Man of Steel. Man in Blue. The Big Boy Scout. These are all nicknames used for Superman.

When using the phrase 'man of steel', for example, in a sentence, when should it be capitalized "Man of Steel" and when should it be left lowercase "man of steel"? Are some nicknames more likely to be capitalized than others?

This is one of those blurry line issues I'm never sure on.

What do you think?

I vote yes, capitalize them. Like Bobby Bigmouth would not be written as Bobby bigmouth. Or Batman would be The Caped Crusader, not the caped crusader. At least, that's how I've always seen it written and it seems more "proper" to me to capitalize the famous nicknames when it is being used as a nickname.

So, for example, I would write this way:

"A man of steel," Lex Luthor growled under his breath as he watched the bullets bounce off Superman's chest.

"So much for the Man of Steel," Luthor gloated, as the Kryptonite bullet tore through Superman's shoulder.

So, when a man in blue become THE Man in Blue, then you switch to capitalization? That makes sense.

That's what I was taught in school, at any rate. As long as it is being used as a name. Superman would be The Man in Blue. But you could write:

The man in blue crossed his arms as Lois took out her notepad.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Kal-El," the man replied.

See? Here, "the man in blue" is just an identifier, not a name. Though I have seen identifiers sometimes capitalized as well, especially if that is the *only* way a character is referred to in a story. So, if Superman/Kal/Clark is never used, as a name, and he is only called "the man in blue," then I would write it as "The Man in Blue."

Know what I mean?

I would agree. Because of everything Vicki said, and because whenever I accidentally don't capitalize it when it's used as a nickname, I regret it immediately when I notice it.

If the phrase is standing in place of a name, we should capitalize it. Thus if it would be "Superman ran and caught the falling plane." But you want to vary your usage and say "The Man of Steel ran and caught the falling plane." It should be capitalized there.