Hello and welcome to episode 39 of the podcast.
I'm Michael.
I'm Noe.
And we are the Knights of Entertainment, a podcast covering your favorite and unknown
movies, games, comic books, anime, and more weekly.
We appreciate you being here and hope you enjoy the show.
This is what we are covering tonight.
We have two lists here today.
We got characters that were ripped off from each other between Marvel and DC.
But before we do, like, share, and subscribe to the channel.
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But let's go ahead and get started.
All right, who ripped off who?
Who we suing?
So we have some characters here.
We have 20 characters that were ripped off from Marvel by other people.
And then we have 15 characters that were ripped off by DC or from DC.
So some characters that were ripped off from Marvel.
So basically, it's characters that originated in Marvel.
Yes, that were ripped off.
That were slightly changed and then added to a different continuity.
Yes, yes.
Or a different publisher, I guess.
And I'll preface this.
These are lists made by ScreenRand.
So this is- Wait, is that exclusively?
So DC took this character from Marvel or is it from another publisher as well?
The majority of them are supposedly taken by DC from Marvel.
But there's one or two that are not taken necessarily from DC specifically.
But they're just characters that were ripped off from Marvel supposedly.
So like I said, these lists are from ScreenRand.
So if there's an issue with it, they're not my list and I did not make these.
And some of these are stupid.
So I'll mention a numbering system when one of them is horrendous.
Very much so.
Copy editors, please, God, find a damn copy editor as big of a company as ScreenRand is.
At least learn- It's probably just like one guy in a closet.
Yeah.
That's one guy.
That's what that is.
ScreenRand is one damn- Can you imagine?
Yeah, but okay, with the numbering system, they have automatic numbering systems when
you type anything out with bullet points.
So it's not hard.
Come on.
Did you say that there's 15, but you start off with number 20.
Come on.
And then you work your way down to number one by skipping shit.
But we'll start on the Marvel side first.
So we have number 20.
We have some of these that were pathetic attempts and some that were actually successful.
So the first one at number 20 was a pathetic attempt.
We have Rocket Red, which is a ripoff of Iron Man.
I was going to say Rocket Red.
Rocket Red.
Oh, I know him.
Okay.
So while Rocket Red's look may seem original today-
Is that Russian?
Do I know?
No, that's Crimson Rocket from Iron Man.
Yeah.
Never mind.
So while Rocket Red's look may seem original today, his entire design is essentially the
splitting image of the original classic Iron Man suit.
Rocket Red's alter ego's character wasn't entirely similar to Tony Stark as the role
of a billionaire funding the super team was already taken by Bruce Wayne.
But the powers and abilities were almost exactly the same as his Marvel counterpart.
Rocket Red's first appearance in DC comic was in 1987, 24 years after Iron Man's debut
in 1963.
Damn, is that old?
Yeah.
63.
Again, this is written by Screen Rant.
So understandably, the character of Red Rocket- Red Rocket.
Red Rocket.
Oh, what is it?
Red Rocket, Red Rocket.
Send somebody- What is it?
Every time you say Red Rocket, I think of that South Park episode.
Where he's jacking off the dog?
Yeah.
That's why I never like to say the name.
Red Rocket.
Okay.
So they put, understandably, the character of Rocket Red really didn't take off as well
as DC hoped with their readers.
While the character did last, he was mostly only a minor member of the Justice League.
The writers did try at numerous points to make his character more interesting, hoping
readers would like him as much as they liked Marvel's Iron Man, but no attempts managed
to last.
They should have made him a crippling alcoholic.
I know.
That wouldn't have helped.
Then he would have been Tony Stark.
Yeah.
Ours isn't Tony Stark, because he's a heroin addict.
All right.
At number 19, we have one that actually worked.
Aquaman.
Aquaman is a ripoff of Namor.
Oh, is he?
Or Namor.
The first comic book Atlantean King was actually Marvel's Namor, who appeared in-
He also accused of horrendous acts recently?
Man, I swear.
Come on, guys.
Keep yourselves, come on.
Keep it in your pants.
Namor appeared in 1939, whereas DC didn't create Aquaman until 1941.
It's a few years later.
Wait, Namor was that old?
Yeah, 1939.
Shit.
Same year, one year after Superman.
Aquaman appeared, has become more successful than his Marvel counterpart.
Damn, look at Jason Moe with all that fucking hair.
I'm not a gay man, but I'm also not blind.
Becoming a main member of the Justice League, whereas Namor was not as popular for Marvel,
and thus became a character who secluded himself in Atlantis.
To this day, the only one of the two to appear in a live action movie is Aquaman.
Well, to this day.
Before the-
Yes, before the Black Panther 2.
Yeah.
Who appeared in Batman v Superman and Justice League, while there was an Easter egg hinting
at Namor in Iron Man 2.
They're saying that he hasn't appeared yet, but we know that he has at this point.
But Aquaman is still way more recognizable than Namor.
He's a taste of Mamoa.
Even before that, he's been parodied, he's been made fun of.
Everybody knows who Aquaman is.
He's always been the one getting the shit list.
But the sad thing is, in the comic books, when you actually look at his powers and abilities,
he's one of the most powerful characters there are.
I saw him flip a truck once, in a full car, in one of the issue 111 of Justice League
of America.
He's just fucking, he's got the motion where his hands are up in a tossed motion, and there's
just a fucking car flying about to hit one of the other, they were fighting that group
that had the counter opposite of the JLA.
The Injustice Society?
Is that it?
That weird Superman that had made it powerful by Crotonian?
Like Ultraman, I think it was.
Yeah, that group.
And fucking the Flash is a heroine.
I don't know what the fuck it was, Speed?
He's addicted to literal speed.
Then you had Owlman.
Which is weird, Owlman was, they never really, it wasn't until The Court of Owls, when you
knew that owls were the natural predator of bats.
But that writer apparently did, because he made Owlman.
Give that man some credit.
He deserved a little bit of credit.
Or a woman, if she wrote it, give that person some credit.
I mean, if we're being honest here, it was a dude.
Give that man some credit.
So Aquaman was one that actually worked out.
Then we go into what they consider another pathetic attempt was Empyreax.
Empyreax?
Mhm, Empyreax.
Oh, it's supposed to be a playoff of Galactus?
Yeah.
He's supposedly a ripoff of Galactus.
He makes planets, he doesn't eat them.
So their description is Galactus has been one of the most prominent villains in the
Marvel comic books.
Oh, wait till he hits the MCU, damn.
He still hasn't been in it, has he?
Hell nah, that's too big of a character.
And he would have to be a celestial within that universe.
Well, he's killed celestials in the comics.
Well, he must have killed them.
I mean, they're going to say he killed the guy that was nowhere.
Well, didn't they have Eternity in the latest Thor, Love and Thunder?
Eternity?
I don't remember.
Yeah, Eternity is...
Haven't seen it yet.
I want to see Chris Hemsworth's gorgeous ass.
Love and Thunder.
That's a tag line they should have used.
That one got women out to it?
The enormous cosmic entity vows to destroy each world he comes across and has been one
of the biggest threats for both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
It took DC around 34 years to realize how great of a character Galactus was for Marvel
comics before they decided to make their own version of the cosmic villain.
Their solution?
Imperiax.
Imperiax was almost identical to Galactus in his size, abilities, aspirations.
And he at first appeared as a Superman villain before becoming the lead villain in the crossover
arc Our Worlds at War.
While he was a powerful foe for the DC heroes, he just wasn't as interesting as most readers
had already seen the same story countless times from Marvel.
This was the one villain they really didn't manage to take off for DC.
Well they tried.
But just the...
You can tell that this person loves Marvel.
Or at least Galactus.
Yeah.
Then we have one that actually worked.
Number 17.
Doomsday.
They're saying that Doomsday is a ripoff of the Hulk.
I don't really see how.
Oh, Doomsday.
For some reason in my head I was like, Dr. Doom?
Dr. Doom.
He's nothing like the Incredible Hulk.
That's the same company.
Doomsday.
So they're saying Doomsday is a ripoff of the Hulk.
They put... before going far into this example, it should be noted that the Hulk himself was
originally a ripoff of a DC character.
Solomon Grundy.
Born on a Monday?
Uh huh.
I will always say the next part.
If you go back and watch our videos, I will always say...
Born on a Monday?
Anytime you bring them up, I swear.
You look them up, I swear.
That being said, 30 years after Marvel created the Hulk, DC ripped off their own ripoff character
from their...
So they ripped off a character that had ripped off their character.
We ripped off your ripoff, you ripoffs.
With the creation of the supervillain Doomsday.
Doomsday was a lab experiment gone wrong in an attempt to create a more perfect and vulnerable
human, much like Hulk's origin.
I don't think that was Hulk's origin.
No, what do you mean, an accident?
That one kid was like, oh, we're going to go up there.
It was a gamma radiation accident.
Yeah, man, it blew his dick off too.
I'll never tell you that part.
Also like Hulk, Doomsday grows stronger the more he fights.
And again, whoever wrote this from Screen Rant, that is not actually true.
But Doomsday cannot be killed the same way twice, is what my understanding is.
So if I can kill him one time, will he come back?
Yeah, he comes back each time.
What if I throw him in the sun?
And he can't be killed by...
And I just left him in the center forever.
But then he'd be super...
Checkmate, you son of a bitch.
Then he'd be Superman and come back 15,000 years later.
And then bang Lois Lane.
The only difference here is that Doomsday grows stronger by adapting and evolving.
That part I know about.
Yeah.
The adaptation.
Yeah.
Whereas Hulk grows stronger from increasing anger.
You can only get so angry.
Even the color of Doomsday is reminiscent of Hulk, since Hulk's original skin tone was
gray.
That's because they couldn't afford green or some shit, if I remember.
Well DC did change quite a bit of Doomsday, mostly by making him a villain rather than
a hero.
That's enough evidence to show that the DC antagonist was at least inspired by Marvel's
green giant.
So like I said, this person loves Marvel.
That is a bit of a stretch to say that Doomsday was only modeled after Hulk.
To me, he would have been more modeled after Abomination from Marvel.
If you're going to do a direct comparison here, it would have been Abomination, not
the Hulk.
Out of all of them, no.
The next one they consider a pathetic attempt.
Number 16, Guardian.
Guardian, they're saying, is a ripoff.
That's Captain America.
Guardian, the guy with the shield?
Yeah.
Not a peacemaker or a peacekeeper?
No.
No, the guy with the yellow shield.
Yeah.
There have been numerous ripoffs of Marvel's patriotic super soldier, but the most notable
of them...
They ripped off Captain America, that's Superman.
They went to the future and then they saw Captain America and then they went back in
time and they made Superman.
Exactly.
Captain America is the original superhero.
All righty.
But the most notable of them was DC's Guardian.
Guardian made his first appearance in 1942, just one year after Captain America.
So he's been around for a long ass time.
He has to be.
I mean, it's a shield.
It's pretty much...
I could see it.
It's hard not to.
Like, one year after, but I didn't even realize that Guardian was that old.
I don't know if that would have been a character.
The only time that I really remember Guardian from was during the whole Death of Superman
thing.
When he was like, I gotta fight crime now.
With Cadmus, the company that was making clones and shit.
The biggest difference between the two characters is that Guardian originally had no abilities
besides his indestructible shield, whereas Captain America had super strength.
I thought he was just like a peak physical or some shit.
Apparently not.
Like in the original, he was like peak human.
That's what I mean.
Peak human.
And not now.
He could bench press the very limits of human potential.
But then in the MCU, he could bench press a fucking Ford truck.
So then when the...no, not MCU, Ultimate Universe.
In the comic books.
So they took the Ultimate Universe version, which was a buffer version of the original,
and then they made that for the MCU.
That's why that country record is so fucking strong.
It can jump out of a helicopter or a plane going over.
It can hold a helicopter?
Can't take a bullet shot though.
Just like the Prize Comics Fighting American, Guardian was also created by Captain America
creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
That little fucker didn't even need to go.
Ah, fuck it.
He just made another one.
Exactly.
Simon and Kirby realized the formula of Captain America worked well and supposedly decided
to try him on a numerous different platforms.
Of course, none of them worked as well as the original Captain America, who is still
one of Marvel's most popular heroes to this day.
Can't beat the original sometimes.
It would seem Guardian and Fighting American failed to live up to the original.
Damn you, Guardian.
Now number 15, we got another one that actually worked.
Lobo.
A ripoff of Wolverine.
He was?
According to the screener.
What did they rip off?
His anti-hero attitude?
Or regeneration maybe?
Maybe, but I mean that's a huge jump.
That's a huge jump.
Yeah.
Lobo was DC's answer to Wolverine.
Like you took a hit of cocaine.
It was like, here we go.
We take Wolverine, we put him in space, make him an alien fucking, got bikes, got motorcycles,
he fucking overdosed, that's the only way I can see it.
Like I like Wolverine, if he gets hit with cocaine, give him white skin.
Change everything.
He's not even in a braidspace, he can just fly.
He's got a motorcycle though.
So they put Lobo was DC's answer to Wolverine, but they were not focused on his abilities.
Instead, Lobo was almost identical to Logan in personality.
Being a gritty mercenary who was rather sick of life.
Hey, Bob.
His first appearance in DC comics as a villain in the eighties, but unfortunately he did
not take well with the readers.
In the nineties, the writers at DC revamped logo, the logo, Lobo, making him an anti-hero
who parodied, he was a parody of some of Marvel's grittiest characters and stories with most
of the focus being on parodying Wolverine.
Lobo has become somewhat of a fan favorite among DC fans being one of their darkest characters
to date.
He was until they made him into a twink.
Yeah.
You remember that?
Say, Hey ladies, you like what you see?
While he hasn't appeared in any live action movies just yet, rumor has it that Warner
Brothers and DC are finally planning to give the anti-hero his own movie with Michael Bay
being eyed to direct.
No, no.
If you want to see a box office bomb, go see a Michael Bay movie.
Like the new transformers.
Robots in disguise.
Then we have number 14, another pathetic attempt.
We have one called the Fighting American.
The rip off of Captain America.
He looks like Captain America.
When you hear the name Captain America, it's likely that you would think of a patriotic
superhero who fights for truth and justice.
And we're talking about Captain America punching Adolf Hitler in that comic book color.
And whose arch nemesis is a skull faced villain.
However, Captain America is not the only character who fits the description of this.
Prize Comics created an almost identical hero to Captain America during the 1950s.
Prize Comics?
Not DC this time.
Yeah, I hear that.
Not only was the primary villain almost identical to Captain America's villain Red Skull.
His name is Roger Steve.
Only with a darker colored skull.
So he's still a skull.
Wow.
So it's just a dark.
Yours is bright red.
Ours is dark red.
But his sidekick was oddly familiar as well.
Almost exactly like Bucky Barnes.
They call him Buffy Barnes.
The story behind this character is actually rather interesting.
During the 1950s, there was a brief period in time when Marvel writers, Joe Simon and
Jack Kirby jumped ship from Marvel and started writing comics for Prize Comics.
Jesus Christ, they're just trying to throw Captain America and everything.
Considering that they were the creators of Captain America, it is understandable that
they'd pick up where they left off, but only changing the names.
Jesus.
Then we got another one that actually worked here.
Bane.
They're saying Bane is a ripoff of Nuke and Crossbones.
DC created the Batman villain Bane in the early 1990s.
I didn't realize it was that late.
Yeah, it was.
He was just originally created just to break Batman's back.
Like, I shit you not.
I think he was.
They just invented him just to break his back and then dip out.
And then he became his own.
That's the worst thing.
He broke his back, right?
Yeah.
100% defeated.
Pissed on his face and left.
He didn't even kill him.
No, it's just to break his back.
Like, I'm dumb bitch.
You son of a bitch, my back.
I'll never forget this.
You imagine Batman talking shit as he laid out.
You fucking stupid son of a bitch, come back and fight me.
I got a story to tell you later about something like that thing that I've seen in real life.
In real life?
My God.
I saw this like real like, we call them BBWs.
Yeah, big beautiful women.
She was a big girl.
And she just there was this big fucking jock, right?
With a fuck one of those.
He like he was a Chad for sure.
He had the fucking leather, like the nice skinny jeans, a fucking collar shirt all tucked
up.
She fucking grabbed him and flung him and dropped him to the floor.
And then when he tried to get up, right, she pushed him to the ground with so much like
she had that kind of like power.
And you could see just see the emasculation on his face.
No, he tried to get up again.
And she slammed him into a fucking table and chairs.
He didn't get up the whole time.
I don't know what he said to her, but she beat his ass.
That's why you gotta at least know that you can win.
You gotta talk shit at least know you can win.
I was fully right to my side.
Why did I come up with why did I say that story?
Oh, yeah, because Bane being all buff and all you had a similar story.
Yeah.
I also have a Bane story of a chick beating this dude's ass.
Surprisingly, her titties didn't fly out of his shirt, which is a pretty much like a first
guarantee in these type of fights.
That was a quite the hefty brocci head on.
Then move once as she was manhandling and then all the other guys are laughing around
him.
He's like, help me play.
Say, no, you did this to yourself.
You got to accept this ass woman.
And her friend was beating up his friend in the background.
I'm like, God, this woman just beat me.
You guys say that again.
If you're going to start a fight, no, you can win.
What they tell her you should get a salad and just beat the hell out of them.
Probably.
That's offensive.
It would be just let me eat whatever they want.
It's got a deeper voice than he does.
He's a little bitch.
She picked up a broken back.
I guarantee that's how Bruce Wayne felt.
You big son of a bitch.
He's stupid mother.
All right.
Well, it's unclear which of the two characters Bane is based off of most.
There is plenty of evidence to claim that Bane is a rip off of both Marvel villains.
His abilities and origins are similar to Nuke while he is made in a lab using chemicals
and drugs like steroids to boost his own strength.
Crossbones, on the other hand, has similar abilities to both Nuke and Bane, but his mask
design is almost identical to that of Nuke.
Oh yeah, it kind of is.
It's safe to say that of the three characters, Bane has been the most successful.
Yeah.
Bane has had two live action iterations over the years, whereas Nuke has appeared as a
minor villain in both seasons of Jessica Jones and Crossbones was also a minor villain later
in the Captain America movies.
He was a horrendously minor villain.
Yeah.
And number 12, we have another pathetic attempt, which was Ripclaw.
Ripclaw is a rip off of Wolverine.
It's probably, huh, I wonder who.
And this is not by DC either.
So they're not that fucking.
They're not that stupid.
Yeah, if anything, it's not that fucking dumb.
The fact that Ripclaw sounds like a rip off may or may not be a coincidence.
Image Comics first created Ripclaw in 1992.
Damn bastards.
His similarities to Wolverine are uncanny.
Not only does he have razor sharp claws like Wolverine, but he has also a he was also in
a government lab as an experiment and has some angry issues as well as a healing factor.
The only real difference between the two characters is he's smooth as a baby while Wolverine is
hairy as a fucking monkey.
His only difference is that Ripclaw has a Native American background given to him that
allows him to link with the spirit world.
Take that away.
And Ripclaw is essentially Wolverine with the group that old rock group Kiss make up
on.
That what he wears?
Like just white.
Jesus.
So, yeah, yeah.
It's very likely that Image was just trying to ride off of the success of the TV series
when they created their new character, hoping that they would attract X-Men fans to read
their comics.
In the middle, they sold a million copies of Ripclaw.
Probably.
Probably not.
Number 11, we have another one that actually worked, which was Swamp Thing.
They're saying that Swamp Thing is a rip off of Man Thing.
Both of the Swamp Sang.
Man's Hong is what I hear in my head.
First off, the actual origins of these characters is as murky and unknown as the swamps that
they live in.
DC's Swamp Thing and Marvel's Man Thing.
They don't know how they were made?
What do you mean?
You guys don't have archive footage?
Right.
The footage?
Not footage.
You got that big foot footage you can't have?
Like archival files and paperwork of ideas written down?
I guess not.
They wrote it down on a fucking mirror of cocaine?
Probably.
I just assume everybody in the 80s and 90s was storing cocaine when they made these comics.
Well, this is the 70s.
70s cocaine weed.
Every time, it's so fucked up in my head, but I just imagine them storing mountains
of cocaine and writing like 55 stories.
Stan Lee would just fucking churn them out.
Like boom, boom, boom, boom.
And then fucking Jack Cartman was drawing like a madman.
They had to be just the two of them.
To me, that's so fucking incredible.
They would just write stories and draw them like 18 stories a fucking month.
And I was like, man, I can't write two sentences.
Maybe I need cocaine.
You need the magic white powder?
If we had magic white powder, I'd be writing like Stephen King.
Minus the gang bang.
DC's swamp thing and Marvel's man thing were created...
Stop saying it.
I can't help it.
I have a child, sir.
For each created and published within a month of each other.
Oh shit.
That's like, wow, that's...
Wait, that's...
What the fuck?
How?
One month of each other.
Yeah.
That can't be possible then.
I don't know if it was...
I couldn't even...
It had to be a coincidence.
It says, well, man thing didn't release first.
You got that man thing.
Well, it released first.
You make my heart sing.
There is not enough evidence to determine which idea was created originally.
While most people assume that swamp thing was a ripoff, the numerous heads of DC over
the years avidly deny these claims saying that it's just a coincidence.
Yeah, there has to be like...
Because they wouldn't know it would be a success in a month, so they wouldn't copy it.
And it would be a stupid thing to copy.
Both Marvel and DC's characters have been very successful since their creation in 1971.
It's safe to say that neither of them have surpassed each other though.
Both of them have received their own movies, with swamp thing releasing a movie in 1982
and man thing in 2005.
Was it a porno?
Probably.
The next one we have, number 10, another pathetic attempt.
We have a character called Bumblebee, which is a ripoff.
Transformer?
No, which is a ripoff of Wasp.
Oh, it does look like a Wasp.
Oh wait, Bumblebees.
Yeah, I know Bumblebee from Teen Titans.
In terms of winged, bug-like female superheroes that dress in yellow and black, Marvel's Wasp
is undoubtedly the most familiar.
She was one of the founding members of the Avengers and will co-star in the, she co-starred
in Ant-Man and the Wasp, following her supporting role in Ant-Man.
On the other side of the table, DC's Bumblebee was not met with nearly as much success, becoming
not much more than a minor member of the Teen Titans.
Wasp was created in 1963, whereas Bumblebee wasn't created until 1974.
While the height of Bumblebee's run was in the Teen Titans animated series, there was
a chance that we may finally see a live action version in the superhero movie, of her in
a superhero movie, the Teen Titans series, that show that came out.
Yeah.
Was she ever in it?
I don't think so.
I don't think so either.
I think it's already wrapped up too.
The show's already over.
Yeah, so I don't know.
There's a character nine, one that actually worked, which was Blue Beetle, and they're
saying that this is a ripoff of Spider-Man.
Every bug said you'd rip off that.
Right.
I don't under, this is like one that I thought was just stupid.
It says, the history of the character Blue Beetle.
It would have been matters, but it's actually a spider.
Right.
The art of the man, Spider.
That would have been a ripoff of Blue Beetle?
Not even the same bug.
The Blue Beetle didn't even have the same kind of abilities as Spider-Man.
It wasn't, yeah, like it's the regular dude.
Yeah, he was.
It was the alien one.
Yeah, like he was, it was all.
Like Ted Korg.
Yeah, he was just like smart and everything.
He created stuff, kind of like Batman.
He's more of a Batman ripoff than he was Spider-Man.
The history of the character Blue Beetle is complex as the original incarnation of the
character was first made by Fox Comics in 1939.
Remember that.
However, the character has, was sold a number of times after that.
Sold?
Passing those four men around?
Only being purchased by DC in the early eighties.
While the original versions of Blue Beetle were not very similar to Spider-Man, who was
created in 1962, the DC version of the character was strikingly similar to Marvel's web slinger.
Not only were they both bug like heroes.
That's like, okay, that how's that?
That doesn't really.
But the backstory and characteristics of DC's Blue Beetle.
Did Uncle Ben also die?
Right.
Are very similar to Peter Parker.
While Blue Beetle never got close to the success of Spider-Man, he still became a very popular
character for DC and is still, he still is to this day.
Okay, but I don't understand how the backstories are even close.
Like Blue Beetle's character was rich.
Yeah.
Spider, Peter Parker's poor as fuck.
He's always broke.
Always.
Look, what's his name?
He got no growth.
Like he can't afford condoms and he got time for babies.
Another pathetic attempt of a ripoff, we have Leonard the Duck.
From Howard?
Yes.
Jesus.
Leonard the Duck was a character created, was a character who appeared in Eclipse Comics,
Destroyer Duck Comics.
Destroyer Duck.
Which was written by former Marvel writer, Steve Gerber, with the help of Jack Kirby.
Ah, Jack Kirby, that man myth legend.
Gerber created the character Howard the Duck.
So he created both.
So what is their obsession with taking a character they created once and then trying to make
it the same formula in a different place?
I actually have a reason for this.
It says he created Howard the Duck six years prior to creating Leonard the Duck.
While working for Marvel, Gerber didn't try to rely on being subtle when creating Leonard
the Duck, making him completely identical to Howard in appearance and characteristics.
At the time, Gerber was in a legal fight with Marvel for the rights and ownership of Howard
the Duck.
So he was trying to have rights to everything.
Don't create an original character in an established property because they will keep it.
Exactly, but apparently this was one of his favorite creations.
Well, he should have created it.
Always self-published.
Yes.
If you love something that much, so you're the only one that owns it.
It was likely that Gerber originally intended to use Howard in Destroyer Duck, but due to
the legal issues was unable to use it in that publication.
Howard the Duck went on to have his own live action movie and appeared in both Guardians
of the Galaxy movies, while Leonard the Duck went on to have a very short-lived career.
He had a sex scene in that Howard the Duck movie.
Even the covers for Howard the Duck versus Leonard the Duck.
He was legit upset.
He copied identically.
He was mad as fuck.
Leonard the Duck has a silhouette in the picture of Wolverine instead of just a person with
a sword.
So yeah, he was...
Fucking livid.
Yep.
We have another one that actually worked.
They're saying Killer Croc is a ripoff of Lizard.
The Lizard was first created as a Spider-Man villain in 1963.
He was a scientist who turned into a larger reptilian monster that posed a threat to Spider-Man
on a number of occasions, even appearing as a main villain in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man.
Damn, I love that movie.
In 1983, DC followed suit by creating the Batman villain Killer Croc.
Like the Lizard, Killer Croc was also a human who became a large reptilian monster posing
a threat for one of the...
Who became?
Was he just a large reptilian monster?
Yeah.
Or he's mutated over time?
I guess so, yeah.
Over the years, Killer Croc has arguably surpassed the Lizard, becoming one of the most famous
Batman villains in the comics.
On top of that, the makeup done on Killer Croc and Suicide Squad played a major part
in winning the movie the Academy Award for Best Makeup in 2017.
That movie was ass.
Yes, it was.
I don't give a damn what awards you give it.
This is quite the achievement for a ripoff character.
Then we have another one that I find just...
Okay.
Marvel.
You do not own the name Thor.
I'm sorry, but you don't.
Thor is a god that has existed for thousands of years at this point, I believe.
You don't own Norse mythology.
I'm sorry, but you don't.
Imagine at the end, at the bottom of our fucking video, right?
There's a comment from our...
We'll be hearing from our lawyers.
That'd be funny.
So they have number six, a pathetic attempt.
The almighty Thor, they're saying is a ripoff of Thor from Marvel Comics.
So they put, comics haven't been the only things ripped off from Marvel.
The movies have as well.
One of the most notable attempts to rip off a Marvel movie has been Sci-Fi's Almighty
Thor, which aired May 7th of 2011, just one day after the US release of the live action
Thor.
The plot follows a young Thor who teams up with a Valkyrie to defeat Loki, who has taken
the hammer of invincibility and ended the life of Thor's father.
You bastard.
Both the reviews and reception to Almighty Thor were atrocious.
I imagine so.
As the movie was indisputably horribly made.
The fight and death scenes were all horrible and the acting and effects were arguably even
worse.
The movie wasn't nearly as entertaining or successful as Marvel's Thor.
It certainly didn't help that Sci-Fi's already disreputable track record.
Disreputable?
What did they do?
This to me is coming off as a Marvel fanboy right in this.
But you cannot, you don't have rights to the actual Thor character.
I saw that movie.
It's absolute ass.
Yeah.
It could be a horrible movie.
It is a horrendous movie.
You can call it, say like this version of Thor is not good, but it's not a ripoff.
Like there's been Thor movies forever.
Marvel doesn't own and even in the actual image of that, he doesn't even look like the
other Thor.
His hammer is way, way bigger design.
Yeah.
Completely different design.
His clothing is a like a fur.
So it's not even like as guardian of Marvel type stuff.
It's kind of hard to copy that.
We have one that they consider that one that actually worked.
They're saying Batman Beyond is a ripoff of Spider-Man, the animated series.
What the plucky kid with the powers and I guess maybe they put following the success
of the animated Spider-Man TV series in the 1990s, the team at Warner Brothers decided
to follow suit by creating a similar formula with their own series, Batman Beyond.
Instead of following the classic adult Bruce Wayne, like most Batman series in the past
did Batman Beyond was set in the distant future and start 16 year old Terry McGinnis who became
the new Batman.
This is extremely similar to the Spider-Man series as both of them followed a teenage
superhero fighting crime as each of their respective comics, most popular superheroes.
It's difficult to dispute which show ultimately became the most successful.
So it's safe to say that each series was fantastical in their own right.
This is, was undoubtedly a ripoff of Marvel that actually worked.
Man, that's a good show.
Batman Beyond, I thought, but if we're following the same guideline where they're saying like
a 16 year old with powers taken over, what about static shock?
Just shock.
But is that a ripoff now?
Like, no, good.
Well, I don't know.
I'm saying if you're following their formula, know their what a ripoff is.
Who cares?
I love both shows.
I love all three shows.
Static shock.
The Batman one, no, the Spider-Man one from the animated show, a teenager, man was like,
he was like 45 and 20 at the same time.
I know.
Like, I don't know, this age you fucking flip back and forth.
Look like a full grown 30 year old.
Like, yeah.
It's like Aunt Mary, I got bills to pay.
Like he's been working a job for 20 years.
Yeah, like nowhere near a fucking teenager in my head.
Maybe it was spectacular Spider-Man.
That's a good show too.
We have another one that's a pathetic attempt and I kind of agree with this one though.
This is actually what I do agree with.
Atomic skull is a ripoff of Ghost Rider.
Atomic skull.
It kind of, it's kind of a ripoff.
Just a little bit.
Ghost Rider has always been one of Marvel's most successful anti-heroes since his first
appearance in 1972.
Whether it was, whether it was his flaming skull for a head or the impressive motorcycle
that he rode.
Many seemed to click from Marvel's readers.
DC's have noticed this and created their own version of the character in 1978, Atomic
Skull, which much like Ghost Rider in abilities and appearances, simply had flames around
his head to be colored purple or green instead of Ghost Rider's orange.
At times Atomic Skull has been shown with a motorcycle in case the connection between
the characters wasn't already clear.
Atomic Skull has a scooter.
Rather than being an anti-hero like Ghost Rider, Atomic Skull has always been depicted
as a villain.
Unfortunately, Atomic Skull never seemed to click with the readers the way Ghost Rider
did and rarely appears as more than a background character in DC Comics today.
Number three, we have one that actually worked again.
Supposedly, okay, they're claiming Dr. Fate is a ripoff of Dr. Strange, but listen to
the explanation.
Okay.
To put, whether or not it's DC's Dr. Fate was actually a ripoff of Dr. Strange's
Disputable as Dr. Fate's original appearance was in 1940, 23 years before Dr. Strange's
first appearance.
Okay.
But his ripoff, remember that?
I'm following.
Makes no sense.
I'm trying to travel.
I'm following.
Like you have Superman as a ripoff Captain America, doesn't it?
The catch is that Dr. Fate was never more than a background character for DC before
Dr. Strange was created.
Once Dr. Strange became a hit for Marvel, DC started giving stories to Dr. Fate, hoping
that Marvel's readers would read about Dr. Fate as well and right they were.
Dr. Fate actually became quite the hit for DC.
Well, unless you're talking about what we just talked about in the last episode of Black
Adam.
While he isn't as well known today as he was during the height of the 60s and 70s,
Dr. Fate used to be a well-known name in the comic book world, at times being more successful
than Dr. Strange himself.
Had Marvel not created their Sorcerer Supreme, it's likely that Dr. Fate wouldn't have made
its appearance in the 60s at all.
So they're saying because of the popularity of Dr. Strange, Dr. Fate became more popular.
They figure that if they gave more attention to a minor character, right, that it would
be, I guess, well, I don't know.
But they call it a ripoff.
If the character was created 23 years before.
I don't know.
Yeah, you copied us, although we probably copied you and then made it more popular.
Who knows?
So again, like I said, whoever's writing this for Screen Rant loves Marvel.
We're down to the last two here.
We have a pathetic attempt.
The DCEU is a ripoff of the MCU.
There's no dispute there.
I mean, yeah, we all know that's what was happening.
They did a horrendous job of it, too.
Yeah, yeah, that one I agree with.
And then they have number one, one that actually worked because I'm not going to go into the
DCEU and the Marvel we know about.
We know that.
Let's wait for the DCEU.
See how they do it in 2025 when the official start with the Batman or Superman, Madden
Tomorrow, I think is what it's called.
We have one that they say that actually worked, though.
They're saying the Red Hood plot twist was a ripoff of the Winter Soldier plot twist.
When did the Winter Soldier plot twist happen?
They do not mention.
I thought they came way after.
Bucky Barnes being Winter Soldier?
Yeah, or they came before.
I think it came before.
For that matter, I don't know by how much.
Oh, wait, that was like oh six or something when Red Hood started showing up.
Oh three.
Well, but I will say it could be possible.
The Red Hood plot twist was much more interesting than the Bucky Barnes one.
Yeah, I know.
I'll give a shit about Bucky Barnes.
No.
Well, the Red Hood.
OK, it's Jason Todd.
He got his ass kicked, killed by Joker, and then he comes back like Bucky Barnes.
He was he was 100 percent killed by fans.
And DC was like, fuck you.
Take this down your throat.
We're bringing him back.
And they've been having a deep throat ever since.
All right.
That is all the Marvel ones.
We'll get through these DC ones pretty quickly here, though, because they're more common
since than the other ones.
Those were written by the Marvel ones were written by a Marvel fanboy that was trying
to stretch on some of these.
The rest of these are kind of more.
OK, that makes more sense.
Number 15, we have a pathetic attempt.
Hawkeye is a rip off of Green Arrow.
That's always been the oldest time.
Exactly.
See, I don't even have to dispute it.
We know it's true.
These are just objective.
And Hawkeye has never been as popular as well until maybe recently.
But he was never like in comic books as popular as Green Arrow.
Green Arrow was always a part of Justice League and stuff like that.
We have one that actually worked.
Deadpool, the direct rip off of Deathstroke.
They keep saying that, but the guy that wrote Deadpool said he was not.
He was into the fact that Deadpool, his name is Wade Wilson.
Deathstroke is Wade Wilson.
I don't want to dispute that.
They had to change Deadshot's name in the news with the Will Smith Suicide Squad.
Because it also had like a Wilson or something like Sam Wilson or some shit.
Fucking wild.
They all love Wilson.
We have another pathetic one.
Quicksilver as a rip off to The Flash.
The Flash appeared in 1940.
So that's a long time ago.
Another one that actually worked.
Thanos is a rip off of Darkseid.
Thanos is Thanos now.
Exactly.
And Darkseid.
That movie didn't work.
And the thing is, Darkseid was a good character.
Like he was pure evil.
Like Thanos had a plan.
Darkseid just wants to destroy shit.
Thanos was like I just want to make half of these people gone.
And Darkseid wants the anti-life equation so that way everybody will be his slave.
So he doesn't want to kill you.
He just wants you to be his slave.
Man, that's a lot of slaves.
Another pathetic attempt.
We have Hyperion as a rip off of Superman.
Hyperion, yeah.
Or Sentry I believe.
He doesn't really get much play as often as...
No because...
He's really powerful.
Yeah.
And didn't he have a Darkseid too?
I think so.
He has like a weaker form.
Kind of like the Hulk.
Yeah, yeah he does.
Then we have another one that actually worked.
The X-Men were a rip off of Doom Patrol.
Were they?
Cool.
Didn't even know that until I read that.
They even had a character that was extremely intelligent like Professor X.
We have another pathetic attempt.
Gladiator was a rip off of Superman as well.
Gladiator, one of those...
The Shi'ar?
Oh, that guy, yeah.
I think that was the alien group.
Yeah, the Shi'ar.
Yeah.
Another one that actually worked.
Ultron was a rip off of Brainiac.
I guess.
Ultron was a robot made by Hank Pym.
Brainiac was an alien.
Yeah.
But still like I guess...
Robotic, I guess?
Yeah, there's like robots or artificial intelligence.
We have another one that actually worked.
Vision is a rip off of Red Tornado.
I think that's true actually.
Yeah.
I think they even said that somewhere.
Yeah.
Red Tornado debuted in DC Comics in August of 1968.
Vision on the other hand didn't debut until two months later in October of 1968.
I mean this color scheme, everything's kind of the same.
Another pathetic attempt.
We have Boomerang is a rip off of Captain Boomerang.
I didn't know there was a Boomerang character in DC Air Marvel.
Yeah.
One that actually worked.
Sandman is a rip off of Clayface.
Nice choice.
Yeah.
He became more popular than Clayface.
At least in like with Spider-Man.
Nowadays, yeah.
Yeah.
Another pathetic Black Cat is a rip off of Catwoman.
Yeah.
Man, she's just...
She's got it all.
Another pathetic one, we have Night Thrasher, which is a rip off of Batman.
Night Thrasher?
The fuck?
Yeah.
Night Thrasher was created as a dark suited martial arts trained vigilante who would often
hunt criminals at night and was skilled at making his own technological advancements.
So that's basically a pure Batman rip off.
Then we have another Batman rip off, Moon Knight.
Ah, Moon Knight.
They took that.
They took the basic concept and completely...
Well, yeah, if you know Moon Knight, you know Moon Knight.
And then we have the last one, one that actually worked.
The Avengers are a rip off of the Justice League.
Yeah.
Well, man, it was Stanley by himself.
He had to copy somewhere.
He was just charting them out.
It looks like Justice League was formed in DC Comics in 1960 while the Avengers did not
assemble until 1963.
I forgot their fucking Avengers song.
Man, it goes to show you how little effort sometimes it feels like they take in the writing.
Yeah.
But just always remember, Solomon Grundy...
Was born on a Monday.
All right.
That's all on those lists.
Like I said, the ones that were ripped off from DC are kind of more blatant.
A little bit.
Just a little bit.
What are you going to do, sew us?
Yeah.
The ones that were ripped off according to Screen Rant by Marvel, a couple of those were
a little bit of a stretch and you're probably going to pull something if you go with a stretch
for that far.
But other than that, anything else to add before we head out?
Yeah, I haven't had that kind of sex scene in this movie.
It haunts me to this day.
We'll see you guys on the next one.