Friday, August 11, 2006

Another Hyphen Question

Can anybody tell me why Spider-man has a hyphen, but Superman doesn't?

What about Batman?

Is it the same reason that on the London Underground, Earl's Court has an apostrophe, but Barons Court doesn't?

Maybe it's super-hero (superhero?) code.

1 comment:

James Casey said...

Joe, it has largely to do with the fact Superman and Batman are DC Comics creations whereas Spider-Man is a Marvel character. Stan Lee, who created Spider-Man among so many other characters, didn't want the cover of his new comic to look too similar to those of existing superheroes; so he hyphenated the name.