They mostly use the definite article at night.
mostly
You also have the Green Arrow, the Green Lantern, and the Black Canary.
All of whose names work perfectly well without the definite article.
and yet, it’s never The Squirrel-Girl.
It’s only “The” Batman if he’s prepared…
I had to consider this question at length for the Wiki for the online DCU RPG I’m involved in. Ultimately, the character pages with definite articles were :
The Body Doubles
The Demons Three
The Royal Flush Gang
- groups, not individuals. Don’t really count.
The Calculator
The Creeper
The Eel
The Fadeaway Man
The Fiddler
The Fisherman
The Flash I
The Flash III
The Floronic Man
The Joker
The Mad Hatter
The Penguin
The Phantom Stranger
The Question
The Ray II
The Riddler
The Scarecrow
The Shade
The Spectre
The Top
Interestingly, the only true A-listers for whom I felt the definite article needed to be included are the two Flashes and the Joker. A notice a lot of B and C-list villains with definite articles, including a large subgroup of Batman rogues.
I think my personal guideline is the sentence :
“Of course he/she did. He’s/She’s _______.”
Try plugging in the names to see if they feel right with and without the definite article.
The 10-eyed Man
Yeah, you’re right.
Although they are of course not superheroes, most Harvey Comics characters also have a routine naming system for their characters/comic titles: (character name) the (adjective) (noun). Casper the Friendly Ghost, Richie Rich the Poor Little Rich Kid, Wendy the Good Little Witch, Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, Hot Stuff the Li’l Devil, etc.
Twinkles, the Trailer-Park Skank
That one didn’t do so well.