Shout Out / Freedom City

• Adamant is similar to Marvel's "The Destroyer"; both are Nigh-Invulnerable suits of Animated Armor powered by a trapped soul and created to slay gods, though Adamant was created by Hades and not the Norse pantheon.
• AEGIS is the name of a mythological S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Freedom's three airports are all named after comic book pilots: Trainor (after Larry), Jameson (after John), and Jordan International (after Hal).
• The Amalgam visually takes inspiration from Composite Superman (split down the middle between the looks of Centurion and the Raven I), though in most other respects its more in line with certain portrayals of Bizarro, as a misunderstood monster with tremendous power and no way of comprehending the damage it does. It is also named after the short-lived Amalgam Universe line which combined characters from both Marvel and DC.
• Argo the Ultimate Android is an Amazo expy.
• Askari Inc. in the Atlas of Earth Prime is a Tanzanian Heroes for Hire. Whitestone is Luke Cage (although his albinism and name probably come from Spider-Man villain Tombstone) and Dragonhand is Iron Fist.
• ASTRO Labs homages Astro City and DC's STAR Labs.
• The Atom Family is cut from the same cloth as the Fantastic Four, and a dash of Power Pack. And also a bit of the First Family in Astro City, especially in the sense that this family actually changed and grew over the decades.
  • Moon-Son, the adult version of Chase Atom in the "Future Freedom" chapter of Worlds of Freedom, reflects Psi-Lord, the adult Franklin Richards from various Marvel near-futures.
• Barbara Kane, the police commisioner, derives her name from Barbara Gordon and Bob Kane.
• Black Star is Sinestro, but with the powers of the Shade.
• Bowman and Arrow are the Green Arrow and Speedy homages.
• Brittania is a Captain Britain expy.
• The law firm Cabot, Cunningham & Crowley references Laurie Cabot, Scott Cunningham, and Aleister Crowley, all occult authors. It also has more than a shade of Wolfram & Hart.
• Centurion is their Superman expy (from a parallel Earth where the Roman Empire never fell). He died in battle with Omega, Lord of the Terminus, and he's stayed dead.
• Centuria, Centurion's daughter from an alternate timeline, obviously takes the role of Supergirl.
• Conundrum is a Riddler expy.
• Commander Landau, who's in charge of the Moonbase in the "Galactic Freedom" setting is named after Martin Landau, who played the Moonbase commander in Space: 1999.
• The Crime League is the Legion of Doom/Injustice Gang expy.
• The Curator shares much in common with Brainiac, specifically the version from the DC Animated Universe.
  • He's much more like the Preserver of the same continuity. And Marvel Comics' Collector.
• Daedalus combines elements of both Iron Man and Hank Pym.
• Devil Ray is Black Manta. Coincidentally, Black Manta was renamed Devil Ray in Justice League.
• The Devil's Own, from Atlas of Earth-Prime is a 200 year old Canadian with a healing factor, a clawlike attack, and a history of experimentation and mindwipes by a Government Conspiracy. So, yeah.
• Doc Prophet, from Freedom's pulp age, is Doc Savage.
• Dr. Simian is equal parts Monsieur Mallah and Gorilla Grodd.
• Dr. Sin references all those sinister oriental masterminds from the pulps, especially Fu Manchu and Marvel's Yellow Claw, as well as Ra's al Ghul.
• Eldrich is a lot of Doctor Fate with a dash of Doctor Strange. He lives on Ditko Street.
• The Factor Four are the other Fantastic Four expy, but with stronger elemental ties, and evil.
• Fear Master (both of them) shares much in common with Batman's foe the Scarecrow, and the original's costume borrows heavily from the Phantasm.
• The Freedom Brigade in Worlds of Freedom are based on the Freedom Fighters (although mostly the more obscure members), complete with being taken to Nazi Earth just after they formed.
  • Commander USA is a genderflipped and Race Lifted Miss America. His origin is similar to the Human Bomb and he's got much the same role in the team as Uncle Sam.
  • The Invisible Agent is the Invisible Hood. His secret identity is Frank Raymond, after the title character of the 1942 movie The Invisible Agent.
  • The Mysterious Madame Radium is a genderflipped The Ray. Her name is reminiscent of Neon the Unknown.
  • Sea Hawk is a genderflipped Black Condor. She's also a pilot, suggesting Blackhawk.
  • Doctor X is Magno.
  • The Magister, a Badass Normal in an archaic costume, might be intended as a riff on the Jester.
• Freedom Eagle owes much to Golden Age Hawkman and The Rocketeer.
• The 26th century's Freedom Legion is the Legion of Super-Heroes, although not all the members have direct counterparts. Having said that:
  • Centurion II is Mon-El.
  • Charger is Lightning Lad (except he's one of the "everyone from my planet can do this" characters and looks kind of like a blue Chameleon Boy).
  • Colonel Colossus is Colossal Boy.
  • Solar Flare is Sun Boy
  • Chiller is Polar Boy (except he isn't one of the "everyone from my planet can do this" characters.)
  • Metalla is a genderflipped Cosmic Boy, but her costume is a clear homage to Dave Cockrum, looking a lot like the one he gave Shadow Lass.
• The Furions are the New Gods, specifically the Forever People, complete with complicated cosmic soap opera.
• The Furrydom League of Ani-Earth is a Funny Animal version of the main team, similar to the Scavengers in Spider-Ham and the Justa Lotta Animals in Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!.
  • The Captain Thunder equivalent is a cat, named Captain Thunderkat.
  • Johnny Rabbit's archenemy is a coyote, who sets intricate traps his speedster foe just runs straight through.
• The Goanna is basically The Lizard with his fatal drive changed from "regrow missing limb" to "create ultimate anti-venom".
• Hiroshima Shadow is an isotope of Radioactive Man (the Marvel one, not the other one).
• The Green Man springs from the same soil as Poison Ivy and Plantman.
• Johnny Rocket is an expy of The Flash; his name, Johnny Wade, references Johnny Storm, Johnny Quick, and Mark Waid. His being gay is in homage to Northstar, another speedster.
  • His Opposite-Sex Clone/adopted daughter Jonni Rocket, in the "Future Freedom" setting and 3rd Edition, is a Gender Flipped Bart Allen with Wally West elements.
• The inspiration for the Kirby Museum of Fine Arts should be obvious.
• The school nurse at Claremont Academy is named Aretha Joy.
• Lady Liberty is a mix of Captain America and Wonder Woman. Her name, Beth Walton, references Betsy Ross and The Waltons.
  • There's also a bit of Liberty Belle in there, and even DC's Uncle Sam (in Worlds Of Freedom, we're told that, just like Sam spent the American Civil War split into Billy Yank and Johnny Reb, the Spirit of Liberty empowered Columbia and Southern Belle).
  • Her husband is Trevor Wright; a reference to Steve Trevor and a play on "Mr Right".
  • 3rd edition Lady Liberty (a young woman from an ethnic minority who inherits the mantle of a major heroine) may be inspired by Ms. Marvel (2014).
• The Pale Ranger in Worlds of Freedom's "Freedom by Gaslight" is basically Marvel's Phantom Rider, although he's got The Lone Ranger's origin (but the Silver Sheriff is the one who inherited a silver mine and used it to make bullets). He's also Doc Prophet's father, which could be a nod to the Lone Ranger being the uncle of The Green Hornet.
• Madame Zero is quite blatantly a gender-reversal of Mr. Freeze, only here it was an affair and subsequent breakup with her boyfriend that caused her to be transformed, and she got her career started by killing him, in contrast to Victor Frieze's driving goal to cure his cryogenically-suspended wife.
• Mr. Infamy has much in common with Mephisto.
• The Liberty League was the WW II-era superheroes team, while the Freedom League is the Silver Age and Modern era Justice League of America.
• Master Lee's School of Self Defense is named for two eponymous masters: Bruce and Stan.
• Mastermind partakes of elements from Magneto, Vandal Savage, and The Master of the World.
• Medea fills a similar role as Circe.
• Megalodon (Connor Kirkstrom) is an expy of the Lizard (Curt Connors) and Man-Bat (Kirk Langstrom), but he went with sharks.
• The Meta-Grue is the Super-Skrull expy.
• Nero could be argued as based on Maxie Zeus, but given actual madness-fuelled pyrokinesis.
• The Next Gen is very Teen Titans -esque. They're students at the Claremont Academy, which is a lot like Xavier's School for the Gifted. And among them, you've got Bolt (Kid Flash), Megastar (Captain Marvel), Seven (Raven), and Sonic (Static).
  • Taking things even further, the Hero High sourcebook (which details Next Gen and the Claremont Academy in particular and teen heroes in general) has three archetypes that are quite blatantly Starfire (Alien Exile), Raven (Child of Darkness) and Robin (Protégé) with the names removed and nothing else. The Construct archetype, meanwhile, has artwork that is basically Colossus of X-Men with some heavy weaponry slapped on.
  • The Claremont Academy's name is a shout-out, for that matter, to comic writer Chris Claremont, who's best known for his work on X-Men.
• Omega, Lord of the Terminus borrows from both Darkseid and Thanos.
  • In one supplement, he basically fills the role of the Anti-Monitor.
  • Omega's Annihilists are Gods of Apokalips, with the twist that they were all heroes of alternate Earths. Shadivan Steelgrave is basically a corrupted Iron Man with Silver Surfer elements; Madrigal Martinet is Wonder Woman turned into a gender-flipped Vermin Vunderbar; Physician Friendly is the Desaad counterpart as Omega's torturer, but his Faux Affably Evil name and demeanor suggests a gender-flipped Granny Goodness.
• The Outriders, the freethinking bikers of the Terminus, are loosely based on the Hairies in Fourth World comics.
• Overshadow combines elements of Hastor (the constantly reincarnating enemy of Hawkman), Baron Zemo and Doctor Doom.
• Patriot, the main Captain America expy, is Jack Simmons, named after Cap's creators Jack Kirby and Joe Simon.
• Prime Detective, the superhero of Botswana in Atlas of Earth-Prime, is Precious Ramotswe with Super-Senses. Her name is also a pun on Star Trek's "Prime Directive".
• Providence Asylum is Arkham Asylum, named after the city H. P. Lovecraft's Arkham was based on. Its original owner was even named Howard Phillips. His descendent Dr Jeremy Phillips is therefore Jeremiah Arkham, although he's not the head of the asylum; that's Dr Ashley Ellis, who's based on Spider-Man's Ashley Kafka. (And Howard wasn't the Armadeus Arkham equivalent; he left the estate to Dr Reginald Carter, whose name may be a reference to Randolph Carter.)
• Pseudo is very much a Martian Manhunter homage, though his race, the Grue, are much closer to a mash of the Skrull (militaristic shapeshifters) and the Kree (specifically, the Supreme Intelligence-like Grue Meta-Mind).
  • Word of God is that they're named after the late Marvel executive editor Mark Gruenwald (their home planet is called Gruen-World).
• The Psions are Magneto and his Brotherhood of (Evil) Mutants, but for mutants with psychic abilities rather than any mutant.
• Quirk is Mr. Mxyzptlk, but slightly more annoying.
• The Raven (the first) filled the Batman expy. His daughter, the second Raven, homages Earth-2 Huntress (the daughter of Batman and Catwoman) as well as being the grandchild of the setting's equivalent of Ra's al Ghul (note she was created before Damian Wayne [son of Batman and Talia Ghul] was established as a character, but not before Son of the Demon first implied his existence).
  • The "Future Freedom" Raven, Drake Ward, is Terry McGinnis with a name that references Tim Drake and Burt Ward.
• Sandstone is a blatant gender-reversed expy of Marvel's Sandman — she even has the name Alexandra Flint, tying her more to her comics inspiration (Flint Marko).
• The Scarab has elements of Hawkman, but with awesome Psychic Powers.
• SHADOW is very much inspired by HYDRA, up to and including being founded and headed by a Nazi.
• Siren is a mix of Aquaman, Thor, Storm, and Wonder Woman.
• Sprite and Spriggan, from "Future Freedom", are Wasp and Giant Man, only they're siblings and their personalities are reversed.
• Star Knight is a Green Lantern homage, with bits of Rom: Spaceknight.
• The Thieves Guild are one-to-one homages to The Flash's Rogues: Huckster is Trickster; Bola is Captain Boomerang; Looking Glass is Mirror Master; Weather Mistress is Weather Wizard; Firebug is Heatwave; and the Mad Maple is Captain Cold. (Although the Maple's name and Canadian origin are also a Shout-Out to Jim "T. M. Maple" Burke.)
• Thomas Rhymer is a John Constantine homage.
• Tobias Gregson, the 19th century Police Comissioner in "Freedom by Gaslight" shares his name with a police inspector in Sherlock Holmes.
• The Tick-Tock Doc could be argued as what might have happened if Doctor Who had become obsessed with human flowerchild counterculture and eventually turned into a well-meaning "hippie terrorist". He even travels through time and space in what is basically a cross between the Mystery Machine and the TARDIS.
• Talos is quite close to Ultron.
• Terra-King shares much in common with Marvel's Moleman.
• Tom Cyprus is similar to Solomon Grundy.
• Toy Boy is the DC Animated Universe Toyman expy. His last name, Lettam, is a Sdrawkcab Name of Creator/Mattel.
• The Tyranny Syndicate of Anti-Earth is the equivalent to the Crime Syndicate. Johnny Speed gets his speed from drugs, just like Grant Morrison's take on Johnny Quick in JLA: Earth-2.
• Der Übermenschen, of the Time of Crisis adventure, are direct parallels to DC's Freedom Fighters. Der Eule is Black Condor, Die Geist is Phantom Lady, Götterdämmerung is The Human Bomb, Der Hand Des Todes is Dollman, Übermensch II is Uncle Sam, and Weißer Ritter is The Ray.
  • In the Erde setting, Dr. Tomorrow names his wonder chemical noburpolene.
• The Ultima (a.k.a. the Hyperboreans) are an expy of Marvel's Eternals
• Una, Queen of the Netherworld has much in common with Umar of the Dark Dimension.
• UNISON has a fair bit in common with UNIT, in particular having dealt with alien invaders operating from a base they had constructed in a gravel quarry in central England in 1969.
• Weird Maggie, the possibly-immortal bag lady who may or may not be clued in to the mystic side of Freedom, is pretty directly Mad Hettie from Hellblazer and The Sandman.
• White Lion and Dakana are a homage to Black Panther and Wakanda.