Superman's got a lot of look-alikes. Even just in the DCU, there's Mon-El, Captain Marvel, Ultraman, and arguably Ultra Boy. Branch out a bit and you find Hyperion, the Sentry, Samaritan, Apollo, Supreme, Maxi-Man, and so forth.
So, who's your favorite? Which knock-off Kryptonian tops your list?
I'll answer somewhere in the comments, methinks.
11 comments:
I have a lot of fondness for Mon-El. I may be able to think of another candidate, though.
The Martian Manhunter is my favorite Superman knockoff.
For a long time, he was so much more alien than Superman, but also so much more human. That was why I liked him so much.
I only hope that when they bring him back, the people at DC remember just how human the Manhunter from Mars is.
I love the Sentry even though Marvel seems to delight in making him a head case far too often. Martian Manhunter is also a great Supes knockoff. My introduction to the character was through the Justice League animated cartoons. He also rocked in JL: The New Frontier.
Gotta be Supreme. Not the character, who was either a psychopath (pre-Moore) or just Superman himself in every way (under Moore). But Moore's run, which is one of the best of the 90s.
Yeah, I have to give it to Moore's run on Supreme, which was essentially "his" Superman run.
Oh, forgot about Mr. Majestic, Joe Casey's run on the book was quite good (as were Alan Moore's stories too). Not good enough to beat out Supreme, but enough to warrant a mention.
Although, can you count Miracle/Marvelman? He started off as an imitation of Captain Marvel, who was an imitation of Superman, so if he's in the running, I'd have to pick him. Really, I'm not the world's biggest Moore fan, it just seems that he's really pushed the limit sof the Superman-archetype the most in the last 30 years.
Great answers all. I wasn't sure whether or not to include J'onn, but I certainly considered it. Not sure why I didn't think of Mr. Majestic though.
For me, it's kind of a toss-up. I love Mon-El, but I think I have to go with Icon. I forgot about him until just after I posted this, and I'm kicking myself a bit for that. He's got the general Superman power set, except he came to Earth as an adult and has lived on the planet for over a century. In just the issues I've read, he's more of a politically-aware and active character than Superman, and one with a bit more flexibility to tell socially-conscious stories with.
I haven't read Moore's Supreme yet, though I want to (and I would have picked up "Story of the Year" if I'd seen it at the con).
I totally missed the boat on all of the Milestone books, I wish they would iron out whatever issues they have with those and reprint them.
Also, the Moore Supreme stuff is worth hunting down, though it takes alittle while to get used to the "Liefeld-ian" art.
If you don't mind reading comics on the computer, Wowio.com has all of Moore's Supreme run as well as his Judgement Day mini for free, legal download. I recommend getting it for free because the two trades put out by Checkerboard are of pretty low quality (apparently Liefeld lost the original pages, so the trades are just scanned versions of the printed comics pages). The issues at wowio are also scanned, but they look better on the computer than printed out.
Jason: I totally missed the boat on all of the Milestone books, I wish they would iron out whatever issues they have with those and reprint them.
Agreed. I was a little intrigued, though not particularly excited by the line, back when it first came out, so I never bought any of the series. I've managed to pick up a good chunk of Icon through various convention discount boxes, but the collection definitely still has some holes in it. I wouldn't mind getting into Static once I finish off Icon, but it would make my life a lot easier if they put them in trades.
tylmrgn: I don't, in fact, mind reading comics on the computer, so I'll take a look at that site now.
Oooh. . .good, good call on Icon, an underrated fave. I've got a copy of A Hero's Welcome I found secondhand and it is killer stuff. Easily the best take on the Superman archetype to come out of the '90s.
Majestic would be up there too, as well as Supreme. I think you're going to enjoy Moore's take on the Silver Age tropes and the metafictional aspects of the Platinum Paladin's universe.
One of my favorite takes on Superman that's never really taken off with people has to be Iron Munro though. I think there's a great story somewhere in there that deserves telling. The guy that could've been the Superman of the DCU's Golden Age, but wasn't.
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