Alternate Supermen

I just finnished Final Crisis and was wondering how many Superman "inspired" copies there are.

Of course there's the original Superman but then there is:

Apollo, Gladiator, Hyperion, Uberman and our own Statesman.

Who else is there?

I always wondered why Marvel insisted on creating their own version of Superman when they had The Mighty Thor the entire time. IMO, he is Marvel's Superman.

Also, Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles.

I guess he isn't as Superman-y as I thought. I guess I was coming from the angle of male protaganist, a hero, superstrong... etc. But with more thought, there is a lot more to Supes than just that. Keep in mind, that I actually hate Superman. So that didn't help.

The Incredibles were closer to a Fantastic Four analogue.

Who, in turn, really just represent the four classical elements:

- Mr Fantastic/Reed Richards = Elastigirl/Helen Parr = Water

- Invisible Girl/Susan Storm = Violet Parr = Air

- The Thing/Ben Grimm = Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr = Earth

- The Human Torch/Johnny Storm = Dash Parr = Fire

The weakest analogue being Dash, of course.


-np

Icon, formerly of Milestone Comics, is an obvious homage to Superman.

Sentry, not only the undisputed worst Superman knockoff but also the worst character in history.

Alan Moore's run on Rob Liefield's Supreme was a total reboot of the character and an homage to Superman and his supporting cast and mythos.

On the meta-commentary side, Rich Vietch's The Maximortal took on both the Superman/ubermensch theme and the predatory early history of the comic book industry. There's also the Plutonian from Mark Waid's Irredeemable and Alpha One from Peter Tomasi and Keith Champagne's The Mighty.

Back in the Golden Age, Fawcett Comics's Masterman was sued into oblivion for his thematic resemblance to Superman (not to be confused with the Captain Marvel analog Masterman).

Yeah, both guys who made Superman stuck with it (and later scerwed out of it, but that's a story for another time). Captain Marvel was made later by two different people (C.C. Beck and Bill Parker). He was a very poplar for Fawcett Comics and at one time sold more than Superman comics (The theory is that since Captain Marvel was actually Billy Batson, a little boy, that most young readers could identify with him more than a grown up newspaper reporter). Despite the fact that Captain Marvel was very original from most other Superman knockoffs, DC comics successfully sued Fawcett comics and the comic was canceled. The rights to Shazam! comics floated around for decades. DC even made their own Captain Marvel knockoff called "Captain Thunder" for some minor stories with Superman. It wasn't until the 70's when DC comics bought the rights to the character and began to publish more comics (set in a different universe with some team ups with Superman from time to time, until the crisis brought the Marvels into mainstream continuity).

Valor, Sodam Yat, and the rest of the Daxamites.
Invincible, Omni-Man, and the rest of the Viltrumites.
The High
The Blue Marvel

I wouldn't count Valor or the Daxamites because they were once Kryptonians.

There's arguably the protagonist of Philip Wylie's 1930 science fiction novel, Gladiator, who possesses bulletproof skin, massive strength, and superhuman speed but who tries to conceal his powers and live among normal people - not unlike Superman in his Action Comics debut. Joe Siegel denied any influence, however.

Superman is a mix of archetypal characters and ideas. He has powers beyond normal people and comes from an alien world forcing him to hide to live among us. However at his core the character represents the "invulnerable" American way of life, and portrays a moral ideal to strive towards. His flight is a way to literally have that ideal be just out of reach.

Those qualities are the part of the character that is most often omitted when a similar character is created. The superficial similarities lack the underlying philosophical and moral impact of Superman and instead go for a more comic book sense of uber powerful being.

Other copies take bits of the story and go a different way with it, such as Invincible and having the 'kryptonians' actually be an invading race.

Hyperion from the Squadron Supreme/Sinister universe in Marvel.