6 Times Marvel And DC Shamelessly Ripped-Off Each Other's Stories
2. Convergence Ripped-Off Secret Wars
DC's Convergence (2015):
A two-month weekly limited series, Convergence is the story of an intergalactic villain and his abduction of various cities and their inhabitants from numerous defunct DC timelines, spanning the entire history of the Multiverse. Long-time adversary of Superman Brainiac traps entire towns inside giant domes and transports them to a planet that exists outside of space and time.
Batman and Superman, along with fellow Earth 2 heroes Green Lantern and the Flash, find themselves on the vast surface of a dry and deserted planet where they are confronted by (who they assume to be) the villain Brainiac on a series of screens. In fact, their host turns out to be Telos, an artificial intelligence designed by Brainiac to control the planet when he wasn't around.
While waiting for Brainiac to return Telos ponders over his master's vision for this new world he has assembled. He decides that the purpose of bringing the fragments of these various universes together is to see which ones deserve to survive, and which ones shall perish, and so Telos releases the villains of the Multiverse and has them fight the heroes for supremacy.
Marvel's Secret Wars (1984):
Secret Wars was originally a 12-issue crossover limited series that was published in the mid-80s, though a revamped version of the arc was released in 2015 to coincide with DC's rip-off story arc Convergence. In Marvel's original story, the cosmic villain is named the Beyonder, an unseen entity that has been observing the mainstream Marvel universe from afar and has become fascinated with Earth's superheroes.
Curious about their potential, the omnipotent Beyonder teleports various unsuspecting heroes and villains to Battleworld, a planet stocked with alien weapons and technology that he himself has created. Just like Brainiac's planet in DC's Convergence, the Beyonder's planet consists of numerous self-contained pocket universes taken from various timelines in Marvel's history.
Just as Telos does, the Beyonder organises a giant battle royale, telling his guests that they have to slay their enemies if they want to survive and reap the infinite benefits of victory.
The heroes, including all of the Avengers and X-Men along with a number of solo supers, have various enjoyable skirmishes with the villains but (as was the deal with DC's Convergence) the whole point of the Secret Wars was to implement change in the Marvel Universe.