Grant Morrison, tense with catchphraser's block
Sorry agoraphobia fans: I have been culpably inactive on the writing front. Here’s an inadequate wisp of an entry to tide you over until Season 4 of The Agoraphobic Reviewer hits TV screens in September.
Everyone has a catchphrase these days: nuns, hairdressers, miners. I haven’t decided on a catchphrase yet, but I’ve managed to narrow it down to “Shingles!” and “Thank God it was Roger” (I’ll let you know which I settle on). But back before everyone else got on the catchphrase bandwagon, the only people keeping the noble art of catchphrasing alive were superheroes. Here are some of my favourites (write your own in the comments section):
Superman: “Satan’s horses are strong. But Superman is stronger”.
Red Kryptonite Superman: “Stick it in your ear Lois”
Spiderman: “Back to the Arachno-Pod!”
Fantastic Four: (said in unison) “No-one messes with El Cuatro!”
Batman: “Take heart, young man”
Captain America: “Here come the sanctions”
The Flash: “Hold on to my magical hamstrings, children”
Tags: Aphorism, Batman, Captain America, catchphrases, comics, Fantastic Four, Grant Morrison, Hamstrings, Lois Lane, Maxim, Satan, Slogan, Spiderman, superhero catchphrases, Superheroes, Superman, The Flash
July 19, 2010 at 8:31 pm |
The Green Lantern: “I know, it’s a terrible name!”
Doctor Doom: “…But you did ask if there was a doctor on board…”
Hulk: “Anyone fancy a discussion on historicism and the impossibility of truth?”
Iron Man: “Iron these, woman!”
Thor: [ironically] “By the beard of Zeus!”
X-Men: “Former men, unite! You have nothing to lose but your testicles!”
Daredevil: “Why, what we need’s a devilish scheme kids”
The Chuckle Brothers: “Chuckles away!”
July 19, 2010 at 9:05 pm |
Thor was a real beast for the ironic catchphrases, though he did have some non-ironic ones too:
- “What have you done to Denmark, you bastards!”
- “This is the Twilight of the Gods. And the Dawn of the Moomins”
- “They named Thursday after me, you know”
I like the emasculation-themed X-Men one. I’m pretty sure you’ve got Iron Man wrong though. He is a man who is an iron, so surely his catchphrase would be:
“Grasp my handle, madam, and put me to work!”
July 20, 2010 at 7:37 pm |
“Spooon!” – I lay down the challenge of naming the superhero to thee
July 21, 2010 at 12:43 pm |
That’s Soup-erman’s catchphrase. His enemies were Ladelface and Teuton Crouton AKA the Nazi Breadcube. His sidekick was Buttered Roll.
August 4, 2010 at 6:02 am |
I have a Buttered Roll spin-off trade paperback drawn by the late great Reece McBreece, renowned scotch artist and sexual predator. Everyone knows his hard hitting genre-redefining later work, when he had renounced mathematics and joined that cult that didn’t believe mathematics existed and that it was all just a big conspiracy made up by ‘mathematicians’, but I prefer his older work from the golden age of superheroes and comics. They were all a bit racist obviously, the storylines weak and the drawings crude approximations of a child’s, all in the glorious 4 colours of the age (green, grey, mauve and off-mauve). Happy days!
August 5, 2010 at 1:35 pm |
Maths racism and the ku klux cosine. We’ve come a long way since then.
August 21, 2010 at 5:38 am |
I vote for ‘Thank God it was Roger’. It would look better on a T Shirt
August 21, 2010 at 10:46 am |
Thanks Dm. I’ve settled on a new one altogether:
Flying Babies, Attack!
August 23, 2012 at 2:04 am |
Thor: Oh my Gods or By Odins Beard
August 23, 2012 at 8:39 am |
Hmmm. They don’t sound right to me Anonymous. Are you sure they’re not Luke Cage’s catchphrases?