Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of comic book history that interests me.

One of the things that has mostly gone by the wayside in comic book writing is that few writers try to write the Hulk like they used to (well, obviously, no one CURRENTLY writes the Hulk, because he's dead, but you know what I mean). Gone is the days of "Puny humans, leave Hulk alone!"

Anyhow, back in those days, the Hulk was famous for the short nicknames that he would give hie "teammates" (quotes because the Defenders were a non-team team) in the Defenders. I'll try to list as many as I can...

DOCTOR STRANGE = Magician or Dumb Magician

Just "Magician" was first in "Defenders" #2 (after calling him just "Doctor Strange" at first)...

then it became the more specific DUMB Magician...

NAMOR = Fish-Man

This was a go-to for the Hulk...

SILVER SURFER = Silver One and Shiny Face

He didn't seem to have a consistent one for Silver Surfer...

VALKYRIE = Girl and then Sword-Girl

This was a weird one for many years. Just girl!

Later, when Hellcat also joined, Hulk HAD to come up with a new nickname for Valkyrie, so he went with Sword-Girl...

HAWKEYE = Purple man

purple man

Short-lived teammate, Hawkeye, was also "Stick Man."

NIGHTHAWK = Bird-Nose

Long-time teammate, Nighthawk, got Bird-Nose right away...

It stuck, even when his costume changed to his more familiar look...

HELLCAT = Cat-Girl

Another longtime Defender, Hellcat, got the Cat-Girl nickname from Hulk very quickly...

MOON KNIGHT - Moon Man

Moon Knight was really only briefly a Defender, but long enough to count!

I don't believe that the Hulk ever came up with a nickname for Hellstrom or Gargoyle, but I could be wrong! Feel free to write in with some nicknames that we missed!

If anyone else has a cool piece of comic book history that they'd like to see featured, feel free to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!