Comic Book Movies Dont Use Codenames / Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rhomann Dey: Hey! If it isn't "Star-Prince."
Peter Quill: Star-Lord.
Rhomann: Oh, sorry, "Lord." [to his partner] I picked this guy up a while back for petty theft. He's got a code name!
Quill: Come on, man, it's an outlaw name.
Rhomann: Relax, pal; it's cool to have a code name. It's not that weird.

— Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

In general, the MCU goes out of its way to subvert, lampshade, and defy the concept of a Secret Identity. None of the Avengers have one — not even Iron Man, who had one for decades in the comics. Tony himself mocks how pointless it is and defies the trope by outing himself in the last scene of his first film before the end credits. That isn't to say that the heroes never use their comic codenames, though they are usually given to the characters by another source, either as propaganda, used as a military call sign, or are dubbed as such by the media. Generally, heroes and villains will usually refer to each other by their real names while members of the general public are more likely to make use of the Codenames:

Films and Disney+ Shows

• Iron Man Films:
  • Iron Man himself doesn't get called that name until the end of his first film and it's only used once or twice in the following films where he appears ("I am Iron Man" gets echos in Iron Man 3 and Avengers: Endgame, and Nick Fury refers to him as Iron Man once), but the name is also used in specific reference to the suit (i.e., "the Iron Man weapon" or "Tony Stark's Iron Man armor"). It does get namedropped in Luke Cage (2016) in a rap by Method Man ("And there ain't no Iron Man that can come and save us all?").
  • Rhodey doesn't go by any codename in Iron Man 2, although War Machine does get an offhanded reference where Tony asks him if he "wants to be the war machine" after he takes the prototype Iron Man suit. Iron Man 3 establishes that Rhodey took War Machine as his official moniker from that remark, although the government tried to rechristen him "Iron Patriot", which tested better with focus groups. Rhodey prefers War Machine though, and is back to using it as his nom de guerre from Avengers: Age of Ultron and onwards.
  • As for the villains, Obadiah Stane is never called "Iron Monger", although he briefly says the word in reference to Stark Industries' role as a weapon manufacturer. Meanwhile, there's Ivan Vanko: a Composite Character of two villains named "Crimson Dynamo" and "Whiplash". He gets called neither in the second film, though the marketing referred to him as Whiplash. In Iron Man 3, Eric Savin and Jack Taggert go by their real names, and are never once referred to as "Coldblood" or "Firepower" (and the Extremis soldiers all have heat powers, so "Coldblood" wouldn't even make sense anyway).
  • The Mandarin is an aversion, being referred to as such, though the character Ben Kingsley played is ultimately revealed as a Decoy Leader. The real villain, Aldrich Killian, only refers to himself as the Mandarin once to proclaim his The Man Behind the Man status. This gets even stranger in the short All Hail the King, where it's revealed that Killian wasn't the actual Mandarin either, and had stolen the identity. The real one is naturally miffed at other people stealing his shtick. And according to said real one in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the "Mandarin" name was an invention of Killian's and not something that he had ever been called himself.
  • In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony uses a special massive set of armor designed to subdue the Hulk. It's popularly known and marketed as the "Hulkbuster", but the name only shows up in the movie on Tony's HUD - in dialogue, the actual codename for the armor seems to be "Veronica". It gets its "real" codename back in Spider-Man: Homecoming, being referred to as such by Happy during an inventory run-down.
• The Incredible Hulk (2008):
  • Zig-zagged for the Hulk himself, at least in his first few appearances. The initial movie only uses the name a few times, one of which being an informal use of a "big hulk" by college students in a news interview; implying that that's where it came from. In The Avengers (2012), Bruce Banner notably takes pains not to call his alter-ego "the Hulk", preferring to call him "the other guy" instead. The one time he does say Hulk, he immediately corrects himself. But no-one else has the same qualms, and the name gets solidified once he becomes a celebrity for helping to save New York. In Thor: Ragnarok, the Grandmaster and the citizens of Sakaar exclusively refer to the creature as the Hulk, as they are completely unaware of his Bruce Banner alter ego. Even the Hulk himself uses the name:
    "Hulk always Hulk."
  • Emil Blonsky, the Abomination, goes by his given name. His codename is alluded to once by Dr. Sterns, who warns him combining the Super-Soldier Serum with the Hulk's blood might turn him into "an abomination". In The Consultant, the name Abomination is brought up but Agent Coulson says "[The World Security Council] really don't like when you call him that." In his cameo appearance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Wong simply just calls him "Emil". However, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law openly refers to him as the Abomination with prison guards and the news exclusively calling him that. Emil himself uses the name, although only in reference to his transformed state.
  • The form merging the Bruce Banner and Hulk sides is not referred to by its comics nickname of "Professor Hulk" in Avengers: Endgame. In She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, he reveals that the public has dubbed him "Smart Hulk" instead.
• The Thor films:
  • Thor inverts this in his first movie, as the character once had a civilian identity in the comics, but the movies don't bother. So "Thor" is used all throughout the movie, while the name "Dr. Donald Blake" is the one that only gets a few token mentions.
  • A very notable inversion is Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok, who is only referred to as a valkyrie or as "Scrapper 142", her designation on Sakaar. Later movies only ever call her Valkyrie as if it were a proper name. Brunnhilde, her real name, only appears on some merchandise and in other ancillary material. The same goes for the Grandmaster, who is known only by that title, while his real name ("En Dwi Gast") is never mentioned.
  • In Thor: Love and Thunder, promotional material and merchandising designates Jane as "Mighty Thor"; while in the movie itself she is acknowledged as a Thor a few times but is generally only called by her real name. However, after Gorr addresses her as "Lady Thor", she corrects him, telling him to call her either Mighty Thor or Doctor Jane Foster. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law also has some misogynistic jerks dismissively referring to her as "Lady Thor".
• Captain America:
  • The eponymous hero plays with the trope constantly. He only takes the name "Captain America" as a propaganda mascot in his first film, not as a superhero. Once he makes the transition to war hero, all of the characters call him Steve or "Captain Rogers" with a few exceptions (once by Bucky, once by Cap himself, and the other time by the Red Skull), and most of those examples are used as humor, irony, or mockery. Further, unlike in the original Golden Age comics, Cap does officially have the rank of "Captain", and since we've got various characters referring to him by "Captain", it's hard to know if they're using his stage name or military rank. However, by the time of The Avengers (2012), Captain America has become legendary and the name is in widespread use, but after Avengers: Endgame he seems to be more commonly referred to as "Captain Rogers" likely due to the title having been passed on.^note As seen during a discussion in Eternals, and with Rogers! The Musical in Hawkeye.
  • Captain America: The First Avenger:
    • Johann Schmidt gets called "The Red Skull" (by Hitler, no less) one time as an insult, much to his annoyance. For the rest of the movie, only his real name is used. However, when he's mentioned in future movies and shows, it's only done by his codename.
    • Technically, this trope is true of Montgomery Falsworth, known in the comics as "Union Jack". However, Falsworth is not a costumed hero in this movie, so there would be no reason to say the name at all.
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier:
    • The "Winter Soldier" codename is invoked frequently as an urban legend in black-ops circles, but the heroes stop calling him this once they find out that he is Bucky Barnes, and in Captain America: Civil War it's established that there are more HYDRA super-assassins, and Bucky refers to them as "Winter Soldiers" as well. The Winter Soldier does have a proper codename as "The Asset", which is significant as it shows how HYDRA views him as only a tool. As of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he's actively distancing himself from the identity and the codename.
    • The film also introduces the Falcon, whose name is taken from the code name of the elite military program where he gained his wings; despite or because of this, Maria Hill actually does address him as "Falcon" while acting as Mission Control. By Ant-Man, the name is publicly known and Scott addresses him as such. Though The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has some gags about how some people think he's "Black Falcon" instead. When he officially takes up the mantle of Captain America, he openly uses the name, though primarily to make a point after the disaster that was John Walker.
    • Georges Batroc is revised to be a normal mercenary instead of a supervillainous one and is never called "Batroc the Leaper".
    • Sharon Carter is referred to as "Agent 13" throughout most of the movie, with Natasha only revealing her first name during the movie's last scene; in Civil War she only goes by her given name (and may in fact have lost her "Agent" designation after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell; as a CIA operative, she'd be Officer Carter). By The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, she's definitively lost any titles she once had, until being restored as "Agent Carter" at the very end. But it also reveals to the audience that she's gained another title: the Power Broker.
  • Captain America: Civil War:
    • Brock Rumlow is never referred to as Crossbones, though a tie-in comic establishes that the codename does exist in-universe (it also wasn't used when the character was in Winter Soldier, but at that point he hadn't taken the identity of Crossbones yet).
    • Zemo never had a codename to begin with, but nonetheless loses his title of Baron Zemo in Civil War since he's presented as a Sokovian soldier rather than a Nazi Nobleman as he is in the comics. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier reverses this and reveals that he actually had been a Baron the whole time.
  • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier:
    • As in the comics, John Walker inherits the title of "Captain America" for propaganda reasons. He's better known as U.S.Agent but the show is about his journey to that identity, and it's given to him in the final episode. His sidekick, Lemar Hoskins, was originally given Barnes' nickname of "Bucky" in the comics before being changed to "Battlestar" due to the (acknowledged in-universe) Unfortunate Implications of calling a black man a "buck"; the show skips to the "Battlestar" codename right off the bat. Ironically, when Barnes hears the name "Battlestar", he storms off in sheer disbelief.
    • "Flag-Smasher" is changed from a personal codename to a group name.
    • Isaiah Bradley is a super-soldier test subject and formally acknowledged in the comics as a Captain America, even though he stole the costume for a single illegitimate mission that was covered up afterwards. The show largely keeps his backstory but eliminates Bradley's use of the name and equipment; and in the present day he considers "Captain America" a white man's title that "no self-respecting black man would want to be."
    • Joaquin Torres isn't the (second) Falcon here, both because he isn't superpowered in this version and because Sam is still using the name for most of the series.
• From multiple movies, Natasha Romanoff's handle of "Black Widow" never comes up in Iron Man 2, but later movies use it infrequently. The name is known by the populace, but she's generally better known by her real name (at least among people who know her).
• In The Avengers (2012), Clint Barton is called "Hawkeye" all of once by the Black Widow during the Battle of New York. It appears to be his radio callsign, with the name appearing briefly when Coulson is viewing his dossier in the film's beginning. The closest anyone comes otherwise is Dr. Erik Selvig semi-dismissively calling him "the Hawk". During his prior cameo in Thor it wasn't even alluded to, and in Avengers: Age of Ultron it's used once in an affectionately mocking way by his wife. It's absent again in Civil War, and when meeting Black Panther, he explicitly introduces himself as "Clint", not "Hawkeye". By the time of his solo series, he is regularly recognized on the street, and addressed by the codename.
  • In Avengers: Endgame, he is never called "Ronin" at any point in the movie, in spite of having adopted the Ronin costume and weapons from the comics following his family's death. It's possible that this is also an example of sticking to the One-Steve Limit, as Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel already had Ronan the Accuser. The Ronin name was used for merchandise (such as the Marvel Legends action figure of the character) and some promotional material, however. By the start of Hawkeye (2021), his actions have been associated with the Ronin name, but almost no one is aware that Clint and Ronin were the same person.
• This trope can be applied to the MacGuffin of Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. In the movies, it's called the Tesseract, or "the cube". They never use its comic book name, the "Cosmic Cube". However, it and other related MacGuffins are collectively known as Infinity Stones, a name that is taken from the comics' Infinity Gems.
• Guardians of the Galaxy: In general, the Guardians movies have the same aversion as the Thor movies in that everyone's names are their real ones, but there are a few examples:
  • Parodied with "Star-Lord"; Peter Quill introduces himself as that, but people just respond with confusion. When the Nova Corps later look at his rap sheet, they comment that apparently the only person who calls Quill "Star-Lord" is himself (and his booking sheet when he's arrested calls him Space-Lord). Comically, he is ecstatic when, in the last act of the film, Korath the Pursuer actually does call him Star-Lord without a trace of irony.^note While Korath pretty much snarls the name at him due to how pissed-off he is to see him, he's not mocking it and actually seems to only know him by this name.Turns out, it's his mother's nickname for him, which is why he's so insistent on being known by it; he wants to honor her memory.
    Korath: Star-Lord.
    Peter Quill: Finally!
  • Vol. 2 has a similar parody with the leader of the Ravager mutiny, who calls himself "Taserface". Nobody can take that name seriously. And yes, this is his name in the comics, along with "Nameless One" and "Overkill".
    Rocket: I'm sorry. I am so sorry! I just keep imagining you waking up in the morning, sir, looking in the mirror, and in all seriousness saying to yourself, [super-gruff voice] "Y'know what would be a REALLY kickass name? TASERFACE!" [normal voice] That's how I hear you in my head! What was your second choice? "SCROTUMHAT"?!
  • Inverted with Drax the Destroyer. In the comics, he's a transformed human named Arthur Douglas. In the movie, he's an alien and Drax is his real name (with the "Destroyer" nickname earned for his Roaring Rampage of Revenge). That being said, he's only called the "Destroyer" one time in his introductory scene. For all his future appearances in the MCU, he's just Drax.
  • Rocket's full name in the comics is "Rocket Raccoon", but everyone calls him Rocket. It's justified by two reasons: 1) Rocket hates being called an animal, which the name clearly insinuates; and 2) he doesn't even know what a raccoon is. He does call himself Rocket Raccoon at the end of Vol. 3 once he finds out what a raccoon is and comes to accept who he is.
  • One character is formally introduced, both here and in The Stinger of Thor: The Dark World, as "Taneleer Tivan, the Collector", covering both real name and "codename" in one fell swoop.
  • Like the Cosmic Cube example from Captain America and The Avengers, nobody refers to Ronan's war hammer as the Universal Weapon (partly because it never comes up, as the bigger threat is Ronan himself). However, Carol does call Dar-Benn's hammer that in The Marvels (2023).
  • In the second film, Ego the Living Planet is simply referred to by his name and never with the title. Similarly, Yondu calls his old Ravager captain by "Stakar Ogord" and not "Starhawk".
  • Inverted by The High Evolutionary, who is only referred to by his title. Given his Adaptational Species Change to a Human Alien, "Herbert Edgar Wyndham" probably isn't his real name anyway.
• Avengers: Age of Ultron: Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are never referred to as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver; the closest is when Tony refers to Wanda as "that little witch". This gets lampshaded in WandaVision, when S.W.O.R.D director Tyler Hayward asks about Wanda's alias and is surprised when Jimmy Woo says she doesn't have one. She finally takes on the codename at the end of the show, as Agatha Harkness identifies her as a mythical witch capable of using Chaos Magic to cataclysmic extents.
• Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania:
  • The trailers for the first movie had characters similarly riffing on how "Ant-Man" is hard to take seriously, but these bits don't appear in the movie.
    Hank Pym: Scott, I've been watching you for a while now. You're different. Now don't let anyone tell you that you have nothing to offer. Second chances don't come around all that often. I suggest you take a really close look at it. This is your chance to earn that look in daughter's eyes. To become the hero that she already thinks you are. It's not about saving our world; it's about saving theirs. Scott, I need you... To be the Ant-Man.
    Scott Lang: Huh. One question... Is it too late to change the name?
    
    Darren Cross: Did you think you could stop the future? You're just a thief!
    Scott: No... I'm Ant-Man. [awkward silence] I know. Wasn't my idea.
  • The "Ant-Man" moniker is used by S.H.I.E.L.D. in its anti-Soviet propaganda films to refer to Hank Pym. The latter then passes the title (along with the corresponding powered suit) to Scott Lang. Hank also explicitly refers to his wife Janet van Dyne as "The Wasp", and Hope inherits the identity in the sequel, but in dialogue, she's only ever called by her name.
  • "Yellowjacket" is the name for the new powered suit Darren Cross develops rather than a specific person's nickname, although he is the only person to use this technology in the movie. When he appeared in Quantumania, he declares that Darren is dead and that everybody must call him M.O.D.O.K.. Not a single person takes him seriously, freely calling him Darren in a mix of shock and utter bafflement.
  • In Civil War, Scott uses his powers to grow to Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever size for the first time, but none of the related codenames like "Giant-Man" or "Goliath" are mentioned. They instead appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Bill Foster (one of the comics Goliaths) says that he was a test subject for those powers under the codename "Project Goliath", and a news report uses "Giant-Man" when reporting on Lang's public reappearance.
  • In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Luis refers to Ava Starr, the woman with Intangibility, as "this crazy, creepy ghost", and the "Ghost" nickname sticks. However, she's still mostly called Ava throughout the movie.
  • Ghost's backstory involves a scientist named Elihas Starr. In the comics, he's known as "Egghead", but the name isn't used in the MCU.
  • Cassie Lang gets her own size-changing suit in Quantumania, but at no point does she go by her comic codename of Stature, or any codename at all for that matter. The name Stature isn't even used in official marketing for the movie.
• Doctor Strange (2016) is another case where nobody has codenames to begin with. Yes, even our hero himself, who is legally Stephen Strange, MD. Infinity War later riffs on this:
  Peter: I'm Peter, by the way.
  Dr. Strange: Doctor Strange.
  Peter: Oh, we're using our made-up names? I'm Spider-Man, then.
  • As with Zemo in Civil War, Baron Mordo is not actually a Baron here (that we know of) and is just called Mordo. Though Multiverse of Madness introduces an Alternate Universe version who gives his full name as "Baron Karl Amadeus Mordo"; and it's actually the "Karl" part that surprises Strange.
  • Multiverse of Madness introduces America Chavez. "America" sounds like a codename, given that she dresses in stars-and-stripes (and especially since this is a franchise where Captain America exists), but no, "America" is her real name. She does have the codename Miss America in the comics, but it's never used in the film and isn't used much in the comics anymore either.
• Spider-Man:
  • Taking a similar approach to that of The Dark Knight Trilogy, the film shows that the news and general public actually refer to Spider-Man as "the spider-man", which fits into the idea that he's a new, mysterious hero who works on the streets rather than a well-known figure tackling world scale threats like the Avengers. In fact, in Spidey/Peter's debut appearance in Captain America: Civil War, he and Tony openly discuss his codename:
    Tony: So you're the Spider-ling? The Crime-Fighting Spider? Spider-Boy?
    Peter: ...Spider-Man.
    Tony: Not in that onesie.
  • The closest we get to Adrian Toomes being called "The Vulture" in Spider-Man: Homecoming is Peter and Tony calling him "flying vulture guy". Later averted in Spider-Man: No Way Home when Ned refers to Toomes as "the Vulture" while being interrogated by Damage Control.
  • Phineas Mason is never referred to as "The Tinkerer" in Homecoming, but he reportedly calls himself that, which his criminal buddies find ridiculous.
  • Jackson Brice actually does call himself the Shocker, but Adrian Toomes is quick to point out that it sounds ridiculous. After killing Brice by accident, Toomes hands Herman Schultz the weapon and says "Here, now you're the Shocker" in a very condescending way. Schultz himself never uses the codename, though.
    Adrian Toomes: ...And you're out there, wearing that goofy thing lighting up cars, calling yourself "THE SHOCKER! I'M THE SHOCKER! I SHOCK PEOPLE!" What is this, pro wrestling?
  • While Aaron Davis is only referred to by his real name, Karen's profile of him does mention "The Prowler" as a street alias.
  • In Spider-Man: Far From Home, the Italian news show dubs the strange new superhuman "l'uomo di mistero", which literally translates to "man of mystery". Ned Leeds and Betty Brant mishear it as "Mysterio" and start calling him by that name. Later, when Spider-Man meets Quentin Beck in person, he tells the man about his friends' nickname for him. Beck takes a shine to it and adopts Mysterio as his nom de guerre.
  • Played With in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Flint Marko/the Sandman briefly refers to the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus by their supervillain names (though he refers to Octavius as Doc Ock) when explaining their deaths in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, respectively, and Flint is called Sandman by both Max Dillon/Electro and the Spider-Men in the final battle. For the most part, all of the villains are called by their real names (even Curt Connors, who is stuck in Lizard form). Osborn is the exception — given his status as a supervillain being dependent on his Superpowered Evil Side, he is called both Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin, but which name is used depends on which of those two personalities is in control.
  • No Way Home also has a joke similar to the previously-mentioned one regarding Dr. Strange in Infinity War, where Peter again mistakes someone's Steven Ulysses Perhero real name (in this case, "Otto Octavius") for a codename. The only time his alias "Doctor Octopus" is alluded to is when Aunt May makes a joke about him wanting salt water, because he is an Octopus, which just leaves him baffled.
• Black Panther (2018):
  • When Black Panther a.k.a. T'Challa is introduced in Civil War, he mentions the name to explain why his costume is cat-themed, but it's otherwise unused. Even so, its existence is justified since it's not merely a codename, but a tribal and royal title passed down from generation to generation.
  • As established in Age of Ultron, Klaw appears under his original surname of Ulysses Klaue (pronounced the same), instead of his supervillain name. Then again, Klaue never truly "becomes" the Klaw of the comics — while he does have an Arm Cannon to replace the arm that Ultron cut off, the comics version eventually became a man of living sound.
  • M'Baku does not go by "Man-Ape" due to the Unfortunate Implications of a black character named and patterned after a gorilla (but mostly due to the fact that "ape" has been used as a racial epithet to denigrate black people). His tribe does retain the Animal Motif, though (just as all the other tribes have their own animal themes), and he is respectfully called "Great Gorilla" at one point as an honorific.invoked
  • Erik Killmonger is renamed Erik Stevens, with "Killmonger" being a military nickname. In both cases, he was born N'Jadaka and legally adopted a Western name after being exiled from Wakanda, but the film is less blatant about making him Obviously Evil. Ultimately averted, as the heroes freely call him "Killmonger" after learning of the name.
  • While the character doesn't appear, the codename "White Wolf" is used as a Mythology Gag; it's an Affectionate Nickname by Wakandan children for Bucky Barnes in The Stinger, as he's one of the few pale-skinned men in Wakanda. Future works show that Wakandan adults have also picked up using the name, but it's used primarily as a nickname between friends and not as a superhero codename.
  • In Wakanda Forever, Riri Williams never coins the codename Ironheart, however it's alluded to when she cuts a heart-shaped piece of metal out while building her suit.
  • Inverted in a sense by Namor in Wakanda Forever, which is his birth name in the comics but turns out to be a codename he adopted in the movie (he's named K'uk'ulkan, after a Mayan deity). Played straight with his comic codename Sub-Mariner, which is never mentioned. This is actually a Downplayed Trope in regards to him however, as the comics themselves more often than not tend to just call him Namor, so there isn't as much of a difference here as there is with other characters.
• Apart from Thanos briefly referring to Ebony Maw posthumously as "the Maw", none of the Black Order's extravagant titles are given in Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame. While most of the names (Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, and Proxima Midnight) do appear in merchandising and supplemental material, two of the sillier ones are avoided entirely: Black Dwarf is renamed Cull Obsidian (which in the comics was an alternate name for the entire group) and Supergiant is just plain Adapted Out. Thanos is also never referred to as "The Mad Titan" (which was used in Guardians of the Galaxy), though he briefly references that his people called him mad for his plan for the universe.
• Captain Marvel (2019):
  • Carol is never called "Captain Marvel" in her debut movie. Fury does mispronounce Mar-Vell's name as "Marvel", though, and says that it sounds better.^{Fun fact} The comics version of Mar-Vell was the first Captain Marvel, and got his superhero name from that same mispronunciation. But it is shown to become widely known after Avengers: Endgame, being used in Spider-Man: Far From Home, WandaVision, Ms. Marvel (2022), etc.
  • While Monica Rambeau is just a kid in the film, her mother Maria has "Photon", one of Monica's comic codenames, as her Air Force callsign. Monica also has the Affectionate Nickname "Lieutenant Trouble", which is used in the comics the same way for another young fan of Carol's. Monica doesn't go by any codename by the time of The Marvels (2023). Among the many rejected codenames that Kamala suggests for her however is Spectrum, which is another one of her codenames in the comics.
  • Played with when it comes to Carol's Air Force callsign. In the comics, she was nicknamed "Cheeseburger" after she threw up on a training simulator, and she lampshades how pilots don't actually get the cool codenames you see in media. The movie goes ahead and gives her one of those cool codenames; it's "Avenger", and Fury names the Avenger Initiative after her.
• Avengers: Endgame: Pepper Potts is never called "Rescue," though the reasoning for that specific codename doesn't exist in the MCU (the comics version is explicitly a pacifist who does actual rescue work and avoids combat when possible, while her MCU gear is fully weaponized); and she appears in a Big Badass Battle Sequence where there's not a lot of dialogue to spare to make the reference anyways. However, merchandise based on the character does use the name Rescue.
• Black Widow (2021):
  • The already-established aversion for Natasha is extended to all the other women who were trained in the Red Room, including Natasha's surrogate sister Yelena Belova; with all being acknowledged as Black Widows. (Indeed, when Yelena returns in Hawkeye (2021), Clint recognizes her as "a Black Widow assassin")
  • Melina Vostokoff doesn't go by her comics codename of "Iron Maiden", but that's more due to streamlining via Meta Origin than anything else as she's now yet another Black Widow agent rather than another Russian assassin unrelated to the Widows.
  • General Dreykov references the Taskmaster protocol early in the film, but aside from that, his mysterious enforcer is not called by any name until late in the movie. Justified, as Taskmaster isn't giving anyone much to go on in that regard. Near the end, Natasha calls Taskmaster by her real name, Antonia.
• Loki (2021): Played with by the first-season Big Bad, "He Who Remains", who avoids the trope in some ways and plays it straight in others. He's a Composite Character of the comics character with that title and Immortus, but none of the many names associated with the latter are used. He doesn't even give his birth name, while still lampshading the weirdness of the title he does have ("Creepy, right? But... I like it."). The most famous of the latter's aliases, "Kang the Conqueror", is alluded to when he refers to an Alternate Self as "a conqueror".
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Although the codename had already been established in the MCU, "the Mandarin" is avoided and the character is given a new proper name of "Wenwu" in order to get away from the Yellow Peril stereotype. A scene has Wenwu explain that he had never been called "the Mandarin" personally, and he mocks the moniker that was chosen by the Iron Man 3 villains saying "The U.S. government was almost toppled by a pretender named after a chicken dish... America was afraid of an orange."
• Eternals:
  • Dane Whitman is never called the Black Knight, but this is justified, as he spends the entire film as a civilian, and stays in London after Sersi, Sprite, and Ikaris leave. The post-credits scene has Dane psyching himself up to take up the Ebony Blade, but he is interrupted by (ironically) Blade.
  • Gilgamesh plays with this trope — in the comics, the name is one of the many aliases used by the Forgotten One over the millennia. Here, Gilgamesh is his real name, and the "Forgotten One" epithet is omitted.
• Hawkeye (2021):
  • In the comics, Clint shares the "Hawkeye" codename with Kate Bishop, but here, it's Clint's codename alone. The series ends with Kate brainstorming codenames for herself, and Clint is about to offer a suggestion (implied to be his own name of "Hawkeye") when the scene ends.
  • Jack Duquesne is clearly a talented swordsman, but isn't known as the Swordsman — he's Not Wearing Tights and has no need for a flashy alias.
  • Played with by the organized crime gang that the heroes go up against, whom Clint openly refers to as the Tracksuit Mafia (after their dress code). It's not clear if they call themselves that, or if Clint's just mocking them. Yes, the name is ridiculous — it's supposed to be, bro.
  • Maya Lopez has not been called Echo onscreen, but the third episode, which opens with a flashback to Maya's childhood, is titled "Echoes". The name is heavily alluded to in her spinoff series when a vision of her mother signs the word Echo to her, although she never outright takes it as a moniker.
  • Kazi is a member of the Tracksuit Mafia but lacks any supervillain gimmicks and is never called "The Clown".
  • Wendy Conrad appears as merely a civilian extra, but nonetheless has her comics codename of "Bombshell" embroidered on her bag.
• Moon Knight (2022):
  • Neither Moon Knight nor Mr. Knight are called by those names, instead being referred to as either Marc or Steven (depending on which one's fronting and/or which one the person speaking to them is more familiar with). However, a flashback in "Asylum" shows Khonshu referring to Marc as "[his] moon knight" after the latter agrees to act in his service.
  • The villain, Arthur Harrow, is a Composite Character of the comics Harrow and the Sun King, but has not used the latter alias. Justified, as he is connected to Ammit instead of Ra, so the moniker would make no sense.
  • Anton Mogart does not use his comic alias of "Midnight Man", though, as a nod to the name, he is struck down at the stroke of midnight.
  • Randall Spector never uses the name "Shadow Knight", as he died long before he could have become a supervillain.
  • Abdallah El-Faouly and his daughter Layla are given a few nods to the comic book character the Scarlet Scarab (mostly visual references, and Abdallah had called Layla "little scarab" as an Affectionate Nickname), but the codename is never used. Even when Layla gains powers and officially becomes the MCU version of the character.
• Ms. Marvel (2022):
  • Kamala isn't known as "Ms. Marvel", at least at first. When pressed to give a name for the new superhuman that appeared, Zoe comes up with the name "Night Light", and as she's a social media influencer it catches on. Kamala and her friends think the name is lame. Her actual name is dropped in the final episode; when Kamala can't think of a superhero name, her father tells her that "kamal" means something close to "marvel" in Urdu, and that she'll always be their Ms. Marvel. Being a Captain Marvel fangirl, Kamala Squees at the idea that her name is like Carol Danvers's. By the time of The Marvels, she's taken Ms. Marvel as her official moniker.
  • Some of the major villains explain that they've been called "Clandestines" (among other things), indicating that they're adapted from the comic book ClanDestine. That said, "clandestine" isn't actually used in the book itself; the name is a Pun-Based Title about the Destine family (or clan, as it were).
  • "Red Dagger" goes from a personal codename to the name of an organization.
• She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: Universally averted. Going with the show's more tongue-in-cheek tone, codenames are frequently used. It's even inverted with Titania; she is called by her codename exclusively and "Mary MacPherran" is the name that's never dropped outside of a Freeze-Frame Bonus. It fits with her being reimagined as a superpowered social media influencer, with Titania being both a persona and a personal brand.
• Werewolf by Night (2022): The title character only goes by Jack (and tellingly not Jack Russell, which might have been a bit Narmy). Man-Thing is also never called such, only responding to Ted to match his Adaptational Intelligence.
• What If…? (2021): In "What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?", Happy is never referred to as "the Freak" after being injected by Hulk's blood. Instead, the codenane is alluded to with Justin Hammer calling him "a freak".

TV — S.H.I.E.L.D. and Inhumans Shows (ABC)

• From Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Most characters don't go by codenames, though a reference is often snuck in somewhere:
  • The name of the Gravity Master supervillain Graviton is instead given to a liquid metal with the same powers (as "Gravitonium"). A couple characters involved with the metal take on other aspects from the comics Graviton, but none get his codename. Eventually, the role settles on Glenn Talbot. While he never officially takes the codename before his death, we get a visual codename drop when the container of Gravitonium from which he gained his powers gets splattered with the blood of the first mook he tests out his new powers on, covering up the last three letters of the "CAUTION: GRAVITONIUM" label and turning it into "CAUTION: GRAVITON".
  • Donnie Gill didn't go by his supervillain name Blizzard in his introductory episode... but then again, he wasn't a supervillain yet. When he reappears, it's mentioned that the experiments with his powers had been codenamed "Project Blizzard".
  • Lampshaded aversion: In season 1, Raina manipulates a pyrokinetic's ego by suggesting he adopt the name "Scorch", commenting on how nobody knows "Steve Rogers" but "Captain America" is a household name. Everyone who hears it is incredulous at the idea, including the pyro at first, but he warms up to it (pun not intended) and by the time S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up he's embraced it; which is then taken as a sign he's getting out of control.
    Coulson: Ah, crap, they gave him a name.
  • Another episode in the first season concerns a device whose name is Russian and translates to "Overkill" in English; there's some snark that something must have been lost in translation but it's generally referred to as the Overkill Device in this and future episodes — in the comics it was called the Overkill Horn (since it uses sound waves).
  • Coulson's team discovers a super-soldier project codenamed "Deathlok", and they soon start referring to the project's subject himself as Deathlok completely unironically. Later in the first season, it's discovered that there is more than one subject, at which point Deathlok becomes somewhat of a generic label.
  • Season One Villain Of The Week Marcus Daniels is never called "Blackout" in dialogue, though eagle-eyed viewers can make out the name on his profile. The source of his powers is called the Darkforce, however, with requisite lampshading:
    Coulson: Because nothing bad ever happens when you're working with something called "Darkforce".
    • Darkforce and its other name from Agent Carter, "Zero Matter", get referenced in a later season, prompting another round of snark:
      Mack: Who names these? Are there focus groups for evil things?
  • Averted again with the first season's Big Bad, who is known as "the Clairvoyant"; although almost every character rejects the possibility of actual psychic powers, they keep calling him that because they don't have another name for him. They eventually are able to communicate with him directly, where the Clairvoyant says his subordinates coined the name and he himself finds it a bit overdramatic. Once he drops his cover he encourages everyone to use his real name. (And for the record, no, he does not have psychic powers; his "omniscience" is based on high-level S.H.I.E.L.D. security clearance.)
  • Other villains that don't have their codenames used include Carl Creel (the Absorbing Man, though it is referenced in dialogue), Daniel Whitehall (Kraken), Marcus Scarlotti (Whiplash, likely because it was already taken by Vanko in Iron Man 2), and David Angar (Angar the Screamer). The same goes for one of the heroes, Bobbi Morse (Mockingbird).
  • Inverted in season 2 with one of Whitehall's Dragons, Agent 33, who had suffered a Loss of Identity thanks to Brainwashing and whose name (Kara Palamas) was not known, even to her, until she started getting it back.
  • The real names of Skye and her father (originally credited as "the Doctor") were deliberately withheld from the audience in order to hide their identities and the fact that they are even ''from'' the comics in the first place. Eventually their names were revealed to be Daisy and Cal Johnson respectively, known in the comics as "Quake" and "Mister Hyde" (real name Calvin Zabo). Cal's codename wound up never being used during his time on the show, but he implied that it existed (he mentioned that he changed his surname, though he didn't specify whether it was to "Zabo" or "Hyde"). Skye eventually switched to using "Daisy Johnson" full-time, while the name "Quake" didn't appear until another season and a half after the reveal, when Daisy became a vigilante and the media caught wind of her.
    • The silliness of codenames is lampshaded much later, as in one of the final episodes a newcomer hears the "Quake" name for the first time and points out that it's really pretty ridiculous; Mack ends up agreeing with him and both break into an extended fit of giggles.
  • Mack tends to be The Nicknamer. As a general rule, the names he comes up with are never the codenames from the comics and never get used in a superhero codename manner; they're just his names for people 'cause that's his thing.
    • One of Mack's nicknames is "Sparkplug" for Canon Foreigner Lincoln Campbell. While it was occasionally mentioned as his codename in promotional material, S.H.I.E.L.D. never uses it in any official capacity and most of the promotional material ignores it.
  • Averted in season 3 with Lash for similar reasons as the Clairvoyant, to preserve the mystery of his real name. After The Reveal, it's still used to differentiate his human identity from his Superpowered Evil Side.
  • The season 3 Big Bad is known in the comics as Hive (as in Mind Hive). In the show, it took most of the season to reveal that in ancient times it was known as "Alveus" (Latin for "Hive"), but once that's known the English translation caught on quickly. Up until then, the closest thing it had to a name was "It".
  • Defied with James in season 3. As soon as he gets heat and explosion powers, he starts brainstorming fire-related codenames to use before he settles on his comics name of "Hellfire".
  • Played with for Elena Rodriguez. In the comics, she's Yolanda Rodriguez, with the nickname of "Yo-Yo" but the official codename of "Slingshot". In the show, she still gets the nickname "Yo-Yo" despite the fact that it no longer links to her given name (it's a reference to how her power forces her to snap back), but "Slingshot" is never used... until a series of web videos starring her came out, bearing the title Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot. Even then, "Slingshot" still isn't used in-universe.
  • The results of an imperfect attempt to create Inhumans in season 3 are dubbed "Primitives". In the comics, these are the Alpha Primitives, the Inhumans' slave race. The "alpha" part gets a nod when their creator says they're just an alpha version and begs his boss to let him make improvements for a beta test.
  • Averted in season 4 with Ghost Rider, who is introduced as having already started to become an urban legend under that name in LA. When S.H.I.E.L.D. learns his identity, "Ghost Rider" gets used to refer to the Spirit of Vengeance possessing Robbie Reyes.
  • Jeffrey Mace (season 4) doesn't use the codename "Patriot", but is referred to as a patriot a few times in dialogue. And the serum that gives him his powers is also called "Project Patriot". He's also compared to Captain America in-universe, referencing how he held that title in the comics for a while as Rogers' successor. Averted in the Framework simulation, where he is referred to as the Patriot pretty regularly, even by his enemies who hate the name.
  • Averted during the "Agents of HYDRA" arc, as AIDA freely adopts the title of "Madame Hydra" while acting as the head of that organization in the Framework simulation.
  • Inverted with Flint during season 5 — in the comics, his birth name is Jaycen, and he eventually takes the codename Flint. In the show, on the other hand, Flint seems to be his real name, which turns it into a case of Steven Ulysses Perhero, as both comic and show versions of the character have Dishing Out Dirt powers.
• In Agent Carter:
  • Neither of season 1's main villains are called by their codenames. A Black Widow agent has no direct reference made to her codename (or any real name for that matter; her given name is explicitly an alias) and is only identifiable by sharing a backstory with Natasha Romanoff. The codename of Doctor Faustus gets a nod when he's shown reading his namesake play. Codenames are also referenced when Peggy teams up with her war buddies in the Howling Commandos and "Dum Dum" Dugan realizes she never had a nickname like the rest of the squad. He suggests "Miss Union Jack" (see in the Captain America section above), which she declines.
  • In season 2, Whitney Frost doesn't go by her codename Madame Masque; there are some visual references made to it but as Whitney never actually wears a mask, the name wouldn't make sense if it were used. Joseph Manfredi also doesn't go by "Blackwing", though it's another case where this version isn't a supervillain and so has no need for a codename. The conspiracy of powerbrokers has been renamed from the Secret Empire to the Council of Nine or just "the Council". Finally, the season's Applied Phlebotinum is called Zero Matter instead of Darkforce, though Wilkes calls it a "dark force" (and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had already established that it will be called Darkforce by modern times).
• Inhumans is yet another aversion where everyone lacks codenames to begin with and only use their real ones; or at least nicknames derived from the real ones. For instance, "Black Bolt" sounds like a codename but in the comics is short for "Blackagar Boltagon".

TV — The Defenders Shows (Netflix)

• Shared among multiple shows:
  • The Chitauri invasion from The Avengers is simply known as "The Incident". The early script drafts for Daredevil were originally going to refer to it more directly, but it was found that the words "Alien Invasion" killed the mood the series was going for. As time goes on, the shows are more willing to directly refer to the attack and use the word "alien", especially in Jessica Jones (2015) and Luke Cage (2016).
  • Another cross-show example is Claire Temple, a Composite Character with the comics character codenamed "Night Nurse". Across all the shows so far, the codename has only been mentioned once, by one of Diamondback's henchmen in Luke Cage. (However, the song "Night Nurse" plays during one of her "coffee" scenes with Luke.)
• Daredevil (2015):
  • Matt Murdock starts out as just "the man in the black mask". After the bombings of the Russian hideouts and shooting of Detective Blake, Wilson Fisk paints him as a terrorist and the media dub him "the Devil of Hell's Kitchen". It's only at the end of the season when he's proven himself a hero by stopping Fisk's escape attempt, that he becomes "Daredevil". Matt, Karen and Foggy make fun of it but admit it's better than the last name. However, the "Daredevil" name is not used that often afterward, as the dramatic "Devil of Hell's Kitchen" name is still more popular. Even in The Defenders proper, the only people who call him "Daredevil" are the hero characters, and the Hand members only call him the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Frank Castle even mocks the name at one point:
    Frank Castle: What the hell kind of name is "The Devil of Hell's Kitchen" anyway? I mean really?
    Matt Murdock: [Beat] I didn't ask for that name.
    Frank: I'm sorry. I don't see you running from it.
    Matt: I don't do this to hurt people.
    Frank: Yeah, so what is that, just a job perk?
  • Eventually averted for Wilson Fisk, as it takes him several seasons for him to grow into the role and title of the Kingpin. In the first season, there were simply some Mythology Gags made. In the second season, a fellow prisoner tries to intimidate Fisk by claiming he's the kingpin of the joint. Fisk, of course, arranges his death and claims the name for himself. It's only in the third season that he truly becomes the Kingpin of the comics, and he has the FBI agents under his control strictly use his codename.
    Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter: That's one of the rules, Ray. We only refer to him by his codename.
    Ray Nadeem: What codename?
    Poindexter: Kingpin.
  • In a January 2016 interview, Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page) commented that she more often than not has a habit of referring to Fisk and Frank Castle by their pedestrian names more often than their alias names, and posits that the non-usage of their codenames establishes these characters as complex people who gradually evolve into the persona of their codename.
  • The majority of Fisk's henchmen had codenames in the comics, like Leland Owlsley (The Owl), John Healy (Tenpin and/or Oddball), Roscoe Sweeney (The Fixer), Melvin Potter (Gladiator), and Ben Donovan (Big Ben). Obviously, codenames are not used since these are just normal people and not costumed supervillains. There are a few nods to the names, but not many: Healy is arrested for killing one of Fisk's rivals with a bowling ball, Melvin has some Roman gladiator posters on his workshop wall and uses some pieces of his comics armor on occasion, Roscoe Sweeney is a fixer of boxing matches, Owlsley is shown getting a business suit that looks like his comics suit, etc.
  • Season 2 has a rare inversion, assigning a codename to someone that didn't have it before. A mysterious drug lord called "the Blacksmith" was responsible for orchestrating the shootout that led to the death of Frank Castle's family, but he's hard to track down when no one knows his real identity. The character existed in the Punisher comics, and like the show was a drug dealer and Frank's former commanding officer Ray Schoonover, but didn't have a codename.
  • Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter is never once called Bullseye in season 3, with the closest they come to it being a couple of nods to the bullseye pattern — for example, the season ends with a closeup of his iris, which shows a bullseye pattern. For most of the season he doesn't have a supervillain identity yet, so he doesn't need a name; he poses as Daredevil when committing crimes for Fisk.
• Jessica Jones (2015):
  • Jessica Jones never really had one in the comics to begin with. In a flashback, Trish encourages Jessica to take up superheroics, showing off a costume and suggesting she use the nickname "Jewel" (the codename in her comic backstory). Jessica shoots the idea down on the grounds that "Jewel is a stripper's name, a really slutty stripper. And if I wear that thing, you're gonna have to call me Cameltoe." Kilgrave is quite disappointed that she's "just Jessica Jones" when asking for her superhero name.
  • Trish Walker (Hellcat) and Will Simpson (Nuke) don't get their codenames referenced either — at most, a season 3 episode focused on Trish is named "Hellcat". Given Simpson's first name was changed for the series,^note He's Frank Simpson in the comics. His first name was likely changed so as to avoid confusion with Frank Castle, who was being introduced in season 2 of Daredevil (2015) it isn't immediately apparent that he's Nuke, right down to the pills that give him super powers, until he utters his (in)famous catchphrase, "Give me a Red" while Dr. Kozlov is tending to him.
  • Not even established superheroes like the Avengers have their names stated when they're mentioned, with Jessica using sarcastic nicknames like "the flag-waver" or "the big green guy", though justified given it's Jessica saying it.
  • Played with for Kilgrave. In the comics he's "The Purple Man", real name Zebediah Killgrave. In the show, he's simply "Kilgrave", and characters still mock it as sounding like a blatant scary name, the kind of name a kid would come up with to sound threatening but is actually ridiculous. It turns out that "Kilgrave" is an alias. His real name is Kevin Thompson, and he really is that childish. While he's never referred to as the "Purple Man" on screen, as his trademark purple skin from the comics was Adapted Out, the name is still alluded to, as most of his wardrobe and related visual effects are purple. The soundtrack to the show, however, does reference the name in the track title "Final Justice for the Purple Man."
  • Gregory P. Salinger never goes by his comic book alter-ego, Foolkiller. He also doesn't go after fools, per se, but those whom he deems frauds and cheaters, including super-powered individuals.
• Luke Cage (2016):
  • Luke himself and Misty Knight barely have codenames in the first place. Luke does have an infrequently-used name of "Power Man" in the comics, which is shown here as one of Pop's Affectionate Nicknames for him. Of course, as in the comics, Luke Cage isn't his birth name either; he was born as Carl Lucas but had to go by an alias when a fugitive from the law. He's since adopted Luke Cage as his actual name even after being caught and serving his sentence. Lampshaded in The Defenders (2017) when Foggy is greeting Luke as he's being released from prison:
    Foggy Nelson: Mr. Lucas? Or Mr. Cage? Which do you prefer; I forget?
    Luke Cage: Cage. And you are?
  • In a clever aversion, the codenames used by criminals, such as Shades (real name Hernan Alvarez), Comanche (real name Darius Jones), Diamondback (real name Willis Stryker), etc. are repurposed as street gang nicknames.
  • Played with for Cottonmouth. In the comics, it was his surname. Here, he's Cornell Stokes. "Cottonmouth" was an Embarrassing Nickname he gained from a childhood injury where he had to stick cotton balls in his mouth afterward, and he really doesn't like it.
  • Mariah Dillard is almost never called "Black Mariah", as the name acts as a Berserk Button. She explains in season 2 that it was a racist childhood nickname that other kids gave her because of her dark skin color.
  • In the comics, John McIver had his name legally changed to John Bushmaster. When he appears in season 2, he stays a McIver and "Bushmaster" is now his gang nickname taken from his family's brand of rum.
  • Tilda Johnson doesn't call herself "(Deadly) Nightshade" like she does in the comics, but she's seen working with the nightshade flower that gives Bushmaster heightened abilities.
  • Big Ben Donovan finally gets his nickname dropped here in season 2, with Mariah insinuating that he's Compensating for Something.
• Iron Fist (2017):
  • Averted for Danny Rand. The "Immortal Iron Fist" is a proper title that was bestowed upon him by K'un-L'un, and he'll boast about it every chance he gets (to the confusion of anyone who has never heard of it before).
  • Played with for Colleen Wing: she didn't have her own codename in the comics, she does make a reference by calling herself "Daughter of the Dragon" when participating in underground cage matches, which is the team name for her and Misty Knight as a duo.
  • Oddly done with Davos. In the comics, he goes by the name of Steel Serpent; but in the show, the Steel Serpent name and insignia are used for Madame Gao's brand of heroin and have zero connection to Davos. A hint was dropped at the end of Season One that the two might be connected eventually through Davos and Gao working together, but nothing ever came of it. Instead, all that happened was that Davos got a serpent tattoo in Season Two, and he insisted that it be done with steel needles.
  • Mary Walker has a Split Personality, but in the comics her ruthless side is called "Typhoid Mary" while the show uses the less over-the-top name "Walker". She also has a third alternate, "Bloody Mary"; the show leaves this personality unnamed but references the comics by saying she left a "bloody mess".
• The Defenders (2017), in addition to nearly all of the examples and aversions from the other shows, never calls its leads the Defenders; the team remains unnamed throughout the series and there's not even a Title Drop reference.
• The Punisher (2017)
  • Frank Castle's alias as "The Punisher" started out in Daredevil as a codename the NYPD used while trying to figure out who the guy was, and the media popularize it from there. But outside of the media, Frank is only addressed by his name.
  • David Lieberman uses the alias "Micro" as an online handle, but otherwise is only referred to by his real name.
  • Inverted with William Rawlins. He goes by the codename "Agent Orange" in Afghanistan, which he never used in the comics. "Agent Orange" in fact belonged to an entirely different character.
  • Billy Russo does not use the name "Jigsaw" due to the fact that he doesn't get disfigured until the finale of season one. In season two, it still isn't used, aside from references to the fact like his Trauma-Induced Amnesia has made his mind like a jigsaw puzzle.

TV: Other Shows

• Runaways (2017):
  • Played straight, but Runaways is a special case where the codenames barely existed in the comic to begin with (and Alex never had one). The only remnant of the original codenames in either medium is Old Lace the velociraptor (a reference to Arsenic and Old Lace, with Gert being "Arsenic"), and only because, as the Team Pet, she never had a birth name. The show treats it as a nickname that stuck (after Gert compared them to famous duos, including the film) rather than anything superhero-related.
  • The teens also don't have a group name in either version; they're usually referred to as "runaways" since, well, that's what they are. Oddly, the show has Alex suggest that they officially name themselves "the Runaways" late in the first season, not because they've run away from home (because they haven't), but in memory of all the actual runaways their parents have sacrificed. It gets a mixed reception from the others. (And then they do run away from home.)
• Cloak & Dagger (2018):
  • Neither Ty nor Tandy ever takes on a codename, but both frequently discuss cloaks and daggers.
  • In season 2, "Mayhem" turns out to be a Literal Split Personality from Brigid O'Reilly, so the heroes sometimes use the name to tell them apart. Andre Deschaine never claims his Loa title "D'Spayre", though the word "despair" comes up frequently in reference to his operation.

---

Nick Fury: We have a job to do, and you're coming with us.
Peter Parker: There's gotta be someone else you can use. What about Thor?
Fury: Off-world.
Peter: Doctor Strange?
Maria Hill: Unavailable.
Peter: Captain Marvel.
Fury: Don't you invoke her name!

— Spider-Man: Far From Home