8 DC Characters Shamelessly Ripped-Off From Marvel

by Ewan Paterson

1. Red Hood's Anti-Heroics Mirrored Bucky's

Red Hood
DC Comics

Controversial opinion time: Jason Todd was much better off dead.

While there's no denying the merits of the 2011 animated 'Under the Red Hood' feature film, Judd Winick's original text chronicling Todd's return to the land of the living wasn't nearly as good. The fact it arrived the very same year that Bucky Barnes - Captain America's wartime sidekick - returned from the grave, probably didn't make things any easier, as series writer Ed Brubaker was in the midst of his character defining run on the hero.

And while there was plenty to separate the stories at the time, with Todd lacking the amnesia that typified the Winter Soldier's early days, the success of Brubaker's story provoked DC to persist with Todd for the future, turning him into an anti-hero along the lines of Bucky and positioning him right alongside the Bat-family in the wake of the New 52.

There's plenty to separate the two characters, particularly in relation to their respective careers as sidekicks, but one can't help but get the feeling their concurrent resurgence felt a little more than coincidental.

Bucky's still better though.

Are there any other Marvel characters you feel DC pilfered? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

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Content Producer/Presenter

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.