DC’s 7 Best Copycat Storylines, Ranked

DC Comics has been in the comic game since before superheroes even existed. The more you learn about comic book history, the more that you realize that DC is the trend-setter of the American comic industry. They created superheroes and suddenly everyone else did. In the Silver Age, they went for more sci-fi and everyone else followed suit. The X-Men? Basically the Doom Patrol. Swamp Thing and Man-Thing both appeared around the same time. There’s Marvel’s Squadron Supreme, who are just the Justice League. Even the Fantastic Four were based on DC’s Challengers of the Unknown. Alan Moore opened the door for more mature superheroes with his work there, and everyone else walked through. You can find examples of this sort of thing all over the history of the industry.

However, just because they’re usually the trend-setter doesn’t mean that they haven’t copied as well. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and over the years, DC has seen what other comic companies had success with and did their best to emulate it. In fact, there are lots of DC stories where if you take a closer look at it, you can see where they copied ideas from other companies. These seven excellent DC stories are all copycats, taking ideas from elsewhere to create something new.

7) Watchmen

Watchman is one of the most beloved stories ever. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons pitched a story that would have been about the Charlton heroes, who DC had recently acquired. However, DC wanted to do something with them, so the two creators made pastiche characters and went to town. However, that isn’t why it’s made this list. The main reason is the twist. Moore got it from an episode of The Outer Limits, an anthology show that was basically The Twilight Zone. Moore came across the episode “The Architects of Fear” while writing issue #10 and decided he liked the ending so much he was going to put it in the book. It’s one of the most important endings in comic history and is one of the main reasons why the book is so memorable. It was a perfect subversion of a tried and true trope, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was original.

6) Flashpoint

“Age of Apocalypse” is a bona-fide, undisputable X-Men classic. Alternate universe stories weren’t exactly uncommon when it came out, but it was a huge swing, and its success has made it one of the most beloved stories ever. DC didn’t copy it right away, but would put out their version of the story in 2011 with Flashpoint, by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert. This story took Barry Allen to another world, one very different from the one he remembered, showing the lives of the heroes and villains of the DC Multiverse in a whole new setting as he tried to figure out what happened and how to change it back. It’s not exactly a one to one – for example, it was Barry who made this universe happen and not a villain – but it definitely fits most of the tropes of that story, down to a final battle that kills basically everyone.

5) “The New Age of Heroes”

So, this one isn’t just one story or even one book, but an entire line of books. They were created in the aftermath of Dark Knights: Metal and they should be very familiar to you if you’ve read Marvel; they’re all based on characters from the House of Ideas. Damage, The Terrifics, Silencer, The Immortal Men, Sideways, The Curse of Brimstone, and The Unexpected were based on the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Punisher, the X-Men, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, and the Avengers; they were even written in the Marvel Method. These books all felt like the Marvel books they were based on, each of them focusing on various tropes introduced by the House of Ideas. The only one with any staying power was The Terrifics, mostly because it was able to become something different than just a Fantastic Four ripoff. Fans were put off by how much the books were copying Marvel and they went the way of the dodo (I did get to meet Jim Lee because of it – he did a signing at a local store – so it wasn’t a bust for me, at least).

4) DCeased

Marvel Zombies was massively successful for the House of Ideas, giving readers an excellent superhero zombie story. DC actually copied Marvel Zombies twice, with DCeased being the most obvious of these copies. DC Comics is known for dark stories, but DCeased went even further than most. On this Earth, the Anti-Life Equation is transformed into a digital virus when Cyborg is infected, spreading across the planets in seconds. Heroes and villains alike are infected, as the survivors try to figure out how to save the day from the legions of undead devouring the planet. There are some amazing moments, from Black Canary becoming the new Green Lantern to the fate of Superman. It was a bloody good time and remains a favorite of fans. The first story proved to be such a hit that we got several sequels to it, much like Marvel Zombies, but it never became the industry titan that Marvel’s original zombie story did.

3) Blackest Night

Blackest Night might not seem like it copied Marvel Zombies too much, but it was definitely riding the wave of zombie stories that was cresting at the end of the ’00s. It was set up in 2007 with “The Sinestro Corps War” and was continually built through Green Lantern (Vol. 4) and Green Lantern Corps. It was honestly one of the best event books from Marvel or DC that came out in the ’00s, as the dead of the universe are arose when the Black Lanterns come a-calling. It doesn’t take too much from Marvel Zombies – mostly just superheroes fighting zombified versions of their compatriots – but you’ll never convince me that DC didn’t see how well Marvel Zombies was doing and said to Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, “Hey, maybe we can do something like this?” It was just as brutal as Marvel Zombies, but it was honestly a better story in every way, but there were plenty of comic store discussions about how much this story copied the House of Ideas back in 2010.

2) “Armageddon 2001”

“Days of Future Past” is one of the most important stories in the history of the comic medium. This time travel story took the idea of a dark dystopian future and made into one of the most beloved plot lines in all of superhero comics. Everyone has copied this story in some way or another, with DC’s best example of this being “Armageddon 2001”. This 1991 story saw Waverider, a man from the future, decide to go back in time and warn the heroes about the coming of the Monarch, the all-powerful ruler of the planet, and try to stop him before he’s taken control. It’s most well-known for the identity of the big bad leaking before the end, forcing DC to scramble and change it (it was supposed to be Captain Atom, but was changed to Hawk of Hawk and Dove fame). However, it should be known for basically just the same story as “Days of Future Past”, except instead of visiting just one group of heroes, it dealt with all of them getting the warning.

1) Crisis on Infinite Earths

Crisis on Infinite Earths is the best event comic ever, a masterpiece that never gets old. Crisis changed the way event comics worked, but it still needed the earlier examples from the House of Ideas. Marvel had done the first one with Marvel Super Heroes Contest of Champions in 1982 and then in 1984 put out their next one, Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars. This was a 12-issue cosmic story that had repercussions for the main universe. Does that sound familiar? Now, DC had been planning Crisis for years before it dropped, with Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Dick Giordano, Jerry Ordway, and a researcher they hired to read every DC comic (God, if only DC would give me that job right now) ironing out the perfect story for the end of the multiverse, but it’s plain to see they saw what worked for Marvel and decided to piggyback on it.

What’s your favorite copycat DC story? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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