# Alter-Ego Alliteration Alert!!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alter-ego-alliteration-alert/322567
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 20, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alter-ego-alliteration-alert/322567 "2005-09-20T17:47:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2005, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alter-ego-alliteration-alert/322567/21 "2005-09-20T21:25:09Z")
> [@Cliffy](#):
>
> Ooh, ooh, Mary Marvel! (Whose real name is Mary Batson, but whatever.)
Mary Bromfeld, actually. She was adopted.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alter-ego-alliteration-alert/322567/22 "2005-09-20T21:33:50Z")
> [@Cliffy](#):
>
> Actually, the Golden Age was rife with alliterative and rhyming names (Wonder Woman, Big Brother, Her Highness, Woozy Winks, Doiby Dickles, Trigger Twins, Bob & Swab, Percy Popp the Super-Cop, etc.
This I think I’m on safer grounds in disputing. I said there were some around - although few of your examples are real people-type names - but they didn’t start littering the landscape before Stan Lee put them into almost every book. Sure you can comb through every one of the thousands of earlier names in comics and find examples, but very, very few will be systematic. Even Superman’s LL’s took years to come about - Lana in the late 40s, Lori in the 50s, etc.
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### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alter-ego-alliteration-alert/322567/23 "2005-09-20T21:34:24Z")
> [@Otto](#):
>
> Oh, and other non-hero alliterations include J. Jonah Jameson, his editor Robbie Robertson, JJJ’s son John and JJJ’s secretaries, Betty Brant and Glory Grant. And that’s just from Spider-Man.
I think Robbie’s first name is Joe. He’s called Robbie for his\* last \* name.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alter-ego-alliteration-alert/322567/24 "2005-09-20T21:58:40Z")
So there IS a reason for this after all? I’d gotten really curious, it figures into something I’m writing.
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### Author:  [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alter-ego-alliteration-alert/322567/25 "2005-09-20T21:58:45Z")
> [@Otto](#):
>
> Mary Bromfeld, actually. She was adopted.
I believe she changed her name back after Billy discovered her, but I could be wrong about that.
**Exapno** , I certainly agree that Stan took the practice to a new level. Most of the alliteration and rhymes before him are almost exclusively from humor strips, or humorous sidekicks in adventure/superhero strips; I thnk the publishers of the Golden Age knew that these tricks had a whimsical air about them, which made them funny.
–Cliffy
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alter-ego-alliteration-alert/322567/26 "2005-09-20T22:18:13Z")
And as far as teams go, there’s Fantastic Four, Freedom Force, Power Pack, Liberty Legion (which I assume was a wink at the convention, having been ret-conned in an X-book as having been active during WW2) and on the vallianous side there’s the Frightful Four, the Lethal Legion, Batroc’s Brigade and Salem’s Seven.
Now where do the Groovy Ghoulies fit into all of this?
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alter-ego-alliteration-alert/322567/27 "2005-09-21T01:59:18Z")
Also Satan’s Six (a Jack Kirby team from '90s Topps Comics), Seven Soldiers (of Victory), the Fearsome Five, Secret Society of Supervillains, and Secret Six.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alter-ego-alliteration-alert/322567/28 "2005-09-21T02:22:41Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#):
>
> Seven Soldiers (of Victory)
AKA Law’s Legionnaires.
Devil’s Dozen (of which there were only 5. O\_o)
Fearsome Five
Squadron Sinister/Supreme
Suicide Squad
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