Adaptation Name Change / Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

Adaptation Name Change in this series.

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Comic Books

Comic Books

The following have their own pages:

• Ultimate Marvel

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• In the Marvel Comics, Shang-Chi's father is the literary villain Fu Manchu. However, Marvel eventually lost the licensing rights to Fu Manchu, which has resulted in the character going by other names whenever he has appeared in recent years. He voluntarily changed his name to Han in an issue of Black Panther (stating that he has always had many names and thus feels no real attachment to any of them), and was later given the name Zheng Zu in Secret Avengers.
• Thor's daughter (who he had with Sif) is easily one of the biggest examples of this with her being given a total of three separate names in the comics, all different from the Norse Mythology version. In Norse Edda, her name is Þrúðr anglicised as Thrúd, in Marvel Comics 2, her name is Thena, in Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, her name is Torunn, and in Captain Marvel (Kelly Thompson), her name is Brigid. This is likely either due to her original name Thrúd being too tricky to pronounce or the writers being unaware of Thor actually having a daughter in the myths, particularly since she's mentioned very briefly. The MCU only continues the tradition with Thor's daughter in Thor: Love and Thunder being named "Love", though granted, she is adoptive daughter here (though out-of-universe, she’s portrayed by Chris Hemsworth's actual daughter).
• Spider-Man:
  • Spider-Gwen has been renamed Ghost Spider for reasons of practicality. Obviously, no one calls her Spider-Gwen in-universe, and as the name Spider-Woman has been used by several characters, and was also in use for Earth 616's Jessica Drew, having her interact with characters using the same name could get confusing. The Ghost Spider name was first used for the Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors animated series, (See Western Animation), but was made Ret-Canon for the comic universe.
  • Spider-Man: Life Story:
    • Peter's daughter, Claire Parker is a dead ringer for Mayday Spider-Girl Parker in looks — a tomboy brunette and personality (being sassy and snarking at her dad). She also has a brother named Benjy and considers Ben Reilly her uncle.
    • Harry Osborn's supervillain alias is the Black Goblin rather than the Green Goblin.
  • In Spider-Man Noir, the Green Goblin is just called the Goblin.
  • In Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Emma Frost's supervillain name is "The Silencer" instead of "The White Queen" (as she's just a teenager and is not associated with the Hellfire Club in this continuity).
• X-Men:
  • In Powerless, Magneto is an American senator named Eric Magnus instead of a Polish Holocaust survivor named Erik Lensherr (with the birth name Max Eisenhardt).
  • The Age of Apocalypse version of X-23 has the name Kirika rather than Laura, since she is half-Japanese and Wolverine's daughter (and not his Opposite-Sex Clone) in this continuity.
• In the Marvel Max Cage series, Hammerhead is renamed Sonny "The Hammer" Caputo.
• Three Canon Immigrants from the Marvel Cinematic Universe underwent this:
  • The version of Whiplash from Iron Man 2, a Composite Character of Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo, was named Ivan Vanko. When Marvel introduced a version of him to tie into the film, his first name was changed to "Anton", the same as the original Crimson Dynamo—despite being of no relation to the man.
  • Marvel introduced a version of the Hope Pym seen in the Ant-Man movie, though her name was changed from English to the Russian word for "hope", Nadia, in part because she's the long-lost daughter of Hank Pym and his first wife, Maria Trovaya, as opposed to the film and original Marvel Comics 2 versions, who were mothered by Janet van Dyne.
  • As part of a wider Soft Reboot, Shang-Chi's mother from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was introduced into the comics. However, she's got a slightly different name - Jiang Li (as used in some of the movie's early pre-release publicity) rather than Ying Li (as used in the final movie).
• Hulk's father originally debuted in the TV series The Incredible Hulk (1977), then named DW Banner (it was never mentioned what "DW" stands for). When he debuted in comics, his name was changed to Brian. His morality was also changed.
• Marvel 1602 played with this, as most name changes consisted of slightly changing a character's name to a variant that would have been more probable to exist in the 17th century. Jean Grey is called "John Grey" because she's pretending to be a man, and Peter Parquah is actually named Peter Parker and assumed the name Parquah to hide his Scottish ancestry from the English. The most notable case of the trope being played straight is with the continuity's equivalents of Dr. Doom and Dr. Octopus, who curiously swap first names and are addressed as Otto Von Doom and Victor Octavius.
• At the end of Heroes Reborn, Captain America meets Rikki Barnes's parents, her father being a man named Richard Barnes and implied to be the actual HR version of Bucky Barnes, whose first name in 616 was James.
• Ultimate Marvel has its own page.
• In Spidey Super Stories, Bill Foster's heroic codename is Giant-Man rather than Black Goliath.

Films

Films

The following have their own pages:

• Marvel Cinematic Universe

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• Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors sees Spider-Gwen called Ghost Spider instead of Spider-Woman. In a piece of Ret-Canon, Marvel: A Fresh Start would see Gwen take up the "Ghost Spider" codename.
• Spider-Man: Spider-Verse
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Instead of being a man named Otto Octavius, Doctor Octopus is a woman named Olivia “Liv” Octavius.
  • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Spot of Earth-1610 in the comics was called Frank, with his surname never being revealed. Here, he's called Johnathon Ohnn, like his Earth-616 comic counterpart.
• Captain America (1990) changes the Red Skull's name from Johann Schmidt to Tadzio de Santis, as he is Italian instead of German. Cap's love interest is also called Sharon Cooperman instead of Sharon Carter.
• Daredevil:
  • Roscoe "Fixer" Sweeney is renamed Fallon.
  • Jack Murdock's boxing nickname is changed from "Battlin' Jack" to "The Devil".
  • Elektra's father, Hugo Kostas Natchios, is renamed Nicholas Natchios.
• Subverted: Fantastic Four (2015) intended to change Doctor Doom's real name from "Victor Von Doom" to "Victor Domashev"; when word got out and fans reacted negatively, however, reshoots changed it back.
• Hulk sees Bruce Banner's parents get in on this:
  • Brian Banner, Bruce's father, renamed "David" likely as an homage to the series, where (as mentioned below) Bruce himself went by "David." House of M might've RetCanoned this a bit as the version of Brian in that universe has "David" as his middle name.
    • As mentioned in the comics section, his name was originally DW Banner, as he debuted in the TV series three years earlier than in comics, so it's an adaptation of an adaptation. Or not, if the "D" in "DW" stands for "David" (it was never clarified what the initials stand for).
  • His mother was renamed from "Rebecca" to "Edith".
• Madame Web (2024):
  • Subverted with Cassandra Webb, as while her name is still Cassandra, she seems to have the nickname Cassie from Ben and her other co-workers, whereas in the comics she had no such nickname. Played Straight in regards to her last name, as in the comics "Webb" was her married name while here "Webb" is her actual, maiden last name.
  • Played With in regards to Julia. A teenager here, she retains the comics version's birth surname of Cornwall, rather than the better-known Carpenter, the married name that she kept even after her divorce.
• Punisher: War Zone:
  • While Jigsaw retains his codename, his first name (Billy), and his original nickname ("the Beaut"), his last name is modified from "Russo" to "Russoti".
  • Don Massimo Cesare had his first name changed to "Gaitano".
• In Spider-Man, the pro wrestler Peter defeats in his origin story is named Bone Saw McGraw rather than Crusher Hogan.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • In the film series, Magneto's real name is Erik Lehnsherr and an alias he uses is Henryk Gurzsky. While in the comics, Magneto's birth name of "Max Eisenhardt" wouldn't be revealed until 2008's X-Men: Magneto Testament, "Erik Magnus Lehnserr", originally presumed to be his real name, was retconned to be an alias in the immediate aftermath of Operation: Zero Tolerance in the '90s.
  • MacTaggert is Moira's maiden name instead of Kinross. She got married and divorced within the 21-year gap between X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Apocalypse, and she is referred to as Agent MacTaggert before her marriage and after her divorce.
  • X-Men: First Class also features the character named Angel Salvadore/Tempest in the comics. Here we're never told her real name, but "Angel" is a stage name that she adapts as a code name. This is made more confusing since the film series previously featured Warren Worthington, the X-Men character who is actually called "Angel" in the comics.
  • X2: X-Men United: Pyro's name is changed from St. John Allerdyce to the Americanized John Allerdyce, and Jason Stryker is based on Jason Wyngard.
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Silver Fox has her name changed to the more Canadian-sounding "Kayla Silverfox." She was also apparently given a Race Lift, as she's played by the very light-skinned Lynn Collins, who claims to have distant Native ancestry, but otherwise looks nothing like Silver Fox. This trope is also implied with Victor (Sabretooth), as the credits lists his father's name as Logan whereas the comic Sabretooth's name was Victor Creed.
  • The Wolverine: Mariko's fiancé has his name changed from "Noburo Hideki" to "Noburo Mori," possibly because, although an actual Japanese name, Hideki is a given name, not a family one.
  • Quicksilver's real name is changed from "Pietro Maximoff" to the more Americanized "Peter Maximoff" — presumably due to the fact that the film version of Quicksilver was raised in the U.S. while his comic counterpart grew up in Eastern Europe, although a supplementary website (25 Moments) and the Italian dub both still refers to him as Pietro. The same Name Change was also applied to Colossus.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: Magneto had a daughter named Anya in the comics, but her name is Nina in the movie-verse.
  • Logan:
    • Since Sarah Kinney was adapted out, Laura doesn't have a surname spoken on-film, and the closest we possibly get is "Howlett," when Logan introduces her as his daughter. Additionally, since X-23 became an entire project rather than a single clone, her designation is X23-23.
    • Rictor doesn't go by Julio Richter at all, and is Only Known By His Nickname.

Live-Action TV

Live-Action TV

• The Gifted (2017):
  • Blink's real name is changed from Clarice Ferguson to Clarice Fong, due to her being Race Lifted into an Asian-American.
  • In the comics, the Stepford Cuckoos all have the surname "Cuckoo." Here, they all have the last name "Frost," as Emma Frost is known to be their mother from the beginning, unlike in the comics, where their true parentage wasn't revealed until quite a while after they were introduced.
• Helstrom:
  • The surname of the Helstrom family has been slightly modified to seem less sinister (in this case, removing one "l", turning "Hellstrom" to "Helstrom").
  • Daimon's sister is known as "Ana Helstrom" rather than Satana or her human alias of Judith Chambers.
• Legion:
  • Gabrielle's maiden name is never mentioned onscreen, but it's unlikely to be Haller because she's Romani in the show instead of Jewish like in the comics, and David's surname Haller has been changed to be from his adoptive family. After Gabrielle marries Charles Xavier, her name becomes Gabrielle Xavier (and Switch addresses her as such in the series finale).
  • Because Charles and Gabrielle are married (which didn't happen in the source material), their son was born as David Xavier, although he's adopted by the Haller family when he's still a baby, so he's known as David Haller throughout the series. However, after the Alternate Timeline takes hold in the series finale, the infant that's shown in the last scene will be known as David Xavier permanently because his parents won't give him up this time.
• The Incredible Hulk (1977): This TV adaptation of the comic changed Robert Bruce Banner to David Bruce Banner, and the character would call himself by his first name, instead of his middle name. This was due to the network thinking Bruce sounded "too gay", as well as the head writer wanting to ditch the "comic booky" Alliterative Name trope.

Video Games

Video Games

• Midnight Suns: The individual characters (those that are from the comics, at least) all have their usual names and codenames, but the eponymous team has had its name slightly changed — in the comics, it was the Midnight Sons (the name-change likely has something to do with the game's team having considerably more gender parity, especially amongst the Midnight Suns proper).
• Spider-Man (PS4)
  • The game sees Miles Morales's dad, Jefferson, still use his birth last name of "Davis" whereas in the comics, Jeff took Rio's last name to get away from his Dark and Troubled Past and his criminal brother, Aaron.
  • In the comics, Dr. Morgan Michaels was merely an anglicized alias used by Michael Morbius. Here, it's apparently his real name.
  • Granted, we never learned the true name of the Triad member who'd become Mr. Negative, just that he'd pulled a Dead Person Impersonation on the real Martin Li, someone who was intended to be sold into slavery. Here, by virtue of being a Composite Character, Martin Le really is Mr. Negative's true name.
  • Spider-Man: Miles Morales shortens the Tinkerer's first name from "Phineas" to merely "Phin" due to the character being made into a girl.
• Ultimate Spider-Woman is called "Spider-Girl" in Lego Marvel's Avengers, even though she never used that name in the comics.
• In The Punisher (THQ), Jigsaw's real name is John Saint rather than Billy Russo.
• X-Men Legends changed Magma's real name from Amara Aquilla to Alison Crestmere, which was the fake name she had been tricked into thinking was real for a time in the comics.

Western Animation

Western Animation

• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes:
  • Michael Korvac's lover has her name changed from Carina to Corrina, though it's presumably still pronounced the same.
  • Captain Marvel's real name is Geheneris Hala´son Mahr Vehl rather than the shorter Mar-Vell, much like in the Ultimate Marvel comics.
• In The Avengers: United They Stand, The Falcon's nephew is called Andrew rather than Jim or Jody.
• Avengers Assemble
  • Like the Ultimate Spider-Man entry above, the show changes Yelena Belova's codename to Crimson Widow so that there aren't two characters called "Black Widow" in the same series.
  • Similarly, the Secret Wars season briefly adapts part of Jason Aaron's Thor run, where Jane Foster became the new Thor after lifting Mjolnir. To avoid having two Thors in the cast, the show had Jane take on the name Thunderstrike after being given an enchanted mace by Odin (allowing the original Thor to keep Mjolnir).
  • Black Panther's grandfather is named T'Chanda rather than Azzari (or Azzuri). In Fantastic Four Unlimited #1 (March 1993) by Roy Thomas (scripts) and Herb Trimpe (art), T'Challa's grandfather's name is Chanda.
• The Incredible Hulk (1982) changed Major Glenn Talbot's first name to Ned.
• Iron Man: The Animated Series
  • Tony's parents are named Walter and Martha Stark rather than Howard and Maria Stark, though one: the second season does retcon that Walter is a case of Middle Name Basis and his first name is indeed "Howard" and two, the 2011 S.H.I.E.L.D. series did Ret-Canon Walter as Howard's middle name.
  • While Tony's middle name isn't known in the show, the initial is "B", implying this in in play (in the comics, Tony's middle name is "Edward").
  • The doomed scientist who helped Tony build the Iron Man armor to escape captivity in his Origin Story had his name changed from Ho Yinsen to Wellington Yinsen.
  • The Scarlet Witch's surname is Frank, not Maximoff or Lehnsherr. This is probably a Mythology Gag to the idea floated in the seventies that her and Quicksilver's parents were Robert Frank/the Whizzer and his wife Madeline Joyce/Miss America. At the time of the series, the Magneto origin had been in place for a decade.
• Iron Man: Armored Adventures:
  • Madame Masque's civilian name was changed to Whitney Frost to Whitney Stane as a result of becoming Obadiah Stane's daughter in this series. Doubly so, as the Masque of the comics was adopted and she was born "Giulietta Nefaria" — and thus was Count Nefaria's daughter.
  • Pepper Potts's real name is changed from Virginia to Patricia.
  • The Fixer's codename is modified to "Mr. Fix".
• Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors changed Spider-Gwen/Spider-Woman to Ghost Spider for reasons of practicality. While her book was titled Spider-Gwen, she was obviously never called that in-universe, and since Jessica Drew was currently using the Spider-Woman name in the Marvel Universe proper, to avoid confusion, when the animated feature was announced, Gwen's code name was changed to Ghost Spider, and it became Ret-Canon in the comics.
• Marvel's Spider-Man:
  • Miles Morales' heroic identity is Spy-D rather than Spider-Man.
  • In an example mixed with Composite Character, the Jackal's real name is changed to Raymond Warren (who was the Jackal's brother in the comics) instead of Miles Warren. Presumably, this was done to avoid having two characters named Miles in the main cast.
• In The Marvel Super Heroes:
  • The adaptation of the first issue of The Incredible Hulk changed the villain Gargoyle's name to the Gorgon.
  • When the X-Men guest-starred, they were renamed the Allies for Peace.
• Silver Surfer: The Animated Series changed Mistress Death's name to Lady Chaos due to the Never Say "Die" trope.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man
  • Molten Man's civilian identity, Mark Raxton, is renamed Mark Allan (because he and Liz Allan are full siblings instead of stepsiblings).
  • Ned Leeds is Asian in the series, and is therefore renamed Ned Lee.
  • Kenny "King Kong" McFarlane from Ultimate Spider-Man is also Asian, and named Kenny Kong.
  • Silver Sable is Sable Manfredi instead of Silver Sablinova since she's Silvermane's daughter.
• Spider-Man (1967)
  • The Lizard's real name is changed from Curt Connors to Curt Conner.
  • Jackson Brice's supervillain name is changed from Montana to Cowboy for some reason.
  • The episode "Captured by J. Jonah Jameson" adapts the first appearance of the Spider-Slayer robot, but changes the first name of the inventor Spencer Smythe to Henry.
  • Captain Stacy's first name is Ned rather than George.
• In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Sunfire's uncle's name is changed from Tomo to Jin Ju, which isn't actually a Japanese name and sounds more Korean than anything.
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series:
  • The Sinister Six was called the Insidious Six. Fox Kids censors felt that the word sinister sounded too menacing for a children's program (even though another Fox Kids program, X-Men: The Animated Series, had Mister Sinister as a villain).
  • Electro was renamed because the producers did not want to interfere with the continuity of James Cameron's proposed Spider-Man movie, in which the Sandman and Electro were supposed to be the villains. Although Sandman remained unseen in the series when Cameron's film fell through, Electro was belatedly introduced in the series' fifth season. Electro appears in the "Six Forgotten Warriors" storyline of season five; here his name is Rheinholt Schmidt (He's Red Skull's son in this series) instead of Max Dillon.
    • Cameron's film also would've changed Electro's name. The script had him called Carlton Strand instead of Max Dillon. Sandman was also called Boyd instead of Flint Marko.
  • Felicia Hardy's parents had their names changed: her father went from "Walter Hardy" to "John Hardesky" and Lydia Hardy had her first name changed to "Anastasia".
  • In the comics, The Kingpin's real name is Wilson Fisk. In the show, while Wilson is still his real first name, "Wilson Fisk" is actually an alias and his real last name is "Moriarty."
  • Variant with the Black Marvel. His real name is changed from Daniel Lyons to Omar Mosely, but Lyons did still exist in this universe as a separate character.
• Spidey and His Amazing Friends: Miles Morales' superhero name is once again changed to avoid confusion about having two characters called Spider-Man: This time, his code name is changed to "Spin".
• Ultimate Spider-Man
  • Luke Cage's parents' names are changed from "James and Esther Lucas" to "Walter and Amanda Cage". Between this and them calling their son "Luke", one expects this Luke Cage was always named that in this universe, while in the comics his birth name was "Carl Lucas".
  • In the comics, the Rhino's real name is Aleksei Sytsevich, with his original name, Alex O'Hirn, Retconned into being an alias. In the cartoon, Alex O'Hirn is his real name.
  • Arcade's amusement park is changed from Murderworld to Madland.
  • As with Spider-Man: Noir, the Green Goblin is just called the Goblin here.
  • To avoid the confusion of having two characters named "Spider-Man", Miles Morales temporarily changes his superhero name to Kid Arachnid while staying in Peter's dimension.
  • In the comics, Harry Osborn became an armored hero known as the American Son for a brief period. He eventually gets the armor in the show too, but is inexplicably called the Patrioteer instead.
  • In the comics, Mr. Negative's minions are called "Inner Demons". In "Return to the Spider-Verse, Part Three", he calls them "Dragons".
• In X-Men: Evolution:
  • Toad's real name was changed from Mortimer Toynbee to Todd Tolensky
  • Avalanche's was changed from Dominic Petros to Lance Alvers.
  • Due to being depicted as a little kid, Jamie Maddox's codename is modified from "Multiple Man" to just "Multiple".
• X-Men: The Animated Series:
  • When the show decided to reveal that Sabretooth was Graydon Creed's father, they did this by revealing that Graydon was named after him, hence Sabretooth being "Graydon Creed, Sr." rather than having his first name be "Victor". By extension, this makes Graydon Creed "Gradyon Creed, Jr."
  • Solarr's real name is Bill Braddock rather than Silas King.
  • Morph's original codename in the comics was "Changeling". However, DC Comics had trademarked it as Beast Boy was using it at the time, hence the name change. It's since stuck as Age of Apocalypse and Exiles incarnations of the character have used it.

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