5 Comic Book Characters That Are Practically the Same

Marvel and DC are the two major comic companies that exist today, and producing millions of comics a year there is bound to be an overlap. But these following characters seem to be too much alike for it to be a coincidence.

Ant-Man and The Atom

Ant-Man and The Atom both generally have the same power: they can both shrink to microscopic sizes and grow to extraordinary heights. They also both keep their normal strength when they are shrunken. The original Ant-Man, Hank Pym, was a biochemist who discovered subatomic particles he named “Pym Particles” which he used to alter his size. The Atom, Ray Palmer, was a physicist who used white dwarf star matter to alter his size. The Atom made his first appearance in 1961 with Ant-Man coming in 1962 and the fact that they are both doctors and sport a similar color scheme means it looks like one is taking cue from the other.

The Flash and Quicksilver

The main similarity between The Flash and Quicksilver is that they have the same power, superspeed. The original Flash, Jay Garrick debuted in 1939 while Quicksilver debuted in 1964 as a villain to the X-Men. While Quicksilver has the ability to phase through objects like The Flash, Flash has far more abilities like time travel and access to the speed force. Let’s just say that if they were ever to go head to head The Flash would win by far.

Black Cat and Catwoman

The fact that Black Cat is almost a complete rip off of Catwoman is pretty blatant. They are both skilled burglars and have a variety of weapons like a whip and claws. They both have tight leather outfits and generally try to seduce their main rival (Black Cat to Spider-Man and Catwoman to Batman). Catwoman originated in Batman’s first self titled comic of Batman #1 in 1940 while Black Cat came almost forty years later in 1979. It seems Marvel didn’t try to hide their plagiarism with this one.

Deathstroke and Deadpool

The inspirations for Deadpool are no secret with the creator being a big fan of Teen Titans and their main antagonist Deathstroke, and while they both are skilled marksmen and swordsmen, the main similarity is in the name. Slade Wilson is Deathstroke while Wade Wilson is Deadpool and with Deathstroke arriving in 1980 and Deadpool in 1991, Marvel unquestionably took the idea from Deathstroke.

Aquaman and Namor

Maybe the most noticeably similar characters on this list are Namor and Aquaman. They both live in the underwater city of Atlantis and generally are against getting involved in humans affairs until they are most needed. They are also both human-atlantean hybrids who wield a trident and even have a similar color scheme. With Namor the Sub-Mariner debuting in 1939 and Aquaman arriving two years later in 1941 it would seem that DC took a page out of Marvel's (comic)book this time.

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