The DCU
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Comic Books
Comic Books
Captain America Substitutes
- DC has a few different Captain America equivalents. The most notable is probably Commander Steel from All-Star Squadron and his various successors, all of whom have costumes and abilities extremely similar to those of Cap. The original Steel even had the same basic origin, with the only difference being that his strength was derived from robotic limbs rather than a Super Serum. Justice League Unlimited lampshaded the similarities between the two by having Steel perform Captain America's trademark shield throw during the final episode. There's also General Glory from the Justice League International, who was essentially Captain America crossed with Shazam!. He even had an Expy of Bucky named Ernie.
- Agent Liberty is another Justice Leaguer who was influenced by Cap.
- The Guardian, who was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the same duo that introduced Captain America. He wasn't a patriotic hero, but much like Cap, was a Badass Normal with an indestructible shield.
- In a reversal it can be said that Captain America is the equivalent of Uncle Sam of the Freedom Fighters, who predates Cap by 8 months. Uncle Sam turned out to be less human and more Anthropomorphic Personification over time though.
- Possibly DC's most amusing Capt. sub is Rex The Wonderdog, since he's a dog. He only really has the bit about being a WWII vet and sole success of a Super-Soldier experiment prior to the serum, scientist in charge and notes being destroyed in a Nazi attack in common with the Captain, since the military was testing things on animals instead of injecting experimental untested drugs into humans in this verse.
- A recent example is Jace Fox's Batman towards Sam Wilson's Captain America, as both are men of color who have donned the mantle of the resident Charles Atlas Super Power Badass Normal of their respective universes.
- Grayson
- Fans noticed very early that Dick has basically become Bucky Barnes: after his death was faked in a major crossover event, he used it as a cover to free himself up for the kind of heavy-duty espionage his mentor can't do, but the similarities end there. Winter Soldier was spy noir and had a much darker tone, whereas Grayson is more akin to a Bond movie with its more playful style.
- The less obvious parallel is that the new series is essentially the male DC version of Marvel's Black Widow.
- A pop art infused sci-fi international spy adventure series involving a womanizing super-agent is inevitably going to bring comparisons to the Jim Steranko era Nick Fury.
Fantastic Four Substitutes
- Adventures of Superman #466 told the story of a space shuttle crew whose encounter with a Negative Space Wedgie gave them mutations reminiscent of the Fantastic Four; in a subversion, the results were painful, unstable, more of a disadvantage than an advantage, and ultimately fatal. (One of the crew, however, was later brought Back from the Dead as the Cyborg Superman, a recurring villain who irrationally blamed Superman for the accident.) Amusingly, he was the villain in the Intercontinuity Crossover Superman/Fantastic Four. And he noticed the parallels between his origin and that of the Fantastic Four.
- The Fantastic Four and their origin are also homaged in an issue of Booster Gold, where Booster stops a rocket launch and four suspiciously familiar astronauts complain about it.
- The final issue of the "Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite" [sic] Superman arc revealed an unusual fact about Mxyzptlk; he sometimes goes slumming in a universe that resembled the Marvel Universe, under the guise of a green-and-purple shapeshifting alien (in other words, Marvel's Impossible Man) while tormenting a quartet of heroes who vaguely resemble the Fantastic Four. The issue even borrowed the plot twist from Impy's first encounter with the FF, by having the FF walk away from their antagonist, essentially refusing to play with him. Later, though, after the two characters had developed in different directions, they confirmed themselves as separate characters, and really disliked each other.note
- The Fantastic Four are themselves reminiscent of an older DC Comics team, the Challengers of the Unknown (also a Jack Kirby creation), albeit ones that became better known than the original. In Amalgam Comics, the two are combined to make the Challengers of the Fantastic.
- In Justice League America, the writers jokingly pointed out the similarities between Fire and the Human Torch by having a citizen mistake Fire for her Marvel counterpart. He was cut off before he could explicitly call her "Human Torch", but the intention was clear.
- The DC series The Terrifics is pretty explicitly one for the Fantastic Four, likely due to the latter team being Screwed by the Network during the Fox embargo at the time. The team's lineup possesses the same roles as the original team, with the somewhat distant Badass Bookworm and superscientist (Mr. Terrific to Mr. Fantastic), the jokey prankster with impressive powers and a good heart (Plastic Man to Human Torch), the rough-edged Boisterous Bruiser with a monstrous look (Metamorpho to The Thing), and the down-to-Earth younger woman with the ability to vanish (Phantom Girl to Invisible Woman). The creators have even explicitly cited the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four stories as an inspiration.
- Specifically, Cliff "Robotman" Steele in Doom Patrol is often written as DC's version of The Thing — a strong character who angsts about his transformed body and, despite a volatile temper, acts as the grounded, relatively "normal" member of his team.
Spider-Man Substitutes
- Static and Spider-Man. The main difference besides powers being that Static is an ethnic minority and deals with gangs more than jocks/bullies. Even confirmed by the late Dwayne McDuffie to be a modern reinterpretation of Spider-Man, that he came up with during his time working at Marvel, but it didn't go through 'til he published it under Milestone Comics, which DC eventually bought, making him the A.C.E. for two companies opposed to Marvel. Power wise, the much more powerful grown up Static is about the same as Magneto.
- Miles Morales, Peter's successor in the Ultimate Universe is considered by some to be Marvel's answer to Static as both are black teenagers in the Peter Parker mold. Miles even has Shock and Awe powers just like Static.
- From around Infinite Crisis on the Blue Beetle has been shaping up to be DC's Spider-Man counterpart, both of them being wisecracking bug-themed (well, spiders are arachnids, but still...) superheroes who have an Affirmative-Action Legacy (in Jaime Reyes and the aforementioned Miles Morales respectively). This is actually older than they think - Ted Kord's Blue Beetle and Spidey share a common creator in Steve Ditko (and as a result, both had a flirtation with Objectivism early on).
- In the late 1980s there was a solo Blue Beetle series that showed parallels between Beetle and Spidey, as well as between Ted and Peter. It helps that the creators of that series included writer Len Wein and artist Gil Kane, who also worked on Spider-Man.
- Robin III (Tim Drake) was created with conscious nods to the web-slinger, such as his hobby of photography and interest in science and creating his own gadgets, and was the first Robin to act as more of an independent kid hero than a straight sidekick as well as the first to headline his own series. While the similarities were very noticeable at the start of Tim's run the differences between the two quickly became much more prevalent as those similarities were phased out.
- In 2018 the character Sideways was added to the DCU. Many noticed that he had a similar design to Spider-Man, but also points out some sinilarities in the characterization, especially towards the Ultimate Spider-Man-version. Both characters give a modern day variation of the Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World-trope and have teenagers as protagonists that struggle with both personal problems and the hero life. Plus, Sideways was used by DC for more represantation by making Derek James Puerto Rican. Some people compare it to how Ultimate Spider-Man tried the same with the introduction of Miles Morales.
Other
- Tales from the Dark Multiverse: This series is essentially like Marvel's What-If titles, only with the darker turns being the explicit goal of the premise, with Tempus Fuginaut emulating the Watcher's role as narrator.
Films
Films
- The DC Extended Universe has occasionally featured films that have similar set-ups to those from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Suicide Squad (2016) was compared to Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) by many critics, who pointed out that both feature a ragtag group of quirky criminals who are forced to band together to face off against world-ending threat. These similarities were made even more broad when James Gunn, who directed both Guardians of the Galaxy films, was hired to direct the sequel.
- Wonder Woman (2017) shared a lot in common with Captain America: The First Avenger. Both are period pieces set during a World War, have heroes who brandish shields, and features a soldier name Steve who pulls a Heroic Sacrifice while piloting a plane.
- Justice League (2017) was noted as being DC's equivalent to The Avengers (2012), as both featured a Super Team banding together against a cosmic threat. Not helping matters was that the theatrical cut of Justice League was reworked by Joss Whedon, who also directed the first two Avenger films and infused a similar tone, gags and banters in his style.
- Aquaman (2018) has a royal kingdom being fought over by two sibling princes, which it shared in common with the first Thor film.
- The DC Extended Universe debuted its Greek pantheon first in Wonder Woman (2017), with Thor: Love and Thunder showcasing its own Greek gods later on.
Western Animation
Western Animation
- Batman Beyond:
- The "Terrific Trio", three people who gained superpowers in a scientific accident. The whole thing was a parody of the Fantastic Four.
- To some extent, Terry and some of his Rogues Gallery are this to Spider-Man and his villains: Terry/Peter Parker- young hero who has to Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World and whose personal life suffers for it; Shriek/Shocker- inventor who didn't get credit for his work and so turned to crime- the difference in weaponry is soundwaves versus concussive force; Stalker/Kraven the Hunter- expert hunter who chooses the hero as a target; Spellbinder/Mysterio- villain with technology that makes him a Master of Illusion, although Spellbinder is partly supposed to be a high tech Scarecrow.
- Terry himself can be viewed as an analogue to Spider-Man 2099, as both are futuristic successors to street-level animal-themed crime fighters.
- Justice League Unlimited did a homage to Marvel's Defenders; the original team had the Hulk, Doctor Strange, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer, and Nighthawk, while the homage had Solomon Grundy, Doctor Fate, Aquaman, A.M.A.Z.O., and Hawkgirl. (Using Hawkgirl for Nighthawk is a bit odd, since Kyle himself is the main Marvel Universe version of the Squadron Supreme's Batman-character. But Grundy couldn't have called Batman "Bird-Nose".)
- Alternatively, Hawkgirl could be considered an equivalent of Valkyrie, another early Defender.
- Another example is the episode "Patriot Act", which just loves this trope. First we get Spy Smasher stopping the Nazis from turning blond haired skinny kids into Super Soldiers. Next, we get General Eiling, a stand-in for General Thunderbolt Ross taking the formula and becoming a Palette Swap version of the Hulk (purple body and green torn pants)
- In Batman: The Brave and the Bold The Faceless Hunter is the Herald for Starro just like Surfer is for Galactus. The catch being he didn't ask for his planet to be spared, he asked for it to be destroyed!
- In early 2012, Cartoon Network started a block called DC Nation, featuring cartoons and shorts adapted from DC Comics. Less than a month later, Disney XD premiered a block called Marvel Universe, featuring cartoons and shorts adapted from Marvel Comics.
- Young Justice (2010)
- Black Spider, a DC character who was already basically a villainous rip-off of Spider-Man, and ups the similarities, giving him web slinging powers, a logo, and having him voiced by Josh Keaton, who voiced Peter Parker in The Spectacular Spider-Man...a show which was co-created by Young Justice co-creator Greg Weisman.
- A group of young heroes debut in the episode "Runaways," and like the Marvel team of the same name, they're a diverse team of super-powered teenagers who don't wear costumes and mistrust other superheroes. However, the individual members are actually supposed to be modernized versions of the Captain Ethnic characters from Superfriends.
- Teen Titans (2003)
- The episode "The Beast Within" had Beast Boy turn into the Man-Beast with Unstoppable Rage. As he's green, it's most likely a reference to The Incredible Hulk.
- In the final season, Jinx becomes an analogue of Marvel's Scarlet Witch: Both of them are former villainesses who pull a Heel–Face Turn and join an established superhero teamnote , have a strong bond with a speedsternote and have probability manipulation as a main power.
