First Things First
- You're looking for the Altoids 9v USB Charger, right? (Buy it here)
- If you're wondering who I am or what's going on, this might be helpful.

The stylistic nomenclature of today's superheroes can be a bit confusing. We're used to our Batmans and Supermans (the two most popular heroes by far; see below) so we've grown used to the [whatever]man style of name. Hawkman, Aquaman, and so on.

Spider-Man changes things up. He's not Spiderman, or Spider Man, he's Spider-Man. The third most popular hero is the most misspelled. In fact, "Spiderman" is more popular than "Spider-Man" on Google Trends:

The correct spelling is the least popular one. Even mainstream media tends to format it as "Spiderman" for movie reviews and such.

But why is it Spider-Man? Just to be tricky? Because it looks better? No, there's a purpose behind it.

Batman is Batman because he's a man that's like a bat. He wears a bat symbol and styled his costume after bats for the sole purpose of looking scary. He has no bat powers. He's not half-bat half-man. He's a man that digs bats. He's a Batman.

Superman is Superman because super is a prefix. Supersonic, supersede, superfluous. A Super Man would be a man who is super -- but to what? He's Superman because he's superior to man.

Spider-Man, on the other hand, is a man with spider powers. He was bitten by a radioactive spider and his DNA was joined with that of a spider. He's part-spider, part-man; Spider-Man. Like hunter-gatherer or idiot-savant. Spiderman would be a man who's into spiders like Batman is into bats.

Consider the Batman sometimes-villain Man-Bat, who actually is part-man, part-bat. If they just wanted to be clever and reverse Batman's name they'd call him Manbat, but that wouldn't be proper.

Google isn't very interested in setting the record straight.

Consider also Hollywood's newest star superhero (notice that it's not "super hero"), Iron Man.

Clearly he hasn't always been a very popular character outside of comic book (not comicbook) fandom, and until the movie came out the more popular formatting was "Ironman." In the above graph, I had to exclude the word "contest" to get accurate results because the name of that strongman (not strong man) competition where guys from Norway pull schoolbuses (not school buses) with their teeth and throw pianos full of molten lead through second story windows is called the Ironman Contest.

He's not Ironman or Iron-Man, though. He's not half-iron, half-man and he's not just a guy who is really into iron. He is an iron man.

These rules are not rock solid, however. DC and Marvel each have a character called Sandman. DC's was a guy who could put people to sleep, like the Sandman of lore. Marvel's Sandman, who was featured in the cinematic travesty Spider-Man 3, is actually a man made of sand. By the above convention, he should probably be Sand-Man.

There's also a character called Ant-Man, who is entirely Man. He just has the ability to shrink himself to various sizes, including so small as an ant. His costume is usually styled like an ant, more or less, so he should perhaps be Antman. Ant-Man is more visually appealing, though.

If I remember correctly, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby only formatted Spidey's name as "Spider-Man" because it stood out visually. These rules are sort of retconned around that, but they fit, so I win.

As an application of these rules, lets say I wanted to create a character who attacks with a powerful head-butt and wears a costume with rounded horns on his head. Why, he'd be Goatman.

If I made a character who tried to save a goat from entering a nuclear reactor but was caught in a blast along with the goat, and then suddenly gained the ability to stand up straight on steep cliffs and eat tin cans, he would be Goat-Man.

Further, if the character instead dressed in goat hides and used a melee weapon made from a goat's skull, he would probably be Goat Man.