I love words and phrases and funny names. I love it when new ones pop up and I love it when they get shortened, abbreviated and all slanged up as technology alters the way we communicate.

I especially like the words, slang and proper names that show up in comic books.

Back in the 1970s, Marvel Comics' writers contributed lots of great character names, words and phrases to the MU.

Sometimes it was driven by censorship - the Comics Code Authority didn't allow mainstream comics to use the word "zombie," so Marvel invented "zuvembie." Or giving Luke Cage a Code-approved exclamation like "Sweet Christmas!"

Mostly it was driven by tremendously creative writers like Steve Gerber twisting and tweaking the language and coming up with names like F. A. Schist and Dr. Bong, and Steve Englehart creating Roxxon Oil, and Don McGregor, Archie Goodwin, Gerry Conway, and others piling on.

In the 1990s, of course, there were so many super-heroes popping up that pretty much any noun or verb could be hero'd up and stuck in a cape, thigh-high boots and/or a gun the size of the Empire State Building. Like, say, Ash, Prime, Backlash, Vogue, Combat or Cable.

In the last couple of years, a lot of great words have cropped up, some new and some old.

I think many of them would make perfect names for super-heroes. Now, in the spirit of X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, New X-Men, and Ultimate X-Men, I present my special super-hero team for 2011: The Topical X-Men…

10. Huckabee

9. Wiki

8. Teabagger

7. Hacktivist

6. Vuvuzela

5. Bankster

4. Hashtag

3. Tweet

2. Foreclose

1. Birther

Now, who's on your team?

[Artwork: Cover to New X-Men: Academy X Vol. 2: Haunted, © Marvel Comics]