Superhero doppelgangers: These DC and Marvel characters are surprisingly similar
They may exist in parallel universes, but heroes like Iron Man and Batman and villains like Thanos and Darkseid have more in common than you realize
Film Features Superman
Ever since the Marvel Universe was born with the publication of Fantastic Four #1 in 1961, the worlds of Marvel and DC have been evolving in parallel. That has inevitably led to certain mirror images appearing in comics and on screen. Many of those characters underline the various creative and structural links between the two universes, and how that’s shaped the history of superhero fiction as we now know it.
With DC Studios co-head James Gunn recently unveiling his ambitious first chapter of film and TV projects known as “Gods And Monsters,” comparisons between the MCU and DCU will of course keep growing—but where are the strongest character links right now? Let’s take a closer look. From strident defenders of humanity to complex antiheroes, these are the DC and Marvel heroes who match up most closely in their journeys from the comics page to the silver screen.
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If we’re doing Iron Man + Batman, we should also do Spiderman + Robin, two acrobatic youths taken under the wing of rich narcissists.
So what? Given such a huge roster of superheroes on both sides, you’re bound to find similar characters in each camp…duh. It’s as if you’re “amazed” that not only are there redheads in Ireland, but there are also redheads in America. Omigosh! How can that be?
I think what’s being missed in this listicle is the substance of the comic book version history. Yes, we’ve got dates and times provided, but many of these characters (and not really the comparisons being drawn here) were created to feed off the popularity of the other publisher’s original version (Thanos and Darkseid being the best comparison here.) I get the A.V. Club lives on clickbait now, so they’re going with movie representations, but this conversation (and the inaccurate pairings) looses the thread. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is a great history of Marvel’s upset of DC and how these similarities evolved. Slugfest takes more of a balanced look at both companies, but is actually more skewed and poorly written IMO vs MC:TUS. But to say it’s just coincidence is definitely not accurate. There was a lot of espionage, artists and writers jumping back and forth between companies, and intentionality behind the characters that are actually similar (vs. the pairings that seem superficially similar in this list).
Yeah, I actually enjoyed this listicle (which is interesting because I always hate these), but that’s because I’m not very familiar with either the cinematic or the comic book versions of these characters. But even I surmised that the reason there were similarities is specifically because one publisher would have seen the popularity of the other and gone off that. I was wondering why the article didn’t mention what would seem to me to be that obvious of a reason. Surely they don’t think all of these were just spontaneously separately generated by particularly creative artists rather than a team of marketers who were like see how that hero over there does this and everybody loves it, let’s try it?
Sure, the creators flitted between Marvel and DC. Even Jack Kirby worked for DC with his not-that-cool-of-a-run on the Jimmy Olsen book. (Honest: google it.)And considering how the main superhero powers—invulnerable, can fly, super strength, go invisible—have a limited number of permutations; then you’re gonna have a lot of equal match-ups from both sides of the church of comics. There is not a infinite well of creativity. The artists & writers had to put food on the table, so out comes another iteration of what has already been done in order to get the (whichever) company’s paycheck.And a special shout-out to the lack of movie superhero creativity: the first Wonder Woman flick was plot-point-for-plot-point EXACTLY the same movie as the first Captain America. The two movies are so similar, that if I was the “writer” of the WW flick, I’d be too embarrassed to have my name on the screen credits.
Even Jack Kirby worked for DC with his not-that-cool-of-a-run on the Jimmy Olsen book
This wasn’t a Kirby one, I don’t think, but one time Jimmy Olsen was dressed as a girl, and a mobster was very interested in kissing him. Jimmy wasn’t having that, so he substituted a chimpanzee and the mobster didn’t notice because, as I recall, they were on a train and it was going through a tunnel when Jimmy made the switch.Moral: if you’re cross-dressing to get the goods on a Mafia guy, bring a chimp.
https://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Olsen-Adventures-Jack-Kirby/dp/1563899841https://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Olsen-Adventures-Jack-Kirby/dp/1401202594
“There is not a infinite well of creativity.”I dunno man there are a lot of bugs out there to be supered. Tsetse Fly Man!
Ireland’s not a real place. It was invented by an advertising agency to sell shamrocks.
Thanos was created as a blatant Darkseid rip-off.
No. Thanos’s aesthetic was a blatant rip-off of Darkseid but not the character itself.
Whether you knew it or not, you nailed many of the team-ups / faceoffs that took place in the last major Marvel / DC crossover in 1996. There were also several ‘new’ characters created for what was called the Amalgam Universe that were combinations of many of your choices. Thanos + Darkseid = Thanoseid. Dr Strange + Dr Fate = Dr Strangefate. And so on.It was supposed to be a lived-in comic world where these hybrid characters existed for decades. It was both everything good (fan input, flashy art, surprisingly deep writing) and everything bad (multiple variants, special covers) about comics in the ‘90s wrapped up into one.
Some of these are a stretch.Also: Movie Dr. Fate is by far worst Dr. Fate, one of my favorite characters makes his big screen debut in such a poorly written movie it’s a travesty.
Almost all of these are a stretch, but they definitely lose me at Thor/Wonder Woman.
Some of these are trying to tie movie narratives together, like Winter Soldier obvious DC counterpart is Red Hood.
I did wonder how WB was going to approach Wonder Woman after seeing…Captain America, since Trevor Howard essentially plays the part of Cap. They just moved the setting to the other big war, which mostly worked.
I wondered how WB was going to approach Aquaman, since he apparently just has that one story about his brother attempting a coup (see Justice League, JL King of Atlantis, Young Justice, even Batman Brave and the Bold), after seeing Thor. I guess DC made Aquaman more of an eco-antagonist like Namor in the 1990s.
Black Adam/Hulk is really dumb as well
Yeah that one was probably the worst. At least with Thor and Wonder Woman they have similar hair and fashion sense.
Iunno, I understand the author’s explanations of their coupling pretty well; both are based on gods in different parts of the world, both have to learn about dealing with humans and being on earth, and like they said, both have a fish-out-of-water story in their movies.
Well, of course you’d think that, you’re Quetzalcoatl.
You do understand that this list is not for comic nerd consumption, right?
What’s it doing on the AV Club, then?
That question is like ten years too late, my dude.
Not based on the other threads my dude…I consider myself a bit of a comics nerd, but even I don’t recognize a lot of the second-tier characters being raised up as examples by other posters…which I take as evidence that I’m among my people, and definitely not the alpha.
They both have flowing locks.
And fabulous boots, true.
MOST of these are a stretch.
Yeah I was being generous here really, other than the obvious or well known ripoffs(Darkseid/Thanos, Deathstroke/Deadpool, etc…), they are all pretty big stretches.
The biggest problem is that they limited themselves to only the characters that have appeared in film. If they opened it up to all characters it would have probably been better. Using The Atom instead of Atom Smasher for example.
I didn’t necessarily see the premise of this article as completely “who ripped off who” (apart from the “Who came first?” sections, which seems to imply one copied the other), but rather which pairings could be made thematically – e.g. Thor and WW are both mythical demi-gods created to add new realms of exisitance to their respective universe — not that they look the same. If they were going for straight plagerism/copying, there are so many obviously better examples: Hulk/Solomon Grundy, Man Thing/Swamp Thing, Hawkeye/Green Arrow, Black Cat/Catwoman, Vision/Red Tornado, Professor X/Niles Caulder, Bullseye/Deadshot, Ghost Rider/Atomic Skull, Mr Fantastic/Elongated Man, etc. It just seems like this article couldn’t decide between listing blatant rip-offs (eg. Namor/Aquaman, Thanos/Darkseid, etc.) or more subtle similarities, so it went with a mix of both. *shrug*
Stuff like Quicksilver/Flash, and Namor/Aquaman fit tho. Iron Man/Batman is a bit wonky but I’ve heard that comparison before. The world most is a bit strong.
I had high hopes for Brosnan’s Dr Fate until I realized the movie was a Rock vanity piece. Immediately telling Teth Adam “kneel or die” in order to create an immediately blockbusting fight made clear Fate was simply a narrative pawn.
Yeah the casting was really good too.
Came here to see which ones the A.V. Club would stretch. Winter Soldier and Deadshot is pretty good hahaha what?Because they both use guns?! loooool
lol aw man what Hulk and Black Adam? hahahahahahaha Marvel should sue over the similarities.
This slideshow topic was a flashback to serious middle school conversations in the early 1980s.
This all just reminded me that the DCEU is the Jim Belushi to MCU’s John Belushi.(That said, Phase 4 has been mostly a snooze)
“You Won’t Believe that Two Comics Brands Tried to Rip Off Each Other’s Ideas!”- The A.V. Club
Congratulations! You’ve done a slideshow that I have seen done better in the last decade countless times on YouTube.Gotta meet that slideshow quota, I get it.
buddy this is sub-wizard magazine shit.
That might be the most specific AND brutal insult I’ve ever seen on these forums.
This article should be compared to Mr. Fantastic because boy is it stretching to make some of these connections.
But then we’d have to compare both to Plastic Man and Elongated Man
Bah! Elongated Man can only stretch – Plastic Man can actually alter his form.
But Elongated man is a detective!
I swear, this used to be a good website.
Golden Agouti Gerbil >>> Mickey Mouse
Accurate
Marvel and DC movies are totally different!! DC movies are darker, Marvel brighter, but both have equally shitty CGI. Also, yes, the characters are all pretty much the same. Take my $20 (yet again).
DC’s “The Atom” (Ray Palmer) was created first in 1961, then Ant-Man was created a year later, and Hank Pym’s Giant Man persona was created by Marvel in 1963.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(Ray_Palmer)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-Man
I always thought Vision and the Martian Manhunter have more in common. Vision and Cyborg? Superman/Cap is a better comparison, and one I often use when people complain Superman is “boring.”
I always thought Vision had more in common with Red Tornado. And Superman seemed like a direct inspiration for Sentry and Hyperion as opposed to Cap.
A lot of these pairings are super forced.
Yes, so they could get 19 slides.
The Hulk / Black Adam is a real eye roll.
I could definitely see people considering Superman boring if all they’ve seen is the live action movies. Everything after Superman 2 was just progressively worse for the character and Superman Returns started the phase where charisma was drained from the character.
Superman/Cap is a better comparison, and one I often use when people complain Superman is “boring.”
Same. Marvel managed to make the straight arrow Cap incredibly compelling, without sacrificing his moral compass. Not sure why WB can’t go that route with Supes.
This is a shit carousel to generate pageviews and comments
The Aquaman movie desperately wanted to be Black Panther.
I’d prefer if it desperately wanted to be watchable.
Two words: Wet Wakanda.
Aquakanda.
Yes. All I could think when I saw the Black Adam trailer was… uhm… isn’t Edward Norton supposed to be in this?
Talk about super obvious (rich dudes in suits) are stretching it at the same time with these.
Moon Knight = Batman
Legitimately shocked this lazy premise of an article doesn’t even bother to compare Hawkeye with Green Arrow
Woof – most these are kind of a stretch. Leaving aside characters who are clear carbon copies of others (e.g. Superman=Hyperion & Gladiator, Batman=Nighthawk) there are probably better analogues for most. Let’s find out:1 – I’ll give you Cap and Superman, both are sort of the standard-bearers/tone-setters for their respective continuities, both often considered corny2 – Batman/Iron Man. Because they’re rich? Nah- back in the day like two-thirds of all super-heroes were moonlighting plutocrats (the rest were reporters). Batman and Spider-man share a motivation (though it drives them in different directions). Iron Man’s analogues would be more like Steel, or possibly Lex Luthor, depending on which era of Tony Stark we’re talking about. 3 Namor/Aquaman, obviously yes4 Doctors Fate and Strange, again: clearly yes 5 Winter soldier is probably most analogous to the Jason Todd version of Red Hood. As for Deadshot, throw a dart at any pile of comics from the 90’s and you’ll hit some guy whose power is “I have a gun.”6 Thor and Wonder Woman? Kind of, I guess – sure for the mythological world stuff. Thor also plays a similar Big Guy role to Superman though. (If Captain Marvel/Shazam was a bigger player in DC, he’d be the obvious choice because: Lightning, and also OG Marvel Thor had the same magical body-transformation gimmick as Shazam. 7 Hulk and Black Adam – not really at all, except they’re both strong. I was always more of a Marvel reader and don’t think DC did much in the way of monstrous heroes, but off the top of my head The Hulk analogue would be Captain Atom: they share a radioactive origin and for both their powers are a mixed blessing at best. The Black Adam analog is the Sentry – again the body-swapping gimmick, ultra-violence, and both are pretty derivative of Moore’s/Gaiman’s Marvelman. Also no one likes Sentry. 8 Flash/Quicksilver, clearly9 Captain Marvel/Green Lantern. No. Captain Marvel originally was Shazam, and currently is Wonder Woman. Green Lantern is Nova. That last one might violate my “no carbon copies” rule, but I think the GL corps and Nova Corps have gone far enough in different directions to count as their own things. 10 Ant Man/Atom Smasher. Probably Ant Man and The Atom instead? Lots of guys get small and big. 11 Amanda Waller is far more Nick Fury than she is Thunderbolt Ross. 12 Enchantress just isn’t a big enough player to be an analog to Scarlet Witch. Might as well say Scarlet Witch is analogous to Bette Middler from Hocus Pocus because they’re both witches. 13 Black Widow/Huntress? Sure I guess. DC probably has a spy/ninja type who’s a better fit, but whatever. 14 Punisher/Peacemaker (and Killshot and Deadeye and Bushwacker and Nuke and Paladin and Grifter and Deadshot etc.) There are a million of these guys and they all suck. 15 Vision/Cyborg. A stretch. Probably more like Vision<->Amazo/Brainiac 5. and Cyborg<-> War Machine. Comics love turning black characters into robots. It’s weird. 16 Thanos/Darkseid: Carbon Copy violation17 Deathstroke/Deadpool: see Thanos/Darkseid
9 Captain Marvel/Green Lantern. No. Captain Marvel originally was Shazam,
Wrong Captain Marvel, guy.
Nah – while Marvel’s Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) started as a mere attempt to snag the well-known name, in trying to make the character work, they adopted some of the aspects of Shazam-Marvel: Instead of a kid saying a magic word to transform into an adult superhero, everybody’s kid-sidekick Rick Jones would bang his wrists together to disappear and be replaced with adult Mar-vell. But beyond the same names and gimmicks, Shazam-Marvel and Marvel’s Mar-Vell were basically always second-fiddles, more “important” than interesting.
Batman and Spider-Man are a solid pair for comparison. Spider-Man is (in his most famous incarnations) a kid, and Bruce is effectively trapped in a childhood state of development due to his trauma. Both are defined by their sense of responsibility. Both are orphans who mourn parental figures. In versions where he invents his web-spinners, Spidey even shares Batman’s knack for gadgetry.On a more meta level, I think they’re also both trapped in their crime-fighting pursuits. Guys like Captain America and Superman are heroes because they think it’s a good thing to be. Batman and Spider-Man just don’t know what else to do.
Except Peter Parker always has to have a job, and usually he’s a step away from being fired from it. He also has powers, which Batman doesn’t. The Iron Man comparison is one of the few on this list that I’ve made myself – in that I think Iron Man is almost Marvel’s commentary on Batman. Two captains of industry, but in DC’s world he’s a paragon who fights to make the streets safe using his gadgets, and in Marvel’s world he’s a war profiteer who uses his super suit to blow shit up.
How about Moon knight/Batman? Two brooding, (anti)heros who work in the night and rely on physical strength over super-powers. Their backgrounds are different, but the similarities are striking. Yes, Moon Knight has some powers…Doesn’t moon knight throw moon shaped “batarangs?” Interestingly, both weapons are associated with darkness/night. LOL
Punisher = Adrian “Vigilante” Chase“Adrian Chase sought justice his own way as the anti-hero Vigilante after his wife Doris Chase and their children were killed by Scarapelli mobsters.”
DC Comics’ Hulk derivative is Blockbuster – appeared in 1965, even had torn purple pants. Essentially a Hulk that doesn’t turn green. DC has made the character less Hulk-like in recent years.
Also more recently, DC has bulked up Solomon Grundy into a Hulk. The Justice League cartoon even made an analog to Marvel’s original Defenders lineup, with Grundy as their Hulk.
I wasn’t too familiar with Thor in the comics, but when I did see him in action, he seemed analogous to Superman when it came to being the team Heavy. But the Shazam comparison is a good call too.Keep in mind, they are just comparing how the movies handled them, so they aren’t going to mention the Hyperions and Red Hoods and Braniac 5s. (Though a finer point could be made that these characters should have been here by now.)
Interesting list. Some definite stretches in there, although often there’s some interesting insights into how ‘types of characters’ can be associated. Big takeaway is that DC has no Spider-Man, and they’re worse off for it.
Sure they do, it’s Blue Beetle
Sure, fella.
Ok, now do: Who Would Win if they all fought their respective counterpartsCharacters are bloodlusted, so no moralsGO
This is terrible. Atom Smasher? Ever read one comic?
I had an impression over the last few months the content on this site was recovering but the last couple of weeks have been fucking rough.
it’s kind of insane comparing the kinds of interesting articles showcasing interesting things that used to be on this website for another one of these.
Slow day at the Content Factory?
What kind of stupid ass article is this. I know Spanfeller era AV Club has been on a precipitous decline but this is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
I always thought of Marvel and DC superheroes like the Greeks and Romans gods. Namor is to Aquaman what Poseidon is to Neptune. Quicksilver is to Flash what Hermes is to Mercury.
Of course it’s a fucking slideshow. TL;DR: Marvel copied a lot of DC heroes and put their own spin on them, while DC definitely didn’t shy away from doing the same sometimes (ex., Mongul started as a rip-off of Thanos).
Wow, you guys are really running out of listicle ideas, huh? “Breaking news, Flash and Quicksilver are both fast! Is…is that anything?” Come on guys, try harder.If you’re going to go this route, at least give us some interesting deep cuts instead of the obvious choices everyone knows about already. Like the similarities between Deadpool and DC’s Ambush Bug (both jokey weirdos who are aware of the fourth wall and who other heroes can’t stand) or the Doom Patrol and the X-Men (teams of heroic outcasts mentored by an overbearing professor in a wheelchair; except one team went on to become one of the biggest franchises in comics and the other team has had its comic cancelled like eight times) or the fact that Marvel’s Fantastic Four may have been inspired by the obscure early 60’s DC team, the Sea Devils (underwater adventurers consisting of a scientist, his girlfriend, her brother and their mutual tough guy friend.)
At least give us something beside “Uuhhhhhh Batman and Iron Man are both rich.”
Man this is just sad. I miss the old AV Club.
In 1996 DC & Marvel comics got together to create the Amalgam universe in which the two worlds merged together by some cosmic gooblygook too unimportant to explain. Anyway, some of the merged heroes matched the choices above, others were quite different, maybe surprising so:
That’s really cool, thanks for posting those. Who is combined with Aquaman? (That’s Aquaman, right?)
It’s Namor.
Yup. Aquaman merged with Namor, calls himself “Mariner”.
He’s got winged feet, so that would make him half-Namor.
Love this for how much it pissed off comic book nerds.
It’s almost like superheroes are by and large simply-constructed characters drawn from the same general mythical archetypes for the purposes of being enjoyed largely by children (at least initially).
Kimball “The Lensman” Kinninson enters the chat:“What’s this about a “Green Lantern” getting a magic ring that gives him superpowers?”
I saw a few too many square pegs hammered into round holes.
If you know your publishing history…..
Hulk = Black Adam is a reach. Interestingly, after viewing this list, they are the 2 characters that seem the most unique to their respective brands.
And Amanda Waller = Nick Fury. Or Contessa Valentina de Fontaine. Ross barely makes the 3rd choice for comparison. That one was easy, guys.