Decomposite Character / Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

Decomposite Character in this franchise.

---

Comic Books

Comic Books

• At one point, The Vision was stated to have been the Golden Age Human Torch, whose deactivated "corpse" had been rebuilt and given the brain patterns of Wonder Man by Ultron. Avengers West Coast later retconned this story by revealing that the Golden Age Torch had actually been buried after his supposed "death," and that Vision had essentially been created from the Torch's spare parts. The same story saw the Torch return to action and join the West Coast Avengers after being revived by the Scarlet Witch. Years later, Kurt Busiek's Avengers Forever established that both versions of the tale were correct via a Timey-Wimey Ball: A split in the timestream caused by Immortus had actually created two separate versions of the Human Torch. Thus, one Torch was buried and later returned to life as a hero, while the other had been rebuilt as the Vision.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • Ultimate X-Men (2001):
    • Despite Wolverine suspecting otherwise, neither James nor Heather Hudson are Vindicator — rather, it's John Wraith.
    • William Stryker becomes two characters. William Sr. is an anti-mutant military leader, as in X2: X-Men United, while William Jr. is the religious extremist from the original comics. However, Stryker's both this trope and Composite Character, as William Jr. later becomes Ultimate Universe Master Mold; gigantic Sentinel.
  • Maggott appeared as two separate characters; one as a murdered teenager, and the other as a young child who was living in the sewers of New York after the rise of the Sentinels.
  • There are three separate versions of The Vision:
    • A Gynoid created by ancient aliens to warn of the coming of Gah Lak Tus.
    • An experimental robot built by Hank Pym dubbed "Vision 2".
    • An African-American man named Robert Mitchell who was turned into a Cyborg by Nick Fury.
  • Likewise, there are three unrelated versions of Crimson Dynamo that respectively appear in Ultimate Nightmare, Ultimates 2 and Ultimate Fantastic Four.
  • Ultimate Spider-Man:
    • Miles Warren is mentioned in an earlier issue of Ultimate Spider-Man as Harry's hypnotherapist and is later seen dating Aunt May, but he's not the creator of clone of Spider-Man in this. As with William Stryker, Jr., this also lapses into Composite Character, as that role is taken by Doctor Octopus.
    • Doctor Strange is Stephen Strange, Jr., the son of the original Doctor Strange and Clea.
    • Ben Reilly is an African-American man, instead of a clone of Peter Parker. Again, this also lapses into Composite Character as the Ultimate version of Spider-Woman takes that role, becoming an Opposite-Sex Clone of Peter.
    • Tinkerer gets this treatment with Elijah Stern taking the Tinkerer identity and Phineas Mason (the Tinkerer in the classic Marvel Universe) later appeared in Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual # 2.
    • Scorpion got split into two characters, with his costume and tail going to a clone of Peter, and the second Scorpion being a Mexican crime lord, who is in effect a Race Lifted Mac Gargan with a similar name (Maximus Gargan).
    • Flash Thompson: His sympathetic qualities and admiration for Spider-Man were transferred to original character Kenny "King Kong" McFarlane, with Ultimate Flash keeping his Jerk Jock personality and traits, which had the unfortunate effect of this one being reduced to a Flat Character.
    • While Peter still appears in the arc adapting the video game, Gwen Stacy takes his place as the one who becomes Carnage during the final battle with Venom.
  • The Ultimates: In addition to the Vision:
    • The team itself, as the Ultimates are an adaptation of the Avengers, whereas the "Avengers" name is used for a black-ops unit instead.
    • Emil Blonsky isn't the only Abomination, but is an unpowered soldier, with Chang Lam, a Chinese scientist, being the first person to be called "Abomination" instead.
    • The Hulk is split into two characters, with Bruce Banner being the classic Hulk and Tyrone Cash serving as an analogue of Banner's Mr. Fixit persona.
  • In Ultimate Extinction, Gah Lak Tus's heralds are silvery beings which resemble the Silver Surfer. Then Ultimate Fantastic Four introduces the Silver Searcher, who is Norrin Radd from the planet Zenn-La, but has no connection to Gah Lak Tus beyond Reed speculating that the heralds were modelled on his appearance.
  • The Leader was adapted as a Composite Character in Ultimate Human as he was Pete Wisdom. What also places the Leader is this as his 616 identity of Samuel Sterns was adapted as a separate character in Ultimate Mystery.
  • While Jennifer Walters is established to exist, the Ultimate She-Hulk turns out to be Betty Ross.
• Nick Fury, due to the popularity of being portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has now been split into two characters in the comics. The classic Nick Fury (who is a white male), and the black and bald Nick Fury, Jr., who is the original's son.
• Likewise, the Guardians of the Galaxy movie introduced a cool new version of Yondu, who became something of an Ensemble Dark Horse. Unfortunately, he was also absolutely nothing like the Yondu from the comics. Sam Humphries worked around this by introducing a movie-inspired version of Yondu as the distant ancestor of the original Yondu, and this worked out rather well since the original is technically from the 31st century anyway.
• Likewise, the Ant-Man movie introduced a radically overhauled take on Hope, Hank Pym's obscure daughter from the Marvel Comics 2 continuity. Marvel responded by inserting a movie-inspired version of Hope (renamed "Nadia," the Russian word for Hope) into their mainstream canon as The Unstoppable Wasp.
• Spyke from X-Men: Evolution has yet to gain official Canon Immigrant status, but did inspire two separate characters. The Spike from X-Force got Spyke's powers and a variation of his Codename, while David Munroe from Black Panther got his status as Storm's nephew.
• Kenny "King Kong" McFarlane from Ultimate Spider-Man ended up inspiring several different characters in the mainstream Marvel Universe. The first was Kenny Kong in Starbrand & Nightmask, who resembles the Race Lifted version of the character from The Spectacular Spider-Man (creator Greg Weisman also wrote Starbrand & Nightmask). Similar to the original Kenny, this version is a classmate of the title character(s) who deduces their secret identities but unlike the original, he's introduced as a college student and is depicted early on as an Adaptational Nice Guy and is uninvolved Spider-Man's supporting cast, aside from attending the same college Peter Parker graduated from. Venom (Donny Cates) introduced Kenny "King Kong" McFarlane Jr., who like the original Kong is a popular high school student but unlike the original, is noticeably slimmer and athletic, blonde haired instead of bald and acts more like a stereotypical Jerk Jock, making him an Adaptational Jerk Ass.
• Geldoff from Ultimate Spider-Man has gotten the reverse treatment in the mainstream Marvel Universe. The first was a member of the Initiative known as Proton, who died during Secret Invasion, while Inhumanity has since introduced a teen boy named Geldhoff as one of the new Inhumans.
• Larry Hama once pitched to Marvel a book called Fury Force, about Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. fighting against HYDRA, led by Captain America enemy Baron Zemo. The pitch was rejected, but Hama would later recycle it as his G.I.Joe comics. Many elements of Zemo were split between Hama's versions of Destro (a proud nobleman obsessed with his family's legacy) and Cobra Commander (great strategist and a masked leader of the terrorist organization with grant ambitions).
• Iron Man in the Marvel Mangaverse was originally a woman named Antoinette "Toni" Stark, but after she was Killed Off for Real, a more traditional version of Tony Stark was introduced as Toni's brother.
• All-New Wolverine introduces the Sisters, four clones of X-23 created by Alchemax: Zelda, Bellona, X23_3PAR ("given" name unknown), and Gabby. Each of the girls echo aspects of Laura and her personality at different stages of her life:
  • Zelda is Laura's maturity and icy stoicism in the face of danger, along with her tactical acumen.
  • Bellona shares her rage and impulsiveness.
  • X23_3PAR represents her fatalism and determination.
  • Gabby is unique in that she's what Laura could have been; she's the innocence that was stolen from her by the Facility.
• Heroes Reborn:
  • Hank Pym takes Ultron' roles as The Vision's creator. In fact, in a case of Age Lift, the Vision actually came before Ultron and Ultron was created to replace Vision as Hank's assistant when Vision joined the Avengers.
  • As in The Incredible Hulk Returns before it and like the Marvel Cinematic Universe would do since, Donald Blake is not Thor, but a separate person.
• Spider-Man:
  • During the ''Identity Crisis story arc, Peter created the secondary identities of Dusk, Prodigy, Ricochet, and Hornet, all of which were taken up by new characters forming a team called the "Slingers".
  • The Scarlet Spider identity has been used by multiple characters, following the death of the original: Ben Reilly. The most well-known is Kaine, another clone of Peter that had a Heel–Face Turn and took up Ben's identity. Later, Ben came Back from the Dead and resumed the identity, with both "brothers" sharing the name. Others include the clones of Michael Van Patrick, a rookie hero that was killed during training, but more on them later.
  • After Peter gave up the advanced suit that Tony Stark gave him during Civil War (2006), others were given copies of it. The first were Michael, Van and Patrick, who formed a trio known as the Scarlet Spiders. Later on, it was used by a character that took the appropriate codename: the Iron Spider. Following this, the design of the Iron Spider armor was improved upon by Doctor Otto Octavius.
  • During the Superior Spider-Man (2013) arc, Dr. Octopus took over Peter Parker's body and became the new Spider-Man. Later, Peter got his body back, and the new Superior Spider-Man was an alternate-universe Otto. A clone of Otto— with all of Spider-Man's abilities, plus the Octopus suit—was created and took the name "Superior Octopus".
  • The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows: Hinted at, but it was soon confirmed Annie is not an Alternate Self to May "Mayday" Parker, but rather the baby May still existed previously like in the 616 and MC2 continuities, only to be forever lost like in the former. Thus, if May had lived in this setting, Annie would be her younger sister. The two eventually meet in Spider-Geddon.
  • In Spidey Super Stories, Giant-Man is Bill Foster (the hero known as Black Goliath in the mainline continuity) rather than Hank Pym, and even wears the distinctive red costume Pym sported during the Silver Age. However, it's established that Pym was the original Giant-Man, and passed the mantle onto Foster after he got old and retired.
• In Bullet Points, Steve Rogers is this reality's Iron Man, with Tony Stark succeeding him after his death.
• Some Marvel characters in the Larval Earth reality of Spider-Ham have more than one anthropomorphic animal counterpart. The Kingpin's Larval Earth counterparts are the Kingpig and the Pinhead, while Namor the Sub-Mariner has two counterparts in Kaymar the Sub-Merchandizer and the Sub-Marsupial. A particularly notable example is the two Mary-Jane Watson counterparts: the original comics had Mary-Jane Waterbuffalo, while Spider-Girl pastiche in Spider-Man Family had Mary-Crane. But that was clearly set in an alternate continuity, so that was fine. And then the Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special featured Mary-Crane while also having Mary-Jane Waterbuffalo in a floating heads shot. As a result, Marvel Wiki reckons there's one Spider-Ham universe where MJ's a buffalo, one where she's a crane, and one where they both exist.
• Back in the Golden Age, Captain America comics were still published after the end of World War 2, and even experienced a brief revival in the 1950s. Because of this, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought back Cap during the Silver Age and established that he'd been frozen prior to the end of the war, it inadvertently created a Continuity Snarl. To deal with this, later writers instituted the Retcon that the 40s Captain America appearances that chronologically took place after Steve Rogers' disappearance were actually either William Nasland or Jeffrey Mace in the suit, while the 50s Captain America was a new character named William Burnside. Accordingly, since Bucky Barnes was also thought to have died during the incident where Steve was frozen, the "Bucky" seen in the late 40s stories was really a boy named Fred Davis, while the 50s Bucky was Jack Monroe, who would later become the new Nomad during the 80s.
• Similarly, the original Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four run established that prior to becoming The Thing, Ben Grimm had fought in World War 2 and even guest-starred in an issue of Capt. Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders. However, as the years progressed, Comic-Book Time made this increasingly hard to swallow, so it was eventually established via retcon that the Ben Grimm who'd fought against the Nazis alongside the Raiders and Nick Fury's Howling Commandos was actually the Thing's grandfather, for whom he was named.
• Despite being a whole Universe based on the opposite trope infinity Warps managed to split Blade in two separate fusions, something no other character experienced. In her tie-in to the original story Weapon Hex battles Elsa Bladestone, a fusion of Blade and Elsa Bloodstone. However, in the sequel, Secret Warps in a backup story Ghost Panther teams up with Knightblade, a fusion of Blade and Misty Knight.

Films

Films

• Marvel Cinematic Universe

---

• Madame Web (2024):
  • Julia Carpenter/the 2nd Spider-Woman/the 2nd Madame Web is divided into two characters; the teenage Julia Cornwall who will become one of the Spider-Women, and Cassandra "Cassie" Webb - the film counterpart of the first Madame Web, who not only looks more like Julia's incarnation instead of her own comic counterpart, but also inherits part of Julia's comics backstory as the daughter of researchers who've worked in the Amazon.
  • Powers-wise, both Cassie and Ezekiel take on different aspects of Spider-Man's power set. He gets the enhanced strength, agility and wall-crawling ability, while her precognitive ability is described by her mother's notes on the Spider Tribe as a kind of sixth sense - in other words, a Spider-sense.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse's versions of The Kingpin and the Green Goblin are from its version of Miles Morales's Earth, but it's Fisk and not Osborn who kills that world's Peter.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • Rogue is a composite character of Rogue and Kitty Pryde. However, Kitty herself also appears, making her an example of this trope. Movie Rogue also takes influence from Jubilee having the teen angst and role as Wolverine’s Morality Pet from the comics, though again much like Kitty, Jubilee herself appears albeit much later on.
  • Moira MacTaggert was changed to an American CIA agent in her late twenties/early thirties during the Cuban Missile Crisis in X-Men: First Class, so Olivia Williams' Scottish doctor in X-Men: The Last Stand (who is in her late thirties in 2006) becomes a separate person in the movie-verse who happens to share the same name.
  • Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class is a grown woman, despite the film being set decades before a much younger girl with a different background, but similar powers (minus telepathy) appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. She was only called "Emma" in the credits, but one of the DVD featurettes confirms that she is indeed Emma Frost.
  • The Wolverine: Silver Samurai is split into two separate characters. Harada (Samurai's civilian ID in the comics) is depicted as a ninja and Mariko's former lover, while the ACTUAL Silver Samurai is Mariko's grandfather, Ichirō, who uses a silver suit of samurai-themed Powered Armor. Also, Ichirō takes his son Shingen's role as the main antagonist from the orignal story, even though Shingen still appears in a supporting role.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: In the comics, Magda was the mother of both Nina (the Adaptation Name Change for Anya) and Quicksilver, but in the movie-verse, Magda and Ms. Maximoff are two distinct characters; the former is Erik Lehnsherr's wife, and the latter is a woman he once had a fling with in the mid-1950s. Nina and Peter Maximoff are therefore half-siblings.
  • Logan:
    • Dr. Sarah Kinney was Adapted Out of the film, but three characters share parts her personality and actions in the comics. Zander Rice has her brilliant geneticist mind and made Laura, while Gabriella has her compassion and freed Laura. Finally, Logan is the one who is killed in the climax attempting to free her from her pursuers, with whom she spends a heartbreaking final moment, and whose death most profoundly affects her. Four if you want to count the unnamed, unseen woman who birthed Laura.
    • One of the film's influences is Old Man Logan, but Wolverine's role as the unknowing killer of the X-Men is taken by Professor Xavier.
• The Amazing Spider-Man Series: Similarly to some of the other Marvel Comics adaptation examples, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 does this to Norman Osborn, with his role as the original Green Goblin and Gwen Stacy's killer taken by his son, Harry (who took up the mantle after his father in the comics).

Live-Action TV

Live-Action TV

• Legion (2017): In chapter 5, the voices in David's head reveal themselves as a parasite, rather than other personalities, which would separate "Legion" into two different characters. However, the second season reveals that while the parasite is real, David also has multiple personalities.
• In the Made-for-TV Movie The Incredible Hulk Returns, The Mighty Thor appears; however, instead of Don Blake turning into Thor, Blake and Thor are separate characters. Blake calls upon Odin while holding Mjölnir and Thor magically appears. Presumably, in the spinoff series that never happened, One's a doctor, one's a Norse God.

Western Animation

Western Animation

• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes:
  • Nick Fury serves as the present-day director of S.H.I.E.L.D., but his Identical Grandfather Jack Fury led the Howling Commandos in World War II. Nick Fury filled both roles in the comics, but the writers eventually had to explain that he used an "Infinity Serum" to extend his lifespan.
  • Spider-Woman's role in Secret Invasion is split between Black Widow (Triple agent working for Nick Fury who can't prove her innocence after Fury goes into hiding) and Mockingbird (Costumed S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who is kidnapped and impersonated by Queen Veranke).
• Crimson Dynamo in both The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Avengers Assemble is Ivan Vanko, the Composite Character of the original Dynamo and Whiplash from Iron Man 2, right down to having "Ivan Vanko" as his real name, but without the Whiplash elements, the degree of this varies as the only way to know this about the EMH Dynamo is through promotional materials and the tie-in comic, and his real name in never mentioned in the show itself, whereas the AA version is actually referred in-show to as "Ivan Vanko" and is modeled on Mickey Rourke. This becomes bizarre in Season 3 of AA as the Anton Vanko Whiplash, who is based on the Iron Man 2 Whiplash, actually appears in one episode.
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series
  • Thanks to the show adapting out Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson suffers a similar fate (albeit disappearing into another dimension instead of dying) at the hands of the Green Goblin, with Gwen only appearing in an alternate universe in the finale.
  • The finale itself sees Spider-Man's original Spider-Armor, dealing with clones of himself, and (brief) use of Dr. Octopus's Combat Tentacles split between an Alliance of Alternates that must fight Spider-Carnage.^note with the armored Spider-Man's universe also being the home of the Gwen seen Speaking of whom...
  • Spider-Carnage in the comics was Ben Reilly during his first tenure as Spider-Man during The Clone Saga. Here, Ben is still the Scarlet Spider with the Petr of his reality becoming Spider-Carnage
  • In The Golden Age of Comic Books, the superhero Black Marvel was secretly a wealthy socialite named Daniel Lyons. In the show, Black Marvel was actually Omar Mosely, Lyons' black chauffeur. Due to the racial attitudes of the 1940s, Daniel agreed to act as a decoy for Omar to prevent anyone from knowing the real Black Marvel was African American.
• Ultimate Spider-Man:
  • In the comics and most media, Peter Parker became the Black Suit Spider-Man. In the show the role of Black Suit Spider-Man is given to Harry Osborn. Likewise, his desire of wanting to work for the Daily Bugle was taken by Mary Jane Watson.
  • Peter Parker briefly uses the Iron Spider identity before ditching the armor and returning to the classic Spider-Man ID. The Iron Spider armor and name end up in the hands of Amadeus Cho in Season 3.
  • While a Composite Character of Ben Reilly and Kaine, the Scarlet Spider is only this universe's version of Ben, as despite his personality and costume being based on Kaine post-Heel–Face Turn, he himself isn't this universe's Kaine, who's a separate clone.
• X-Men: The Animated Series/X-Men '97
  • The episode "Captive Hearts", Callisto of the Morlocks kidnapped Cyclops to be her mate. In the comic it was based on, it was Angel, who wouldn't appear in the series until later.
  • Several of the Hellfire Club guard that Wolverine fought trying to rescue the X-Men in "The Dark Phoenix Saga" became the Reveaers, seeking revenge on the mutilation Logan had inflicted upon them. Thanks to the Reapers undergoing Adaptational Early Appearance In the Out ofthe Past two-parter, they appear quite a bit before the series did its version of the Dark Phoenix, they can't be the same guards Logan fought.
  • Minor one, but in the show's adaptation of Days of Future Past, the appearance Mystique assumed to lure Senator Kelly into her trap was taken from an aide that she had Bound and Gagged. Mystique employed that exact same disguise in the original comic, but there it was a unique identity she'd created from scratch (even using her real name, "Raven Darkholme") rather than an impersonation of an actual person.
  • While Rachel Summers was among the telepaths that Apocalypse arranged to be kidnapped in the "Beyond Good and Evil" four-parter, the Sequel Series episode "Fire Made Flesh" sees her role as the one who takes Nathan Summers, the future Cable, into the future to be treated for the Techno-organic virus he's infected them was taken by Bishop.
  • Likewise, while Emma Frost does appear in both shows, 97 has Madeline Pryor be the one who engages in a Mental Affair with Cyclops that jeopardizes his marriage once it's discovered.