At what point does a hero grow out of a name?

[Lady Timedramon]

My feelings on the "Boy/Girl" thing...

I might be wrong about this, but didn't Gar go back to his original name (Beast Boy) to revive his acting carreer? 

Actually, no.  People in LA remembered him more as "Beast Boy" (from his time with "Titans West") than as Changeling, kept calling him that, and he gave up.  It sort of "restuck".

It hasn't really worked very well, Gar...Time to go back to Changeling (which I thought was a great name)...LOL.  I hate the name Gargoyle for him...It sounds like a villain's name (indeed, it is the name of an old Teen Titan's villain).  I don't like the idea of him using the name Animal Man either...It certainly fits with his abilities, but taking someone else's hero name is wrong to me, unless in the case of a Legacy character (Gar never had much contact with Buddy, so he doesn't fit into the "legacy" thing).  Beast Man doesn't sound right (unless of course, he was a Masters Of The Universe character), Beastling was a great name for the amalgam character created from a blending of Gar and the X-men's Beast, but I don't think it sounds right in the regular DCU.

Gar was never called Gargoyle, that I know.  In Kingdom Come he was "Menagerie", which is a pretty good name for Gar.  The problem was that he looked like a gargoyle.

In Portuguese translations of Titans stuff I've seen, Gar is called "Mutano".

I guess I don't mind him being called Beast Boy for the moment, but I do feel it's a step backward for the character (the de-aging didn't help him any either)...I'd feel the same way if Rita took the name Elasti-Woman and kept it for many years, but then went back to Elasti-Girl for some (or any) reason...A definite step backwards.

As far as Elasti-Girl, Power Girl, etc...I don't think it isn't sexist IF the woman chooses that name for herself (As Rita did in the original series...Remember, she was originally dubbed Elasti-Woman by the press).

Granted, the Doom Patrol was written by a man back then...But even today many women in their twenties, thirties, etc...refer to themselves or their lady companions as "girls"...There is nothing demeaning or sexist about it, if coming from the woman's viewpoint.  I don't know how Power Girl got her name, but I do know that it was a great milestone for the Invisible Girl (from Marvel's Fantastic Four) to change her name to the Invisible Woman...After she had been through a time of great trial and felt it was a name that no longer fit who she was.  For Susan Richards, after being used, manipulated and tortured by the Psycho-Man...it was her way of empowering herself (once she kicked his armored butt, of course).

I guess it all depends on the context in which it is used.

Dana

True, but I've never really liked names that ended in gender-specifics much overall.

As to Animal Man... I don't remember Gar and Buddy ever meeting.  Though at comicbloc, a few people suspect that if they were going to get Gar to become Animal Man, it would be because Starfire returned from space and told Gar about her time with Buddy and his "sacrifice", so he would become "Animal Man" in his honor.

[Jinx_da_kat]

I think, because it is Gar we're talking about, he would probably stick with Beast Boy if he stuck with a hero name at all.  Really, he doesn't need a secret identity and was a movie star (For however short of a time, lol) so therefor he's already known as it is.  Beast Boy is more or less like a nickname, just Changeling is, and I think Gar would stick with either name without much care because he is an endearing character and probably doesn't get picky when it comes to what his friends call him since he loves them regardless.  So it could probably stick as Beast Boy for as long as he lives, just like a parent might call her child a baby even when that child is well over forty.

Anywho, that's my thought on it. 

As far as calling adult females "Girl," I think would probably be what they'd want since women generally don't want to be called (For example) Ma'am, since it makes them feel old.  When they're still "girl", it's obvious that they're not actually GIRLS, but it almost does make them sound younger than what they are.

Whereas an actually teen girl would probably prefer to be called "woman," like the original Batgirl, who from the beginning hoped it would be Batwoman that stuck, but has remained batgirl. 

But, ultimately, because they are super woman and super girls, and with the right authority they would probably easily be able to convince the world to call them otherwise.

[drnilescaulder]

Jinx,

Good point about why women may use the term "Girl" in their aliases....Rita also always had image issues too...Maybe she didn't want to appear older (in the original DP series) and wanted to be called Elasti-Girl (as opposed to Elasti-Woman, which is what she's going by now)?

Dana