10 Comics Characters You Didn’t Know Were Rip-Offs

3. Captain America (The Shield)

Captain America is the quintessential American hero. He's the good ol' boy from Brooklyn fighting Nazis for no other reason than someone needs to stand up to bullies. He wears the American flag as a costume and wields a shield as his primary weapon. He's amazing.

And, as you might have guessed from his place on this list, he isn't original. Fourteen months before the Sentinel of Liberty debuted, The Shield came about. Like Captain America, he wore the star spangled flag on his body, and like Captain America did at the beginning, he used a triangular shield as his primary weapon. Only The Shield wasn't content just using a shield, he became the shield.

Yes, his entire body was a shield that could deflect bullets, shine as bright as America, and also look just stone-cold silly. His backstory was the same as Cap's too, featuring super serums, Nazis, and of course, something named SHIELD.

Why did Captain America succeed while The Shield fell to the wayside? Maybe it's because The Shield didn't have talents like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby working on him. Or maybe it was because he looks like a Halloween Store knockoff. Either way, The Shield went away and Captain America is here to stay.