7 Movies That Stole Their Plot From Comic Books

7. Avatar Is Suspiciously Like Timespirits

Since its 2009 release, James Cameron’s epic sci-fi Avatar has been accused of ripping off everything from animated films like Pocahontas and Fern Gully to Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves and the works of artist Roger Dean.

One comparison you don’t hear so much about (thanks to its relative obscurity, no doubt) is that of Timespirits, a short-lived 1980s comic series published under Marvel’s creator-owned imprint Epic Comics.

Penned by Stephen Perry with artwork by Tom Yeates, the series focused on a time-travelling Native American shaman and his apprentice who over the course of their adventures came up against a gigantic octopus-like creature, visited Stonehenge and resurrected Jimi Hendrix from the dead.

While that broad description makes Avatar and Timepsirits sound about as alike as chalk and cheese, one of the comic’s characters and her arc bear more than just a passing resemblance to Cameron’s film.

You see, Timespirits’ Thorneypaws – a humanoid alien with catlike features and blue skin who hails from a jungle planet and falls in love with a human – could pretty much pass as Neytiri’s doppelganger.

It gets a little more fishy when you consider that one of Thorneypaws’ plotlines even involves her visiting Guatemala during its civil war where she battles military troops who are slaughtering indigenous people which isn’t exactly a million miles away from Avatar’s imperialism-inspired themes either.

Of course, that could all just be pure coincidence but Cameron himself has recognised the influence of other works on Avatar. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before he acknowledges Timespirits might’ve helped shape his film too.