Comic Book Movies Dont Use Codenames / Arrowverse

Oliver: Last month, you took on a man named Leonard Snart—
Barry: We call him Captain Cold.
Oliver: We can talk about you giving your enemies silly codenames later.
Barry: You mean, like, over coffee with Deathstroke and the Huntress?

This trope is Zig Zagged a lot throughout the many series, depending on the tone and themes of the series in question.

• Arrow:
  • "Green Arrow" isn't used until halfway through the first season, when Merlyn of all people suggests it during a dinner conversation, only for Ollie to shoot it down as "lame". He also isn't initially called "Arrow" - he spends the first season being referred to as "The Hood" after his costume design, or just "the vigilante," and has to specifically ask people to start calling him The Arrow after he takes up a Thou Shalt Not Kill policy in the second season. It's not until season four that he starts calling himself the Green Arrow.
  • Zig-zagged with Deadshot, aka Floyd Lawton, who is known to the CIA by that codename, but is mostly referred to by his real name.
  • Count Vertigo, reimagined as a drug lord, goes by the Count with the drug he peddles called Vertigo. In the second season however, he officially starts calling himself Count Vertigo.
  • Firefly never uses a codename but it is the name of the team of firefighters he was a part of.
  • Perhaps the strangest example is Malcolm Merlyn. In the comics "Merlyn the Archer" is a code name he chose due to his obsession with Arthurian myth, in the series it's his real name, while the nickname given to him by the SCPD is "the Dark Archer", or, alternatively, "the Copycat". Additionally, Merlyn's real name from the New Earth comics, Arthur King, appears in Arrow tie-in Dark Archer comics, where it's mentioned as his actual birth name. He legally changed from "Arthur King" to "Malcolm Merlyn" to evade a whole different shadowy group going after him. However, his League of Assassins name, "The Magician", is used fairly regularly by League members and others in the know. Ironically, he got the name from a young Nyssa Al'Ghul for doing a stage magic trick (pulling a flower from nowhere) rather then as a play on his own name.
  • In the current Prime Earth comics, Tommy Merlyn plays the role of Green Arrow's rival, going by simply "Merlyn" as a mercenary. On Arrow, Tommy never becomes the Dark Archer.
  • Barton Mathis is referred to as Dollmaker, and is justified in this case. In the show, he's a flat out serial killer, and "Dollmaker" was the name given to him by the media in reference to the manner in which he murders his victims.
  • A.R.G.U.S. refers to Slade Wilson by the codename "Deathstroke", but the name didn't exist during the island flashbacks and he and others generally use his real name in the present.
  • Sara Lance does use the name "The Canary", a name she chose after joining The League of Assassins, instead of the comics Black Canary. Later on, Laurel Lance, her sister, takes up the mantle after Sara's death, and was called the Black Canary.
  • Bronze Tiger also breaks the rule.
  • Anatoli Knyazev is never called the "KGBeast". He's also a sympathetic mob captain (who is only shown doing anything nasty to other, less honorable rivals) as opposed to a supervillain. Besides, he's a decade or two too late for the name to make sense.
    • However, in the season 7 episode "Due Process", it's finally acknowledged that his code-name when working for the KGB in the backstory was "KGBeast".
• Legends of Tomorrow: While all the heroes have codenames, they generally don't bother using them most of the time. Firestorm is the main exception, since that's a name for the combined form of Stein and Jax.
  • An Enforced Trope for Zari, who in the comics goes by Isis. Unfortunately, by 2017 "Isis" is now most associated with the Middle Eastern terrorist group of the same name-and LoT's Zari is Muslim-American.
• Supergirl (2015): Both heroes and villains use codenames quite often.
  • The main exception is Mon-El, who never gets a real codename. Technically he has a civilian identity, but everyone keeps forgetting to use it.
  • In the episode "The Darkest Place", Villain of the Week Philip Karnowsky is never referred to as "Barrage", his codename from the comics.
  • Imra Ardeen is only referred to as "Saturn Girl" once, in the season 3 finale.
• The Flash (2014): Since this is comparatively lighter, all the superhero trappings are happily embraced. Cisco is The Nicknamer and comes up with most of the hero/villain names. By later seasons, even Arrow characters are using Cisco nicknames for their villains. Most of the others roll their eyes at Cisco's habit but sometimes admit that they've Got Me Doing It. Captain Cold in particular seems to enjoy having a supervillain name and encourages its use (though he tends to drop the "Captain" more often than not).
• The Flash also has a complicated case like Merlyn. In the comics, Amunet Black is the real name of a villain whose codename is The Blacksmith, which we don't hear in the show. However, that's because in the show, Amunet Black is the codename; her real name is Leslie Jocoy.
  • Played with in the case of Weather Wizard. The premiere episode featured Clyde Mardon (brother of Mark Mardon, the comics' Weather Wizard) as the apparent adaptation of the character, but Cisco never gave him a name and he was a Starter Villain that was quickly killed off. Later in the season, Mark himself showed up with the same powers, and by having Cisco give him the name the show has recognized Mark as the "official" Weather Wizard.
  • Roy Bivolo is an odd case, as Cisco names him "Prism", which isn't used in the comics. It's Caitlin who instead comes up with his comics name, "Rainbow Raider", but Cisco tells her something to the effect of "see, this is why we don't let you come up with the names." "Prism" is the name used in the show and other official materials from then on, though "Rainbow Raider" still gets the occasional nod.
  • Earth-2 Hunter Zolomon plays with this. He is generally referred to as Zoom, but he is not called the Black Flash until the end of Season 3 by Savitar.
  • Lampshaded when The Flash and Arrow cross over, and Oliver tends to use the codenames as an example of how Arrow is Darker and Edgier while The Flash is Lighter and Softer:
    Oliver: Last month, you took on a man named Leonard Snart—
    Barry: We call him Captain Cold.
    Oliver: We can talk about you giving your enemies silly codenames later.
    Barry: You mean, like, over coffee with Deathstroke and the Huntress?
    Oliver: The point is...

    Oliver: Barry... you live in Central City, where it's sunny all the time and your enemies get cute nicknames. You're not in Central City.