The DC Animated Universe had characters that made their first appearance.
- Batman: The Animated Series:
- Red Claw, Summer Gleeson, Joan Leland, Maven, Baby Doll, Roland Daggett, Calender Girl, Kyodai Ken, Boxy Bennett, and H.A.R.D.A.C., plus Harley Quinn, Renee Montoya, Gray Ghost, Ferris Boyle, Roxy Rocket and Lock-Up, six successful Canon Immigrants. There's also various one-off supporting characters like Veronica Vreeland or Batman's mechanics Earl and Marva Cooper. It should be noted, though, Summer is basically an expy of Vicki Vale, and Red Claw is more or less a watered down Lady Shiva. A character named John Daggett who most people agree is a Shout-Out to Roland appeared in The Dark Knight Rises.
- Temple Fugate was a subversion. Although the Clock King is a canon character, the DCAU version was an original entry with a separate name and backstory from his comic counterpart. He was also originally an enemy of Green Arrow rather than Batman while the success of the show led to other, new versions of the Clock King with a design similar to the DCAU version to premiere in the comics.
- Everyone in Batman Beyond except Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon, and Mr. Freeze. Prominent examples would be Terry McGinnis (who would later become a Canon Immigrant) and his family, Max Gibson, the vast majority of the villains (including Big Bad Derek Powers), Barbara's husband Sam and Terry's love interest Dana Tan. The members of the JLU (barring Superman and Big Barda) were similar to Terry, being new Legacy Characters that were patterned after existing DC heroes: Warhawk for Hawkman (with Justice League Unlimited later revealing him to be the son of Hawkgirl and John Stewart), Aquagirl for Aquaman and Micron for The Atom, with Kai-Ro serving as Earth's future Green Lantern.
- Justice League and Unlimited used a bunch of characters who split the difference between Canon Foreigner and Expy:
- Hro Talak is Hawkman, only evil. Except he can't be Hawkman, because the real Hawkman (Carter Hall/Katar Hol) appeared in a later season. DC didn't allow the writers to make Hawkman evil. Hro Talak is an anagram of Katar Hol.
- Galatea is Power Girl, except she's a clone of Supergirl rather than an Alternate Universe counterpart. And she's evil.
- The Ultimen are the Wonder Twins and the other original "ethnic" characters from Super Friends, only competent. And they're clones created by Project Cadmus.
- The Justice Guild is the Golden Age Justice Society of America (with a little bit of Adam West as Batman (1966) for flavor).
- Devil Ray is practically Black Manta, only he's a nemesis of Wonder Woman instead of Aquaman (who could not be used in the later seasons due to the unsold Aquaman pilot).
- And in a cross-company example, the Justice Lords are versions of the JLA who became corrupted by their abilities and all but conquered Earth for "the greater good", only to be betrayed by their Batman. In other words, the Squadron Supreme. Word of God also stated they were based on The Authority. The Justice Lord became Canon Immigrants as of The Multiversity.
- Tsukuri and Aresia are evil versions of Katana and Fury.
- Most of the villains from Static Shock were created for the series, with the major exceptions being Hot-Streak, Puff, Tarmack, D-Struct and Rubberband Man. Richie Foley (AKA Gear) and She-Bang were also created for the show, though the former was a Captain Ersatz of Rick Stone, Static's buddy from the comics.
- Superman: The Animated Series had quite a few with Volcana, Luminus, the Preserver, Sgt. Corey Mills, General Hardcastle, Detective Kurt Bowman, Darci Mason, and Unity. Mercy Graves, Livewire, and Angela Chen started here and became Canon Immigrants.
- Lobo (Webseries): Every character except Lobo and Darlene were made for the series.
- Gotham Girls had Caroline Greenway, Selma Reesedale and Dora Smithy.
