A Juggernaut Journal of Justice-Jammed Jargon (for superhero fans and aspirants)

Cafe Society
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Jargon is specialized terminology used within a field of expertise. I thought it would be interesting to formalize superhero terms, words, concepts and ideas.

A) Please keep your contributions short. Instead of showing off how much you know (something I do all the time, and shouldn’t) allow others to contribute.

B) Use cites and examples.

C) Politely disagree.

D) Number your contributions starting from the OP, and alphabetize within your post.

  1. A costume is a unique design worn by a single individual. It frequently has a distinctive emblem and may signify a special position, rank or authority. Superhero costumes are designed to emphasize one’s physique while dramatically announcing one’s appearance. Costumes frequently include some combination of masks, capes, cowls, boots and gloves. Costumes are often accessorized for special weaponry. EXAMPLES: SUPERMAN, SPIDER-MAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA.

  2. A uniform is a matched set of clothes usually worn by a group with some formal or quasi-formal affiliation. They frequently include an organizational emblem along with a specific color scheme. Uniforms are designed to mark one’s belonging to a heirarchial group while standardizing a professional appearance. Uniforms frequently include communications devices and weapons belts and may have other unique properties related to the uniform’s construction or material. EXAMPLES: FANTASTIC FOUR, GREEN LANTERN CORPS, HYDRA.

The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, although in a group context, uniform is usually preferred.

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3] A nemesis is a hero’s prime foe, for example Batman/The Joker or Judge Dredd/Judge Death: while a hero have any number of foes, he or she can have only one nemesis, who is usually characterised by sharing or mirroring certain traits of the hero, often serving to call the hero’s behaviour or motivations into question - Judge Dredd rigidly enforces the law to violent and often fatal extremes; Judge Death’s twisted law is that crime is only committed by the living, which he rigidly enforces to invariably fatal extremes.

I’m Very Long Sentence Man.

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My nemesis is Doctor Laconic.

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To further refine Askia’s distinction, it is helpful to look at teams that have costumes, and teams that have uniforms. Those that operate exclusively as a team invariably wear uniforms: X-Men, most versions of the Legion of Superheroes. Teams that consist of members who primarily operate solo invariably wear costumes: Avengers, the JLA.

Family: All of the characters associated with a core character, whether or not they directly share the same comic with that character. To be a member of a family, a character must share the same basic orientation as the core character, and one must appear occasionally in the other’s book. The Batman Family consists of Batman, Batgirl, Oracle, Robin, Nightwing, the detectives of Gotham Central, Huntress and Black Canary.

Rogue’s Gallery: The group of villains most closely or exclusively associated with an individual hero. To be a member, the villain must be a recurring character and must be primarily associated with that one hero. Example: The Flash–The Top, Golden Glider, Dr. Alchemy, Abra Kadabra, Professor Zoom, etc.

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A slight caveat, some villains, the Flash’s Rogues in paticular, form their own villainous teams (called the Rogues in the Flash example). This group may not include all of a hero’s Rogue’s Gallery, and in fact may actively exclude the more pathetic or psychotic examples. These in-story criminal groups shouldn’t be confused with the greater umbrella of a hero’s rogues gallery. For example, Gorilla Grodd, Abra Kadabra, and Professor Zoom are among Flash’s rogue’s gallery, but are (usually) considered to dangerous by other villains to be invited among the Rogues, a mostly informal but tight-knit fraternity of bad guys united against the Flash.

6: Metahuman (Mostly DC) : 1. Any humanoid being with super-human abilities. Example: The Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, Dr. Fate 2. A human carrying the metagene, a hereditary condition which causes powers to develop upon exposure to exotic substances (such as various chemicals, electricty, or radiation), and sometimes from birth or adolescence. Examples: Static, The Flash and Kid Flash/Impulse, Hitman.

7. Mutant: A being expressing powers and/or cosmetic abnormalities due to a genetic anomoly.

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7 (Revision suggested). Mutant: A being with inborn powers not of the species from which it hails, caused by genetic abnormality, usually expressed during puberty.

  1. (Term missing): A person who gains powers through an outside source or incident. These powers are inherent to the person, and may be passed on genetically. The child of the person may be a mutant, or not. It is suggested that if the child has the same powers as the parent, they are not a mutant. Examples: Spider-Man. The Fantastic Four.

  2. Focus Hero: A person who gains powers through an object. These powers may or may not be passed on genetically. Examples: Green Lantern. Iron Man.

  3. Brick: Super-Strong, super-tough. Examples: Hulk, Thing.

11: Kirby Team: The Leader, The Rebel, The Girl, the Kid Brother. Examples: Fantastic Four. X-Men.

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Mutate (N.)

  1. Secret Identity: Most people who are superheros or supervillians prefer to keep their true identity unknown. In the case of supervillains* this is because they wish to evade the law. In the case of superheroes it may be because they are vigilantes, or because they do not wish to be pubic celebrities. A comparitively small number of superheroes choose to have their identities publicly known, while a very few have been outed.

*Most supervillains’ true identities become known after their first arrest. A small number (e.g. The Joker) have no identity beyond their public persona.

  1. Monologue: The propensity often displayed by supervillains when holding a superhero captive, to boast about their plans, their invincibility, and to gloat over their captive’s impending extinction. This often gives the superhero time to devise an escape plan, and/or gives them vital information needed to thwart the villain’s plans. (Thanx to The Invincibles)

  2. Suit (N.) A person who wears a costume or uniform; a superhero.

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  1. Pervert Suit (N.) The same, according to Warren Ellis, as in “Most people think comics are about musclebound pervert suits hitting each other, and they aren’t too far off.”
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Focus An item that in some fashion grants a hero or villain some or all of their powers. Examples: Green Lantern (power ring), Legion of Superheroes (flight ring gives non-flying members the ability to fly, among other things) and Iron Man (his armored battle suit).

Some foci serve as a catalyst, granting power(s) and then no longer necessary for that character, while others require continual contact to use the powers they confer.

See: Focus Hero

Special Effect A common “theme” of some superheroes’ powers. Examples include Green Lantern and his Power Ring (all his powers come from that focus and thus all share the same special effect (green in color, obviously springing from the ring); The Human Torch whose powers all involve fire and its manipulation. Powers sharing a special effect often share a weakness or a vulnerability**.

Note: many characters sharing a common origin also share a common special effect, and these characters often share one or more common weaknesses and/or vulnerabilities.

See: focus, origin, vulnerability, weakness

Vulnerability an object, attack, special effect or other that a character is especially prone to take damage from. Some vulnerabilities manifest as increased damage, i.e. a fire-using hero may take more damage than usual from a villain using cold-based or water-based attacks. Other vulnerabilities manifest as damage from something that others are unaffected by, i.e. Superman vs. green kryptonite in the pre-reboot days.

See: weakness

Weakness Something that renders a hero or villain weaker or makes their powers of less utility. Examples include Superman’s X-Ray Vision not able to see through lead or Green Lantern’s Power Ring unable to effect yellow objects (or wooden objects, for the older version of Green Lantern). Some weaknesses only affect one power (see X-Ray Vision example) while others will affect all powers sharing a particular special effect (see Green Lantern example) or origin (all Kryptonians affected by Kryptonite).

Note: some weaknesses are also vulnerabilities. Example: green kryptonite not only causes damage to Superman that other people are immune to, but also weakens his powers.

See: origin, special effect, vulnerability

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Fan : Someone rabidly obessed with continuity, when it’s obvious that the writers couldn’t care less. Obessed with explaining or ignoring obvious continuity errors. Favorite quotes: “Best… story… ever” “Worst… story… ever”

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Nitpick on the X-men. The original team (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, Iceman) wore uniforms but upon graduating from Xavier’s school began wearing costumes. With the second team (Storm, Nightcrawler, et. al.) team members wore costumes, because they weren’t students (despite Xavier treating them as such for a long while). When Kitty Pryde joined the team she initially wore the school uniform, as did the New Mutants. The Hellions, Emma Frost’s trainees, also wore school uniforms, continuing the theme.

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The current version in Astonishing all wear variations of the same basic uniform, but yeah, the X-Men vary between one and the other.

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To further refine, it would be best to say that those teams that operate exclusively as teams have uniforms, which may or may not be utilized. A new recruit to the X-Men or LOSH could be issued a uniform, while a new Avenger or Justice Leaguer couldn’t, because there isn’t one.

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Retcon Short for Retroactive Continuity. A newly revealed fact or a revised interpretation of prior events that alters a superhero’s situation. A very simple retcon might be the reintroduction of a character previously declared dead by offering an explanation of how they could have survived a seemingly certain doom. A more complex one might be having an intelligent agency turn out to be the cause of what had been presumed to be a random event. Or a superhero might discover that he or she was fundamentally mistaken or misled about a pivitol event in their life. Used as a plot device by writers to introduce a new and interesting story line, or to revise the character’s canon in order to reconcile discrepcencies in continuity

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Superhero–Any sentient entity with powers, skills, abilities, technologies or resources far geater than those of ordinary mortal men, that uses these qualities to fight injustice & defend Mankind.

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I love what you guys are doing; don’t ever stop. PLEASE DON’T FORGET TO NUMBER YOUR ENTRIES. That makes cross-checking entries easier, and keeping track of who’s contributing the most entries.

Renumbering:

Ninja Pizza Guy 's focus, special effect, vulnerability, weakness are designated numbers #16-19.

furryman’s*** fan ** * is #20.

Lumpy’s retcon is #21.

Bosda’s superhero is #22.

Ideally, **Lumpy ** should come back and define canon and continuity. Ninja Pizza Guy forgot to define origin.

As per Lumpy’s suggestion, the term for #8 is now mutate.

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23: Mystery Man - an older term for costumed crimefighters, sometimes encompassing the costumed criminals they fought. Rarely have inherant superpowers, though they frequently have gimmicks.

24: Gimmick: a) A device which enables a non-superpowered person to perform exceptional - or even superhuman - feats. Examples: Sandman’s gas-gun; Starman’s Gravity/Cosmic Rod. b) The theme of a costumed crimefighter, or criminal, including name, costume, and any gimmicks (definition a) they use.

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#25) headquarters. typically a building or other structure that provides the common meeting place for a superhero team, or is the primary locale for an individual superhero. Some headquarters are easily located; many are in remote places inaccessible to the general public. Headquarters often house living spaces, equipment, advanced technologies, transportation, communications, medical facilities and special weapons. EXAMPLES: Fantastic Four’s BAXTER BUILDING, AVENGERS MANSION, JLA’s WATCHTOWER, Authority’s sailship, CARRIER.

#26) base of operations. Geographic region considered to be under the superhero’s protection and primary responsibility and where most of their crimefighting exploits occur. Most are centered on major urban areas, like New York City, Metropolis and Gotham. Some are far larger in scope: national (Captain America), international (Justice League), extradimensional (Dr. Strange) and interplanetary (Green Lantern Corps). A base of operations is generally an informal arrangement among superheroes, but one that is widely respected.
SYNONYM: TURF (to be defined later)

#27) patrol. Usually a specific route or routes in an urban area where a superhero regularly reconniters and monitors for criminal activity or to lend emergency assistance. Typically patrols are employed by those superheroes whose base of operations are citywide although the term has been employed by heroes whose regions are larger. See #24, BASE OF OPERATIONS.

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  1. Defining Event: the event that either granted the hero’s powers, like Hal Jordan’s receiving the Green Lantern ring from a dying alien, or the the life changing, often traumatic event that motivated the hero in question to devote themselves to superheroism, e.g. the shooting death of Bruce Wayne’s parent’s or Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben.
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  1. Canon and 30. Continuity, are two interrelated concepts that are features of 31. serial fiction.

In serial fiction, a character or group of characters are the protagonists of multiple stories that are written in an open-ended manner, so that the series as a whole is intended to be indefinite in length. Although each story could be written with no reference to any other story in the series, it is more common to present the events of the stories as taking place in a definite history, with events in previously published stories depicted as having taken place in the past, and with the characters in the stories remembering those events. Continuity is the internal history of a fictional world, and the facts that have been established about a fictional world by being depicted in one or more of the stories in a series are collectively known as Canon.

Especially in the genre of heroic fantasy, contradictions in Continuity and Canon frequently arise for a number of different reasons:
In the early days of comic books, many stories were written with no regard to continuity at all, the events in each story taking place in an isolated “now” with little or no reference to previously published stories. Different writers are hired to write stories for the comic title and newer writers may be unfamiliar with the events in previously written stories. A writer may decide to introduce a poorly thought out retcon which eventually has to itself be retconned or else simply ignored.