What do you mean this character has a lot of similarities to another, it’s totally a different original character (essentially parody characters or characters that it is very obvious where the inspiration came from, I’m gonna just do a bit where I pretend that they are totally not, okay, also I left out a fun one on purpose because i thought it would be more fun for the audience, I think it’s fun when they have to go around and make their own when its obvious whose it is supposed to be.)
Characters:
Agent Spider from Invincible:
What do you mean this character is similar to any Marvel character, just because he’s got spider abilities and is voiced by Josh Keaton, doesn’t mean that its Spider-Man
Rorschach from Watchmen:
This character may have a faceless mask and wear trenchcoat and fedora but that does not mean he is a knock off of The Question
Creature of the Clergy from Its Bunlith! The Witch Upstairs!
Okay this character may have some resemblances to other characters but it has a fluffy tail so it is in no way the Cleric Beast from Bloodborne
(I have no idea of the actual name of the last creature so I made my own, please let me know if there is one)
I swear my morally questionable mercenary who wears black and red and fights with swords and guns is completely different from your morally questionable mercenary who wears black and orange and fights with swords and guns.
He's called Deadpool, not Deathstroke. And his real name is Wade Wilson, not Slade Wilson.
They're not really similar though. Deadpool's look and original personality was based on Spider-Man. And his Wade Wilson name was done as a humorous response to the fans who accused him of being a Deathstroke rip-off.
But other than their names and choices of weapons, I don't see any similarities.
The whole cast of Watchmen fits this trope as well. They're all intentionally knockoffs of a bunch of classic Charlton Comics characters that DC bad recently acquired. DC wouldn't let Alan Moore use them though, insisting on original characters.
So, Rorschach is The Question, Silk Spectre is Nightshade, Dr. Manhattan is Captain Atom, Nite-Owl is Blue Beetle (Daniel being Ted Kord, Hollis being Dan Garrett), The Comedian is Peacemaker, and Ozymandias is Thunderball.
Peacemaker was a character who did not matter for decades of DC continuity, and now people can actually see and compare The Comedian & Peacemaker in recent media
Funny that John Cena as Peacemaker never woulda happened if DC just let Alan Moore use his original plan for Watchmen, could say the same for a lot of stuff. If Blue Beetle was mostly known for Watchmen, he would overwhelming known for that more than his mainline iteration in JLI or his team-ups with Booster Gold. Probably wouldn't have gotten Jaime Reyes either.
Webweaver (The Boys)- he's a spider-themed costumed character who shoots webs out of his backside, with a costume that looks really similar to anothe hero who can do that, but that doesn't mean he's essentially Spider-Man in a new costume.
Except that this lonely and hot detective IS Sherlock Holmes. Herr Locke is just his name in English location to avoid copyrights so they took this reference !!! So he's a different case maybe ?
It is but in Arsène Lupin case, the original name IS Herlock Sholmes (for avoiding rights at first but it stays that name no matter the localisation)
In TGAA case it's not his original name
Mickey Mouses entire creation was because Walt Disney lost the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, so for the first bit of his existence Mickey was "legally distinct Oswald with sound"
Not if you realize it parodies the title of the movie Steamboat Bill, Jr., which itself alludes to the name of the song Steamboat Bill. In both of these, "Steamboat" is the nickname of a steamboat owner. So the plausible explanation for the title is that Mickey, the cartoon star, plays the role of this guy named Steamboat Willie.
Just because the Spider is a dark and brooding avenger who kills his enemies with two guns, wears a fedora and suit with a cape, and lives in New York doesn't mean he's based on the Shadow.
It was really a bunch of these kinds of heroes popping up right around this time that inspired Batmans creators, and Zorro was not even the primary inspiration.
They again was inspired by the anti-hero Spring-Heeled Jack stories from the penny dreadfuls, who started out as a rumored ghost in actual newspapers.
I prefer The Phantom personally. He's so much more optimistic, and has no fear of guns while still having respect for their use.
The entire Watchmen line-up was made as a substitute for Charlton comics characters.
Funnily enough, DC later made Earth 4, Featuring Pax Americana. Basically "What if Watchmen actually used Charlton Comics characters like they originally intended"
Captain Atom - Dr.Manhattan
Peacemaker - Comedian
Question - Rorschach
Blue Beetle - Nite-Owl
Nightshade - Silk Spectre
Though the guy who is supposed to be Ozymandias equivalent(Thunderbolt) wasn't on the team.
Ben 10 has more than a few aliens based on other properties. But one of the most blatant goes to Way Big, who is based off of Ultraman. Whether it be his gigantic size, his color scheme, the head fin, you name it. And as time went on, it became even more obvious. It's revealed that Way Big's species name is To'kustar, a play off of tokusatsu, the style of Japanese special effects that Ultraman helped pioneer. He also has the ability to fire a laser by crossing his arms, just like various Ultras. And then Omniverse decided to just give him a Japanese accent.
Duck Tales (2017) wasn’t allowed to use a certain cartoon mouse so their solution was to strand Donald on and island and have him go full Castaway with Mikey Melon, complete with having the melon voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos.
All the Remedy games take place in the same universe and Alan Wake 2 puts this into overdrive. However they don't own the rights to some characters so they work around that by creating legally distinct versions of them and using the same face models and voice actors (if possible). The most prominent are:
Max Payne = Alex Casey
Jack Joyce (Quantum Break) = Tim Breaker
Martin Hatch (Quantum Break) = Warlin Door (now portrayed by David Harewood due to Lance Reddick passing away in early 2023)
Kirkman got the rights when he did the Invincible x Spider-man in the comics, and the sequence is even longer, with the whole "With great powers come great responsabilities" speech, which helped Invincible in his fight against Angstrom. And you guess it, he did not get the right for the TV shows. That being said, Agent Spider do talks about knowing all the weird stuff that dimension travel is about, which link him to either Into the Spider Verse or No Way Home.
Brother, you might think that's Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage appearing on WWF television after they left the company in the early 90s. But you see that's actually the Huckster and the Nacho Man working for their boss, Billionaire Ted, who is in no way shape or form related to the billionaire who owned WWF's main competition, WCW, and employed the actual Hulk Hogan and Macho Man.
Venture Bros has a LOT of these but one of the most prominent is Action Johnny, an aged up Jonny Quest parody. Funnily enough, he was only made because, while Cartoon Network owned the rights to Jonny Quest, the writers assumed that they wouldn't be allowed to use him but were later told they could. Even more interesting is that an actual Jonny Quest character, Race Bannon, actually DOES appear and die in one episode a whole season before Johnny appeared.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being parodies of Daredevil and its cast. EG: the enemy ninja clan called “The Hand” in Daredevil and “The Foot” in TMNT
30 Rock. Jenna is starring in a Janis Joplin biopic, but Joplin’s estate does not give them the rights to her name or likeness. So they try Janet Jopler, Janie Jimplin, and finally settle on Jackie Jormp-Jomp as their legally-distinct alternative.
Rorschach was deliberately made to parody The Question, and the weird moral certainty that his creator seemed to have the character operate under.
Initially, the idea for Watchmen was based on Charlton Comic heroes, but DC acquired them so Moore was asked to make original characters.
If I recall, All of the Watchmen heroes were based off of other heroes. I always thought Rorschach was meant to be Batman, but I'm pretty sure he actually helped inspire the grittier 'Dark Knight' we have now.
Rorschach - The Question
Dr. Manhattan - The Atom
Nite Owl - Blue Beetle
The Comedian - Peacemaker
Ozymandius - Thunderbolt, Peter Cannon
Silk Spectre - Nightshade
how about this post being legally distinct from all the other million times this topic has been posted because the title is worded in a slightly different way 🙄
177
u/WhentheTropesAndFavs 7h ago
Insert NotZilla example
“It looks like Godzilla but due to international copyright laws, it’s not”