Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Mission Monitor Board What's in a name?

It's even vaguely - and I do mean vaguely - about a bug, so the avatar choice just worked beautifully.

Well, I like the Transformers.

No, really. I do.

Just ask around.

In all seriousness, I had just moved to an incredibly small town named Fouke, Arkansas to start the 6'th grade (it's one of those places where there are more cows and chickens than people) and, being completely out of place in that environment, and a huge introvert to boot, well, I didn't really start making friends for a very long time.

But that fall, I remember walking home from school (it was Wednesday, so we got out early so folks could go hunting or some nonsense... seriously, y'all) and I was surprised to find a new cartoon when I flicked on the TV after school. I started it about 30 secs too late, but what I saw was thrilling: Bumblebee and Wheeljack's easy banter as they drove their energy rods through a Decepticon patrol to the Autobot base on Cybertron. I thrilled to the decency and nobility of the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, and the cool strength and evil of Megatron. I totally dug on Soundwave and his cassettes, the inept prissiness of Starscream, Jazz's coolness, Mirage's gentleness, Bumblebee's verve... anyway, it was the first part of the first 3-part miniseries, and I don't have to tell you, the next two days, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and ran home as fast as my 11-year-old legs could carry me. Needless to say, I was hooked.

Looking back, I can see now that the production values on that first season were superior to any other cartoon being produced in 1984, and in particular, the voice work was just superb. But all I knew at that time was I wanted there to be a world where beings like Optimus Prime lived. Prime soon replaced Luke Skywalker in my little mind as the epitome of heroism. Part of Prime's greatness was that his nemesis, Megatron, was every bit as awesome. In that first year in Fouke, Arkansas, those Autobots and Decepticons gave me friends when I didn't have too many others around. I used to stay up till all hours of the night playing with my figures... I remember when I was ready to trade one of my figures away, I would come up with a huge epic storyline to write him off the continuing Transformers saga in my bedroom.

And then, in the next year, as the craze hit and every kid and preteen in school was walking around with Bumblebee or Brawn in their pocket, the Transformers gave me something with which to relate to the other kids in my hopelessly rural environment, as we began to argue such important topics as whether Omega Supreme could beat Bruticus, or whether Starscream could beat Cyclonus, or...

From my age 11 to, er, 14 (okay, I was slow giving them up) the Transformers gave me something to hold onto and call my own when there wasn't much else going on in my life. Being a preacher's kid, I had become used to moving every other year, and I was conditioned to be a loner. The Transformers helped me while I was in that state, and ultimately, they helped me to break out of it as a preteen. I still think Optimus Prime is the greatest, most capable hero ever. And that is why I love the Transformers so much.

(And the "Kid" part of "Kid Prime" is my nod to the Legion, of course!)

After lurking here for two months, I decided to finally jump in. The only thing was, I couldn't come up with a name!

So I picked an existing LMBP character that had no one posting with the moniker and became the LMBP Spectre. And payed for it by having to understand the crazy continuity of the LMBP Spectre .

When I stumbled across the DC boards, all the good Legion names seemed taken. I was briefly "soulofantares" for a week or so...

Having just gotten back into LSH after a 14-year absense, I was (and still am) rebuilding my collection, recollecting issues sold off and pixking up stuff I missed along the way. So, picking up the TMK era, I liked Kent, and no one was using the name.

Since adopting the name, I've grown to like my namesake even more, and was glad to see him rreintrodiced, albeit briefly, in Foundations.

I now use this handle on DC boards and ebay, and a few other places, too.

Well, it all started with The Tick.

When I was in grade 7, a boy in my class who drew many zany adventures for many zany characters decided that it was unfair that in The Tick, the character Chameleon could blend into anything except plaid. Apparently plaid was too complicated. So, he created Plaid Man!! The man who can blend into any plaid pattern like a very specialised chameleon.

My best friend and I, looking over his shoulder, and listening to the exploits of Plaid Man, Barry the Overly Happy Door, and others, and being tremendous comic book fans ourselves (though I didn't "find" Legion until years later) -- we decided Plaid Man needed help. Sidekicks. And so, we created Flannel Lass and Kilt Girl. (Why not Kilt Lass? Because we both have Scots heritage and we were spreading out the ethnicness. Or something.)

Yes, Flannel Lass! With her shirt of plaid flannel! Kilt Girl! With her kilt of plaid wool! They kept themselves on hand in case there was no plaid on hand, unrolling swathes of it over buildings, occasionally letting Plaid Man hide on them. In a strictly platonic way.

I was Flannel Lass because I wore a lot of flannel plaid shirts (I like to think I inherited this trait from my Great-grandfather, who was a lumberjack). My friend had longer legs, so she got the Kilt Girl moniker.

When I resubbed to this board, I needed a new name since I couldn't manage to sign in to my old account. I still like flannel, it reminded me of the one time I got along with that guy, and it fit the Legion pattern. Hence....

*booming voice* I AM FLANNEL LASS!!! FEAR MY WARM FUZZIES!! *poses dramatically on a cliff, wind blowing hair and flannel shirt*

You could be the Christo of Legion World, Flannel Lass - wrap our buildings in flannel.

Hrun comes in and steals all the names, I now hold all to ransom, Those who wish to have a name must bring me much booty, slaves and Mead

I can do the booty, and the slaves. You know how hard it is to find Mead in Minnesota? Lutefisk we have in barrels (go figure!) but Mead...

Who were you before, Flannel Lass?

EDIT: Never mind. I just saw your "the return of snowsparkle" thread. Welcome back!

Need I say it? My choice for an alias is ... a ... ready for it? ... ?MYSTERY?!

Todd

What's a Caunotaucarius? A meat-eating dinosaur?

Mine is just a series of adaptations that occurred after I started posting here.

I originally chose the moniker "New Kid" because this board was the first internet message board that was ever interesting enough for me to participate in. Then on a whim I changed my name for a few posts and discovered that I couldn't get the "New Kid" log-in back after the change, so I became "Almost But Not Quite New Kid" (Which Semi and Vee Immedately shortened to "ABNQNK") Then in one of the most hilarious posts ever added to the On-Going Story Thread, Numfie came up with the line "What the hell kind of name is Abinquank?" So in tribute to the three hours I spent ROTFLMAO at his post I changed my moniker to Abinquank? But then! Cobie added a post (again in the ingoing thread) giving Abinquank? a for real, honest to goodness, almost genuine Power Ring and Abin Quank the Legion World Green Lantern was born...

Simple...

For full details read the On-going Tag-Team Thread over in Bits...

Harbinger came from an idea I had for a character I wanted to write about, Kord Das from the ongoing Legion 35C series.

Originally I had code names for all the main characters and I really enjoyed writing about Kord Das - he is the lynch pin to the whole organisation in the stories (even if he is an absolute *******), but I sort of dropped his code name and kept it for myself.

At the time I didn't know of the Crisis character so was taken aback when someone wrote about "Red skies" in my welcoming thread.

There have been quite a few variations - Harbi is quite often used, or Binger, and Haagendaazinger and Barwinger, though my favourite was Hardyharbinger.

Most people just call me B or Belinda these days.

My name is Matthew and back in the day there were shows like Matt Houston and Matlock floating around... so I'd get called those names all the time. The company I worked for back in the early-to-mid 90's had an intercompany forum that was just for BS'ing around on that you could post on with a nickname.

I no longer have any idea why it's lowercase though. It's not like I have a low sense of self-esteem; neither am I a big e.e. cummings fan. It's been that way all this time though, so I guess I won't be changing it.

My original handle on the DC boards was "Beagle Boy" - and that was given to me by my neighbors.

Once my dog was old enough to walk, he and I would walk through the trailer park nearly every day. And since he was a beagle, people on their porch would just wave and call out, "Hey, Beagle Boy!!" (And believe me, it was quite embarrassing to be called "Beagle Boy" in the doctor's office. AND IN CHURCH!!!)

Anyway, one of the posters on the board, Sasha / Duct Tape Lad / Starman 872 / other stuff (and an all around great kid!!!) started callin' me "Beagz" for short, and it just kinda stuck.

Another great thread for resurrection!

I've always wondered what "Abin Quank" and "Outdoor Miner" were from.

Mine's straight forward, but dopey at the same time. When I first signed up over at the DCMB a couple of years ago, I had never posted to a message board before, so I was literally, "ex nihilo," or Latin for "out of nothing". Where's the "O," then? Well, there's the dopey part... I misspelled it.

I liked Arm Fall Off Boy for the sheer silliness of the name. I know, not very original. Oh, did I mention my own arms sometimes fall off?

Awesome thread to bring back....pretty cool seeing where you folks got your names.

As for mine...well it kinda comes in two parts.
Way back in the day I would go jam with some musician friends of mine in university. Now I really couldn't play very well, but on the drums I could keep a beat, so occassionally i filled in when the regular drummer couldn't make it.
These guys usually recorded thier jam sessions in case something that sounded good was played. During one seesion at a big finish to a song I pounded away at the drums, jumped up and threw a drumstick at a high hat. The stick bounced back and struck me in the head. I fell to the floor. THe lead guitarist ran over to me, stood over my body and screamed "Mark's DEAD!" and started playing a fast original metal riff. Words flooded into my mind and I jumped up and started to sing...in a wierd distorted voice. After it was all over the guitarist said something like "That was awesome, you sounded like a deadman" And so a band was born. The name stuck too, It was a small campus and very soon everyone was just calling me deadman.

But why spell it DED. Well I'm a gamer, and back in those classic arcade days, when you got a high score you could only input three letters. Everyone was calling me deadman, the closest I could input was DED, thus the spelling came about.

My is the screen name I use everywhere (otherwise I would forget my logins).

My first name is Stephanie (hence the steph) and I pulled the barton, well, it's one of those geeky things you are embarassed to admit.

Back in High School I was a fan of Gundam Wing and meet some other Gundam Wing fans who were also very crazy Otaku, I mean VERY crazy. In our group we each took a name of one of the pilots (and we were all girls, go figure, but the one girl who had a steady boyfriend could not convience him to take the girl's name).

Anyways, even though my absolute favorite character was Duo Maxwell (DUO!!!!) I was given the name Trowa, for Trowa Barton.

Well, when it came time to be on the internet I realized I did not want my real full name being blasted all over cyber space, so I figured I would go with stephbarton as a combinatin of my real first name and the "nickname" last name.

Go figure that in college I would meet a girl whose name was really Stephanie Barton.

I love to garden, and "cleome" is simply the scientific name for a plant called the Spider Lily. Actually, I meant to pick a very similar-sounding name for a very different plant;But I got confused. Them's the breaks.

The lower case spelling was just an impulse thing. Most, but not all, of the silly names I've used online have been all lower case.

My real name is Juan, and initially I used that name to post here in the boards. A few years ago I defended my PhD, and when I posted about it, Cobie started calling me Doctor Juan. I decided that I needed a more 'superheroey' name than plain old Juan if I was going to belong :-), and so I changed the spelling of Doctor Juan to reflect the way most English-speakers pronounce my name.

Now I teach, and because my last name is very Spanish, very long and quite unpronounceable many of my students call me Doctor One in real life. And this amuses me greatly....

Juan

On the old DC boards I was Quislet. I always liked the little guy.

When I got here "Quislet" was taken. Seeing as I had just graduated from law school and could offically add Esquire to my name, I became Quislet, Esq.

I love L.E.G.I.O.N., and at the time that I started posting on comic book message boards I was going through a phase of re-reading it and re-re-reading it. I was also getting into new comics for the first time in seven-and-a-half years (hence my lack of presence on any comics boards pre-2005), but there's nothing like the old favorites.

On the DC boards I was originally Lydea Mallor, then that identity got erased by the klutzes running those boards so I changed it to Ig'nea. Then a very kind poster referred me to Legion World, so I signed up with the name of yet another L.E.G.I.O.N. character.

Stealth is someone I wish I could be more like in real life: tough as nails, assertive, outspoken. In real life, I'm a lot more shy and soft-spoken than the way I come across on the internet.

The first ever internet handle for message board posting I came up with was "DC Bullet", after the classic DC Comics logo. I can't remember what the board was called, but it was Superman-centric--Superman Club? Whatever it was called, that's how I got my feet wet in the nascient internet era as a newlywed. I posted there a few months before losing interest.

Flash-forward a few years, and I decide to venture back in when I see a reference to Wizard's site in their magazine. I sign up over there, and instead of recycling DC Bullet, I decide to make up something new and register as "LARDLAD" out of self-deprecating humor. There, I enjoyed posting with MLLASH particularly, and both of us coincedentally migrated over to the DC Boards. Over time, Lard Lad became a character and a persona for me that I've posted under ever since.

As I've noted before, I was not consciously remembering the Simpsons' Lard Lad when I created the handle for myself. I have no idea if he was working there in my subconscious somehow!

Aren't most of us?