8 DC Characters Shamelessly Ripped-Off From Marvel
8. Atomic Skull Looks Just Like Ghost Rider
DC Comics
Flaming skull? Check. Hilarious name? Also check. Renowned pop-culture status? Not really, but Atomic Skull was destined to walk in Ghost Rider's shadow regardless of his flashy look.
Created by Roger Stern and Bob McLoeb in 1991, the Joseph Martin version of the Atomic Skull is visually striking and goofy all at once, borrowing Johnny Blaze's flame-ridden motif with a villainous edge to compliment it. They're very different personality-wise, but there's a reason why that design looks just a little iffy, having arrived some twenty years after the original Rider debuted in 1972's Marvel Spotlight #5.
The Skull has made a few appearances in animation over the years, and has even featured in the comics as recently as 2016 in Phil Jimenez and Matt Santorelli's Superwoman series for DC Rebirth.
That aside, he's most definitely not the Ghost Rider we all know and love, and could probably due with a redesign to avoid more comparisons going forward.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
