What your heroes are called in Spanish

Imagine all the people...throwing each other's desks...

As a bilingual nerd living in Puerto Rico, I have had to subject myself to spanish translations most of my life.  This has good sides and bad sides, but if anything, it gives me  the ability to act as a doorway between realms of speech.

By which I mean I know what some characters are called in both languages. While you might rightly assume most are either litteral translations or no translation at all, sometimes  cartoon translators or comic translators get creative and put strange monnikers on our ficticional heroes. Some examples:

I just learned it too. I can't afford a trip though.

The Thing: La Mole
"La Cosa" would be the litteral translation of : The Thing, but for whatever reason, they took to calling Benjamin Grim, "La Mole" which is actually closer in meaning to "The Hulk." The name's stuck, even down to recent translation of the movies. So what do we call Hulk, anyway?



The Hulk: El Hombre Increible

Ok, we don't ALWAYS call Hulk "El Hombre Increible"(Lit. "the incredible man"). It's what he was known in the old Bill Bixby series. There are no stable translated names for Hulk. Sometimes he's known as "El Hombre Verde" or sometimes just Hulk. It's all La Mole's fault!

No. No mas teatro.

Spider-Man-El Hobre Araña
Spider-Man's is known as litterally as posible in most cases. But recent translations opted not to translate the name, but rather give spanish affection to the english name. So you'll see shows that refer to how much "Speeder-man" is trumping Venom, such as this.

Just don't give them any grief over it, they'll tell you it's acceptable to morph foreign words. Acceptable doesn't mean it isn't hilarious, though.

LLiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!

X-Men: Patrulla X
Official Marvel books actually carry the title "Patrulla X"("X" reads "E-kiss" rather than "Ecks"). Because, I guess "Hombres X" sounded a little...too gay. The 90's cartoon  mixed it up and called them "X(E-Kiss) MEN).

Superman es un patan.

Lois Lane: Luisa Lane
There isn't much of a point in my mind to translate common names, but it's apparently a real life thing where William is "Guillermo" in Spanish. So aparently someone decided "Lois" was too foreign sounding and they called her : Luisa. Luisa LANE. Problem solved.  Worry not, Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White are still called that.

Y el avion menos compuesto.

Bruce Wayne: Bruno Diaz
As far as the 60s Batman TV Show Batman's alter ego has been known as Bruno Diaz. making many wonder why he's walking into  a building clearly labled Wayne. But  with how condescending some of the translations get, I guess they don't think the audience can read.

Funny thing is, when I was young I often passed a building called "Empresas Diaz" and I wondered if maybe, possibly, Bruno Diaz himself was up there, waiting for night to fall to become Batman. Hmm...I undestand why they do it now.

There are more, but I must end it here. Maybe later I'll tell you more about Lobezno, El Guason and  Vampira. See you!