Andrew Furdell of The Search For Schlock podcast set himself a challenge to read all the Avengers comics, from the beginning up until now. (He’s currently stuck somewhere in the mid-’90s, a period in which the Avengers got super into bomber jackets.) In his readings, he discovered that he kept reading different stories, all called “Sins Of The Father.”
He started to wonder what other titles had become overused clichés in the world of comics, and before long, he’d put together a really extensive graph of the most overused titles by both DC and Marvel. You can search by publisher, by character family or by writer. There’s also a sidebar showing all the “Wh*[verb] the [noun]” titles —”What Makes the Man,” “When Fails the Quest,” etc. — and whether or not said titles are written by Stan Lee.
Here are a few of his findings:
- “Homecoming” is the most overused title by far, having been used more than 40 times between the two publishers.
- Marvel and DC have published six stories called “Sins Of The Father” each, as well as an addition three “Sins Of The Fathers” apiece.
- DC published seven stories called “The Beginning Of The End,” and six more called “The End Of The Beginning.”