The hyphen

[Guest Lethargic]

I've finally wandered onto this board now. I have a question that I want to hear comic fans input on.

 

I am in the middle of a argument right now, I usually am, but right now I'm in a argument over something I find completely trivial. The hypen in Spider-man! To me, I never use it. I just say Spiderman. I don't worry about no stupid hyphen. But this dude, he goes ballistic every time anybody types it without using the hyphen. We've had this argument for like a YEAR now off and on. It's just annoying the piss out of me.

 

I just wanted to post on a actual comic book fan forum to see what the rest of the fans think. If somebody writes "Spiderman" instead of "Spider-man" does every comic fan see that as a slap in the face as this guy does? Is it a insult to all fans, to Marvel, to the character itself? To hear him explain it the hyphen is the one thing that keeps people from getting Spiderman confused with Superman and Batman. My take is, the SPIDER part kinda keeps them straight for me. I dunno, maybe that's just me.

 

I just had to bring it up. It's the most annoying and ignorant argument ever and I've been in a lot of annoying and ignorant arguments. I mean, we're talking about people just discussing Spiderman on a message board and he can't handle it that when somebody doesn't use the hyphen. The fact that there is a hyphen in his name never really even registered in my brain until this guy pointed it out to me a year ago. It's just something that I never thought about and wouldn't think that anybody else would worry about. It has no impact on the character or on the way the name is pronounced or anything. But he keeps saying "well, how would you like it if people kept spelling YOUR name wrong??" I'm at my wits end with this guy. haha I'm not trying to have the argument here too if other people feel that way, I'm just curious is if it's just this one guy or not.

[Guest starvenger]

My presonal theory is that Lee, Ditko, Kirby et al simply wanted to differentiate their heroes from the DC heroes, hence Ant-Man, Giant-Man, X-Men, Spider-Man etc. as opposed to Superman, Batman, Hawkman etc. I realize there are several holes in this theory (i.e. Iron Man) but it's a good place to start.

 

As for whether you use the hyphen or not, well, if you want to be 100% accurate then you use the hyphen but I personally don't worry about whether it's there or not. After all, it's not like you're gonna be confused as to who it is.

[Guest Some Guy]

"Iron Man" is two words, not a compound word like "Batman" or "Superman".

 

I never realized that Spider-Man was hyphenated until I went to the DVD site to add the movie to my collection and it came back with "we have no listings for "Spiderman".

 

I think the Hyphen is stupid. He's not a married feminist.

[Guest areacode212]

Ha...it's not just that one guy. I've seen that "Spider-Man" vs. "Spiderman" argument on message boards all over. Technically, including the hyphen is the correct way to spell it, but I personally don't care (and I think most people feel the same way).

[Guest Some Guy]

No, I think he is the product of an affair with The Spider and He-Man. Both guys being all macho and stuff fought for months over who's name the child would take and eventually decided to comprimise and call him "Spider-Man". Yeah, that's the ticket! or something.

[Guest Sassquatch]

No, I think he is the product of an affair with The Spider and He-Man.

 

Their kids would end up with down syndrome.

 

Personally, I have never cared about the way people have spelled a comic book character's name.

 

I've seen creators write Bat-man, Wonderwoman, Ironman, Super-man, etc. but it has never bothered me. I can see both sides of the coin in the debate but I have never became bothered by how someone spells a comic book characters name.