Whether it’s Stephen Strange, Peter Parker, Bruce Banner or even Matt Murdock, many Marvel heroes have two identical letters as their initials. But what is this due to?
Once is not custom, it is in the office of Dr. Dayan, played by Frédéric Pierrot in In therapy, that we went to look for this nice little anecdote on the heroes of comics and Marvel films.
Indeed, even if the relationship between the Arte series and the superheroes created by Stan Lee is not obvious a priori, it is clear that Hulk and Spider-Man temporarily invite themselves to a session between the therapist and his young patient, Robin, who usually wears masks in the colors of the Avengers to protect himself from the Covid.
“Do you know how Stan Lee, the creator, comes up with the names of his characters?”asks the father of Robin (played by Pio Marmaï) to the young boy in episode 7 of season 2. Seeing that his son does not know her, he then gives him the answer:
“In fact, as he had small memory problems, he used the same letters of the alphabet for first and last names. Like Bruce Banner, Peter Parker… Or two letters that touch each other. Tony Stark, for example , TS.”
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This funny anecdote about the surnames of these famous superheroes is totally true. Indeed, Stan Lee himself had told it in November 2006, during an interview with Kevin Smith, organized after the screening of Spider-Man 2.
“It’s probably going to be hard to believe, because I look so perfect, but I have the worst memory in the world”he had declared with his legendary sense of humor.
“Finally, I found the solution. By giving [un personnage] a first and last name that started with the same letter, such as Peter Parker, Bruce Banner or Matt Murdock. If I could remember one of the two names, it gave me a clue about the other, I knew it would start with the same letter.”
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Indeed, just take a look at the list of all the Marvel characters created by Stan Lee to see that many of them have a double initial.
For example :
- Bruce Banner (Hulk)
- Peter Parker (Spider-Man)
- Matt Murdock (Daredevil)
- Stephen Strange (Doctor Strange)
- Pepper Potts (Tony Stark’s wife)
- Otto Octavius (Dr. Octopus)
- Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic)
- Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman)
- J. Jonah Jameson (Daily Bugle boss)
- Scott Summers (Cyclops)
- Curt Connors (The Lizard)
Still others, like Tony Stark (Iron Man), Clint Barton (Hawkeye) or Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin), have inherited a name with two letters that follow each other in the alphabet.
Have you spotted any other examples of this type in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or in the original comic books? Do not hesitate to share them with us in comments.
(Re)discover our video dedicated to Stan Lee…