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Composite Character / Marvel Universe

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Marvel Universe

Composite Character in this franchise.
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    Comic Books 

Comic Books

The following have their own pages:

  • Marvel overlaps this with Crossover Cosmology, as Gaea is a melding of every single Earth goddess from various religions, just known by many names.
  • In the Heroic Fantasy Elseworld Avataars: Covenant of the Shield:
    • Some of the heroes also fought against the Z'Axis in the Worldwar, and the flashbacks suggest they are composites of Golden Age and modern characters:
      • Blood Raven: Falcon/Red Raven
      • Warmaker: Thor/Destroyer
      • Nosferata: Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)/Black Widow (Claire Voyant)
    • At the end of the story Witchfire (the Scarlet Witch) raises a dying Idol (Wonder Man) as a bald energy spirit called Phantazm, a composite of the Vision and Wonder Man during the period he only existed in energy form.
  • In addition to the Heroes Reborn examples mentioned below, The Avengers (Jason Aaron) contains multiple instances of this trope:
    • The multiversal Masters of Evil include King Killmonger (Erik Killmonger in possession of the Asgardian Destroyer armor), Dark Phoenix (Mystique empowered by the Phoenix Force, and with a golden mask similar to the one worn by her lover Destiny in the mainline universe), Ghost Goblin (Norman Osborn as a Spirit of Vengeance) and the Black Skull mentioned below.
    • The Ant-Man of Earth-718 is Tony Stark rather than Hank Pym or Scott Lang.
    • Earth-91 is dubbed "The Planet of the Man-Things", and contains versions of traditional Marvel heroes and villains (most notably Doctor Doom) merged with Man-Thing.
  • A famous Composite Character/Decomposite Character example: The Vision was originally the Golden Age Human Torch rebuilt and given the brain patterns of Wonder Man by Ultron. Eventually, John Byrne decided to Retcon the story by claiming that the original Human Torch had instead been buried alive before being freed and revived by the West Coast Avengers. Kurt Busiek finally reconciled this in Avengers Forever, where he established that both stories were true; Immortus had used a Timey-Wimey Ball to create two separate versions of the Human Torch's corpse, one of which had been rebuilt as the Vision, and the other of which was revived as the real deal.
  • In Bullet Points, a Point of Divergence causes several Marvel characters to become different heroes than their mainstream counterparts:
  • In Marvel Noir, Elektra and Bullseye are combined as Eliza, the Bull's Eye Killer.
    • Meanwhile, in X-Men Noir, Anna-Marie Rankin is a composite of Rogue and the Mimic, Calvin Rankin.
    • And in Iron Man Noir, Baron Zemo is a mish-mash of, well, Baron Zemo and Howard Stark.
  • Likewise, some of the What If? issues explore scenarios where certain Marvel took on different identities.
    • Volume 1:
      • In issue #10, Jane Foster is the one who finds Mjolnir in a Norwegian cave, not Donald Blake, which results in her becoming The Mighty Thor. Note that this was published decades before Jane became Thor in the mainstream continuity.
      • In issue #12, Rick Jones saves Bruce Banner from the Gamma Bomb explosion, and thus becomes The Incredible Hulk after being exposed to the radiation.
    • Volume 2:
      • In issue #29, the ripple effect caused by Captain America having been frozen in 1942 instead of at the end of World War 2 leads to an Avengers line-up consisting of traditional members Cap, Namor and Thor, but also Frank Castle as Iron Man, Sam Wilson as Giant-Man and Logan as the Wendigo (which is a double example, as he fills the same role the Hulk did in the initial Silver Age Avengers stories).
      • In issue #44, Frank Castle becomes the host of the Venom symbiote instead of Eddie Brock.
      • Issue #51, What If the Punisher Became Captain America?, is pretty self-explanatory.
      • In issue #62, a former Canadian soldier named Guy Desjardins is the one who is kidnapped and given an adamantium skeleton and claws by Weapon X instead of Logan.
      • In #79, Jean Grey is knocked unconscious during the X-Men's escape from Steven Lang's satellite, meaning that Storm takes her place as the mutant who pilots the space shuttle and encounters the Phoenix Force.
      • Issue #113 presents a continuity where Tony Stark became the Sorcerer Supreme instead of Stephen Strange.
  • In Dark Reign, Norman Osborn's new alter-ego the Iron Patriot is to be a blend of elements from two of the biggest names in the superhero community: Powered Armor a'la Iron Man and is Captain Patriotic like Captain America. The name later gets passed to a squadron of robots, before eventually ending up with Rhodey like in Iron Man 3.
  • Deadpool MAX: Deadpool's crazy wife Inez turns out to be Outlaw, Domino, and Copycat.
  • Heroes Reborn:
    • This version of Hellcat has the codename and civilian identity of her mainstream Marvel Universe counterpart, but sports the abilities and werecat appearance of Tigra, one of her fellow Avengersnote .
    • The Swordsman ultimately becomes the Heroes Reborn universe's version of Deadpool.
    • Combining this with Decomposite Character, Hank Pym takes Ultron's role as the creator of The Vision.
    • While ultimately averted, the issue before the change from Rob Liefeld to Walt Simonson for Avengers hinted that Hawkeye was a different person than Clint Barton, as a flashback in the issue sees Hawkeye and a man called Reaper trying to infiltrate HYDRA, only to be caught and Reaper getting part of his right arm shot off and Hawkeye telling him something important, but the simulation is interrupted by Hellcat, the implication that "Reaper" was the HR version of the Grim Reaper and hence, Hawkeye was Simon Williams, as opposed to Clint Barton (or at the very least, given a Wonder Man does appear in it, that Hawkeye and Grim Reaper are Related in the Adaptation). However, because of the change, Hawkeye was shown to be Clint Barton, as always.
    • Mantis is the object of Kang's desires as well as his primary source of motivation, essentially making her this reality's version of Princess Ravonna. This is also reflective of the Mantis seen The Crossing before Avengers Forever retconned that The Crossing's Mantis was a Space Phantom.
    • The HR Doc Samson started off as the HR version of the Abomination until he altered his own condition to be more like the actual Doc Samson's.
    • Rikki Barnes is a female composite of Bucky Barnes and Rick Jones. She becomes Captain America's sidekick in the present day as the new Bucky, with the implication that she's descended from the original.
  • Heroes Reborn (2021) has its own examples, as a situation involving the Squadron Supreme supplanting the Avengers as the world's premier superhero team leads to several different mashups:
    • Doctor Doom is the one in possession of the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak instead of Cain Marko, becoming Dr. Juggernaut.
    • Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are a single villain called the Silver Witch.
    • Ronin is T'Challa, who usually uses the Black Panther identity in the mainline universe.
    • The Red Skull has merged with the Venom symbiote, creating the Black Skull.
    • Thanos is combined with the Mandarin, and now sports the ten Infinity Rings rather than the Infinity Gauntlet.
    • The new Falcon is Miles Morales, who serves as Nighthawk's self-appointed Kid Sidekick.
    • Nighthawk himself sports the costume design of his original Squadron Supreme self, but with the African-American ethnicity and Darker and Edgier personality of his Supreme Power incarnation.
    • The Blur uses the codename of the Supreme Power version of the character, but sports the costume of the original Earth-616 Whizzer (who later became Speed Demon), while his real name of Stanley Stewart comes from his Earth-712 Squadron Supreme incarnation.
    • Magneto lost the use of his legs during a confrontation with the Squadron Supreme years earlier, making him a combination of his traditional self and his deceased pal Professor X.
    • Scott Lang never reformed in this continuity, and sports an armored costume that looks like the one worn by his morally dubious successor, Eric O'Grady.
    • The HR version of Moonglow actually turns out to be Tandy Bowen, formerly one half of the vigilante duo Cloak and Dagger.
  • Marvel Mangaverse:
  • Secret Wars (2015)
    • The Thor Corps is an elite peacekeeping organization consisting of alternate reality versions of Thor, many of whom are other Marvel characters like Storm, War Machine, Blade, Dazzler, Maria Hill and even Groot.
    • The Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders tie-in has several examples:
      • The Faiza Hussain of Earth-61112 became the new Captain Britain after her team was wiped out during Ultron's conquest of Earth.
      • The Yinsen City region of Battleworld was founded by a version of Ho Yinsen who escaped captivity with the Iron Man armor instead of Tony Stark (who performed a Heroic Sacrifice). Yinsen went on to become the armored hero Rescue, essentially becoming his world's version of Iron Man (while using a name held by Pepper Potts in the mainline continuity). Subsequently, The Defenders became their world's premier superhero team like the Avengers in the main universe, with the book's name even being a play on Captain America and the Mighty Avengers.
      • One of the Defenders is Spider Hero, an alternate version of Hobie Brown (Prowler in the mainline universe) who used his technology to carry on the fight for his world's Spider-Man, who was killed by Morlun. The name Spider Hero was also taken from Blade, who used it in Al Ewing's first Mighty Avengers arc.
      • The characters of Mondo City are all Ewing's takes on the cast of Judge Dredd. As such, Boss Cage is Luke Cage mixed with Dredd, while Boss Frost, a blonde officer with telepathic powers, is a combination of Emma Frost and Judge Anderson.
    • Emperor Zheng Zu from the Master of Kung Fu (2015) tie-in is a version of Shang-Chi's father Zheng Zu, but with powers and personality traits drawn from Iron Man villain the Mandarin.
    • Future Imperfect has a version of the Thing who is Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross instead of Ben Grimm.
    • The Spider-Man in the Armor Wars tie-in is Peter Urich, a combination of Peter Parker and Phil Urich.
    • After getting a dose of the Goblin Formula, the Tony Stark of Spider-Island invokes this by splicing his Mark 42 armor with Green Goblin armor that Norman Osborn had been working on while running the Dark Avengers, dubbing himself the Iron Goblin. When called out on it, he quips that it's payback for the time Osborn stole his stuff and became Iron Patriot.
  • Spider-Gwen:
    • Gwen Stacy is her reality's Spider-Woman, and later becomes the host of the Venom symbiote.
    • Peter Parker was the original Lizard, while Harry Osborn became the new Lizard after Peter's death.
    • Captain America is a Gender Flipped Sam Wilson, but gained her powers from Project Rebirth during World War II like Steve Rogers (as this universe's Steve died alongside Professor Erskine).
    • The Falcon is a teenage Opposite-Sex Clone of Captain America like X-23 is to Wolverine, and has a costume and skill set similar to those of the Winter Soldier.
    • Likewise, Kitty Pryde has retractable claws and is Wolverine's young Distaff Counterpart, making her even more like X-23 than Falcon.
    • Peggy Carter is the long-lived, one-eyed director of S.H.I.E.L.D., much like Nick Fury.
    • Silvio Silvermane takes on the Fixer's role as the gangster who had Jack Murdock killed after he refused to throw a fight.
    • Matt Murdock is an outright villain, and becomes New York's new Kingpin after Wilson Fisk is sent to prison.
  • Spider-Man: Spider's Shadow: Spidey's characterization in the comic is a mix of his usual self and Eddie during his early years as the Lethal Protector, being an Anti-Hero who has zero qualms about killing criminals after he murders Hobgoblin.
  • Spider-Verse has several similar mash-ups, as does the sequel, Spider-Geddon:
    • Spider-Punk is Hobie Brown, the hero known as the Prowler in the mainline universe.
    • Spider-UK is Spider-Man crossed with Captain Britain.
    • As the entire SP//dr premise is an extended riff on Neon Genesis Evangelion, Peni Parker is essentially Peter Parker mixed with Shinji Ikari.
    • The Spider-Man of Earth-3145 is a version of Uncle Ben who received the radioactive spider bite instead of Peter.
    • Old Man Spider is from a universe where Ezekiel became the new Spider-Man after the death of Peter Parker.
    • Lady Spider is a young version of Aunt May (using her maiden name "May Reilly") who fights crime with a mechanical suit that is essentially a Steampunk version of the Iron Spider armor.
    • Earth-21205's Peter Parker became the Hobgoblin after beating the Green Goblin to death in retaliation for the murder of Gwen Stacy.
    • Spider-Ma'am is another alternate May Parker, this time coming from a reality where she was the one bitten by the radioactive spider instead of her nephew Peter. Peter and Uncle Ben (who was never killed in this timeline) act as her Mission Control.
    • The Spider is George Stacy, Gwen's dad.
    • The Savage Spider-Man is a version of Peter Parker who became the protector of the Savage Land after surviving a plane crash as a child and subsequently being raised by giant spiders, making him a combination of Spider-Man and Ka-Zar. Interestingly, Ka-Zar exists in this universe as well, but as a villainous Great White Hunter called Ka-Zar the Hunter, making him a combination of his traditional self and Kraven.
    • Earth-3109 is a world where Harry Osborn became Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy became the Green Goblin.
  • Spidey: Gloria Grant acts as an expy of Michelle Jones from Homecoming instead of her usual self.
  • Lee Price, the initial protagonist of the 2016 Venom (Mike Costa) series, is an intentional composite of the previous holders of the identity. He's a disabled Army veteran like Flash Thompson, is a vicious, amoral killer like Mac Gargan, and has a Venom form that looks similar to Eddie Brock's.
  • In Marvel 1602, Peter Parquah, in addition to being this continuity's version of Spider-Man, also fulfills being the 1602 continuity's equivalent of Rick Jones by having David Banner become the Hulk after getting caught in the energies of the Anomaly while trying to protect Peter and Peter subsequently convincing Banner to use his Hulk form for good.
  • Cosmic Ghost Rider is what would happen if you took The Punisher, bond him with a Spirit of Vengeance, let him Go Mad from the Isolation, and finally imbue him with the Power Cosmic.
  • House of M has several examples, such as that universe's Fantastic Four being led by Doctor Doom instead of Reed Richards, the Invisible Woman being Doom's lover Valeria instead of Sue Storm, and the Human Torch (renamed the "Inhuman Torch") being Doom's adopted son Kristoff Vernard instead of Johnny Storm.
  • In "Warpworld", from Infinity Wars the population of the universe has been halved by fusing people together, leading to characters like Iron Hammer (Iron Man/Thor), the Soldier Supreme (Captain America/Stephen Strange) and Ghost Panther (Ghost Rider/Black Panther).
  • In a case of two teams undergoing this, X-Men '92's version of Generation X not only features members of the comic team (Husk, Skin, M, Synch, Penance, Mondo, Blink, Leech, Artie) by also X-Statix (U-Go Girl, Doop, Vivisector, Orphan, and Dead Girl).
  • In the WWII-set 1970s book The Invaders (Marvel Comics), the team fought a Japanese spy named Lady Lotus. In the 1990s Avengers Spotlight, Hawkeye fought a Japanese drug dealer named Lotus Newmark. Captain America: Forever Allies revealed that they were the same character, and The Marvels manages to tie her two origin stories together

    Films 

Films

The following have their own pages:

  • Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors sees Spider-Gwen with part of her hair dyed pink ala The Unbelievable Gwenpool and using the codename "Ghost Spider" from an alternate Peter Parker.
  • Spider-Man: Spider-Verse
    • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:
      • Jefferson Morales retains his distrust of Spider, Man, but his appearance evokes Frank Quaid, another cop in the Ultimate Marvel universe, and is chasing after his own child like the Spider-Gwen version of Captain Stacy.
      • The Prowler is the Aaron Davis version from the Ultimate Marvel imprint, but wears a costume much closer to that of Hobie Brown, the original, heroic Prowler from the mainline Marvel continuity. Notably, Aaron's Prowler costume did not have a cape in the comics, with this instead being a feature of Hobie's outfit.
      • The Kingpin evokes both his own Ultimate counterpart (being the Wilson Fisk of Miles's universe) and the Ultimate version of the Green Goblin (being the killer of the Peter Miles replaces). His desire to find an alternate universe version of Vanessa and Richard also evokes 616!Miles's desire to find an alternate universe version of his love, Barbara Sanchez.
      • The Green Goblin is a hulking pyrokinetic monster like the Ultimate Green Goblin, but wears a purple outfit that evokes the classic Green Goblin.
      • Doctor Octopus is a composite of Otto Octavius and Carolyn Trainer, having a variant of the former's real name ("Olivia Octavius") and the latter's gender. Olivia's connection to the Alchemax Corporation also seems to come from Serena Patel, the 2099 version of Doc Ock from Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
    • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse:
      • Spider-Woman appears to be a composite of Valerie the Librarian from Spidey Super Stories and the more well-known Jessica Drew, keeping the latter's name and controversial pregnancy storyline from Spider-Woman (2014) as well as the powers of her counterpart from the Ultimate Marvel universe.
      • Zig-Zagged with Spider-Punk. In the comics he was conceived as Spider-UK, a British variant of Spider-Man who just so happened to have a punk rock aesthetic, but eventually a more conventional Spider-UK—Billy Braddock—was created, while Spider-Punk became American and an alternate version of Hobie Brown, the original Prowler. When Spider-Punk was brought into the movie, they made the character British again...but kept him as Hobie Brown.
      • Peter B Parker's young daughter is named Mayday, which is the name of Peters daughter from an alternate future in the comics. However she shares many traits with Annie-May, another potential daughter of spider-man from the comics. She has ginger hair instead of black, gained her powers at a young age, fights alongside her dad at a young age, and her knitted Spider-Man hat closely resembles the mask Annie-May wore as Spiderling. Also, on a more meta level, Peter B Parker was originally a version of Peter who had divorced MJ, but thanks to miles he got back together with her and had Mayday as a result. Annie-May came from the The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows universe, where One More Day, the comic story that erased Peter and MJ's marriage, never happened.
  • In Ultimate Avengers:
    • Black Panther possesses the ability to transform into a werepanther, much like the Coal Tiger, his son from the Marvel Comics 2 continuity.
    • Most of the Avengers visually resemble their more modern Ultimate counterparts, yet have personalities far more in line with their more likable, heroic depictions from the classic comic books.note  Black Panther is actually an exception here, as his Ultimate counterpart hadn't yet debuted in the comics when the movies were made.
    • Herr Kleiser from The Ultimates takes Klaw's role as T'Chaka's murderer.
  • Canon Foreigner Abraham Whistler in the Blade Trilogy fills Jamal Afari's role as mentor to Blade, but he's more in line with "Bible" John Carik in looks and personality.
  • In Captain America (1990), Steve's girlfriend during the 1940s is a woman named Bernice "Bernie" Stewart, a combination of two of his love interests from the comics. She's named after Bernie Rosenthal, but like Peggy Carter, she's Cap's wartime girlfriend with an identical female descendant named Sharon (Peggy's niece and Bernie's daughter) that Steve ends up dating after he's unfrozen in the present.
  • Daredevil (2003):
    • Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the Kingpin, takes the place of Slade, the hired thug who beat Matt's father to death.
    • Elektra's origin has almost nothing in common with that of her comic counterpart, and is much closer to that of Echo, another female martial artist who tried to kill Daredevil after he was framed for the murder of her father. Interestingly enough, Echo appears in the movie's video game adaptation as a villain.
    • Related to the Kingpin undergoing this, Fallon, the crime boss from early in the film, combines the roles of Roscoe "the Fixer" Sweeney as the man who ordered the death of Jack Murdock and Don Rigoletto as the former boss of the future Kingpin.
  • In The Fantastic Four, the woman who ran the boarding house Reed and Ben lived at in college was Mary Storm, the mother of Sue and Johnny. This is in contrast to the comics, where the boarding house was run by Sue and Johnny's aunt.
  • Ghost Rider (2007):
    • Johnny Blaze not only takes on qualities of his comic namesake, but also his successor Danny Ketch (such as his chain weapon and Penance Stare).
    • His father Barton Blaze also supplants "Crash" Simpson in being the one whom Johnny tried to save with his Deal with the Devil.
    • Also, Carter Slade and the Caretaker were two different characters in the comics.
  • In Hulk, Bruce's father (who had no abilities in the comics at the time the movie was made) is given the powers of the Absorbing Man, and later transforms into a being of pure electricity, much like Zzzax.
  • The Cassandra Webb of Madame Web (2024) retains the name and some of the backstory of her comics counterpart. Her look, though, is based on the second Madame Web, Julia Carpenter.
  • In the film Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD (starring David Hasselhoff, not Samuel L. Jackson), Baron von Strucker is succeeded as the leader of Hydra by his daughter Andrea, aka Viper. In the comics, Viper/Madame Hydra is an orphan whose true name is unknown, and Andrea von Strucker is one half of the mutant Fenris Twins.
  • Spider-Man Trilogy:
    • Mary Jane in the first film is a composite of comics Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy and Liz Allan from the comics. She gets Liz Allan's role as most popular girl at Midtown high and Peter's high school crush who is dating Flash but develops an interest in Peter, she gets Gwen Stacy's overall personality and knack for being thrown off a bridge by the Green Goblin and she has Mary Jane's bad home life, name, interest in acting and red hair. All 3 girls were also involved with Harry Osborn like Mary Jane in the films but here the relationship most resembles the one with Gwen where both Peter and Harry were fighting for her. In the comics, Harry and Liz Allan became an item long after Peter had any interest in Liz and Mary Jane and Harry were dating before Peter had much of an interest in Mary Jane.
      • There is also some Ultimate MJ influence, since the Ultimate comics were developed at the same time as the first movie. Notably, she and Peter have known each other since childhood, and while pretty, she isn't the seemingly unattainable bombshell she was in the original 616 comics.
      • The sequel gave her Tsundere tendencies, which some see as similar to the ones displayed by Gwen in some of her earliest appearances before her characterization changed (although Mary Jane did have these tendencies in the comics too following her marriage to Peter). Likewise, when Gwen is introduced in the third film, she has MJ's status as 'love rival' from the comic and career as a model. Although in the comics Gwen was introduced as a high school beauty queen. Also, when Peter Parker went to the Savage Land for the Daily Bugle, Gwen was taken along as a bikini model.
    • The version of Norman Osborn from Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man has traits that bear resemblances to multiple characters form the Spider-Man mythos. In terms of his life positioning he does resemble the Norman of the comics. Being the founder and head of the company Os Corp, having a son with which he has a strained if not quite as intense relationship, the use of the Goblin persona and gear, etc. However the more timid Norman Osborn who is afraid of his dark side including going so far as to refuse to accept what he was capable of in murder with them blaming an "alternate entity" for it (in contrast to the more ruthless Norman Osborn who had a shady side even before becoming a costumed character), his friendship of sorts with Peter Parker before they become enemies, and his first true villainous act being the murder of his assistant after which he becomes a full-on costumed villain resembles that of Miles Warren aka The Jackal. Also notably his status as a scientist who is spearheading some groundbreaking work but facing intense pressure from his colleagues/superiors with the threat of losing his job that leads to him being desperate enough to make some sort of careless mistake that leads to him having an accident that leads him to becoming physiologically transformed and on put on the path to becoming super-criminals could be compared to elements of the lesser known Spider-Man villain Jackson Arvad aka Will o' the Wisp.
    • Similarly, the version of Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 also has traits that bear resemblances to multiple characters from the Spider-Man mythos. Naturally his status as a successful scientist with mechanical tentacles of his invention that are welded to his back come from his comic-book counterpart, as well as at least a touch of his hubris. And also like his counterpart from Spider-Man: The Animated Series he is an idol to Peter Parker, and his chief work was a fusion energy project. However his more amiable demeanor, his happily married family life, his friendship with Peter Parker/Spider-Man, his genuine desire to help humanity with his work (in contrast to comic book Octavius' more self-centered attitude), and his experiment going awry leading to his transformation into a supervillain with something of a split mind of some kind resembles that of Curt Connors aka The Lizard. (According to some sources, the character was in fact originally written to be Connors in an earlier draft) Also notably the character's "symbiotic" relationship with the mechanical tentacle AI bears a striking resemblance to the character Eddie Brock/Venom. In both cases each was a human man (Otto and Eddie) who becomes combined with some powerful resource that gives him superpowers (the tentacles and the sybmiote) that has a personality of its own that comes to form an alliance with the man and sharing his mind/body. Also in both cases the character started out as a good man whose life was torn apart because of an honest mistake on their part, however both danced around accepting responsibility for it. Doc Ock even refers to himself as "We" during the film's climax, which is a very well-known trait of the Venom from the comics. (That all being extremely ironic if one considers what Raimi has said of his opinions of Venom in interviews and how that character himself wound up being handled in the following film Spider-Man 3)
  • The Amazing Spider-Man Series
    • Gwen Stacy has the original character's name, blonde hair, interest in Science (played up by the movies unlike her depiction in the comics & The Spectacular Spider-Man), status as Peter's first lovenote , the police captain father, and Gwen's most iconic moment but also again replaces Liz Allan as Peter's high school crush and gets some of Mary Jane's more playful tendencies. In fact, when Emma Stone was cast many fans felt she would have been more suited to play Mary Jane.
    • The Amazing Spider-Man sees Gwen's dad NYPD Captain George Stacy at first spout similar anti-Spider-Man sentiments to J. Jonah Jameson. Also, like George's Ultimate Marvel counterpart, John Stacy, this version of George is younger and still active in the NYPD instead of being retired.
    • The Amazing Spider-Man 2 sees Harry Osborn combined with some traits from his father, Norman, including being the first to don the guise of the Green Goblin and the one who causes Gwen Stacy's death.
  • Venom (2018): Carlton Drake is the host of the Riot symbiote rather than Trevor Cole, the man who bonded with Riot in the comics.

    Live-Action TV 

Live-Action TV

  • Legion (2017): Division 3 appears to be a combination of the Mutant Response Division and Department H from the comics in terms of their goals for mutantkind.
  • The Gifted (2017):
    • Eclipse exists in the X-Men comics as an alternate-universe version of Sunspot, real name Roberto Da Costa; here Marcos is more clearly a straight expy. In addition, like Cyclops's brother Havok, he can project light as plasma waves and focused beams, and has a relationship with Polaris.
    • Erg is a combination of Callisto, the eye-patched leader of the underground mutant group Morlocks, and has M facial brand and energy-absorbing powers of Bishop.
  • Runaways (2017):
    • The show's version of Topher seems to combine him with Victor Mancha. His role as a street smart older kid who joins the team, turns on them, and is accidentally killed comes from the former. His Latino heritage and his storyline about being addicted to an extraterrestrial mineral that gives him enhanced abilities are taken from the latter.
    • It's later revealed that Victor Mancha does exist in this universe and comes to know the runaways, albeit in the future, meaning he's a Decomposite Character here.
  • Cloak & Dagger (2018): In addition to being based on the unnamed cop who kills Billy in the comics, Conners turns out to be the counterpart of Roger Falcone, the corrupt cop who "killed" Brigid.

    Video Games 

Video Games

  • In Iron Man 3: The Official Game, Aldrich Killian becomes M.O.D.O.K. after uploading his mind into an android body.
  • Marvel's Avengers: Depending on the mood, Thor can act as serious as his comic book counterpart or as silly as his MCU counterpart.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 3 also has a ton of unlockable costumes for the Marvel characters that are taken from other, unplayable heroes. For example, you can unlock the Sam Alexander Nova costume for Richard Rider, the Iron Patriot suit for Iron Man, The Punisher's post-Civil War (2006) duds for Captain America, and so on.
  • Midnight Suns:
    • In the comics, Caretaker was was two people, a very long lived old man and his granddaughter and successor Sister Sara. The game's version has the gender and name of Sara, but the long-lived background and physical age of her grandfather.
    • Mephisto replaces Belasco as the demon who kidnapped a young Illyana Rasputin and who formerly ruled Limbo until she drove him out.
  • Spider-Man (Insomniac)
    • Spider-Man (PS4) does this to Mr. Negative simply by having Martin Li being the character's real name, as opposed to the comics where a Triad member pulled a Dead Person Impersonation on a dead guy the organization intended to sell into slavery.
    • Spider-Man 2 has several examples:
      • Venom is Harry Osborn rather than Eddie Brock. Early on after bonding with the symbiote, Harry's costume also resembles the more armored, militaristic iteration of the suit worn by Flash Thompson as Agent Venom.
      • Mary Jane Watson becomes the game universe's version of Scream after being forcibly bonded to a symbiote by Harry.
  • Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions:
    • While the Deadpool in the Ultimate Marvel universe still retains his costume from the canon version of that universe, his personality is more akin to the classic Deadpool.
    • While retaining much of the history of the classic Marvel 2099 universe, Kron Stone is Scorpion, like in the Timestorm 2009-2099 miniseries rather than Venom.
  • In the first X-Men Legends, Allison Crestmere (Magma of the New Mutants) is given the powers of her comic counterpart, but a personality and background similar to Kitty Pryde. The developers admitted that they wanted to use Kitty Pryde, but her powers don't translate well to an action RPG.
    • This also applies to most of the characters that appear in the game, as they appear with their mainstream "Earth 616" personalities and backstories, but start by default with their Ultimate appearances. The sequel also adds Age of Apocalypse into the mix.
    • It's really hard to combine AOA and 616 Sabretooth. Blink sees him as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold because "Mr. Creed" rescued her once (purely out of the goodness of his heart, which would be in-character for AOA). Your character is more familiar with a 616 Sabretooth, saying "If he's got a good heart, it's because he ripped it out of someone's chest!" It really is as if you've met two different Victor Creeds. All the other cast members, though, are the straight-up 616 versions wearing the Ultimate Marvel costumes.
    • Dark Beast is another example. In the comics, Dark Beast is Beast's Evil Counterpart from the Age of Apocalypse universe who ended up on the mainstream Marvel Universe. In the game, Dark Beast is the original Beast after he's Brainwashed.
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine:
    • In a non-character example, the game depicts adamantium as coming from a meteorite that crashed somewhere in Africa and was subsequently guarded by the tribesmen who found it, some of whom now possess powerful weapons and supernatural abilities. None of these things are associated with adamantium in the comics (which was created in a lab and doesn't exist in nature), but are very reminiscent of vibranium, the fictional metal from the Black Panther series.
    • Bolivar Trask had his right hand cut off by Logan long ago and now seeks to kill him in the present, a backstory taken from Professor Thorton in the comics.

    Western Animation 

Western Animation

The following have their own pages:

  • The Avengers: United They Stand: The team's government liaison is a thin, clean-shaven Obstructive Bureaucrat named Raymond Sikorski. He bears little resemblance to his comic counterpart, a portly, mustachioed man who was generally helpful to the Avengers, and has much more in common with Henry Peter Gyrich, Sikorski's predecessor in the comics. In fact, the animated Sikorski's physical appearance and meddling nature (right down to forcing the Falcon onto the team) come directly from Gyrich.
  • The Fantastic Four (1967):
    • "The Invasion of the Super-Skrulls" ends with the FF forcing the titular villain to shapeshift into a cow, and then hypnotizing him into believing he really is a cow so that he'll never hurt anyone again. That's not how the Super-Skrull was beaten in Fantastic Four #18 (The issue the episode was adapted from), but is how the group of Skrull invaders in Fantastic Four #2 were disposed of.
    • Alicia Masters never appeared, so when the show did an adaptation of the original three-part Galactus storyline from the comics, her pivotal role was instead given to Sue Storm.
  • In The Fantastic Four (1978), Medusa takes her husband Black Bolt's place as the ruler of The Inhumans.
  • Iron Man: The Animated Series
    • Julia Carpenter has a lot of elements of Pepper Potts thrown in. This is especially obvious in the second season, where her romance with Tony is given much more focus. She also uses mechanical web-shooters like the ones worn by Peter Parker, unlike in the comics, where she possesses the ability to conjure psychokinetic webbing.
    • In the comics, Force kick starts the "Armor Wars" storyline after it's discovered that his armor contains stolen Stark technology. Later in the same story, the Russian hero Titanium Man II dies after a battle with Iron Man. The show combines both roles into Crimson Dynamo, a Russian villain who is killed during a battle with Iron Man, and whose death starts the whole "Armor Wars" plot after Stark technology is discovered within his charred armor.
    • Additionally, Iron Man calls Crimson Dynamo "Yuri," seemingly indicating that it's Yuri Petrovich inside the suit. However, the armor he wears is that of Valentin Shatalov, one of the men who later used the Crimson Dynamo identity in the comics after Petrovich was arrested and exiled to Siberia.
    • Also, in the original "Armor Wars" storyline, Justin Hammer was responsible for distributing the stolen Iron Man technology to various shady characters. One of Hammer's clients was another Corrupt Corporate Executive named Edwin Cord, who used Stark's designs to build the Firepower armor. In the TV series, Hammer is both the one who sells Tony's designs and the businessman who uses that same technology to create Firepower.
    • In general, the show's version of "Armor Wars" combined a lot of characters, often by giving roles held by certain characters in the comics to ones who were already in the show's cast. Examples include Hawkeye being the teammate who Iron Man is forced to fight during his raid on the Vault instead of Steve Rogers, Ghost taking Spymaster's role as the one who is revealed to have stolen Tony's designs, Blizzard and Blacklash being the ones who perform the botched plane hijacking instead of the Raiders, and the Mandroids being Tony's targets at the Vault instead of the Guardsmen (with the Mandroids even sporting armor that looks more like the ones the Guardsmen wear in the comics).
    • Speaking of which, the show's Titanium Man is the original Boris Bullski version, but his armor design is heavily influenced by that of the Gremlin, the second Titanium Man in the comics.
    • The second season also makes the modular Iron Man armor a composite suit, by giving it the ability to transform into different models, including the Hydro Armor and the Silver Centurion, which were separate (and previous) models in the comics.
    • In the comics, HOMER didn't have a holographic avatar. Here, he's given the holographic "grid man" avatar to PLATO, a similar program Tony created that served Force Works in the comics.
  • Iron Man: Armored Adventures:
    • The Mandarin combines elements of his comic counterpart and his son, Temugin, specifically, while not the original Mandarin (that would be his older stepfather Zheng Tong), Gene Khan is intended to be Temugin, but becomes the main Mandarin that opposes Iron Man.
    • Blizzard has the real name of Donnie Gill, the better-known Blizzard II in the comics. But his backstory as an embittered ex-Stark scientist who created the cryosuit comes from Gregor Shapanka, the original Blizzard.
    • And Justin Hammer is Titanium Man.
    • Kevin O'Brien, known as the armored hero Guardsman in the comics, is instead the second pilot of the Crimson Dynamo armor.
    • Once again, Ghost takes on Spymaster's role as the thief of Iron Man's designs during the "Armor Wars" adaptation.
    • Whitney Stane is a composite of Whitney Frost (as Madame Masque) and Ezekiel Stane (as Obadiah Stane's child and a user of the Iron Monger armor).
    • The Black Knight used in the show is the villainous Nathan Garrett version, but sports the costume and clean-shaven appearance of Dane Whitman, his heroic successor.
      • The same combination (Garrett's personality and identity, Whitman's costume and physical appearance) was used for the Black Knight's appearance in the Avengers: United They Stand tie-in comic.
  • Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors: Ghost Spider is Gwen Stacy, but her dyed pink hair is taken from Gwenpool, another character she inspired.
  • Marvel Universe:
    • Guardians of the Galaxy (2015):
      • The Universal Believers are the Universal Church of Truth, except that instead of the Matriarch, their leader is J'Son of Spartax as the Patriarch. Although it could also be argued that he's in the Magus role (since the Believers were not founded directly by Magus, as the UCT were), with Mantis as the Matriarch. This also suggests the Believers are composited with the Priests of Pama (the Kree sect that believed Mantis was the Celestial Madonna).
      • Phyla-Vell has the name, appearance and powers of her comic book counterpart, but her background as a vengeful Kree Accuser is taken from the character Hala.
    • Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.:
      • The episode "Inhuman Nature" is basically the original Inhumans storyline from Fantastic Four with A-Bomb in the role of the Human Torch (outsider who falls in love with Crystal, thereby leading his superhero team to Attilan).
      • Mainframe is reimagined as a former gaming A.I. who escalates and starts endangering real people with his games. This is very similar to an obscure villain called the Prime Mover.
  • Marvel's Spider-Man:
    • In the comics, the Jackal has a brother named Raymond, who is a teacher at Midtown High. Here, the Jackal is Raymond. Additionally, he's fused with Arthur Stacy as he's Gwen's uncle.
    • Flash Thompson is a jock like in the comics, but is interested in science (but not very good at it) like his Marvel Cinematic Universe counterpart, and cuts his hair extremely short like his Amazing Spider-Man counterpart. He also displays the Reformed Bully characteristics that he eventually gained in The Amazing Spider-Man and the post-high school issues of the original comics. Additionally, while he did have his Agent Venom time, this Flash takes over Eddie Brock's role as the symbiote's first post-Spidey host.
    • Kraven fused the skills of his 616 self, the reality show stardom of his Ultimate counterpart, and a look his second son Alyosha wore when he fought The Punisher.
    • Gwen Stacy is a fusion of her 616 and Spider-Gwen incarnations. An arc adapted from Spider-Island also sees her in a role similar to Carlie Cooper.
    • Screwball is Liz Allan instead of a separate person.
    • Harry Osborn, much like in the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, is the Hobgoblin, in this particular case, he's fused with post-Face–Heel Turn Phil Urich as this Harry has spiky black hair, as opposed to the reddish-brown of past versions of Harry, and wields a flame sword. However he is not evil this time, and another case of this trope applies when his father Norman Osborn uses the name instead of being Green Goblin.
    • Electro is based on the second one, Francine Frye, but has an Energy Being form similar to the Ultimate incarnation of Max Dillon, her being black might also be from The Amazing Spider-Man 2's version of Dillon, and she's also an Engineer like Dillon.
    • Anti-Venom turns out to be Groot, with the suit being formed when his natural alien antibodies interact with a Venom symbiote.
    • Tiberius Stone's connection with Alchemax during the Superior Spider-Man's reign is taken from his comic counterpart. However, his hairstyle and role as Alchemax's CEO both come from Tyler Stone, his son from Spider-Man 2099. He also takes the place of Silvermane (from the classic comics) and Donald Roxxon (the Ultimate comics) as the one behind the illegal experiments that transformed Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen into Cloak and Dagger.
    • Swarm turns out to be Jefferson Davis, Miles Morales's dad, taking up a similar role to his brother Aaron as the Prowler.
  • Silver Surfer: The Animated Series:
    • Frankie Raye takes Alicia Masters' place as the human woman who convinces the Surfer to turn against Galactus and spare Earth.
    • Drax is changed from a dead human recreated by Kronos to a living brain in an android body built by Mentor. This essentially makes him the show's equivalent of ISAAC, the advanced Artificial Intelligence created by Mentor in the comics.
  • The Spectacular Spider-Man:
    • Montana of the Enforcers and the Shocker (originally Herman Schultz in the comics) are now a single character. His partner in the Enforcers, Fancy Dan, becomes Ricochet (two heroes in the comics continuity, one of whom was Spidey himself). The Ox also gets a power suit, but stays the Ox.
    • Their boss, Lonnie "Tombstone" Lincoln, also uses the alter-ego "Big Man," originally Frederick Foswell in the comics. (Interestingly, Foswell was in the series, and said that he knew if anyone was the Big Man, it wasn't Lincoln; it's unclear if something would have developed with this had the show not been Screwed by the Lawyers.) As a billionaire Villain with Good Publicity he's also far more reminiscent of The Kingpin than thug-for-hire comic Tombstone, or even the original Big Man, who was more of a street gang leader. Word of God says they were originally going to include the Kingpin as "the Big Man of Crime," but had to Write Around Trademarks since they were only allowed to use official Spider-Man characters. Kingpin is technically a Daredevil villain now, so Sony didn't have the rights to him.
    • the Cat, Black Cat's Gentleman Thief father, is combined with Uncle Ben's killer, which in turn makes Black Cat combined with Jessica Carradine.
    • There's also Sable Manfredi. Her role as the loyal daughter of the elderly crime-lord Silvio "Silvermane" Manfredi comes from Alisha Silver in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Her name and appearance are clearly based on Nazi-hunter and occasional Spidey ally Silver Sable (Silver Sablinova).
    • Liz Allan's brother Mark has a gambling addiction, much like Betty Brant's brother Bennett in the comics.
  • In Spider-Man (1967), Mary Jane Watson is Captain Stacy's niece, presumably to fill the void left by Gwen Stacy, his daughter in the comics.
  • In Spider-Man: The Animated Series:
    • Felicia Hardy and Mary Jane Watson both received characteristics of Gwen Stacy due to Gwen being Demoted to Extra. Felicia retains Gwen's original Lovable Alpha Bitch characterization from her early appearances, while Mary Jane has her more wholesome personality from later comics, as well as receiving Gwen's death, although she is trapped in another dimension instead of dying.
    • Electro mixes in elements of Albert Malik, the second Red Skull, by having Electro's costume and powers and much of Malik's background by being a Russian Agent, having ties to the conspiracy of the deaths of Peter's parents, and impersonating the real Red Skull.
    • Tombstone is turned into an enforcer for Silvermane, a role in the comics that's primarily held by minor Spider-Man villain Man Mountain Marko.
    • Spider-Carnage is created when the Carnage symbiote merges with an alternate universe version of Peter Parker, unlike in the comics, where Spider-Carnage was the result of a merger between the symbiote and Ben Reilly.
    • Much like Ultimate Marvel would do years later, the show made the Wilson "The Kingpin" Fisk one of the people responsible for the murder of Jack Murdock, combining Fisk with Roscoe "The Fixer" Sweeney, the man who ordered the death of Jack in the comics.note 
  • Spidey and His Amazing Friends would make Gwen Stacy's mom, Helen, a cop like Gwen's dad, George.
  • On The Super Hero Squad Show, Scorpio (Nick Fury's brother in the comics) is Nick Fury himself using the identity to infiltrate and thwart Dr. Doom's plans.
  • In X-Men: The Animated Series/X-Men '97
    • Lady Deathstrike is Wolverine's former lover from Japan, a backstory that was taken from Mariko Yashida, Logan's longtime girlfriend from the comics. Deathstrike's father, Professor Oyama, was himself combined with Abraham Cornelius, the scientist in charge of the adamantium-bonding procedure that was used on Logan at Weapon X.
    • The Phalanx was amalgamated with the Technarchy.
    • Bishop is a combination of his own comic book counterpart and the adult Kate Pryde, both of whom come from very similar futures where mutants are persecuted. The storyline that introduces Bishop in the cartoon is an adaptation of Days of Future Past with Bish in the time-traveler role, while also roping in his own origin of travelling to the present-day to seek out a possible traitor among the X-Men (who turns out to be Mystique disguised as Gambit, which also plays heavily into DOFP where she is the main villain). Sequel Series X Men 97 sees also sees Bishop take Jen Askani's role as the one who takes a techno-organic virus-infected baby Nathan Summers to the future, where he'll grow up to become Cable.
    • Any other role that was originally Kitty's was given to Jubilee. These include the scene from the first episode where Jubilee is kicked out of an arcade after breaking one of the machines (something that happened to Kitty in Uncanny X-Men #180), and the classic "Kitty's Fairy Tale" issue being loosely adapted as "Jubilee's Fairytale Theater" in the final season.
    • Beast mentions that Magneto is the one who crippled Professor Xavier, an act performed by an alien named Lucifer in the original comics.
    • Crossing over with Decomposite Character, "Captive Hearts" gave the role of the X-Man Callisto kidnapped to be her mate to Cyclops, with Angel, who originally held the role, appearing later on.
    • "Lifedeath, Pt. 2": Mister Sinister takes the place of Cassandra Nova as the person responsible for unleashing the Sentinel attack on Genosha. Bolivar takes the place of Donald Trask III as the one that provides the DNA allowing Sinister to access the Master Mold.
  • In X-Men: Evolution, Avalanche seems to be a combination of the comic book Avalanche (codename, role with the Brotherhood) and Rictor of the New Mutants (appearance, the details of how his powers work, occasional consideration of a Heel–Face Turn). The hotheadedness comes from both of them. But whereas Comic!Avalanche is a Greek man by the name of Dominic Petros and Rictor is a young Latino named Julio Esteban, Evolution!Avalanche is a generically-white American named Lance Alvers.
  • In Wolverine and the X-Men (2009):
    • Marrow appears in the Bad Future, where she befriends Rover the Sentinel and takes on the role of Tom Skylark in the comic book Bad Future Here Comes Tomorrow, only without the Technopathy that explained how Tom had made friends with a Sentinel. Instead, she was given it by Polaris.
    • The show's version of Arclight is a male like the Age of Apocalypse characters, but sported the powers of the classic Marvel version who's a woman and wears a Spear Counterpart version of her costume.
    • Master Mold is combined with Danger, the evil sentient A.I. from Joss Whedon's run. Because of this, Master Mold is depicted as a gynoid.
    • Silver Samurai is merged with Noburu Hideki, Mariko's fiance from the original Wolverine (1982) mini-series. This causes a bit of Squick, since Silver Samurai is Mariko's BROTHER in the original comics.
    • Angel's father, Warren Worthington II, was a combination of his incarnation in X-Men: The Last Stand (a misguided man who thinks he's helping mutants when he's really helping himself who realizes the error of his ways, though here, it's too late to really do anything) and Cameron Hodge (being the one who has Angel's wings amputated).
    • Toad is basically the Earth-616 version with the Ultimate look.
    • Mystique, who's a mix of Mystique as we know her, and Silver Fox, Wolverine's former love interest and fellow captive at Weapon X.

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