Seems like it’s a pretty good time to be a DC character at Marvel these days. The Squadron Supreme series is ongoing, and the Sentry has been featured prominently in **Mighty Avengers ** and World War Hulk. Dunno what Gladiator has been up to these days-- maybe he’s teaming up with Moon Knight? World’s Marvelousest Comics?
Anyhoo. Marvel features a few characters that are spoofs, pastiches, or that otherwise riff on prominent DC properties to some degree or other. This is all good fun, of course. But does the practice go both ways? I’ve been trying to think of notable, recurring DC characters that intentionally reference corresponding Marvel properties. The only obvious ones I can think of are one-shots: there was that ersatz Marvel universe that Superman and Batman visited in, um, **Superman/Batman **, in which versions of most major Marvel characters showed up for a few seconds apiece. Then there was that bogus version of the Avengers that was massacred by the Authority during its puffy-headed Frank Quitely run. And wasn’t there a Superman storyline several years back where a version of Galactus showed up? Omnirex or something? Other than that, I’m drawing a blank.
Clearly there are DC characters like Steel or Aquaman that were preceded by extremely similar character concepts from Marvel. But I don’t believe that the reader was supposed to look at these characters and think, “Ah, this is intended as a nod and a wink to Marvel’s Iron Man/Sub-Mariner,” in the same sense that the Squadron Supreme was meant as a recognizable parallel to the JLA.
DC’s equivalent to the Squadron Supreme (ie, a riff on the Avengers), other than the Maximums from S/B, are the Champions of Angor/Assemblers/Justifiers (Avengers is a very difficult name to riff off).
Most of whom, unfortunately, are dead, mostly wiped out by the Extremists (versions of Dr Doom, Magneto, Sabertooth, Doc Ock, and…Dormammu, I think). Two of them, Silver Sorceress and Blue Jay came over to the DC Universe and joined the Justice League during the JLI days. IIRC, the Sorceress has since died.
Off the top of my head…
Thor was Wandjina, the Sorceress was the Scarlet Witch, Blue Jay was Wasp (although he’s male), Quicksilver’s dupe I’ve seen called Captain Speed and Jack B Quick, and Iron Man became Tin Man. I don’t remember equivalents to the other Avengers, although the upcoming Extremists miniseries first issue’s cover features and obvious Captain America pastiche.
Lord Havoc (Dr. Doom)
Gorgon (Dr. Octopus)
Dr. Diehard (Magneto)
Tracer (Sabretooth)
Dreamslayer (Dormammu was always my best guess, too.)
Of course you have The Four in Planetary, the most powerful and evil people in the world, who are the Wildstorm Universe’s twisted versions of the Fantastic Four:
Randall Dowling (Reed Richards)
Kim Suskind (Sue Richards)
William Leather (Johnny Storm)
Jacob Greene (Ben Grimm)
I follow Planetary in TPBs, so I’ve only read as far as #18. Apparently we’re waiting on one final issue, #27, to wrap the entire damn series up, so I’m not sure what The Four have been up to lately.
Other than Silver & Jay? Huh. Well, General Glory is a blatant Captain America spoof. The Scarlet Skier & Mr. Nebula are Silver Surfer & Galactus riffs (but only very loosely).
DC had a Spider-Girl first (in FYL LSH), but I think that’s just a similar name.
Aquaman is kind of a Namor knockoff, but not a spoof.
Solomon Grundy & Blockbuster, whatever the original intent, both have tended toward Hulk riffs.
The more sympathetic take on Deathstroke in the early 1990’s was probably inspired by the success of the Punisher, but that’s reaching, isn’t it?
DC likes to be seen as the Original Comic Book Company. Maybe DC would rather buy your concepts outright than obviously knock them off?
On the other hand, Wildstorm has probably done as many mockeries (usually disposable) of Marvel characters as Marvel has done of DC characters–& in a quarter of the time. It’s a new kid thing.
Was the original Doomsday character partially inspired by the Hulk? Super strength, lack of intelligence, oversized body, strange colored skin - there are similarities.
I’m going so far back that even for me, I’m reaching. But I clearly remember a comic (do not know if it was Marvel or DC) in which Superman and Spiderman have a dust-up.
The only thing I can remember from this is Supe’s fist heading for Spidey’s jaw and Supe’s thought balloon saying something very close to this:
“What am I thinking? If I hit him with my full force, I’ll **kill ** him!!”
Sorry I could not contribute more, but I thought it was a pretty cool crossover; I just don’t know if it fits your OP. I can not remember if it was a Marvel character in a DC comic or the reverse. Mayber someone can come in with better info?
The Freedom Fighters fought a parody version of the Invaders and the Red Skull in their 70s incarnation.
Legends #1 (1986) featured a character who looked like Jim Shooter and was a parody of his Star Brand character (Guy Gardner burned his arm off, and he hasn’t been seen since).
The two companies have had characters and ideas that popped up pretty much simultaneously, like X-Men/Doom Patrol and Man Thing/Swamp Thing. Ms. Marvel and Power Girl debuted the same year, both scripted by Gerry Conway, and both even had “mysterious pregnancy” storylines.
IMHO, no. The Hulk wasn’t the first big strong dumb guy and probably won’t be the last. And it wasn’t so much that Doomsday was portrayed as dumb, just an alien who got dropped like a bomb in the middle of Earth (not literally). DC just needed to create a character out of thin air who was big enough and bad enough to convince the readers that he was capable of killing Supes.
In that the Hulk originally had gray skin…yeah, they’re similar. I don’t think it was more than a passing physical resemblance. I mean, can you see Supes getting knocked off by a cheap Hulk rip-off?
Spider-Girl’s powers are more similar to Medusa’s - she can control her hair to use as a weapon, to pick things up, etc.
She also predates not just Spider-Girl, but all the Spider-Women, and Medusa, being introduced in 1963 - Just over 6 months after Spider-Man. She was a rejected Legion applicant, who went on to join the Legion of Super-Villains, then, after the 5 year gap, joined the Legion proper.
DC’s attempt at a Punisher type character wasn’t Deathstroke (who was a more generic anti-hero type in his good-guy days), but Wild Dog, who was the star of one of the regular features in Action Comics Weekly.
The history of Deathstroke and Marvel is more complex than that.
Deathstroke, real name Slade Wilson, was in the army, where he recieved an experimental serum that boosted his physical attributes. He uses medieval armaments (Chainmail and a sword), and is renowned as a tactical genius. IOW, he’s a subtle Captain America pastiche. The differences being that Deathstroke is an amoral mercenary, uses a sword rather than a shield, and is usually portrayed as being more definitively superhuman than Cap (notably, he has a healing factor).
Eventually, Marvel introduced the character Deadpool, real name *Wade *Wilson, an amoral mercenary who wields a sword and was given a healing factor by a secret program. Deadpool remained a blatant knock-off until the writers decided that he’s batshit insane and banters like Spider-Man.
Then DC published a comic where Superman and Batman fought versions of themselves from and alternate Earth where all the heroes were villains. Deathstroke was involved too, and he was chagrinned to discover that his alternate from that world was a mouthy lunatic. The circle was complete.
Oh yeah, I forgot about him. But then, he was the only one of the four whose power didn’t closely parallel the original’s.
I stopped reading Planetary after the protagonists started driving nails into peoples’ eyes, but I understand that their version of Reed Richards doesn’t stretch either. It’s kind of a shame that no one seems to think an evil stretchy guy would be scary. I happen to think that the ability to stretch is one of the more disturbing abilities out there, especially in the absence of the Comics Code Authority.
That’s kind of my point. It would have been a weak story if Superman had been killed by some unknown character. But if you think of Doomsday as being a non-copyright-violation version of the Hulk you have the most powerful characters in two competing universes fighting to the death.
Coincidently, the Extremists have a mini-series that starts coming out this month:
They’ll also be appearing in Countdown to some extent, as the solicitation suggests. Interestingly, this will be the first time DC publishes a series (limited or otherwise) based on Marvel pastiche characters. (As was mentioned a couple Marvel knockoffs ended up in the Justice League in the 90s, but they were far from being the whole team.)
Dowling’s powers are a lot creepier than sticking to Reed’s powers would have been - though less disgusting than Richards-style stretching could be, if taken in a villainous direction.
Not just a version of the Hulk, but a Kryptonian Hulk! Sort of, anyway. Or a Kryptonian Solomon Grundy, now that I think about it… he’s gray too, isn’t he? And he’s got white hair like Doomsday… Of course! It all makes sense now. Doomsday is the Kryptonian Solomon Grundy! Because Solomon Grundy was born on a Monday… and Doomsday is also a day! See, it all fits together!
Honestly, though, if you asked someone to design a big, mindless *deus ex machina * simply to drop on a superhero and beat the crap out of them, odds are you’d probably wind up with something like the Hulk. Unless you specifically requested something creative, that is…
Speaking of which… Recently, the Hulk’s powers have shifted focus a bit, in that he’s not just “the strongest one there is,” but the ultimate survival machine-- if he’s in danger of drowning, his lungs will mutate until he can breathe water, etc. This is more or less how Doomsday operated. A mere coincidence?
Trying to avoid spoilers that are more specific than the quoted bit, I’ll just say, Elijah, starting at approximately where you are now, takes a bit of a turn toward the dark side in how he deals with the Four. Which disturbs Jakita, so it’s not so much ‘the good guys’, as Elijah, alone.
The specific incident in question happens in issue 22, IIRC - After capturing William Leather, he puts a device that looks like the goggles worn in tanning booths, but lined with spikes, on Leather’s eyes.
I think I need to reread the series, because I remember that having a point beyond the pain and injury, but I can’t remember what it was.