History OlderThanTheyThink / Comicbooks

* The Thing is often accused of being a ''[[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]]'' ripoff, which is quite an accomplishment, seeing as how the Thing was created first -- by the ''[[MarvelUniverse same]] [[StanLee people]]''.

* Brian Azzarello's wildly popular Batman story ''{{Joker}}'', about (you guessed it) TheJoker, takes place in a more realistic universe, where the Joker is depicted as a more believable psychopath. His long messy hair, splotchy "makeup", and Glasgow smile made him a very unique version of the character.... until ''Film/TheDarkKnight''came out. Many people after that, thought that the comic "ripped off" HeathLedger's Joker or that the story is meant to tie in with the film. However, this was just a coincidence, they had already started the story before they even saw what Ledger looked like.

* Brian Azzarello's wildly popular Batman story ''{{Joker}}'', about (you guessed it) TheJoker, takes place in a more realistic universe, where the Joker is depicted as a more believable psychopath. His long messy hair, splotchy "makeup", and Glasgow smile made him a very unique version of the character.... until TheDarkKnight came out. Many people after that, thought that the comic "ripped off" HeathLedger's Joker or that the story is meant to tie in with the film. However, this was just a coincidence, they had already started the story before they even saw what Ledger looked like.

* Shuma-Gorath predates his appearances in the DoctorStrange and ConanTheBarbarian comics, all the way back to a mention in one of Creator/RobertEHoward's Kull stories. The story was published in the 1960s, but could not have been written later than the mid-30s, making this character OlderThanTelevision. This is also a case of AdaptationDisplacement.

* It's a meme among ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' fandom that Trelane from the ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "The Squire of Gothos" was ripped off from FF villain Infant Terrible, apparently for no more reason than being child-like and omnipotent, even though there are hundreds of examples of this combination going back at least to the 1920s.

* An in-universe example has Superboy saying to {{Superman}} "Second star to the right and fly till morning." When Superman says "Literature/PeterPan. How appropriate." Superboy replies "What are you talking about? Captain Kirk said that." in reference to Kirk's closing line at the end of ''StarTrekVI'' where he was clearly quoting Peter Pan.

*** DC, which published a few stories of the original Hugo Danner (as did Marvel), gave Danner a son named "Iron" Munroe who filled in for [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Superman in the RetCon patchwork that TheDCU's WorldWarII history became PostCrisis, when many of the formerly Golden Age heroes were given new, recent origins. Now, the adventures that happened to Superman DuringTheWar, mostly happened to Munroe instead.
* Shuma-Gorath predates his appearances in the DoctorStrange and ConanTheBarbarian comics, all the way back to a mention in one of RobertEHoward's Kull stories. The story was published in the 1960s, but could not have been written later than the mid-30s, making this character OlderThanTelevision. This is also a case of AdaptationDisplacement.

* After the fairly obscure character TheQuestion became the EnsembleDarkhorse of JusticeLeague Unlimited, many people declared him to be a rip off of Rorschach. In fact, Alan Moore only created Rorschach because he was told he couldn't use The Question, the character he had originally planned to use in Watchmen.

* Brian Azzarello's wildly popular Batman story ''{{Joker}}'', about (you guessed it) {{the Joker}}, takes place in a more realistic universe, where the Joker is depicted as a more believable psychopath. His long messy hair, splotchy "makeup", and Glasgow smile made him a very unique version of the character.... until {{The Dark Knight}} came out. Many people after that, thought that the comic "ripped off" {{Heath Ledger}}'s Joker or that the story is meant to tie in with the film. However, this was just a coincidence, they had already started the story before they even saw what Ledger looked like.

* Some fans have accused Spider-Man [[{{ArchEnemy}} archenemy]] NormanOsborn (aka the Green Goblin) of being a rip off of LexLuthor, because both are [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corrupt Corporate Executives]]. Thing is, Norman's been an evil businessman since he debuted in 1966 (his Goblin alter ego debuted two years before he did interestingly enough), while Luthor was a traditional MadScientist from his appearance in 1940 until his reinvention as a businessman in 1986.

* ''Wizard'' magazine, the most "mainstream" magazine on comic books, once contemptuously referred to the immortal supervillain VandalSavage as "a cheap Ra's al Ghul knockoff". Actually, Vandal Savage predates Ra's by ''twenty eight years'' -- 1943 and 1971, specifically.
** Ming the Merciless has been referred to as "a cheap Ra's al Ghul clone" as well. Ra's and Ming are, of course, knockoffs of FuManchu, who wasn't the first YellowPeril villain either.
* It's a meme among ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' fandom that Trelane from the ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "The Squire of Gothos" was ripped off from FF villain Infant Terrible, apparently for no more reason than being child-like and omnipotent, despite the fact that there are literally hundreds of examples of this combination going back at least to the 1920s.

* The DCComics skull-faced supervillain Doctor Destiny is often called a knockoff of [[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse Skeletor]], despite the fact that he predates him by several decades. It is also important to note that, besides appearance and the fact that they're both villains, ''these two characters have absolutely nothing in common.'' And a skull face is [[TheGrimReaper not exactly a new or unique concept]] to start with.

* A number of comic book fans commented that the [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/zaitchick/grenier/ValerianEmpMilPlan-02.jpg spaceship]] in the European comic book ''Valerian'' was ''totally'' plagiarized from the Millennium Falcon. Except Valerian and his ship were created in 1967, and ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' was made in 1977.
** Others commented that the {{flying car}}s seen in one of the Valerian stories were totally plagiarized on ''TheFifthElement'' -- forgetting that the idea of flying cars has been around since... well, the invention of the car. Not to mention that the story was published years before the movie was made, ''and'' that the director is a ''Valerian'' fan who '''specifically''' asked the series' artist to work on the design of the movie.

** Not to mention the ending is very similar to ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' episode [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Architects_of_Fear "The Architects of Fear"]]. This is acknowledged in the ending (it's the episode playing on Sally Juspeczyk's TV).

* We first went to the moon in 1969. Snoopy was there earlier that year. Tintin predates Snoopy by 16 years, going to the moon in 1953. Donald Duck already went there in 1948. But of course, Jules Verne's Around The Moon predates everyone, being published in 1870. That's 99 years before Real Life. Note that in From The Earth To The Moon nobody set foot on the moon.
** [[OlderThanTheyThink Of course, Johannes Kepler got there in the 1620s, and Lucian in the 2nd century...]]

* The Thing is often accused of being a ''Hulk'' ripoff, which is quite an accomplishment, seeing as how the Thing was created first -- by the ''[[MarvelUniverse same]] [[StanLee people]]''.

* ''Wizard'' magazine, the most "mainstream" magazine on comic books, once contemptuously referred to the immortal supervillain Vandal Savage as "a cheap Ra's al Ghul knockoff". Actually, Vandal Savage predates Ra's by ''twenty eight years'' -- 1943 and 1971, specifically.

** has adventures where lifts a car, and rips the door off a bank vault...

* Shuma-Gorath predates his appearances in the Doctor Strange and Conan the Barbarian comics, all the way back to a mention in one of Robert E. Howard's Kull stories. The story was published in the 1960s, but could not have been written later than the mid-30s, making this character OlderThanTelevision. This is also a case of AdaptationDisplacement.

*** [[http://www.spiderfan.org/comics/title/spiderwoman-2.html Incorrect]] the Spider-Woman villain first appeared in August of 1981, whereas the DC villain [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathstroke first appeared in December of 1980]]
* A number of comic book fans commented that the [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/zaitchick/grenier/ValerianEmpMilPlan-02.jpg spaceship]] in the European comic book ''Valerian'' was ''totally'' plagiarized from the Millenium Falcon. Except Valerian and his ship were created in 1967, and ''Star Wars'' was made in 1977.

* Some have claimed ''{{Watchmen}}'''s ending, [[spoiler:in which the world unites against an alien threat after New York City is destroyed]], is an attempt to capitalize on post-9/11 feelings. However, not only does Watchmen predate 9/11 by 15 years, but the eerie similarities between 9/11 and Watchmen's climax have been noted by more than a few people, especially in regards to whether [[spoiler:Ozymandias' plan to bring about world peace]] would work even temporarily in real life given that world sympathy for the United States was temporary and only lasted until the United States invaded Iraq.

* An in-universe example has Superboy saying to {{Superman}} "Second star to the right and fly till morning." When Superman says "Peter Pan. How appropriate." Superboy replies "What are you talking about? Captain Kirk said that." in reference to Kirk's closing line at the end of ''StarTrekVI'' where he was clearly quoting Peter Pan.

*** Lee himself has admitted that he has a poor memory, so it is possible that he is misremembering. It is all but impossible for the X-Men to have been inspired by Doom Patrol, as it usually took over six months to develop a comic in the 60's. As mentioned above, there were three months between the two teams respective debuts, which would mean that the X-Men would have already been in the works when Doom Patrol hit the stands.

* Brian Azzarello's wildly popular Batman story, entitled ''{{Joker}}'' about (you guessed it) {{the Joker}} takes place in a more realistic universe, where the Joker is depicted as a more believable psychopath. His long messy hair, splotchy "makeup", and Glasgow smile made him a very unique version of the character.... until {{The Dark Knight}} came out. Many people after that, thought that the comic "ripped off" {{Heath Ledger}}'s Joker or that the story is meant to tie in with the film. However, this was just a coincidence, they had already started the story before they even saw what Ledger looked like.

* James A. Owen received a lot of hate mail for "stealing" the characters of Titania and Oberon from Neil Gaimen's Sandman series for his own Starchild series. It got so bad that, as a favor, Neil wrote the intro for the collected anthology explaining that James did not, in fact steal anything that wasn't already stolen.
* Some fans have accused Spider-Man [[{{ArchEnemy}} archenemy]] Norman Osborn (aka the Green Goblin) of being a rip off of LexLuthor, because both are [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corrupt Corporate Executives]]. Thing is, Norman's been an evil businessman since he debuted in 1966 (his Goblin alter ego debuted two years before he did interestingly enough), while Luthor was a traditional MadScientist from his appearance in 1940 until his reinvention as a businessman in 1986.

* Many moviegoers have accused the ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' [[Film/FantasticFour movies]] of ripping off ''TheIncredibles''.
** Likewise, the ''{{Watchmen}}'' [[Film/{{Watchmen}} movie]].

* Many fans of misfit superhero teams who are hated and feared by the public they protect and are led by charismatic wheelchair-bound men often think that DC's ''DoomPatrol'' is a blatant ripoff of Marvel's more popular ''X-Men''. Other comics fans who know a little more about the books' histories know ''DoomPatrol'' was actually published first, and assume the theft went the other way around. In fact ''X-Men'' followed ''DoomPatrol'' by only three months, and given the lead time involved in the production of comics it's most likely no plagiarism was involved. However, some artists and writers worked clandestinely for both companies, and it is possible that information flowed one way or the other.

* The DCComics skull-faced supervillain Doctor Destiny is often called a knockoff of [[HeMan Skeletor]], despite the fact that he predates him by several decades. It is also important to note that, besides appearance and the fact that they're both villains, ''these two characters have absolutely nothing in common.'' And a skull face is [[TheGrimReaper not exactly a new or unique concept]] to start with.

* James A. Owen received a lot of hate mail for "stealing" the characters of Titania and Oberon from Neil Gaimen's Sandman series for his own Starchild series. It got so bad that, as a favor, Neil wrote the intro for the collected anthology explaining that James did not, in fact steal anything that wasn't already stolen.

** Deathstroke himself is based off of Taskmaster, a Marvel villain that debuted a few months before him. Not surprising, since GeorgePerez created both of them. All three characters have diverged. Deathstroke is a LawfulEvil [[ProfessionalKiller mercenary]] played [[KnightOfCerebus dead seriously]]. Taskmaster is a LawfulNeutral PunchClockVillain slash PunchClockHero who is slightly quirky (albeit a ConsummateProfessional nonetheless) and OnlyInItForTheMoney. Deadpool is a [[BunnyEarsLawyer competent but ''very'' quirky (i.e. insane)]] [[LovableRogue]] who toes the line between ChaoticNeutral and ChaoticGood.

** Deathstroke himself is based off of Taskmaster, a Marvel villain that debuted a few months before him. Not surprising, since GeorgePerez created both of them. All three characters have diverged. Deathstroke is a LawfulEvil [[ProfessionalKiller mercenary]] played [[KnightOfCerebus dead seriously]]. Taskmaster is a LawfulNeutral PunchClockVillain/PunchClockHero who is slightly quirky (albeit a ConsummateProfessional nonetheless) and OnlyInItForTheMoney. Deadpool is a [[BunnyEarsLawyer competent but ''very'' quirky (i.e. insane)]] [[LovableRogue]] who toes the line between ChaoticNeutral and ChaoticGood.

** [[OlderThanTheyThink Of course, Johannes Kepler got there in the 1620s, and Lucian in the 2nd century...]]

** Not to mention the ending is very similar to the ''OuterLimits'' episode [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Architects_of_Fear "The Architects of Fear"]]. This is acknowledged in the ending (it's the episode playing on Sally Juspeczyk's TV).

* Many people seem to think that {{Aquaman}} came before [[{{Sub-Mariner}} Namor the Sub-Mariner]], even though Namor predated him by two years. This may be because Namor went out of print during TheInterregnum, while Aquaman held on as an ''Action Comics'' backup.

* We first went to the moon in 1969. Snoopy was there earlier that year. Tintin predates Snoopy by 16 years, going to the moon in 1953. Donald Duck already went there in 1948. But of course, Jules Verne's Around The Moon predates everyone, being published in 1870. That's 99 years before Real Life. Note that in From The Earth To The Moon nobody set foot on the moon.

* Shuma-Gorath predates his appearances in the Doctor Strange and Conan the BArbarian comicsw, all the way back to a mention in one of Robert E. Howard's Kull stories. The story was published in the 1960s, but could not have been written later than the mid-30s, making this character OlderThanTelevision. This is also a case of AdaptationDisplacement.

* Brian Azzarello's wildly popular Batman story, entitled ''Joker'' about (you guessed it) the {{Joker}} takes place in a more realistic universe, where the Joker is depicted as a more believable psychopath. His long messy hair, splotchy "makeup", and Glasgow smile made him a very unique version of the character.... until {{The Dark Knight}} came out. Many people after that, thought that the comic "ripped off" {{Heath Ledger}}'s Joker or that the story is meant to tie in with the film. However, this was just a coincidence, they had already started the story before they even saw what Ledger looked like.

* We first went to the moon in 1969. Snoopy was there earleier that year. Tintin predates Snoopy by 16 years, going to the moon in 1953. Donald Duck already went there in 1948. But of course, Jules Verne's Around The Moon predates everyone, being published in 1870. That's 99 years before Real Life. Note that in From The Earth To The Moon nobody set foot on the moon.

* Many moviegoers have accused the ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' movies of ripping off ''TheIncredibles''.
** Likewise, the new ''{{Watchmen}}'' movie.

* One case that involves a reversal is the Black Cat of Marvel and Catwoman of DC. Although Catwoman predates Black Cat by over a decade the whole concept of the superspy in a catsuit was Black Cat from the inception. Catwoman did not adopt this style until the 80's. Previously she looked like a circus performer in a bright purple suit with a green cape (incidentally she was a thief from the onset but used large cats (tigers, leopards etc.) to pull off her robberies until she was revamped.
** Incorrect. Thanks to the 1960s Batman TV show, [[http://doctorfuckwit.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/catwoman-meow.jpg whose Catwoman costume]] was modeled partly on [[TheAvengers Emma Peel's]], in the late 1960s the comics version of Catwoman [[http://www.comics.org/issue/21483/cover/4/ was given a similar skintight suit.]] She also wore [[http://www.comics.org/issue/22568/cover/4/ a different skintight outfit]] in the early 1970s before regressing to the 1940s costume.

** The comparison is only appearance based however as Ledger's Joker and Azzarello's Joker have very different personalities.

** Not to mention the ending is very similar to the 'OuterLimits'' episode [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Architects_of_Fear "The Architects of Fear"]]. This is acknowledged in the ending (it's the episode playing on Sally Juspeczyk's TV).

*** Except that both Brotherhoods debuted at the exact same time. Both showed up in March of 1964. Yep. Same month of the same
year. Making it pretty damn hard for either to be a rip-off.