Tomorrow is the opening day of the movie Thor, the first of four* major superhero movies coming out this summer. And Saturday is Free Comic Book Day.
To celebrate these two things, I'm posting today's gag starring Elder Banner (otherwise known as the Incredible Hulk), everyone's second favorite superhero named Bruce.**
*Five, if you count The Help.**It has always fascinated me that comicdom has two heroes named Bruce (the other being, of course, Bruce Wayne--aka, Batman).*** Especially, since Bruce is such an uncommon name otherwise. According to the Social Security Administration website, Bruce was only the 465th most popular boy's name in 2009 with only 579 boys given that name that year in the United States. That means--according to my calculations--if you want your son to grow up to be a superhero, your best bet is to name him Bruce. Odds are 289.5 to one that your Bruce will grow up into a hero. Naming your son Clark (Superman) is probably your next best bet at 332 to one. After that your odds go down considerably. Peter (Spider-Man) is at 1,981 to one; Logan (Wolverine) is at 14,331 to one; and Tony (Ironman) is at 16,139 to one.
Honesty, you'd be better off having a girl. Just don't name her Diana (Wonder Woman); the odds of that name producing a superhero are a pedestrian 1,934 to one. Instead, try Barbara (Batgirl) at 444 to one or Susan (Invisible Woman) at 368 to one. Your best bet might be to name your daughter Shayera (Hawkgirl)--her name didn't even chart! (Of course, you'll have to deal with the unfortunate possibility that she'll sprout wings at some point.)
***I warned you that this would be an especially nerdy post.
In case you care, those four superhero movies are as follows (in order of how much I want to see them): Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, X-Men: First Class, and Green Lantern.
ReplyDeleteMore than seeing these movies, I'm eager to see a couple of non-superhero movies: Super 8 (which totally sounds like a superhero movie title) and Cowboys & Aliens (Which, while not a superhero movie, is actually based on a comic book).
At any rate, we're living in the golden age of the nerds. When I was growing up, a kid would have been beaten up if he admitted to liking Thor, Captain America, or the Green Lantern. Today, you'd get funny looks if you don't like those guys.
Wow! What a great and truly educational blog post. I plan to catch every single one of these movies (although I'm most concerned about the potential for catastrophic dumbness of the X-men movie) and I'd love to see you somehow incorporate superheroes into your comics.
ReplyDeleteI already knew about Free Comic Book Day, and my daughter and I have already planned which comic book store we're going to hit this weekend right before we go see Thor.
As an added geek note, today I mourn the passing of Jackie Cooper, the former child star who most famously portrayed Clark Kent's boss in the Christopher Reeves movies.
Thanks for your insight into names. I'll keep this information in mind the next chance I get to name a child.
My kids especially loved this comic. As a huge superhero movie fan, I am just as excited to see these movies. And as a huge mormon cartoonist fan, I would love to see some more superhero/mormon comics. I love it!
ReplyDeleteThe new X-men movie is being directed by the same guy who directed Stardust. I thought that was a great movie.
ReplyDeleteSo hopefully he had a great script to work with.
Nothing better than combining comic books and statistics. Had you thrown in a star trek reference you would have had a trifecta. Other options would have included the x-files, warlocks, final fantasy, computer programming, outer space, gadgets, battle star galactica, physics, dragons, or nanotechnology.
ReplyDeleteI could have done that, Joel, but I wanted to keep a shred of self-worth. By posting what I did, I've pretty much assured myself of having sand kicked in my face at some point. I certainly didn't want to risk any more offenses.
ReplyDeleteLove the cartoon, especially the name "Elder Banner."
ReplyDeleteBTW, we went to see Thor this weekend. Word of warning: Thor is nothing like the recurring character on Stargate: SG-1.
I like this comic. It is too bad we didn't have this conversation when we were naming our children. Just think, if we had, we could have our own little Justice League.
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