Alternate Company Equivalent: Difference between revisions

 

Compare [[Counterpart Comparison]], [[Serial Numbers Filed Off]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Goku from [[Dragon Ball]] is pretty much an Alternate Company Equivalent to [[Superman]]

** The most successful Superman equivalent is actually [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]]. They wanted to create a hero as powerful as Superman, in a different way. How to do that? Don't make him a man. [[Physical God|Make him a god]].

*** Yet for some strange reason, fans tend to regard the [[Incredible Hulk]] as the Marvel Comics equivalent of Superman. The two of them were even pitted against each other in the ''Marvel vs DC'' crossover.

* Marvel has also had several Batman equivalents, starting with Nighthawk of the [[Squadron Supreme]] (of whom there have been at least three different versions) and [[Moon Knight]], who has a similar role, abilities, equipment and even a butler assistant. [[Daredevil]] is often seen as one as well and operates in a vaguely similar [[City Noir]] setting, and [[Iron Man]] matches well in the department of [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?|gadgetry]] and [[Crimefighting with Cash]].

** One of the Nighthawks even gained artificial wings, turning him into an ersatz of another Dc hero, [[Hawkman]].

* In the 70s, the [[Justice League of America]] faced a team of [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]]-duplicates called the Champions of Angor. In the 80s, they joined forces with the remains of that team against duplicates of Sabretooth (Tracker), Doc Ock (Gorgon), [[Magneto]] (Dr. Diehard), [[Doctor Doom]] (Lord Havok), and Dormammu (Dreamslayer). Two members of the Champions would subsequently join Justice League Europe: Bluejay (based on Yellowjacket) and the Silver Sorceress (based on the [[Scarlet Witch]]).

** The original Squadron Supreme and Champions of Angor stories were the result of another pseudo-crossover, in the same spirit as the Crusaders stories, and instigated by the same writer (Roy Thomas).

* A [[Story Arc]] in ''Superman/Batman'' featured "The Maximums", parodies of both the [[Marvel Universe]]'s [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]] and their [[Ultimate Marvel]] equivalents, the Ultimates. In the last issue, Mxyzptlk did a [[Lampshade Hanging]] on this, asking the other characters to guess who they were based on. (The in-story answer was that they were created by mix-and-matching aspects of Superman and Batman. What, if anything, this was meant to imply about the Marvel writers who created the Avengers is left as an exercise for the reader.)

** Ironically, the writer of that arc, [[Jeph Loeb]], went on to write ''[[The Ultimates]]'' themselves some years later.

** Another analogue of [[The Authority]] appears in Gen13 volume 4: the Authoriteens.

*** They weren't this trope, they were a [[Spinoff Babies]] parody (The Authority and Gen 13 are published by the same company, and are part of the same [[Shared Universe]]).

** Apollo and Midnighter originated as part of a super-black-ops team also containing analogues of [[Wonder Woman]] (Amaze), the [[Green Lantern]] (Lamplight, employing the lamp of another Green Lantern analogue destroyed by the Four in [[Planetary]]), [[Martian Manhunter]] (Stalker), [[The Flash]] (Impetus), and [[Black Canary]] (Crow Jane). [[The Authority]] itself forms partly as the result of a clash between earlier supergroup Stormwatch and another obvious JLA analogue, the Changers. The Doctor and the Engineer (technically, the Engineer II) of [[The Authority]] are [[Legacy Character|spiritual successors]] of the Changers' Doctor Fate and Green Lantern analogues; despite having them as well as Apollo and Midnighter on board, the team is not actually Justice League-like at all.

** ''Planetary/Authority: Ruling the World'' also features [[Eldritch Abomination|nasty tentacly Lovecrafty versions]] of the Authority for about one panel. The Wildstorm universe is absolutely lousy with this kind of thing.

** All of the super heroes in ''Love and Capes'' are thinly veiled A.C.E.s, and they're not all based on DC characters. The whole thing is a super hero parody in sitcom form.

* ''Big Bang Comics'' eats this trope for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and has several snacks along the way. ''Every'' BB character is an A.C.E. of some [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]], usually DC, character. A few qualities are mixed and matched, but most are very recognizable.

* Many [[Image]] Universe characters are these. [[Spawn]] is officially based on Venom and the Prowler (the latter mainly in design and origin and the former in powers and personality) and detective Sam Burke is Harvey Bullock with another name. Omni-Man and ''[[Invincible]]'' are [[Darker and Edgier]] Superman and Superboy Equivalents, and many Invincible villains are similar to Spider-Man enemies (the Elephant is an obvious Rhino analogue, Doc Seismic is the Shocker, etc.). There's also [[Youngblood]], which was originally [[Rob Liefeld]]'s pitch for a Teen Titans series before becoming their own characters in Image. [[Supreme]] is a dubiously in-continuity version of Superman throughout the ages. And Doc Rocket is Jesse Quick.

** Although Time Master is probably closer in look and deed to Kang the Conqueror.

** [[Word of God]] says that Tombstone is their [[Batman]], but his biggest influence seems to be [[The Spectre]]

* [[The Punisher]] took the character of Mack Bolan, [[The Executioner]], from a series of men's fiction novels written by Don Pendleton and translated it into comic book form. Family killed by the mob, swears revenge, becomes a vigilante and winds up taking on every type of bad guy in the world.

* [[Perry Moore]]'s teen novel ''[[Hero (novel)|Hero]]'' has a superhero group called the League, which as you might suspect has a line-up full of very blatant A.C.E.s of the Justice League (and a brief cameo from a Captain America-equivalent), though the main character and his fellow new recruits are originals.

* Aaron Williams's [[PS238]] is ''made'' of this trope, with elementary-school versions of Superman ("Captain Clarinet"), [[Green Lantern]] ("Emerald Gauntlet"), Batman ("Moonshadow"), [[Spawn]] ("Malphast"), Morpheus/Dream ("Murphy"), [[Plastic Man]] ("Polly Mer"), and Spider-Man ("The Flea").

* It didn't start off like this but since ''[[52]]'' DC's Monitors are basically [[Grant Morrison]]'s version of Marvel's Watchers.

* The relationship between DC's [[Green Arrow]] and [[Black Canary]] is mirrored in Marvel's [[Hawkeye]] [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|and Mockingbird.]] Their weapons and personalities are also all similar.

** More recently, ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' roster welcomed squeaky, half-insane Muay Thai asshole Hwa Jai, right after the ''Super [[Street Fighter IV]]'' roster welcomed squeaky, half-insane Muay Thai asshole Adon. Although Adon was introduced before Hwa, Hwa was already pretty unhinged in his ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' debut in 1991 whereas Adon became so by way of his ''[[Street Fighter Alpha]]'' redesign in 1995.

** Midway gave us ''[[Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe]]'', a [[Intercontinuity Crossover]] which features the alternate major comic book publisher and major fighting game franchise of [[The Nineties]] to the ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom]]'' series.

** Positron is a [[I Love Nuclear Power|radioactive]] [[Iron Man]].

** Manticore is [[Batman]] with the fighting style of Green Arrow. (So basically, Batman.) That, or Hawkeye. And the friendly sparring between Statesman and Manticore resembles that of Captain America and Hawkeye in ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]''.

** Can summon plant matter from seemingly out of nowhere and hide inside a sunflower: Jeral Cormier / Botan the Plant-Man or Samuel Smithers/Plantman?

*** Although Botan was ''intended'' as a parody of Sandman.

** He tends to [[Walk the Earth]] looking for evil souls to punish and turns into a monster sometimes to do so: Extirpon, [[Spawn]], or [[Ghost Rider]]?

** Pilltar is ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'' [[X Meets Y|meets]] [[Iron Man]].

* Disney and [[Cartoon Network]] have had Alternate Company Equivalent ''[[Dueling Shows|shows]],'' as well. Most notably ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'' vs. ''[[The Life and Times of Juniper Lee]]''.

** ''Juniper Lee'' started out as an Alternate Company Equivalent of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. So Cal setting, teenage girl, kick-ass martial arts, [[Chosen One]], [[Blessed with Suck]], etc.

** Perhaps it's more like an [[Affectionate Parody]].

* Bun-Bun in ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'''s TV spin-off ''Underfist'' looks and acts very much like Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel from ''[[Lilo and Stitch (Disney film)|Liloand Stitch]].'' Both are yellow rabbits with aspirations to take over the world.