how many superman clones are actually in the market? counting the first, captain marvel.
1. Superman
2. Captain Marvel
3. Prime
4. ?
4. Majestic
5. Apollo
6. Supreme
7. The Sentry
8. Hyperion (Squadron Supreme)
9. Gladiator (Shi'Ar Imperial Guard)
10. The High (from Stormwatch)
11. Marvel/Miracleman
12. Omni-Man (from Invincible)
13. Martian Manhunter
14. Ultraman (from the Crime Syndicate of America)
15. Vartox
16. Mighty Man (Image/Larsen)
17. Samaritan (Astro City)
18. Indigo (the novel Super-Folks)
19 The Atom (Tangent)
20. Statesman (City of Heroes)
21. Wundarr (from Man-Thing and Marvel Two-In-One)
22. Venture (Image)
23 Icon (Milestone)
24. Mighty Mouse
25. Meteor Man (from the movie of the same name)
26. G-Girl (from My Super Ex-Girlfriend)
27. Thermoman (from My Hero)
28. Captain Hero (Drawn Together)
29. Will Stronghold (Sky High)
30. Greatest American Hero
In function more than in concept:
31. Retro Girl (Powers)
32. Radioactive man (simpsons)
I think some of these miss the mark - there should be more to being a Superman clone than having similar powers (being strong and being able to fly). I also look for the look - broad shouldered, strong jawed - and that certain sense of larger-than-life-ness about the character. Specifically I think G-girl and the Greatest American Hero don't make this cut. Maybe some of the others as there are a lot I don't recognize.
Ah, but the Greatest American Hero was recognized and sued by DC as being too similar to Superman.
G-Girl is closer to Superman than many of the others (similar powers and a nerdy, mild-mannered, spectacles-wearing alter-ego). She's clearly a parody of Superman, altered just enough to avoid a lawsuit. Heck, even her nemesis is a parody of Lex Luthor.
33. SuperGirl
34. UltraBoy
35. Mon-El
36. Clark Oppenheimer (The Tick issue 1)
37. Stupor Duck :stupor
38. Super Bugs
39. Superduperman (MAD Magazine)
Has no one mentioned Under Dog?
41. Black Adam
42. Powergirl
43. Steve Filbert, The Champion (from The Tick Live action series)
What about Captain Planet from well...Captain Planet?
45. deleted by popular demand
The secret identity thing was Superman-like, but he was overall more like Booster Gold than anything else, since he was a glory hound and seemed to get all his abilities from his equipment.
So I have to disagree with you on this one.
Ok, 45 is stricken from the books.
What about Wonder Woman? She was created with him in mind, to be "a female hero with all the strength of Superman, and with the allure of a beautiful woman"... i guess she sort of fits the broad-shouldered, strong jawed mold.
If we're talking women now....How's about Ms. Marvel and Rogue?
Quote from: MyndVizion on April 27, 2007, 11:40:00 AM
If we're talking women now....How's about Ms. Marvel and Rogue?
Neither of whom in any way evoke the feeling or look of superman beyond "strong and flies."
I agree with you, uncle.
Well I invite any of you guy's to define what makes superman and then you can compare stuff with other characters... you know, powers, civilian personality, look, application of powers, morality, etc...
45. Titan - Dark horse's Comics Greatest World/Catalyst-Agents of Change
I'd say Superman is a really strong, tough, flying guy who pretends to be a normal or even somewhat wimpy human.
Thus, a prime candidate would be Megaton Man, if nobody's said him.
Of course it's not set in stone. There's also super strong flyers who happen to be from other words (aliens, dimensional traveler, whatever), who were sent to Earth as infants. Or even not as infants. Omniman (of Invincible) is meant to represent the Superman type. He fits into my first example though.
One other big factor is respect or position in his appropriate universe. Superman is the big cheese of heroes. Any strong flying guy who happens to be head of the supers of his universe or at least well respected in the public eye could very well be a take on Supes. Like Prime, for instance, although he's more Captain Marvel.
46. Captain Hero and his sister?
Ms. Marvel I can see. Rouge...not so much.
We should also consider the REVERSE Supermen, who are also all over the place — Bizarro and Super-Menace and Gen. Zod, obviously, but also Luthor (smart where Superman is strong, evil where Superman is good) and even Adam Strange (who travels from Earth to alien world to be a champion, instead of the reverse, and who uses his intelligence instead of his physical powers to defeat otherworldly menaces). Even Batman, in a way. And the secret identity itself is often a reversed image of the hero. This is an interesting illustration of how the superhero meme evolves. Note, by the way, how often mirror images of the heroes crop up in comics — almost as if something deeper is going on there. During the Silver Age, particularly, they were all over the place — "Oh, it's a robot me, or a mirror me, or a giant turtle me!"
Of the direct mirror images, here is also Big Bang's Ultiman. The best of them was Alan Moore's Supreme, which showed what he could have done with the "real" Superman comic.
Probably getting a little far from the original question here, but once there was a fictional character named Homer Price. In one of his stories he met Super-Duper, or at least the actor who portrayed him on TV. The stories were illustrated, so we got to see Super-Duper. He looked VERY familiar, from his boots to his cape to the diamond (or maybe triangle) on his chest with the "S-D" in it.
Also, one of the identities of Richard Lupoff's "The Triune Man" is obviously a Superman knockoff.
Back on track, there was Jerry Robinson's Atoman.
Hey, is someone gonna makea final list when we get through?
I almost forgot "Indigo" from that wonderful 1977 novel "Super-Folks" by Robert Mayer. I highly recommend it. It anticipated all the later prose superhero material and, I always thought, inspired part of Alan Moore's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" "Indigo" is a code name, by the way. His superhero name is never mentioned in the novel, but we all know what it is.