Hawk and Falcon are all taken by various DC/non-DC characters…Raptor? Finch?