During the early 1960s, when Marvel began putting out superhero comics again after avoiding the genre for most of the 1950s, Stan Lee was scripting practically every series. Lee was also the only editor Marvel had, so he only had himself to rely on when it came to correcting errors in character names. Lee devised a trick to help himself remember the names of his characters: he would use alliteration. Here are thirteen of Stan Lee’s most famous alliterative names from Marvel Comics during the 1960s, plus two he invented by accident.
1 Peter Parker (Spider-Man’s alter ego)
2 J. Jonah Jameson (publisher of the Daily Bugle and Peter Parker’s boss)
3 Betty Brant (Jameson’s secretary at the Bugle and Peter Parker’s first girlfriend)
4 Otto Octavius (Spider-Man villain Doctor Octopus’s alter ego)
5 Curt Connors (friend of Spider-Man, also transforms into the evil Lizard)
6 Bruce Banner (the Hulk’s alter ego)
7 Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four)
8 Sue Storm (Invisible Girl of the Fantastic Four)
9 Doctor Doom/Victor Von Doom (the Fantastic Four’s nemesis works either way!)
10 Scott Summers (Cyclops of the X-Men)
11 Warren Worthington (Angel of the X-Men)
12 Matt Murdock (Daredevil)
13 Stephen Strange (Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme)
And the two accidental ones? They are:
14 Peter Palmer (In the first printing of The Amazing Spider-Man #1, Lee twice accidentally called Peter Parker Peter Palmer—it was corrected in further reprintings of the issue.)
15 Bob Banner (Lee accidentally referred to Bruce Banner as Bob on more than one occasion. This error led Lee to reveal that Bruce is Banner’s middle name, and the name that he normally goes by. Clever, Stan!)