• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Best/Worst Silver Age Copycats?

Started by Drummy,

23 posts in this topic

Drummy

Drummy

Posted
Posted

Hey all -

 

Back to comics for a sec...can't keep up with the ubiquitous marketplace.

 

I was wondering if people have opinions about some of the best and worst "copycat" heroes/villains from the Silver Age - you know, those "hey! DC just made a fortune off of this character and Marvel needs one to follow suit!" kind of deals.

 

My favorite - both worst and best - would be Marvel's Avengers, taking off from the JLA. What a completely random and misguided group of super-heroes to throw together....Hulk and Thor, Iron Man + Wasp, etc.? It's like "TTA meets TOS" (w/Sub-Mariner, of course) and nothing else to do.

 

Other thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Dan

Link to comment
Share on other sites
blowout

blowout

Posted
Posted

Again not silver age, but the worst case of copycat EVER was Marvel's attempt to cash in on the success of Venom by creating Carnage.

They then rubbed salt into the wound by creating several other symbiote type characters. frown.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
blowout

blowout

Posted
Posted

Worst Silver age copycats..........the 'evil' version of the Fantastic Four.........the Frightful Four. The name itself is lame enough (yeah REALLY scary blush.gif ), but with members like the Trapster and Medusa, Marvel really dropped the ball. shocked.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bugaboo-migration

Bugaboo-migration

Posted
Posted

Best copycat from the 80's..Beta Ray Bill, the alien version of Thor. A great character, and I would like to see Marvel bring him back.

Every time I hear that name....it makes me think of an alien hillbilly redneck. Did they ever make him team up with Billy Bob and Bobby Sue for any of his fights?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mcd-migration

mcd-migration

Posted
Posted

but i always thought gladiator from x-men was pretty much a rip off of superman minus the mohawk.

 

Actually, Gladiator was a rip off of Mon-el. The whole Imperial Guard was a character for character rip off of the Legion of Super Heroes. Dave Cockrum created them in his last issue of the X-Men he did, after coming over from DC & the Legion. Much like the Squadron Supreme was a rip off of every character in the Justice League.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
vic6string

vic6string

Posted
Posted

What was the point to having Iron Fist AND Master of Kung FU. I know Bruce Lee was the man back then, but did they really need to make two of these? I did like em both though. Conan spawned a slew of rip offs too. And if you are just going by looks, Spawn looks a whole lot like a character Todd M made for Spidey called the Prowler.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Zonker

Zonker

Posted
Posted

From what I've read, Swamp Thing and Man-Thing were developed independently at the same time by DC and Marvel-- it was the difference in lead-times between the two publishers that made one appear earlier than the other. (But they both were copycats of the Golden Age Heap!)

 

Similarly, DC's Doom Patrol and the original Stan & Jack X-Men were developed independently, simultaneously (Arnold Drake's intro to the Doom Patrol Archives covers this). It really is an eerie coincidence:

- both led by wheelchair-bound genius (The Chief vs. Charles Xavier)

- adversaries: Brotherhood of Evil vs. Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

- both were outcasts: the DP were "freaks;" X-Men were of course mutants

 

As far as actual copycats, well, as has been noted elsewhere, the Fantastic Four were chartered (by Martin Goodman) to be copycats of the JLA, but as implemented were actually more of a copycat of Kirby's earlier Challengers of the Unknown for DC.

 

Marvel's Tower of Shadows copied DC's success with House of Mystery / House of Secrets. (which in turn copied from the EC horror titles of the 1950s).

 

Moon Knight was a 1970's Batman me-too.

 

Marvel's Bronze Age Conan led to a huge number of DC imitators (as well as copycats from Marvel): Sword of Sorcery, Claw the Unconquered, Stalker, Warlord, even Beowulf!

 

Actually, solely within the Silver Age, it is pretty surprising that DC did not attempt to copycat Marvel's success much earlier. Suppose they were in denial, eh? Guess hiring Steve Ditko to create Beware the Creeper was an attempt at a Spider-Man me-too, but if so, they miscalculated big time!

 

Cheers,

Z.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
blowout

blowout

Posted
Posted

What was the point to having Iron Fist AND Master of Kung FU.

 

Thats just like saying "Whats the point of having Spider-Man and Daredevil"....they are both super-heroes who wear spandex and fight criminals so they must be copycat characters, right??

 

Iron Fist and Master Of Kung Fu, although they have obvious similarities are COMPLETELY different characters. I am not going to go in to all there differeces here, but anyone who has read both books will know what I mean. Just like anyone who has read both Spider-Man and Daredevil knows they are totally different.

 

Sorry for the rant vic6string, but you hit a raw nerve here. wink.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Zonker

Zonker

Posted
Posted

Still another amazing syncronicity: The Silver Age Red Tornado (android) shows up in JLA 64 (August 68), soon followed by the SA Vision in Avengers 57 (October 68).

 

This is an even tighter interval than between the first Doom Patrol (June 63) and X-Men (Sept 63).

 

Though I do believe some of the later Red Tornado appearances self-consciously mimic what was going on with the Vision. (seem to recall a Gerry Conway JLA featuring R.T. dedicated to Roy Thomas for that very reason).

 

Cheers,

Z.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing