• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Apocalypse's name doesn't make sense it Arabic

Sems4arsenal

Sems4arsenal

Member
Apr 7, 2019
3,627
Unfortunately, I recently had the (dis)pleasure of watching X-men Apocalypse. The one thing I loved was the opening. Really cool soundtracks with some decent shots ..... well until I found out his original name is En Sabah Nur. Sabah Nur actually translates to Good Morning in Arabic; so you can see how that scene where people are worshiping him amid loud cries of GOOD MORNING was hilarious to me and everyone else watching the movie.

Had me wondering if there are other comic book heroes/villains who have ridiculous "foreign" names.

Edit: Slight mistake in the title.
 
Violet

Violet

Alt account
Banned
Feb 7, 2019
3,263
dc
It's his original name from the comics. Marvel was attempting to name him "The First One" but sort of accidentally translate to "The First Light/The Morning Light" which is where the good morning thing comes from.
 

CanUKlehead

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,406
Ha, that's great

In Halo, the alien name of the Grunts is Unggoy which is Filipino for monkey. That's gotta be intentional.
 
Aurica

Aurica

音楽オタク - Comics Council 2020
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
23,496
A mountain in the US
You should suggest a title change to add (X-Men). I knew what this would be about, but I'm sure many won't and won't click.

As for ridiculous foreign names, although it's an authentic name, Akira Yoshida is ridiculous for other reasons.
 
Lump

Lump

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,034
Yes, but have you seen the Arabic tattoo worn by a contestant in Netflix's The Circle?

xFX5P9a_d.jpg
 
TAJ

TAJ

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
12,446
Did someone at Marvel think that because Arabic is spoken in Egypt today that ancient Egyptians spoke Arabic? That's hilarious.
 
Aurica

Aurica

音楽オタク - Comics Council 2020
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
23,496
A mountain in the US
Sabretooth said:
This makes me curious. Why is it ridiculous?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
He's actually the current Editor in Chief at Marvel, named CB Cebulski. Earlier in his career, he was an editor. There was a rule against editors also writing comics, so he created a fake name in order to get around that. He's a white man that took a Japanese name to write Japanese-inspired stories and characters a lot. Not only that, but the comics are bad.
 
Sabretooth

Sabretooth

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,067
India
Aizō said:
He's actually the current Editor in Chief at Marvel, named CB Cebulski. Earlier in his career, he was an editor. There was a rule against editors also writing comics, so he created a fake name in order to get around that. He's a white man that took a Japanese name to write Japanese-inspired stories and characters a lot. Not only that, but the comics are bad.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Holy crap, this is some galaxy brain shit.
 
jph139

jph139

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,379
Dude is an ancient Egyptian with an Arabic name and a big fat Latin A on his belt. Frankly he's kind of a mess, conceptually.
 
808s & Villainy

808s & Villainy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
42,700
So what part doesn't make sense? Lots of languages have names made out of random words/phrases in that language put together
 
HStallion

HStallion

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
62,262
jph139 said:
Dude is an ancient Egyptian with an Arabic name and a big fat Latin A on his belt. Frankly he's kind of a mess, conceptually.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Isn't the idea he's had like thousands of names over the ages? I always thought En Sabah Nur was just one of them.

That said nothing beats a Scotsman playing an ancient Egyptian pretending to be a Spaniard.
 
BebopCola

BebopCola

Member
Jul 17, 2019
2,061
Also him taking the name "Apocalypse" is a paradox, as the Celestial who tasked him with being their agent said something like, "Greetings Apocalypse, which you will one day call yourself," shortly after he had helped overthrow Kang in ancient Egypt and still went by Nur (or after he and SHIELD beat the Brood, I can't exactly remember - his history is wonderfully convoluted as only comics can be)
 
BKatastrophe

BKatastrophe

Member
Oct 28, 2017
13,359
HStallion said:
Isn't the idea he's had like thousands of names over the ages? I always thought En Sabah Nur was just one of them.

That said nothing beats a Scotsman playing an ancient Egyptian pretending to be a Spaniard.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, but En Sabah Nur was played as his "true" or original name. Currently, X-Men has him being referred to as just Apocalypse and Excalibur by a name that is a whole different language all together.
 
IDreamOfHime

IDreamOfHime

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,441
His name doesn't make sense in English either. If you're gonna name yourself Apocalypse, you gotta provide a good Apocalypse.

Thanos does what Apocalypse don't
 
Jasup

Jasup

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,435
Yurop
Well the word apocalypse stems from christian tradition. Its original greek meaning is reveal, and it was used in early christianity to point to the time Christ reveals himself at the end of current world. So if you look at it from that perspective "good morning" is not that far fetched as it's supposed to be the beginning of the kingdom of god. But of course the meaning of the word has changed a bit over time centering more on the destruction of the world part.
 

Monsterqken

Member
Dec 26, 2019
415
The norwegians localized Dumbledore to Humlesnurr (my best attempt to translate this back to english: Bumblewhizz), as a swede it sounds completely ridiculous and first time I noticed it was in the subtitles during Dumbledore's death. Burst out laughing in the cinema. Just couldn't help myself.
 
MajesticSoup

MajesticSoup

Banned
Feb 22, 2019
1,935
Monsterqken said:
The norwegians localized Dumbledore to Humlesnurr (my best attempt to translate this back to english: Bumblewhizz), as a swede it sounds completely ridiculous and first time I noticed it was in the subtitles during Dumbledore's death. Burst out laughing in the cinema. Just couldn't help myself.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Dumbledore a pretty funny name in English too though?
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,143
Comicbook writers are hilarious when they try to be cute with "ethnic" names. Perfect example Morrison's super young team
 
You must log in or register to reply here.