How NOT to create a character - my pet peeves

OK, I have been quiet for a long time and I haven't really kept up with Whateley, but this is as good a forum as any to discuss this.

I was thinking about the age of certain people -- whether they are pre-boomers, boomers or gen X -- and I remembered an old character from pre-Crisis DC, namely a villain from Infinity Inc. There was this group named Helix, formed by artificially mutated children. One of them had her growth arrested at early childhood but had the power of creating explosions. Her codename? Baby Boom. Yeah, really. Shame on you, Roy Thomas.
So... that's one thing you shouldn't do. Don't think of a cutesy codename taken from an existing thing and then create a character tailor-made for that codename. I don't have a problem with Boom-Boom of the New Mutants, because that is not a convoluted derivation -- it derives solely from her powers. Tabitha is not even *that* buxom. But Baby Boom is clearly a case in which the character creation began from the codename.

Also, don't go overboard with aptronyms. I mean, Victor Von Doom, really, Stan Lee? Roy G. Bivolo (Rainbow Raider), Cary Bates? Edward Nigma? (Although I might give that a pass, in some versions he wasn't born with that name) Otto Octavius? Victor Fries? Stephen Strange? Auric Goldfinger? Pussy Galore? (I'm giving Vandal Savage a pass, because he *chose* that name)

 

We probably should ask Bek how much Tao Jones inspired Hazard. Nice costume if a little stereotypical... Mr. Bones was even more on the nose.

My character Dastardly Daughter was pretty much designed around that name. I just liked the idea of a teen girl Dick Dastardly.
But I tried to make her unique by having her create that persona so people wouldn't suspect her of being a violent, dangerous devisor.
So it can work, I hope.

Sir Lee wrote:

Auric Goldfinger?
 

No, Mister Lee I expect you to... uh, well, it's iconic for a reason, right? Funny you bring up Goldfinger. Ian Fleming had a neighbor, Ernő Goldfinger, who he actively despised. Turns out the real Goldfinger was a Hungarian born architect who has some notoriety for his modernist creations that Fleming disliked for being built by tearing down older, Victorian buildings Ian liked. He made the villain as a jab against him and Ernő sued him over it. So, like most good characters, there's a better story behind the name.

Yeah, but he didn't need to rub it on by having "Auric" as a first name.

Oh, you will really hate Bricky McBrickerton when I introduce her.

What about that bully in my new story, Jack Hass

DanZilla wrote:

I don't believe you have a character named Bricky McBrickerton.

If she didn't before, she will now.

Court wrote:

DanZilla wrote:

I don't believe you have a character named Bricky McBrickerton.

If she didn't before, she will now.

THIS.

Plot twist - Bricky is a glass cannon and quite squishable. Perhaps she has a PK field that amplifies forces, rather than dampening them. Bumping her funny bone? That's going to leave a bruise. A slap on the shoulder? She's lucky if she doesn't have a broken clavicle.

Probably not a PK-7 (she'd probably be dead), but if she was rated PK-4 or so, she'd probably be Hawthorne material.