Deadpool v. Deathstroke, Thanos v. Darkseid | Inspiration Or Ripoff?

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In the never-ending debate of DC vs. Marvel, there are many topics that can be discussed.  Marvel clearly takes the cake when it comes to their cinematic universe, and DC has the upper hand in the TV world, but let’s look back to where it all started: the characters.  There is a large gray area between inspiration and copying, so I want to take a look at a couple of DC and Marvel characters with extremely close similarities and am curious as to what you all think. Could they have simply been inspirations, or were they blatantly copied?

Deadpool v. Deathstroke

Deathstroke (1980) and Deadpool (1991):

Let’s analyze the situation by looking at each characters’ bio and abilities, as well as when their comics were released, and current sales.

Deathstroke — His first appearance was in December of 1980 in the title: The New Teen Titans #2. Slade Wilson dons the moniker of Deathstroke acting as a mercenary/assassin and is a nemesis of Team Titans and The Justice League alike. He is an expert with weapons, hand-to-hand combatant, skilled with a sword and has superhuman strength and agility.

Originally created by Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez, Deathstroke was created as a new villain for the Teen Titans, which the two creators had just revamped in the early ’80s.  Wilson was created as a more human enemy/former soldier turned mercenary who can also utilize 90% of his brain, unlike us lesser folks who can only use 10%. He was also originally called “Deathstroke the Terminator”, but the last part was dropped over the years due to Arnold and the movie franchise being established. Deathstroke would eventually get his own series in 1991 which cemented his place as a major adversary in the DC Universe.

Deadpool — Wade Wilson’s first appearance was in February of 1991 in The New Mutants #98. As Deadpool, he is also a skilled swordsman, hand-to-hand combatant, but has regenerative healing powers.

Alright, these similarities are pretty glaring, especially in the alter-ego names.  Slade Wilson and Wade Wilson? They didn’t really even try to make them different. Anyways, the main difference is that Deathstroke is definitely a villain where Deadpool is an anti-hero often affiliated with the likes of X-Men and X-Force.

Complex conducted an interview with Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld prior to the release of the original Deadpool film. Liefeld originally worked for DC until leaving in 1989 for Marvel (nine years after Deathstroke was created) where he became a penciler for New Mutants, which was one of the lower selling Marvel comics at the time.  Liefeld introduced Cable who eventually had a nemesis in the form of Deadpool.

In a piece from ScreenRant, it’s reported that Deadpool writer Fabian Nicieza had noticed the stark similarities and brought it to the attention of Liefeld. As mentioned before, Liefield wasn’t trying to pretend that his idea wasn’t similar to Deathstroke.  Deadpool’s real name says it all, and is the most obvious hint. The whole soldier-turned-mercenary-turned-assassin-turned-super soldier is the second main comparison. Fellow writer Fabian Nicieza even said this to Liefield when he was discussing Deadpool’s design concept and name.

Now let’s take a look at their current success and see if they have translated to the modern area well or not. According to a January 2019 ComicChron report, an estimated 21,442 units of Deathstroke comics were released while Deadpool released 32,369 units.  Some of this difference could obviously be the result of successful Deadpool movies as can be seen in the spike below with a Google Trends comparison of the two over the past five years, but still, was Deathstroke used as an inspiration for Deadpool, or a blatant ripoff that has been handled well over the past couple years by Marvel?

Thanos v. Darkseid

 

Darkseid (1970) and Thanos (1973):

Alright, time for our clash of the titans.

Darkseid: First appeared in a cameo in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 (November 1970). Darkseid hails from Apokolips and has the abilities of flight, superhuman strength, longevity, energy and matter manipulation, teleportation, omega powers, including projection of Omega beams, genius-level intellect, expert hand-to-hand combatant, control over elements. His main purpose?  Universal domination obviously.

Jack Kirby’s creation was one of a kind for its time.  Most characters representing good and evil are foils of each other. Look at Batman and Joker or Superman and Lex. They have some similarities that gives them a type of balance.  Darkseid was different.  He was created to stand on his own. Sequart Organization also suggested that Kirby had originally designed Darkseid to reflect the fascism and totalitarian hold Hitler had over Nazi Germany, which also added to the comic-era that related to much of the American culture. From this, Kirby created the New Gods Universe, which was a mix of sci-fi and mythology and gained popularity in the early 70’s, then again when DC added many of the characters into their more established characters.  Also interesting to note, this was Kirby’s first work with DC comics since leaving Marvel and a decade of working with Stan Lee.

Thanos: First appeared in The Invincible Iron Man #55 (February 1973). Clearly one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe, Thanos has the abilities of superhuman strength, speed, agility, durability, and longevity, superhuman physiology of Eternals, genius level tactician, skilled hand-to-hand combatant, plasma energy projection.

Comics Alliance wrote an article discussing the creation of Thanos that in 1973, Starlin had thought it was a good opportunity to introduce some new characters.  He decided to use some inspiration from a college psychology course using Eros (named for the sex drive) who was represented by Starfox (quite the creeper) and his brother Thanos (representing death drive).

Jim Starlin and Mike Friedrich were the creators of Thanos, and while they state that there are drastic differences between Darkseid and Thanos, Comic Alliance did note that there is and admitted that there are similarities Kirby had originally built with the New Gods.  He wanted to make Thanos along the lines of knowledge-seeking Metron.  Editor Roy Thomas suggested that Thanos should have a more powerful build and added, “If you’re going to steal one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid, the really good one!”

Once again, extremely similar ideals, powers, and even a general look.  It was difficult to find data on the two as they usual take part in other comics rather than their own titles, but once again, Thanos has had more exposure due to Avengers: Infinity War, and the upcoming Avengers: Engdgame.  Darkseid was said to have a prominent role in Zack Snyder’s Justice League concept, but we will never have to chance to see that come to fruition.  So once again, was it the idea of inspiration or copying?

So there you have it.  Many may refer to the stark similarities as comparisons while others may say it is copying.  Does the same apply to the comics as to the movies?  Obviously, some say that DC was clearly trying to copy the path Marvel took and tried taking short cuts, so it didn’t work, so do the same concepts apply to the comic world? Where do you stand?  You can find a Twitter survey below.  I’d still love to see your thoughts in the comments section.  Thanks for reading!

Twitter Poll: Inspiration Or Ripoff? DC/Marvel Characters:


Be sure to check in next week for Part 2 where we will compare Aquaman/Namor and Justice League/Avengers!

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Sources: Comichron, IGN, Complex, Screenrant, Nerdist, Sequart, ComicAlliance

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