20 Comic Characters That Are Total Rip-Offs‏

6. Hawkeye

Okay, this looks bad. Clint Barton was raised by crooks and criminals but took the master archery skills he learned from the underworld into the crime-fighting world, joining the Earth's Mightiest Heroes and becoming a key member of the Avengers.

He's had some pretty goofy costumes, a colourful love life (including a short marriage to fellow Avenger Mockingbird), and has died - only to come back to life - multiple times without much consequence.

He's a dedicated superhero despite the lack of powers (he does have a good stock of "trick" arrows), and he has a tendency to question authority. A bit like Robin Hood. Or...

Totally a rip-off of: Green Arrow

Oliver Queen has been emptying his quiver long before Clint Barton was even a twinkle in a carny's lazy eye. Born into money, Queen's disdain for authority and left-leaning politics lead to him fighting both crime and oppression in his home of Star City. He doesn't have any powers, but his cash lets him develop special "trick" arrows to help take down tougher enemies. He has an ongoing on-off relationship with Black Canary, with whom he recently tied the knot (although we'll see how long that lasts).

When he's not being a bloomin' socialist in Star City he's part of the Justice League. Cleverly, Hawkeye has the opposite to Green Arrow's upbringing, but otherwise they're similar enough that, like Deadshot and Bullseye, they were fused together in the best-forgotten Amalgam universe which combined DC and Marvel characters.

The archer trope isn't anything new in genre fiction especially, but being a power-less sharpshooter with a mask, colourful costume, rebellious nature and bird-based squeeze? It's a little more suspect.