10 Superheroes You Totally Forgot Were Rip-Offs

Bumblebee, despite not being one of DC's most prominent characters, has historical distinction. Debuting in 1976, she is DC's first black female superhero. But while she has been a constant presence in both the comics and tangential media ever since, DC has never made an effort to play up the fact that she was such a landmark character.

And perhaps the reason for that is because literally every other thing about her is a direct rip-off of Marvel's Winsome Wasp. The original Janet van Dyne was the first superheroine to don a yellow, bug-themed suit, have the ability to shrink and grow at will, fly using semi-organic wings inspired by her namesake, and have bio-electric hand blasts. Karen Beecher just did the same things while having a different and historically underrepresented skin tone. They even share a sassy but maternal personality.

Both have grown and split further apart since their respective creations, and more and more differences have emerged between them. But they still wear functionally the same costume, have the exact same powers, and are almost always paired in a romantic entanglements, though those have become less and less necessary in both cases. So long as they keep those uniforms and those powers, there will always be an unspoken, uncomfortable link of plagiarism between them.