There are at least 100 people in the U.S. with the last name of "Stane" (as confirmed by whitepages.com).
Still, "Obadiah Stane" does sound like it came from an on-line "What's Your Evil Corporate Exec Name?" generator ("You are...: Josiah Power").
Exactly.
I figured there might be someone with that name somewhere...but a Google search didn't turn up anything so I thought I'd go out on a limb.
100 people isn't many!
I don't know, if I can take Jack Kirby's Fourth World names, I can take "Obidiah Stane." "Obidiah" is more of a hiccup than "Stane," really.
Speaking of odd names, I haven't read it yet, but has "Enter the Mandarin" explained why the Mandarin would opt to go by that name? To my ears, an actual Chinese person wouldn't use that for a nom de guerre unless he was aiming for irony. It's a little like a white supervillain naming himself the "Fan-Gwai-Lo" (Cantonese for "foreign devil" or "foreign ghost"). It's a name that someone else uses for another group of people, and generally not something you'd use to identify yourself. It's one of a long list of things about Marvel's attempts to be Chinese that always kind of rub me the wrong way (Shang-chi and original Iron Man dictator "Wong Chu" are two others; Fin Fang Foom is generally excused due to the Rule of Cool).
I have a feeling it was originally how the West referred to him- like someone would refer to me as "The Kentuckian"- but I honestly don't know. That's a good point. I really have never pondered the meaning of the name all these years!
As far as I can remember, it wasn't discussed in the miniseries.
I still think if care is taken, he would be a great villain for the sequel.
Commenting by HaloScan
