Top 10 Shameless Superhero Ripoffs

Hey guys!. In this post, I’ll be discussing a list of Top 10 Shameless Superhero Ripoffs. Sometimes you have an idea, and that idea happens to already exist. Other times, you steal shit because it's easier to do less work. Today, we're counting down the top 10 times Marvel and DC ripped each other off. So let’s get started.

10. The Maximums

First up is Earth's mightiest bootleg heroes, the Maximums. You remember these guys? Well, they're basically just literally the Avengers. They're from Jeff Loeb and Ed McGuiness's Superman/Batman number 20, which was released during the mid-2000s. So cast your mind back to yesteryear. You'll remember that the Ultimates, the Ultimate universe version of the Avengers that would go on to basically inspire everything from the MCU, were tearing up the sales charts. And as such, ECE decided to make fun of them with a team of characters with names like Soldier, Viking, Robot, Monster and Hornet. Yeah, really subtle, guys. Really, really subtle.

9. The Sentry

Originally created by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, the Sentry was Marvel's Superman-esque publicity stunt. The story that Marvel tried to pass off as truth was that the fictional comic book creator, RE Rosen, had recently passed away, and that they had uncovered a file of never published collaborations with, you guessed it, Stan Lee. Jenkins and Lee were then brought in to reboot the character and update him. Over time, however, this brilliant publicity stunt has faded, and well, we've just been stuck with Marvel's bootleg, would-be Boy Scout.

8. Suicide Squad / Thunderbolts

Suicide Squad is a team of former supervillains who are tasked with doing jobs that no one else wants to do. Thunderbolts? Well, they're a team of supervillains pretending to be superheroes doing jobs that nobody else wants to do. Suicide Squad first appeared in Brave and the Bold 25 from 1959, the Thunderbolts, 1997. I think it's pretty safe to say that one of these is the OG of comics while the other is Macklemore.

7. Lobo / Wolverine

In the 1980s, everyone had Wolverine fever. Tough guys riding motorcycles and smoking cigars, they were all the rage. So what better time than to satirize this trope? Enter the main man himself, Lobo. That's right. Lobo, created by Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen was a parody of the growing trend of tough guys in comics. Unfortunately for all of us, everyone forgot that, and now his satirical back story of him killing every member of his home planet is taken literally, which means that he's now one of the most powerful characters in the DCU.

6. Elongated Man / Mr. Fantastic / Plastic Man

One of these characters is much more famous than the others. Yes, Mr. Fantastic is the iconic leader of Marvel's first family. However, it was Plastic Man who actually came first as the initial, look, Ma, I'm a stretchy superhero, archetype, arriving in 1941. Ralph Dabney, AKA Elongated Man, and Reed Richards wouldn't show up for 19 and 20 years later respectively, meaning Mr. Fantastic was actually the last one of these three characters that were published.

5. Robin and Jubilee

In 1989, as previously mentioned, Wolverine was all the rage, and as such, Marvel was like, we've got to give this guy a sidekick. So what did they do? They gave him his own personal Robin. No, like they literally wanted Jubilee to be Robin. In the initial promo artwork released for her, she was colored the exact same way as Robin, down to the green boots and everything. Eventually, during the Marvel and DC crossover, Jubilee got to hang out with her inspiration. Ah, young love. Even though it's kind of weird that these two are spending a little time because they're basically just gender swapped clones of each other, it's fine. Just don't think about it.

4. Deathstroke / Deadpool

Rob Liefeld might be the 1990s dream of every comic book creator. Looking at you, Levi's commercial. But he's never been accused of, you know, actually coming up with any of his own ideas. His defining co-creation, Deadpool, he's actually just a one to one rip off of Deathstroke the Terminator. Wade Wilson, Slade Wilson. Unkillable assassin, unkillable assassin. Yeah. Deadpool is just Deathstroke, but make it dude, bro.

3. Aquaman / Namor

Namor, first published in 1939, is one of comics' foundational pillars. He's the medium's first antihero. He's got a keen fashion sense, and he has wings on his feet, and that's always a plus. The other iconic, aquatic do-gooder, published in 1941, is Aquaman, the King Arthur of the sea. One pushed boundaries of the medium, and the other, well, talks to fish.

2. Darkseid / Thanos

In 1971, Jack Kirby created Darkseid, a New God hellbent on finding the Anti-Life Equation in order to fulfill the need for a truly big bad in the DCU. In 1973, Jim Starlin blatantly copied him and made Thanos, the mad Titan in love with the personification of death. They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, but in Thanos's case, it's more of a case of, imitation is the most sincere form of, thank you for the biggest, baddest villain in all of the MCU.

1. Fantastic Four / Challengers

Marvel Comics was going out of business in 1960. So what did they do? They hired Jack Kirby to come up with a new raft of characters. First team he came up with was the Fantastic Four. You might be scratching your head, being like, the Fantastic Four are a rip off? Who are they a rip off of? They're characters on a team who travel to new dimensions and uncover bizarre conspiracies all while wearing a unified costume, just like the team that Jack Kirby created in 1957, the Challengers of the Unknown.

That is it from today’s post on Top 10 Shameless Superhero Ripoffs. If you do not agree with the points in the post and have some of your own opinions, share them with us in the comments section down below.

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Chandan is the writer of “Top 10 Shameless Superhero Ripoffs”. Also, Connect with me on Facebook.