"Instead of Vanessa Kapatelis we got the younger Cassandra Sandsmark, a spunky tomboy. She started the DC tradition of naming all young superheroines the same thing. There's Suzie (just recently renamed to "Greta"), aka Secret; Cissie, aka Arrowette; Cassie, aka Batgirl; Cassie, aka Thunder; and of course Cassie, aka Wonder Girl."
—Carol A Strickland, Cassandra Sandsmark Annex
The DCU
- Any two characters who share a surname will always turn out to be related — though rarely will either character be created with that intention. This often occurs with characters who were originally published by different companies that were eventually acquired by DC. They've even done it with a Sanders and a Saunders, who became distant cousins or something.
- There's Ryan Choi, aka The Atom, and Grace Choi, a half-Amazon woman and part of the Outsiders. No relation.
- Chuck Dixon actually wanted to make Dinah Drake, the original Black Canary, the great-aunt of Tim Drake, the third Robin, but DC editorial shot it down.
- The real name of D-list villain The Cavalier is Mortimer Drake. Since he's fairly obscure, DC probably doesn't have to worry about people wondering whether or not he's related to Tim or Dinah, even though they all have family ties in Gotham.
- Speaking of Tim Drake, long before he was created, Batman's ally Lucius Fox had a son named Tim. Tim Fox eventually fell victim to Chuck Cunningham Syndrome and disappeared from the Batman franchise, but returned in late 2020 in the aftermath of The Joker War. To keep things from getting confusing, the writers had Tim Fox go by his nickname "Jace."
- Traditionally the Marvel Family included "Uncle Dudley," full name Dudley H. Dudley. He's been in Comic-Book Limbo for a while, but Flashpoint and the New 52 have since added a girl named Darla Dudley. Are they related, is her name a Mythology Gag or did Geoff Johns just name her without thinking? When the "Uncle Dudley" character was reintroduced in The New Champion of SHAZAM! he went by "Uncle Marv" (a Mythology Gag on his fake "Uncle Marvel" identity pre-Crisis), surname not revealed.
- The major exception to this rule is the existence of both Carter Hall and Hank Hall, who not only share the same surname but also have similar superhero aliases, Hawkman and Hawk, respectively. They have yet to be retroactively related to one another. (Carter's son, Hector Hall, was reincarnated as Hank's son, but that's not quite the same thing.)
- Green Lantern Harold "Hal" Jordan is the nephew of Golden Age character Air Wave (Lawrence "Larry" Jordan). The Air Wave role would eventually be taken over by Larry's son, Harold Jordan, who like his cousin is also called Hal.
- In his first appearance, Harvey "Two-Face" Dent was named Harvey Kent. This was changed to avoid suggesting a familial connection to that other Kent gentleman.
- This became a plot point in the "Mr. and Mrs. Superman" story in Superman Family that featured the wedding of the Earth-2 Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. One of the wedding guests was Harvey Kent of Earth-2 (who stayed reformed, unlike the Earth-1 Two-Face), with Lois and Clark investigating a potential mob hit on "someone named 'Kent'."
- Aquaman's real name is Arthur Curry; at one point, the comic starred a different Arthur Curry/Aquaman, a teenager with no connection to Atlantis. It turns out this Arthur is the original's cousin on his father's side, deliberately named after him.
- DC has several Artemises: There's Amazon Artemis who at one point served as Wonder Woman. There is also the Olympian Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Pre-crisis, Diana fought the reanimated remains of an ancient Amazon who was also named Artemis. Stepping outside of the Wonder Woman corner of the DCU, we also have Artemis Crock aka Tigress who is a villain for the Justice Society of America and Artemiz, a Female Fury who was introduced in John Ostrander's Suicide Squad run.
- Barbaras galore. Batman supporting character James "Jim" Gordon married Barbara Kean. They had two kids, James and Barbara Gordon. Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl also shares the same name with Barbara Minerva, who is Cheetah Wonder Woman's Archenemy.
- In the Batman franchise alone there are some name repeats:
- There are two Harveys; Harvey "Two-Face" Dent and Detective Harvey Bullock.
- There are also two Victors: Victor Fries and Victor Zsasz. Three if you count the first The Question. Vic Sage's birth name is Charles Victor Szasz.
- Bruce Wayne also happens to have had more than one Thomas in his life, his late father Thomas Wayne, his childhood friend turned enemy Thomas Elliot/Hush and his occasional rogue Thomas Blake/Catman.
- Cassandra Cain and Cassandra Sandsmark filled the roles of Batgirl and Wonder Girl, respectively. While Wonder Girl is still the same person, the mantle of Batgirl was passed to Stephanie Brown, then returned to Barbara Gordon. The fans mostly refer to Batgirl III as "Cass" and Wonder Girl II as "Cassie", which is what tends to happen in the comics.
- For added confusion, we have Cassandra Cain as Batgirl/Black Bat/Orphan as well as Bette Kane as the original "Batgirl" and Kate Kane as Batwoman. They're all more or less references to Kathy Kane, the original Batwoman. For added fun, she also now exists in continuity - eventually established as Bette's and Kate's aunt by marriage. Kate Kane’s stepmother is named Catherine Kane too, just to add to the confusion.
- Martha Wayne's maiden name is also Kane which is shared by 5 brothers. So Batman's mom, uncles (and in extension, his aunts) cousins and adopted daughter have surnames that are homophones. All the Cains/Kanes are reference to one of Batman's creators, Bob Kane. Bruce Wayne, Bette Kane and Kate Kane are all first cousins.
- Cassie Sandsmark was on the Young Justice team with Cissie Jones-King & a girl called Suzee. They were all blonde. Meanwhile Marvel had already had a blonde teen character named Cassie Lang. This was called out by fans as a bunch of girl characters too similar. Eventually Cissie quit & Suzee started going by her real name, Greta.
- Connor Hawke (the second Green Arrow) and Conner Kent (Superboy) are contemporiaries.
- Part of the reason people don't know there are two Black Canaries is due to this. They're a mother and daughter duo both named "Dinah". They wear the exact same costume and the only difference, until the mid-to-late 90s, was the original had long black hair while the daughter has black Boyish Short Hair. Neither of those differences are noticeable as they wore blonde wigs as superheroes, though the second Dinah eventually grew out her hair and dyed it blonde. DC sometimes changes the spelling of the first Dinah's names; however they usually use her maiden name "Dinah Drake", while the post-Crisis Canary is "Dinah Lance". The reason they're so similar, though, is that the whole mother-daughter thing was a retcon when someone did the math on the Golden Age Canary and decided she needed to be younger if she was dating the Silver Age Green Arrow.
- Bizarrely, there are two Garfields in the DCU: Garfield Logan, also known as Beast Boy/Changeling of Teen Titans fame, and Garfield Lynns, a.k.a Firefly, one of Batman's many rogues. Neither of them is a lazy fat cat, although one of them could easily transform into one.
- Both the Wonder Woman and Batman franchises have two notable characters with the first name Helena:
- In the case of Batman we have Helena Wayne and Helena Bertinelli, the first and second Huntresses, respectively. Helena W. is the daughter of the Earth 2 versions of Batman and Catwoman while Helena B. is a former mob princess-turned-vigilante.
- Wonder Woman has Helena Sandsmark and Helena Kosmatos. Helena S. is the mother of Cassie Sandsmark the second Wonder Girl. Helena Kosmatos is the second character to go by the name of Fury and is a Greek woman whose parents were killed by by Italian Fascists in WWII. There is also Helen Alexandros the original incarnation of the Silver Swan.
- As mentioned above there are two Jameses in the Gordon family, Sr. goes by Jim though.
- Jason Peter Todd (the second Robin) shares a first and middle name with Jason Peter Garrick (the first Flash), and his first with Jason Bard (private investigator and occasional love interest to Barbara Gordon), Jason Blood (the demon Etrigan), Jason Mayeux Keralis a False Friend from Wonder Woman: Warbringer, and Jason Wonder Woman's twin brother in the New 52, among others.
- DC Comics has had multiple characters using the Manhunter name, often simultaneously, and that's not even taking the android antagonists into consideration. You had Mark Shaw, Chase Lawler, Kate Spencer, and several clones of Paul Kirk, for starters. But the most egregious example of this came in an issue of All-Star Squadron, where the Paul Kirk version (created in DC's Adventure Comics) runs into the Dan Richards version (an import from DC's acquisition of the Quality lineup of heroes) and they argue over who was first to take the name. Note that they originally appeared a month apart in 1942 from two different companies and never met until this retconned adventure.
- The mothers who raised Superman and Batman are Martha Kent and Martha Wayne, respectively. For April Fools' Day in 2013, the DC Comics website altered the profiles of Superman and Batman on their character pages; making use of the similar names of their mothers. Martha Wayne survived being shot and signed guardianship of Bruce to the butler when she was put into the Witness Protection Program. She was sent to Smallville, married John Kent and became the couple who found and raised the baby who would become Superman. This would make Batman and Superman brothers. The prank was so subtle, that DC Comics had to point it out the day after. Three years later, however, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice would make sure that no one will ever forget about the Martha connection ever again.
- In the Golden Age, DC had hamfisted private eye Slam Bradley and his goofy sidekick Shorty Morgan. While Bradley's real name was revealed as Sam early on, it wasn't until decades later that Shorty Morgan was named Samuel as well, justifying the need for nicknames.
- Shazam! has the Lieutenant Marvels, three boys who also happen to be named Billy Batson. Apparently, this somehow means that saying the magic word gives them superpowers too, because Golden Age comics didn't have to make sense.
- Originally, the name "Starfire" belonged to a Russian superhero, but over time he fell into obscurity. Then there was a second "Starfire", who was a mob boss and a Supergirl enemy. The name then became associated with the Teen Titans character. When the original was used again later, his name had changed to Red Star. As a Mythology Gag, the animated series gave them an episode together. There's also a fourth DC Starfire, a swordswoman. Lampshaded by Booster Gold in the mini-series Time Masters: Vanishing Point, when he meets this Starfire and comments on the coincidence between her name and Koriand'r's.
- With Wonder Woman having such strong relations with the Greek pantheon, it was only a matter of time before the Titans (Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, Cronus, Crius and Iapetus and the females Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Rhea, and Themis) were included as well. But DC has their own Titans, so this other group was named the "Titans of Myth". And if you think that's confusing, it's even more for Tria, who has been a member of both.
- When the New 52 finally reintroduced Wally West, he was so different (given a Race Lift, Age Lift and more cynical backstory) that many fans disliked him. DC Rebirth then brought back the "real" Wally West and Ret Conned the New 52 version to be his cousin, both having been named after their great-grandfather. Later they tried to mitigate the confusion by having Wally II go by "Wallace."
- The Wonder Woman franchise at large tends to have issues with this, including the aforementioned Artemises there are:
- During Wonder Woman (1987) there were three Dianas (Wondy, Steve's mom, and the goddess Artemis in her Roman guise), two Julia's (Julia Kapatelis & Julia of Daxam), two Mnemosynes (the Amazon, and the Titan), two Donnas (Donna Troy and Donna Milton), two Cassies (Sandsmark and Arnold) and at least three Medusas (one of which actually was the original and the others of which were imitations).
- There are three notable Hippolytas; "Polly" the queen and Diana's mother, Circe and Ares's daughter Lyta Milton, and Diana and Steve's daughter Lyta Trevor.
- The name Clifford is used with a surprising frequency. There's Cliff Steele/Robotman from Doom Patrol, Clifford De Voe/Thinker I and Clifford Grimm/Brother Grimm, both enemies of The Flash. And strangely the second Thinker, who was an enemy of Firestorm, was named Cliff Carmichael.
- Being such a common name, there's more than one John around the DCU. John Stewart, John Constantine, John Grayson (Dick Grayson's late father), John Corben/Metallo, John Dee/Dr. Destiny, John Diggle, John Monroe/Weasel and several others.
- There are two sets of siblings in the DCU who use the monikers Thunder and Lightning. The first were a pair of Vietnamese twins who have served as allies to the Teen Titans. The second are Anissa and Jennifer Pierce, the daughter of Black Lightning.
