i2Culture

A Knockoff Comics to

Colin Slark
Team Member

t could be argued that there are no new

ideas in superhero comic books. Both
of the big comic companies publish books
with similar characters that have similar
superpowers. However, some writers are
able to take an existing concept and alter it
slightly to create a new story that is worth
reading. Here are 4 knockoff comics to help
stave off boredom.

Astro City by Kurt Busiek and Brent
Anderson (Vertigo) | Inspired by
Marvel and DC superhero comics:

In Astro City, Kurt Busiek imagines a world
populated by characters that are very
familiar, but distinctly different to the
world’s most popular superheroes, Samaritan
is clearly supposed to be Superman. The First
Family is the Fantastic Four in all but name.
However, what makes Astro City special is
that Busiek manages to tell stories that are
consistently better than the ones written by
people who are writing the “real” characters.
The current incarnation of the Justice League
is too often written as a bunch of squabbling

children who somehow manage to stop
crimes in between bouts of infighting. Astro
City’s Honor Guard is consistently heroic,
and when characters’ flaws are revealed,
they are more interesting than whininess.

Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday
(DC Comics) | Inspired by popular fiction:

Planetary deals with very familiar things in

a unique way. The book focuses on three
superhumans who act as sort of superhero
archeologists, travelling the globe to
investigate the secret history of the world.
One issue will feature the Planetary team
investigating an event right out of a Japanese
monster movie, and the next will have the
team help a ghost get revenge ina story that
resembles a Hong Kong police film. Planetary
goes beyond homage and manages to provide
interesting commentary on the works it
examines. Ellis and Cassaday’s explorations
of comic book characters are great too. The
book does have analogues

of real characters,

such as an evil

version of the Fantastic Four, but Planetary
was occasionally allowed to play with the
real toys, which led to a great Justice League
crossover and a simply incredible Batman
crossover. John Cassaday’s art is beautiful
and gives it a cinematic quality which really
sells what the writing is trying to evoke.

Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald
and Others (Marvel) | Inspired by
The Justice League of America:

At one point, Marvel Comics wanted to have
the Avengers fight characters that resembled
DC’s Justice League and so they created villains
with similar powers and costumes called
the Squadron Sinister. Eventually, a writer
wrote another version of these characters as
heroes called the Squadron Supreme. Writer
Mark Gruenwald took these knockoffs and
wrote a limited series in the 1980s in which,
after a cataclysm nearly destroys the United
States, the Squadron Supreme decides to
rule the country themselves and turn it

into a perfect society. The

Squadron has good

intentions, but end up committing horrible
acts in their quest to create a Utopian
America. Squadron Supreme posed a moral
question far deeper than either the Avengers
or Justice League books of the same era.

Supreme by Alan Moore and Various Artists
(Various Publishers) | Inspired by Superman:

Supreme first appeared in the 1990s as

a thinly veiled Superman knockoff and

was created by Rob Liefeld, a man with
absolutely no concept of how to draw the
human anatomy. Supreme languished in
mediocrity until comics legend Alan Moore
took over writing duties. Moore essentially
ignored the work that came before his and
turned Supreme into a love letter to Silver
Age Superman stories. Admittedly, Silver
Age Superman stories are extremely goofy,
but Moore managed to write fun stories
that also showed why Superman is such a
great character when written correctly.

Check out some of these less
mainstream comics if you’re getting
sick of the Marvel vs DC battles!

The Squadron Supreme | Marvel Comics