Everyone knows that most ideas for characters in comics have been done and redone, but some characters are just blatant ripoffs of others. At the top of my list of ripoff characters are "Pitt" (a grey ripoff of Hulk with long hair and claws), "Badrock" (a grey ripoff of Thing, right down to his facial structure and the way he talked), "Captain Marvel/SHAZAM" (a blatant attempt by Fawcette Publications to capitalize on the popularity of the then brand new Superman character all the way back in the Golden Age of 1940), and of course, Wolverine's popularity gave birth to a whole generation of ripoff, claw-wielding psycho fighters.
What are your top picks for BLATANT RIPOFFS of other characters?
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i dont think pitt is a hulk rip-off though, but thats just me
i think some story arcs rip-off stories from books, for example GL:rebirth has them exploring the ring and basically make it sound like The One Ring from LOTR
Yeah, but that was a story adaptation. But you're right; it came out at the right time to play off the popularity of the LOTR movies. The difference is, it won't become a character with its own story to ripoff another character on a continual basis.
Pitt was a grey Hulk with claws and long hair. He talked the same, he looked the same, he had the same powers, and his very own little Rick Jones to ride around with him and get into trouble. Blatant ripoff. Did you ever read the Hulk vs Pitt crossover? On the cover, they're facing each other and they look like twins.
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"The only guide to a man is his conscience... with this shield, however fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor."
The original Wonder Man (not Marvel, theirs came later on and the name was free so they took it) was so blatantly a Superman ripoff, the publishers were ordered to stop making his comics. This was very early on so the laws regarding public fictional characters where a bit different. A similar thing happened with Captain Marvel, but they only had to pay a massive sum to DC, leaving them nigh bankrupt, so afterwards they sold all their assetts to DC.
Squadron Supreme anyone? Although there's actually a good reason for them. Back when they debuted, the writers on JLA and Avengers wanted to a crossover. Too much redtape and too many editors saying "no" kept them from it. So the writers basically made the ripoff teams of the others and told the story they wanted to. We got Squadron Supreme, with a much longer lasting legacy, and later on they told the FIRST "Superheroes take over and run the world" story. Though it's been redone, and done better since then, it was a FIRST.
In JLA the same month, roughly, as when the Squadron debuted, we saw a few suspicioulsy familiar characters appearing in JLA, they were familiar as they were Avengers knockoffs! They've appeared here and there since then, but didn't have the staying power of Squadron Supreme.
Prime from Malibu is a SHAZAM ripoff, I think. Although, in place of pantheon and wizard, we get covert military stuff. They're both kids who transform into powerful bodies capable of flight, awesome feats of superstrength etc.
Aquaman is a Namor ripoff. Dual species heritage, king of Atlantis etc. Although Namor has the footwings and superstrength.
Red Raven is a Hawkman ripoff, a human adopted by a species of Bird People after a plane crash, and given artificial wings capable of endowing him with flight. He's also been seen with a mace....hmmm.
Wizzer was a Flash ripoff, quite blatantly. They wanted to cash in on the speedster archetype.
Thin Man was actually the first stretching hero, predating Plastic Man by about a year. So people saying Mr. Fantastic is a Plastic Man ripoff are actually wrong, it was just Stan recycling ideas from earlier Marvel heroes.
Patriot, Defender and others were Cap ripoffs, though all made by the same company.
Though not all that similar, the original Vision, Aarkus was an extradimensional alien, with a green countenance. He could fly and do a host of stuff depending on the story. There are some Martian Manhunter parallels.
Prime was definitely a shazam rip off, but in a much sicker way lol
this isnt a rip-off but i always thought it was weird that there were two human torch's one being in fantastic four and the other being an alien or something
The first was an android, who's body was later doubled by Kang/Immortus and turned into the second Vision by Ultron, or something like that.
Stan reused a lot of ideas and characters for the FF. The FF, at first personality wise were based off of Doc Savage and his adventuring pals. Savage's brilliant mind went to Reed, while his toughness went to Ben. Other supporting characters in the book lent more traits to the others, Johnny's impetuosness, Sue's shyness at first, etc. As for powers, Timely (later Marvel) had published Thin Man, a character Rock Man and an Invisible character before. Stan took older ideas, put new slants on them, mashed them up in a pot a bit, and lent what was then, current public attitudes to them. Being published first in 1963, the FF were in a small measure a Cold War anti-Red propaganda. They went up in the rocket in the first place to "beat those dastardly Commies!"
Off their site, a sketch the guy did at Comic Con. There was a news post that went with it, but I'm unable to find it. The writer says something like "I was unaware that there was a person in the comics industry who's main role was to suck horribly."
The Young Blood hat's a great touch lol.
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__________________ The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
i dont think think so, he's kind of a spectre duplicate but he has multiple personalities due to his different aliases, which i think is a good quality no other comic book characters have
The urban night stalker type character will always be popular. In comics people can site Batman as the first, but before him there was the Shadow and others. It's all just new people putting a spin on their favorite archetypes. I think Moon Knight borrows from Wayne a bit, a philantropist in one guise, the cape, sigil on the chest, his crescent plane, crescent darts (batarangs) and more. Although, with his bit of multiple personality disorder leads to some new parts of the character.
I also love his aforementioned supernatural slant. His connection to the Egyptian pantheon and super strength that waxes and wanes with the phases of the moon, it lets him do some cooler stuff than just a guy dressed up like a bat.
imo, it borrows from spectre and not batman at all, just because he has themed weapons/gadgets/vehicles doesnt necessarily make him like batman, imo its not something batman made
I'm not that familar with Spectre, so you are most likely correct. Although Moon Knight could borrow from Batman, who in turn borrows from Spectre. It's a veritable festival of character infringement!
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Nov 29th, 2004 11:10 PM
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