10 Marvel Characters Shamelessly Ripped Off From DC Comics
Shameless comic book yoinking.
DC has been playing catch-up to Marvel at the movies for years now, but when both firms first entered the comic sector many decades ago, the reverse was true. Detective Comics published its first issue way back in 1937, giving it a significant head start on Marvel, which began life as Timely Comics five years later.
The House of M had ground to make up on its rival and one of the ways it has narrowed the gulf is considered underhanded by some. Several of the firm's creations bear an uncanny resemblance to characters that already existed in the DC camp.
Marvel is by no means the only comic book publisher guilty of this practise. The industry has always been rife with copycats and imitators, and with so much history to trawl through, it's often difficult to pinpoint who came up who an idea first.
Sure, there have been times when DC has ripped off Marvel. Namor predates Aquaman and Bumblebee is basically a second-rate Wasp, but some of the most high-profile examples of this dubious practise paint Marvel as the house of stolen ideas...
10. Thanos Is A Rip-Off Of Darkseid
When DC Comics introduced a cosmic beefcake that posed a threat to its entire universe in 1970, Marvel Comics needed one too, and sure enough, along came Thanos three years later, in all of his Darkseid-inspired glory.
Thanos's creator Jim Starlin has addressed the blatant similarities between the two characters over the years and explained how he never set out to emulate Darkseid. The Mad Titan was originally inspired by another of DC's New Gods, Metron.
When Starlin presented his sketches to then-Marvel editor Roy Thomas, he was told to return to the drawing board and rip off Darkseid instead of Metron, a meeting he spoke candidly about in an interview with Jon B. Cooke for Comic Book Artist.
"Beef him up! If you're going to steal one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid, the really good one!"
That seems like shrewd, if somewhat unethical advice from Thomas, because the success of Thanos has seen him become one of the most anticipated movie villains of the modern age ahead of his full MCU debut in next year's Avengers: Infinity War.