Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26066818-20151217205130/@comment-61022-20151222193404

I've had issue with the Wizard, as he has legally changed his name to "The Wizard". It's a one off reference made in an old issue of Fantastic Four Unlimited and never mentioned again. Any other time he's referred to as Bentley Wittman. Particularly in recent years (especially since Bently-23 was first introduced)

The page name had been "The Wizard (Earth-616)" for years until recently I petitioned and had it changed back to "Bentley Wittman (Earth-616)". Some people don't agree with that because they're strict to that obscure reference that -- common readers -- will find hard to locate. Also I think the fact that he legally changed his name was a one-off joke on the part of the writer of that story to demonstrate how egotistical Wittman is.

I think with naming conventions I think it should strictly be their birth name, unless they are commonly known by another name.

With Luke Cage and Jessica Jones they have been operating under their new legal names and are constantly referred to by their legal names. Versus Wittman, who only had that one mention.

When it comes to marriage... Well marriages come and go in the Marvel Universe, just like in real life -- with characters getting divorced, annulling their marriages, or just not adopting the last name of their spouse. I think the only married woman in the Marvel U you could say would be an exception to the current rule is Susan Richards. She's been married (publication wise) for ever forty years. If they were going to negate her marriage to Reed it would ruin the whole dynamic of the Fantastic Four (which even though that title is on a hiatus for the foreseeable future, it doesn't seem like good business to break that dynamic since that the "group of heroes who are also family" is a selling point)

Brings up questions about the more ambiguous characters as well. Deadpool is a perfect example. His past is marred with contradictions and inconsistencies and there have been stories that throw into doubt if his name is really Wade Wilson. If they were to say tomorrow "Hey Deadpool is really named Jake Peters" people most commonly refer to him as Wade Wilson.

But then there's Wolverine, who was known as simply Logan for so long until Origin was published. But since then, Marvel has reinforced the name James Howlett as his real name with characters referring to him as both James and Logan.

On the other side, you have Magneto, who was known as Magnus or Erik Lehnshir (and still is) in most publications and alternate realities. Only X-Men: Magneto Testament is he actually named Max Eisenhardt.

Another pair of naming convention issues I have a problem with are for Bucky and the Hulk.

Bucky is classified as James Buchanan Barnes (Earth-616). I think the middle name is excessive for naming. I think the less someone has to type to get to a page (if they're typing in the URL instead of clicking on a link) is better.

Ditto for Robert Bruce Banner (Earth-616). The whole Robert thing came up as a writing error by Stan Lee back in Fantastic Four #25 & 26 where everyone was suddenly referring to Banner as "Bob Banner". A letter page (the precise issue escapes my mind right now) "corrected" that mistake by saying Bruce is his middle name. I would aruge that naming the pages Bruce Banner (Earth-616) because that's what everyone commonly refers to him as, and it's also less typing.

So I think the rules we currently have work for characters on a general basis. So I don't think we need to totally reinvent the wheel here. But, I think when it comes to those exceptions. It should be viewed from an EDITORIAL standpoint, as opposed to the fictional legalities of these characters name. If Marvel consistently identifies someone as X then that's the name a layman is going to associate with the character. Ergo, for the sake of easier navigation for people who are not well immersed with the history, we should go with the more commonly used name.

And honestly, that's all based on popularity of the character. (Although in a lot of cases we have the page titled by their codename for better Google analytics. IE: Spider-Man, Captain America etc.) If the character is super popular (So your Luke Cages, Deadpools, Jessica Joneses, Wolverines etc.) it should be the alternate name that they are commonly identified by. For the less popular characters (your Wizards for example, and I'd even argue Magneto in this category) they should be referred by their birth names.