Clint Barton has been made famous as Hawkeye in the Avengers movies, but DC’s Green Arrow was fighting crime in Star City much earlier. Stan Lee insists that his inspiration was Robin Hood, but Robin Hood never used all the gadgets in Green Arrow’s arsenal. Plus, Green Arrow predated Hawkeye by over 20 years, so we’re calling this archer a DC original.
Marvel’s Black Cat is a cat burglar in a tight outfit who had a dalliance with Spider-Man. Meanwhile at DC, Catwoman has been Batman’s nemesis in tight leather since 1940. (Black Cat didn’t appear until 1979.) As a cat-suited lover and villain to our hero, Black Cat seems like a purr-fect copy, doesn’t she?
Thanos may be the super-baddie in the next Avengers movie, but he isn’t exactly original. Jim Starlin (the creator of Thanos) originally based his design on one of the lesser known DC “New Gods”, Metron. But when Marvel editor Roy Thomas told him, “if you’re going to steal one of the New Gods, at least rip-off Darkseid, the really good one,” Starlin did.
In 1961, DC’s Atom mimicked the power of a white dwarf star to reduce his density and shrink in size. A year later, Marvel’s Ant-Man found he could reduce his size using molecular materials called ‘Pym Particles’. Both remained strong, even with their reduced stature. Atom probably should have applied for a patent...
Gladiator was created as a “homage” to DC Comics' Superman. The name is a reference to the novel Gladiator (1930), which was said to inspire the creation of Superman. Gladiator's real name, Kallark, is a combination of Superman's Kryptonian and human names: Kal-El and Clark Kent. His powers include super strength, flight, super-speed, and ‘telescopic’ vision. Homage or rip-off? You decide!
DC’s Red Tornado premiered in 1968. A mere two months later, Marvel’s Vision came on the scene. Both were red-skinned androids created by supervillains to destroy their respective super teams. On top of that, both reused names of Golden Age superheroes. Due to the close proximity of their release, it’s probably a coincidence. But since Red Tornado came first, we’re calling him the original.
Marvel’s Nova first appeared in 1976. His powers came from a helmet sent to Earth by a dying alien. Later, Marvel writers made the dying alien a member of the Nova Corps, an intergalactic police force. Meanwhile, DC’s Green Lantern Corps had been patrolling space since 1959, and Green Lantern also received his powers from a dying alien.
Deadpool has become a household name thanks to his hit movie. However, he was originally based off of Deathstroke, a villain who appeared in DC’s New Teen Titans (1980). Deadpool didn't show up until a decade later in Marvel’s New Mutants (1991). When Deadpool’s creator revealed his character design, the author of New Mutants was quoted as saying, “this is Deathstroke from the Teen Titans, right?”
The idea of superhuman misfits led by a wheel-chaired mastermind dedicated to protecting a world that hates and fears them isn’t just the tale of Marvel’s X-Men. DC’s Doom Patrol was based on the identical concept and debuted June 1963, three months before The X-Men #1 hit the newsstands. Looks like the Doom Patrol were true misfits shunned by the world they lived in after all.
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