1012: Wrong Superhero
| Wrong Superhero |
 Title text: Hi! Someone call for me? I'm a superhero who specializes in the study of God's creation of Man in the Book of Genesi-- HOLY SHIT A GIANT BUG! |
Explanation
The super hero from just two comics ago, Etymology-Man, returns. And just like that comic, Etymology-Man is explaining the origination of words instead of actually helping. Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.
Who they want is Entomology-Man because they are fighting a giant praying mantis and an army of little praying mantises. Honestly, those "little" praying mantises still look huge compared to the typical size of mantises. Entomology is the study of insects.
In the title text, we find out instead of getting Entomology-Man, they accidentally call a superhero of Etiology. Etiology is the study of causation, or origination. Thus, Etiology-Man would be a superhero studying the origination of man in Genesis.
Transcript
- [A giant praying mantis and its legion of regular-sized praying mantises attacks a team of scientists. Two of them fight back, with a gun and a baseball bat respectively, while a third is in the mantis' clutches, held aloft by his foot, his goggles falling off his face. Bullets whiz by the giant mantis' head, and a fourth scientist hides behind a desk, on which rests a microscope and an Erlenmeyer flask. A man in a cape approaches the hiding scientist.]
- Caped man: Ah, no — you wanted ENTOmology-Man, spelled with an "N". See, it's from the Greek entomon, meaning "insect", which is itself the neuter form of entomos, meaning "segmented" or...
- BLAM BLAM BLAM
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Maybe they wanted to know what the plural form of mantis is, if more were to show up? Looks like a job for etymology man. Davidy22(talk) 14:30, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
So what is the title text referring too? 108.162.221.98 14:54, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
The title text is referring to Genesis 2:20: "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field." In Biblical terms, this verse explains how all names of creatures (including praying mantises) came to be. Apparently Etymology-Man has studied this. -- Npsych (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
adam-ology make more sense than the other guesses173.245.56.65 07:48, 1 November 2015 (UTC)
Didn't Portal 2 make a reference to giant mantises in one of cave johnson's prerecorded messages? maybe the comic is a bit of a reference to that. --Flamewolf (talk) 19:50, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
Maybe the title text is a pun on arthropodology[1] and (theological) anthropology[2]? 162.158.69.184 18:20, 27 October 2016 (UTC)
I suggest they asked for another hero fighting the mantis, but who came was "man-theology-man" (not manteology-man).
Perhaps the alt-text references Ethnology-Man? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnology
Ok, I'm making etymology man a minor character. Beanie (talk) 11:12, 13 May 2021 (UTC)
"Man-theology-man" also makes sense. 2605:B100:E01F:D973:4131:8843:36E5:47C7 02:00, 26 July 2025 (UTC)
They should have called Eschatology Man, student of the book of Revelation. Eschatology is the study of stories about the end of the world. Nitpicking (talk) 01:57, 23 September 2021 (UTC)
I removed the reference to "Adam-ology" man, as that makes no sense, and someone who takes Etymology as seriously as Randall clearly had one of the other options in mind. PotatoGod (talk) 07:34, 7 February 2025 (UTC)
If it's obviously one of the other ones, which one is it? 2605:B100:E01F:D973:65FD:BCDD:B719:9599 22:39, 24 July 2025 (UTC)
- I'd probably suggest Etiology, as a front runner.
- Note that "specializes in the study of God's creation of Man in the Book of Genesis" is qn overcomplicated clue for "Adamology" (not a real thing, except as a neologism largely unrelated to the specific Adam of Genesis). To "specialise in the first man of the Book Of Genesis" would be an easier/sharper pointer straight to "Adamology", losing the "creation of" bit. And "Man" (humanity) to "man" (that male human).
- Plus the pronunciation differences to reach something like "etiol-" from "entymol-" take less 'effort' (dropping two very similar soft consonants, as I would say each) than getting to "adamol-" (two completely different vowel-shifts, unless perhaps you're speaking with something like a strong stereotypicals New Zealand accent for some reason, and a recharacterised hard-consonant). And even closer from "etymol-" (just losing the "m").
- So more complicated than it needs to be, IMO, either if you're trying to back-form the non-dictionary specialism of "Adam"'s or go looking for something else to have as an error and land on "Adam". Seems to me, Randall'd use one of the established words, part of the fun being to educate us about it. YMMV, but I think I can justify that it tips the balance. 82.132.247.115 07:19, 25 July 2025 (UTC)
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