Marvel VS Dc – Top 10 Copy Cat Characters

Marvel VS Dc. Top 10 Copy Cat Characters

10. Deadpool / Deathstroke

deadpool copy cat deathstroke

Starting off the list, we got the merc with a mouth Deadpool and DC’s most deadliest assassin Deathstroke the terminator. Unlike most of the characters on this list, we know that Deadpool is a direct copy of Deathstroke. Slade Wilson arrived on shelves in the pages of the new teen titans in 1980 and WADE Wilson, entered the scene in 1991. His creator Rob Liefeld wanted to draw the terminator slade Wilson, but couldn’t so he created his own calling him Wade Wilson. Now depending on what source you are running with, Liefeld’s story can differ. But the definitive truth is that marvels Deadpool is extremely heavily inspired by DC’s Deathstroke.

So let’s take a look at their similarities: Their alias being Deathstroke and Deadpool. Real name, slade Wilson vs wade Wilson: Their Occupation, mercenary. When it comes to outfit Deathstroke sports a 2 toned body suit of black and orange, vs Deadpool’s 2 toned body suit of black and red. Weapons: both utilizing various firearms but Slade is often seen with 1 sword whereas wade got himself 2 katana’s. Abilities: both are extremely smart and have a healing factor. Now this is where the little differences comes in. Deathstroke has a formidable healing factor but Deadpool’s regeneration is so strong that he can survive extreme mutilation and even decapitation. When it comes to intelligence, Deathstroke is the master planner and can carry out his missions with extreme precision whereas Deadpool, while his unpredictable nature can be his undoing, this can also easily confuse his opponents which is enough for the merc with a mouth to come out victorious.

What about the Source of their power: Deathstroke credits the united states military for the experimental super soldier serum that gave him his super human abilities whereas Deadpool can say thanks to the weapon X program on Canadian soil which turned him a bit coo-coo for coco puffs.

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Now this is where their similarities end. Deadpool was created as a parody of Deathstroke and has since become entirely something else. Slade has remained the mature calm and cool mercenary plaguing the teen titans and would offer his mercenary services to other DC villains whereas Wade has branched out from the X-men franchise to be his own man. We saw the wise cracking man child time travel; kill the marvel universe discovered his own core and even break the fourth wall. Wade now spends most of his time fighting presidents…dead presidents.

9. Elongated Man/Mr. Fantastic

mr fantastic elongated man copy cat

Elongated Man, also known as Ralph Dibney and Mr. Fantastic, known as Reed Richards, are obviously characters from the same vein. About the only difference in these two characters is how they got their powers. Elongated Man admired contortionists as a teenager. He learned that most contortionists drank a popular soda called Gingold. He was also an expert chemist, so he created a highly concentrated form of Gingold. This gave him his powers of elasticity.

While Elongated Man was busy creating a soda, Mr. Fantastic was bombarded by cosmic rays while he and his team were on a mission in space. Their origin is about the only difference presented between these two characters. Both characters exhibit the powers of elasticity. They have rubbery skin that allows them to stretch their bodies, and also shape shift to a certain degree. Both characters are brilliant scientists providing mentorship and advice to their fellow super hero community. Among their physical similarities, both characters are some of the earliest to reveal their secret identities to the public. The similarities doesn’t stop there. Even though they are universes apart, they both seem to share a liking to the name sue. Ralf would end up with his wife sue Digby and reed would take the hand of the invisible woman sue storm.

But who came first? DC’s Elongated man would debut in 1960 and the following year, marvel would have their stretchy hero answer in the form of Reed Richards, aka Mr fantastic.

8. Catwoman/Black Cat

catwoman black cat copy cat

In our number 8 slot we got two female felines who are both a villain and sometimes a hero. Both being Love interest to their franchise hero, they both have expensive taste and are expert thieves. Even though they have peek human abilities, they both do not have any super powers. Well that’s not totally true. Cat woman may be a standard human but the black cat has an edge over her DC counter-part. Her probability field manipulation allows her to subliminally affect probability fields, which would cause improbable, though not impossible, events of back luck to occur to enemies within her line of sight. At first, this power of hers caused bad luck to all those around her but Over time, with the help of scientists, she has gained a strong control of this power to command when she deems fit.

But Catwoman will not be outshined. First appearing in 1940, Selena Kyle has almost 40 years of media presence before Felicia hardy ever donned her cat themed outfit.

So who did the flirtatious and villainous bad girl image better:  Dc’s cat woman or Marvels Black cat? Let’s take a look at how they have affected their love interest. It’s been a rocky road for batman and Catwoman but Selena, in some incarnations, has shown a sense of true love for the dark knight. She has gone from villain to anti-hero and has since been a strong ally to Batman and his bat family. But crime is always in her blood. Not literally. In the new 52, we discover that her long lost father , Rex Calabrese, was the original crime lord of Gotham and he wants her to retake the throne.

Black cat has an on and off relationship to Spider-Man. She still retains her life as a thief but the actions of the superior Spider-Man have scorned her and have since pushed her back to the dark side. In the pages of the superior Spider-Man, the cat bumps into dock ock in Spider-Man’s body. Believing the cat to be just another criminal, he attacks and webs her up for the authorities to find. Now, the cat has been officially revealed to be Felicia hardy and her personal life is gone. Instead of going the route of catwoman, she now goes underground to amass a new criminal empire to take sweet revenge on the poor and innocent peter parker

7. hawkeye/Green Arrow

green arrow hawkeye copy cat

The marvel marksman vs the emerald archer, these 2 masters of archery are the primary bow and arrow user of their respective franchise. But the basic arrows are not good enough when Barton and queen are both on teams with super powered heroes each having a guy with godlike powers. Because of this pressure, these 2 bowmen will never miss.

In his secret identity he is Oliver queen, living in star city as a wealthy playboy and billionaire industrialist turned outspoken socially progressive politician. What leads him to archery was the fact that he had to survive being alone on an abandoned island. With no other form of hunting tools, he taught himself the art of the bow and arrow. Returning to his city, the bows got a lot more completed as he uses them to fight crime.  First appeared in for fun comics #73, 1941, Arrow has since been on many teams, most prominently as a member of the justice league which is of its own argument, the mirror of marvels the avengers.

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Hawkeye arrives in 1964. An orphan who joined the circus, Clint Barton starts off as a reluctant villain and was trained by swordsman and trick shot in the ways of swordplay and archery. He later found a place with the avengers and has been a prominent member ever since.

Oliver queen shot his first arrow in more fun comics 1941, but Clint Barton would not be known till 1964’s takes of suspense.

The vigilante of star city uses his mass resources to fund his extracurricular activities whereas Hawkeye’s expensive tech arrows are funded by stark industries.

Both have no super human powers but their training has given them peek human abilities. The obvious reason why these 2 guys are counterparts is the fact that they favour the bow and arrow, plus technology, a lot of technology.

6. Aquaman/Namor

AQUAman namor copy cat

In at number 6, we got 2 half breed leader of the mythical city of Atlantis. Both are the ruler of the underwater world and the lord protector of the 7 seas. They share arguably the same powers of super strength, durability, and reflexes. Because of their heritage they can swim at super speed and can see through the murky depths of the ocean floor, and of course they can breathe under water.

Both characters have very serious demeanour and at times, hot tempered: Namor more so than aqua man in my opinion. They do have a few differences, like aqua man’s ability to telepathically speak with sea life and Namor’s ability to fly. …wait…half human half under water mermaid man can fly? Ehh..seems legit. Moving on!

Namor Makenzie aka the submariner is the mutant son of a human sea captain and the princess of the kingdom of Atlantis. Aquaman is the son of a lighthouse attendant and, yup, you guessed it, the princess of the kingdom of Atlantis. Because of their unique genetic heritage, both of these under water heroes are unique amongst humans and atlantis.. Namor is basically half mutant and half atlantean. Maybe that’s where his flight powers came from. Let’s take a look at aquaman. His half-blood heritage has given him certain powers that exceed human and Atlantean alike. How this works, we don’t know. But it’s the world of comics so that’s all the reasoning we need.

These 2 guys are natural born leaders. they have historically led troops into battle with expert success. They also have a strong desire to protect atlantis and the 7 seas. This conviction would often lead  the 2 kings of atlantis to clash with the surface governments and other heroes.

Namor makenzie aka the submariner first appears in marvel comics #1 1939.,. The first known comic book anti hero.

Aquaman debuted din 1941, 3 years after namor was created. But which one would you rather see as the king of atlantis?

5. Nova Corps / Green Lantern corps

green lantern corps nova corps copy cat

The Nova Core is an intergalactic military police force whose mission is to patrol the cosmos and tackle any space fairing baddie who threatens the safety of their jurisdiction. Gaining their powers of super speed, strength, flight and the ability to survive in the cold void of space for interstellar travel from a mysterious nova force, members of the core have similar costume design with the exception of a few design differences to signify their rank.

Now replace the word Nova with Green lantern and you will get the exact same result. The green lanterns weapon of choice, instead of a cool looking helmet, is their power rings. A green lantern can tap into the enormous resource of the power battery which gives them the ability to project hard light constructs to be used offensively or defensively. This power is only limited by their will.

The nova force, generated and controlled by the living computers of xandar, is the source of power for the nova and the entire nova cores. The amount of nova force a core member can access is determined by their rank.

Both teams have a world as their home base: Green lanterns enjoy the high tech green themed world of OA whereas the novas call xandar, the equally high tech world filled with big blue oceans, as their home. Both teams have experienced devastation in their world and had to relocate elsewhere. The Novas, at one time, had ego, a planet sized corpsmen, as a new home. The green lanterns have utilized MOGO the living planet, as a home after the destruction of OA.

Both sides have an army to back them up, but the green lanterns outnumber the novas 3600 to 500 members.

Continuing the trend of similarities, the lanterns have a history they would want to forget. Their predecessor, the man hunters, instead of protecting the peace, attempted to destroy all beings with emotions. And we got the novas dark dark secret: during the original sin event, we discover that the novas were originally formed by thieves and killers.

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Now lets take a look at the first human corpsmen. Richard rider was selected to join up when a dying member of the core crash landed on earth and the Youngster happens to come across him, inheriting the mantle and power of nova prime. Opps, looks like that’s the same origins of Hal Jordan. But who came first?

Well Richard rider makes his debut in 1975, but Jordan beats rider by 17 years making his debut in 1959.

so it wouldn’t be a military policing force without its ranking system. The new nova recruit will start out as a corpsman, and would make his way up the hierarchy to millennia, denarian, and finally to the centurian. Richard rider would be given the title Nova prime and briefly lead his team against the threats of the cosmos.

A new green lantern will start out as a private without the badge of the green lantern. Known as recruits, once its time for promotion, they will earn their badge of honour and make their way up the hierarchy from colonel, to staff sergeant, corporal, sergeant first class, chief  warrant officer, and if the position opens up, the leader of the green lantern core.  Much like Richard rider, hal Jordan has followed his footsteps and is now leading the green lanterns. Unlike a military policing force, these rankings never really get mentioned but rather, after rooky status, a lantern is referred as a horsemen and can best kilowog as chief trainer or become an honour guard, Or if ambitious enough, become an alpha lantern who takes over internal affairs for the core.

4. Ultron/Brainiac 

brainiac ultron copy cat

These 2 mechanical super villains have plagued their respective universes in such a way that even death will not hold them down. Ultron and Brainiac benefit from an intelligence level so high that they can calculate many steps ahead of their target giving these 2 an advantage.  This intelligence also gives them knowledge and access to various alien and futuristic weaponry. Death has proven ineffective against these 2 mechanical menaces. We have seen the heroes victorious while Brainiac and ultron are utterly destroyed. But their ability to transfer their consciousness into nearby tech makes it next to impossible to secure an everlasting victory against these 2. Even though the main AI might have been destroyed, a backup copy would be hidden somewhere only to one day come back and cause a smorgasbord of problems for our heroes.

Ultron and Brainiac has shown the ability to be a 1 man army. The size of their army will depend on how long they have to plan for their attack and on the available tech nearby. With enough time to prepare, their army can engulf an entire world. Brainiac has proven his ruthlessness in the pages of futures end. And ultron, well he practically took over the present and the future while killing many heroes along the way.

So let’s take a look at their origins. Ultron was created by Hank Pym to help the world, but of course he rebelled and has taken on a personal mission to destroy all of mankind deeming humans as a virus that is killing the planet. Brainiac has gone through a few origins from green skinned alien to a skeleton like android but my favourite origin is actually from the superman animated series which depicts Brainiac as an AI from the planet Krypton.

In this retelling of the origins of Brainiac, he is the central AI trusted by the Kryptonian council. Brainiac was the first to discover a nuclear chain reaction that would destroy the entire world. The timeless story would tell us that krypton would explode and Brainiac would transfer his intelligence to a satellite and begin his mission to catalogue every single alien intelligence in the galaxy. These 2 are originally created to serve their masters vision for the future but ultimately chose to rebel and now are recurring villains in the Marvel and DC universe.

So which mechanical maniac came first? Well if we keep to our previous trend, DC comics brought us one of superman’s deadliest foe back in 1958. Marvel would come up with the consistently upgrading AI called Ultron 10 years later.

3. Xmen / Doom Patrol

doom patrol x-men copy cat

Coming in at number 4 we got a group of misfit teenagers with strange and awesome powers facing super villains and fights against bigotry and hate who’s led by a brilliant and compassionate wheel chaired bound man. Am I referring to the-men? Yes. Am I referring to the doom patrol? 2 for 2 you got it.

So let’s take a closer look at their differences and similarities. The doom patrol debuted in june of 1963 and are a group of younger characters whose gifts made them outcasts. The world came to call them freaks and alienated them from normal society. Doctor Caulder, aka the chief, whose a wheelchair bound man, took them in and created the doom patrol. As the doom patrol, they went on various missions to help protect the same people that treated them as outcasts.

So now you know the less popular group. Let’s take a look at the more successful franchise that has already spawned 4 movies along with 2, er 1 spinoff. Well in a nutshell, the xmen are exactly the same as the doom patrol. The minor differences are that the xmen are born with mutant powers whereas the doom patrol got their powers from accidents. They even fight the same villain group. The brotherhood of evi would haunt the doom patrol’s nightmares and the brotherhood of evil mutants will continue to plague the xmen.

So who came first? Well we can use the word rip off, in this case. The x-men issue 1 by Stan lee and jack Kirby was published in September of 1963. That’s just three months after the first appearance of the doom patrol. It looks like everyone’s favourite marvel mutants are the losers here, having arrived just three months after the doom patrol debuted in June of 1963.

2.Red tornado/Vision

vision red tornado copy cat

The idea of an autonomous android has been around for decades and has found its way into the world of comics. Red tornado would find him in DC comics and Marvel comics would lay claim to the vision.

Red tornado debut 1968, mere 2 months later, the vision appeared in avengers #57. Red tornado came first beating the vision by 2 months. Both android debuted with a red art design. Red tornado would continue the red fashion trend but the vision has grown to pursue other color designs.

Evil scientist T.O. morrow created red tornado using advanced tech stolen from the future while the evil robot ultron created vision using advanced tech from the past. Vision was supposed to bring down the avengers whereas red tornado was sent to kill the justice society of America. Both rebelled against their creator and joined the team they were sent to kill. Both longed for human emotions and would experience the feeling of love for human woman. Red tornado would fall in love with Kathy Sutton and the vision would go on to marry his teammate Wanda Maximoff the scarlet witch.

Their appearance at first mirror each other but these 2 has since grown their own unique look. But if you look closely, they still share a ton of cosmetic similarities such as their red skin, lengthy body and their desire to sport a cape.

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So who did the automaton with emotions better, DC or marvel? Red tornado found his way out of comics appearing in batman the brave and the bold, justice league unlimited and the shortlived young justice but the vision has experienced quite a lot of success while being a part of the avengers and would be played by Paul Bettany in the avenger’s age of ultron.

1.Superman/Various

Marvel VS Dc top 10 copy cat characters

The man of steel is arguably one of the most powerful superheroes in the DC universe. With this much fame comes with a lot of copy cats and rip offs. The last son of krypton’s origin is timeless and I would be wasting your time by going over it. So let’s jump right into some of the copy cats for superman.

The sentry is marvel’s answer to superman if DC ever comes knocking. Created in 2000, Robert Reynolds aka the sentry arrives on scene sporting an S symbol and has the powers of a hundred exploding suns under his fingertips.

Unlike superman’s alien heritage, the sentry is human who injected himself with a syrum giving him powers such as super speed, super strength, extremely heightened senses, and energy absorption. He can also redirect blasts out of his eyes and pretty much any body part he chooses. His blasts are not limited to solar energy which includes radiation, concussive and many more deadly beams meant to either stun or kill his target. Now here are the differences: Robert Reynolds is a struggling addict but while in his super hero form, he has a telepathic power so intense that he once whipped the memory of every person on the planet of knowledge regarding his existence. Take that professor X. Reynolds suffers from the jeckel and hyde syndrome where we see the sentry every so often losing to the void, his darker evil murderous villain side. O and he have a fancy looking cape.

So what about a good alien origin tale? This is where Hyperion comes in. This alien was Born on the earth planet of the eternals and was sent from his planet to earth before his world exploded.

Found on earth by a man known as father, the alien child would be given the name Marcus and be raised to be a tool to help society. This guy has the superman basics such as super strength, speed, reflexes, heat vision and  flight. Instead of absorbing solar rays, Hyperion stores cosmic energy in his cells. In one incarnation of Hyperion, we see him and his teammates as mirror images of the justice league. The squadron supreme are super villains in the marvel U but coincidentally has the powers of the justice league, Hyperion being the squadron’s version of superman.

This version of superman is no different from the other 2 on the list. Originally created to be a violent egotistical superman archetype back in 1992 by image comics, Supreme has been rebooted by writer alan moore as a direct mirror of the silver age superman.

so lets take a look at supreme’s power set. Yup you guessed it, strength, invulnerability, flight, heat vision, frost breath, super speed and the power to wear a cape.

Lets take a look at origin: the new version of supreme gave us a better look at how he got his godlike powers. Mild mannered Ethan crane got his powers as a child who got exposed to a meteorite composed of pure supremium. Supremium.. Supremium. Yup….Anyway, continuing on. When he is not doing his supremely awesome super hero thing, ethan crane is an illustrator drawing the adventures of Omniman, a superman like character. Erm.. ya, im seriously not making this up.

Ok moving on, much like the last son of krypton, supreme has a sister with identical powers: Suprema being a reference to supergirl. There’s even a super powered dog called radar the hound, which is a direct nod to krypto.

And most of the villains that plague supreme draw inspiration from superman’s rogues gallery. Supreme has an arch enemy named Darius Dax who’s a brilliant but manipulative evil business tycoon. Aka lex luthor.

Emerpus is the reverse supreme from the backwards zone where time runes opposite to our own. Aka bizzaro. And the list goes on and on and on.

Alrighty so let’s jump into a few more superman copycat and wrap this up. We got gladiator the shi ar imperial guard who was heavily inspired by superman. Kallark got his name from the man of steel’s under cover and super hero identity. When clark kent and kal el makes a baby, you get kallark the shi ar gladiator. And then comes his super powers of flight, invulnerability, strength, heat vision, frost breath and the power to wear that stylish cape.




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