20 Comic Characters That Are Total Rip-Offs
5. Thanos
Better known as the Avatar of Death, or perhaps "who's that purple guy?" at the end of the Avengers movie, Thanos is a nihilistic cosmic being who is so morbid he actually fell in love with the physical embodiment of Death.
Speaking of Robin Hood, everything Thanos does, he does it for Lady Death, including his constant chasing of the Infinity Gauntlet, a glove with impossible power with which the cosmic villain hopes to harness in which to wipe out the known universe and so prove his love. To Death. Like, the actual Grim Reaper. The guy's pretty goth, despite the colourful costume.
Totally a rip-off of: Darkseid
Oh come on Jim Starlin, you didn't even make him a different colour! The writer/artist claims that he was inspired to create Thanos during a college psychology lesson, but admitted later to basically stealing the character wholesale from Jack Kirby's New Gods series for DC. Actually, his initial sketches were more ripping off the character Metron; it's only on the advice of Marvel editor Roy Thomas that he decided to steal Darkseid's whole look, deal and unusual skin colour instead.
Like Thanos, Darkseid is a death-obsessed jerk who is searching the galaxy for the none-more-powerful Anti-Life Equation, a MacGuffin that's no less ridiculous than the Infinity Gauntlet (or the Cosmic Cube) but is even darker, and intends to use it to wipe out the entire universe because...he wants to. Plus he lives in space, sits on a big throne, is a beefy guy with glowing red eyes, and is constantly having his plans foiled during big crossover events where a bunch of superheroes come to bother him.
Such nuisances.