The Adjectival Superhero

Mrs. Chandler: My! Marlo wasn't exaggerating. I see... green skin... amazing! Hulk: No. Spider-Man is amazing. I'm incredible. —The Incredible Hulk #417

"Of all the descriptive names of all the things people say when they hear a hero in action, The Amazing Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk, The Invincible Iron Man, the only descriptive word for this guy is 'The God-damn Batman!" —SF Debris on The Dark Knight

A Comic Book Naming Convention - sort of - with roots in the Silver Age. The superhero's name is preceded by some sort of silly, over-the-top adjective. Usually in the actual book's title even if rarely used in the story.

Keep in mind that not just any descriptors qualify for the trope - "New Trope-Man" is too simple, but "All-New, All-Different Trope-Man" can be sufficiently over-the-top. Now mostly used in the modern day either due to the Grandfather Clause or as a deliberate homage to the Silver Age. If the superhero gets a movie, expect the descriptor to be used at least once.

Comes from the same era as Something Person names and Superhero Sobriquets, and often provides Added Alliterative Appeal. Replace a team's name with the number of members, and you have The Notable Numeral. Also compare other name and title tropes involving adjectives, Adjective Noun Fred and The Magnificent. Contrast the Dark Age of Supernames. See also The Fantastic Trope of Wonderous Titles.

Not to be confused with The Adjectival Man, where the adjective is the main part of the character's "name". In this trope, the adjective is just thrown in for the heck of it.

Examples of The Adjectival Superhero include:

Anime and Manga

• Especially in the 70s and 80s, there was a trend to give hyperbolic name to Humongous Mecha series. Example: Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh, which translates literally into "Absolutely Invincible Thundergod-King". The 90s largely replace it with Word Salad Title, such as Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, as a Reconstruction of the Super Robot genre, would be a callback to this - the protagonists' main mecha is the Gurren Lagann, and "Tengen Toppa" means "Heaven-Piercing". However, the two most powerful mecha the heroes use are actually called the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, being the size of a galaxy and a hundred times bigger respectively.
• The Great Saiyaman!

Comics

• Marvel Comics is the king of this:
  • The Amazing/Spectacular/Sensational Spider-Man, although Spidey himself prefers "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" (which eventually became a short-lived Spidey title). He may well have been the Trope Codifier for this, as his first appearance was in Amazing Fantasy, which was soon after canceled, and replaced on the newsstands with Amazing Spider-Man.
    • Spider-Girl also eventually inherited Amazing and later Spectacular from her dad.
    • Also seen: the Dark Avengers' Costume Copycat is the Sinister Spider-Man.
    • What do you get when Spidey regularly teams up with Avengers and other superheroes? A series called The Avenging Spider-Man!
    • When improvising a mask out of a paper bag, he became the Amazing or the Bombastic Bag-Man.
    • After joining the Future Foundation (formerly known as the Fantastic Four), he's the Fantastic Spider-Man.
  • X-Men has Uncanny, Astonishing, and (briefly) X-Treme.
  • In general, when a franchise has multiple books, some of them will have adjectives in their titles and one won't; this one is usually given the Fan Nickname "The Adjectiveless ________".
    • Marvel also uses "All-New, All-Different" from time to time. It originated with a roster overhaul for the X-Men, and is now a go-to phrase to hype up ReTools and relaunches.
  • The Invincible Iron Man
  • The Incredible Hulk. This one actually transferred to two television shows and a movie.
    • Lampshaded by Peter David (who else?) in a story where the Hulk meets Rick Jones' mother-in-law. When she exclaims "Green skin! Amazing!" he replies "No, Spider-Man is amazing. I'm incredible!"
    • There was also Rampaging Hulk, but honestly nobody cares.
    • When Hercules took over Hulk's book, he gained the Incredible moniker.
  • The Savage/Sensational She Hulk
    • The titles are currently being used to differentiate between multiple She-Hulks: The "Sensational" She-Hulk is Banner's cousin Jennifer Walters; while the "Savage" She-Hulk is Lyra, the Hulk's daughter from an alternate future.
  • The Mighty Thor
  • The Immortal Iron Fist
  • The Astonishing Ant-Man
    • This adjective serves as a reference to the fact the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym, made his first appearance in the anthology comic Tales To Astonish.
    • The latest Ant-Man was a complete Jerkass, so his series was titled The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
  • There's a D- or E-list joke hero called the Fabulous Frog-Man.
    • Who eventually gained a sidekick in the Tenacious Tadpole.
  • The Craptacular B-Sides, a lesser-known Marvel team.
  • The Fantastic Four (itself a Notable Numeral) has the Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing.
  • When The Avengers split, the pro-registration team became the Mighty Avengers. (There have been other "_____ Avengers" teams, but none with titles quite overblown enough for the trope.)
  • Ghost Rider villain the Orb insists on being known as the All-New Orb.
  • Averted with Doctor Strange, who uses Superhero Sobriquets instead, but his enemies often fit this trope (the Dread Dormammu, the Unrelenting Umar).
  • Marvel even made fun of themselves for this trope back in the '60s with Not Brand Echh. For example, their muscular green guy in ripped pants was the Inedible Bulk. You whippersnappers might have seen him in Nextwave.
  • The Awesome Slapstick.
• Thanks to All-Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder and Memetic Mutation, DC finally has one: "the Goddamn Batman".
• The Savage Dragon. Yes, contrary to popular belief, Officer Dragon lacks a first name and does not go by "Savage" in-story.
  • And fellow Image character The Astounding Wolf Man.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures spinoff The Mighty Mutanimals.
• As a superhero parody, normalman has been called the Unconvinceable normalman and the Excruciatingly Average normalman.
• Back in 2006, DC busted out The All-New Atom! Sadly, they brought back the original Atom not long after, and the all-new one got left by the roadside.
• The Incredible Popeman. Not as serious as the other examples, obviously.
• The Terrific Whatzit, DC's first Funny Animal superhero (named "Whatzit" since he was a turtle who in his superhero identity didn't wear his shell, making it harder to tell what species he was), a turtle with the powers/costume of the Golden Age Flash (and Johnny Quick's flying/strength abilities).
• DC's New 52 reboot includes The Savage Hawkman.

Film

• The Talented Mr. Ripley
• The Incredible Mr. Limpet
• The Amazing Mr Blunden (the children's book it was based on, originally titled The Ghosts, was republished under this title too).

Literature

• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Live Action Television

• The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
  • Borderline, as it's sort of the team's proper name (at least compared to all the other Power Rangers teams there have been since then). However the original show was supposed to be one season, so it counts.
• The Big Bad Beetleborgs.
• Discussed in the episode of The Big Bang Theory "The Hofstadter Isotope" since Penny knows that her nephew wants a Spider-Man comic book for his birthday but is unfamiliar with the adjectival system.

Music

• An S Club 7 song refers to the band as "The One and Only Wonderful S Club"
• The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
• The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Their earliest compilation appearances credited them as just The Bosstones (which is still something fans call them for short), but it turned out there had already been a group called The Bosstones in the 50's.

Theater

• The Unsinkable Molly Brown

Video Games

• In City of Heroes, starting at level 15, you can choose an adjective title for your character. At 25, you can add a second adjective (or just choose from a separate list). The complete list of titles is here.

Webcomics

• From Girl Genius: The Unstoppable Airman Higgs.
• Parodied with "The Mundane Spider-Man" in this 'Savage Chickens.

Western Animation

• The episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where Michelangelo adopts a superhero identity is called "The Unconvincing Turtle Titan".
• The Infamous Paper Doll Man!
• The Mighty Hercules
• The Great and Powerful Trixie from the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode "Boast Busters."
  • And don't forget "The Mysterious Mare Do Well."
• Briefly invoked at the beginning of Spectacular Spider Man, though it's rarely used after that.
• Ultimate Spider-Man, on the other hand, is known to abuse of this trope in-Universe. Pretty ironical considering the serie has nothing to do with the comic book of the same name and said comic never had Spidey referring to himself that way.

Other

• Several college sports teams, like the Fighting Illini and the Fighting Irish.
  • And on The Simpsons, the Fighting Hellfish!
  • And on The Colbert Report, whenever Colbert does his "Better Know A (Congressional) District" segment the district is called "The Fighting Xth".
• In the League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions is The Amazing Quantum Man.
• The Fabulous Hudson Hornet, from NASCAR in the '50s but more would probably know it from being referenced in Cars.
• The Pervasive Simon-man and Unbreakable Indie Girl is a story about a duo of crimefighters who apparently have read their Marvel comics.