Composite Character: Difference between revisions

** Kris from the games and Marina from the anime are cross-canon counterparts, but Lyra from both is a completely separate character. In Special, Crystal was originally a counterpart to Kris, but once Kris was [[Ret-Gone|removed from the game series canon]] in the remakes of ''Gold and Silver'' and replaced with Lyra, Crystal became a counterpart to the latter.

** Ash. He was originally just an [[Adaptation Name Change|anime counterpart]] of [[Memetic Badass|Red]], the protagonist of [[Pokémon Red and Blue|the first generation]]. Starting around ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'' he started following the path of Ethan, the (first) protagonist of that generation. Ever since he has accomplished the protagonist of that generation's goals, though they usually interact with Ash at one time or another (with their roles not in relation to their game counterparts).

* Inverted in the anime version of ''[[KimiKiss]]''. The game featured a main protagonist named Kouichi Aihara; this was split into two distinct protagonists: ''Kouichi'' Sanada (he gained his appearance) and Kazuki ''Aihara'' (he gained his soccer skills).

* Jamil Neate from ''[[After War Gundam X]]'' can be seen as an amalgamation of Amuro Ray, Bright Noah, Kamille Bidan and Quattro Bajeena. The kicker is that he manages to stand out as a well-written character on his own.

* Shinn Asuka from [[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny]] is prety much one to both [[Mobile Suit Gundam|Amuro]] and [[Zeta Gundam|Kamille]], his Impulse is similar to The RX-78 Gundam a [[Combining Mecha]] consisting of legs as one section, upper body as another, and [[Space Fighter]]/[[Meta Mecha]] cockpit as the torso, and a very similar red-with-gold-cross design for its shield just like Amuro even his dub voice is Amuro's Zeta dub voice and he has [[Wangst]] [[Unstoppable Rage]] due to suffering through a [[Trauma Conga Line]], and [[Love Hurts|romantic troubles]] with their [[Dating Catwoman|enemy-cum-love interest]] just like Kamille.

 

* The ''[[Ultimate X-Men]]'' version of Proteus is a composite of the original [[Marvel Universe]] Proteus (Kevin McTaggart, son of Moira and Joseph McTaggart) and Legion (David Haller, son of Professor X and Gabrielle Haller). Ultimate Proteus is David Xavier, son of Moira and Professor X.

** Inverted, however, with William Stryker, who becomes two characters. William Sr is an anti-mutant military leader, as in the second X-Men film, while William Jr is the religious extremist from the original comics.

** Also in ''Ultimate Spider-Man'', Liz Allan, who was mutant-phobic for a long time, discovers she's herself a mutant - this universe's Firestar. In a great twist of irony from the writer, she is helped to accept her newly activated powers by Spidey and Bobby "Iceman" Drake, in a story arc titled ''[[Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends]]''.

* Another [[Ultimate Marvel]] example--from ''Ultimate Human'', a mini-series focusing on [[Iron Man]] and [[Incredible Hulk|the Hulk]], the Ultimate version of Hulk baddie, the Leader. The Ultimate incarnation the Leader combined elements of the Classic Leader with [[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Peter Wisdom]]. The latter should not be surprising, considering [[Warren Ellis|the creator of the original Wisdom wrote it.]]

** Webcomic ''[[Cheshire Crossing]]'' has Dorothy venting [http://www.cheshirecrossing.net/page.php?issue=2&pagenum=1 her feelings on this].

*** In the film, they [[Hand Wave]] this by insinuating that the shoes, as magical articles, wouldn't work until Dorothy learned for herself that "there's no place like home." Glinda is even asked why she didn't tell Dorothy the shoes power in the beginning and she laughs "she wouldn't have believed me. She had to learn it for herself." Of course, the film ends on [[All Just a Dream]] instead of the book's It Really Happened finale, so you could say Dorothy's child mind just didn't think of it.

* Each character in ''[[The Great Escape]]'' is a composite of several people involved in the real event.

* A rare non-adaptation example: the first few drafts of ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' had a love interest for Nick Angel. When her part was cut, the majority of her lines (as well as the peace lily subplot) were given to Danny Butterman's character, which resulted in quite a bit of intentional [[Ho Yay]].

* The real Frank Abagnale Jr. wasn't chased by just one man - Carl Hanratty from ''[[Catch Me If You Can]]'' is an amalgam of several officers.

* In the film ''[[Nick Fury]]: Agent of SHIELD'' (starring [[David Hasselhoff]], not [[Samuel L. Jackson]]), Baron von Strucker is succeeded as the leader of Hydra by his daughter Andrea, aka Viper. In the comics, Viper/Madame Hydra is an orphan whose true name is unknown, and Andrea von Strucker is one half of the mutant Fenris Twins.

** Also, central character Brian Slade, while most ostensibly based on Bowie, is also a composite character and bears definite traces of Brian Eno, Marc Bolan, and Jobriath.

* Michael Merriman (John Cusack's character in ''[[Fat Man And Little Boy]]'') is a composite of two real Manhattan Project physicists, Louis Slotin and Henry K. Daghlian, Jr. {{spoiler|Both died as the result of separate criticality accidents involving the same [[Artifact of Doom|"demon" bomb core]] ''[[Did Not Do the Research|after the Hiroshima and Nakasaki bombings]]''.}}

* R.J. MacReady in ''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'' is based on [[Who Goes There?|the original story's]] McReady ([[The Hero]], second-in-command of the base) and Van Wall (chief pilot).

* The upcoming film adaptation of [[John Carter of Mars]] appears to have collapsed several minor characters into more major related ones. Notably, Tars Tarkas is chieftain of his own band of Tharks in the film, whereas in the book he was second-in-command to Lorquas Ptormel; Tardos Mors is [[Everything's Better with Princesses|Dejah Thoris']] father in the film, while he was her grandfather in the book, thereby combining him with his son Mors Kajak; and film Sab Than is Jeddak (king) of Zodanga rather than prince, combining him with ''his'' father Than Kosis.

* ''[[JFK (film)|JFK]]'' does this here and there, most notably with Willie O'Keefe. Willie is a composite of several of Jim Garrison's witnesses, among them Perry Russo, the central witness of the case; he exists in the film largely so that Oliver Stone doesn't have to answer why Garrison chose not to use most of them in the trial (and to hide Russo's laughable unreliablity).

* ''[[Moneyball]]'' merges several of Billy Beane's associates, particularly Paul DePodesta, into Peter Brand. DePodesta refused to have his name used in the film, which led to this.

* The 1998 ''[[Merlin (TV miniseries)|Merlin]]'' series does this at least twice, combining Morgan le Fay with Morgause into a single character that isn't much like either of them simply called Morgan le Fay, and also combining two different Elaines (there's a lot in Arthurian Mythology) into a single character of that name.

* In ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'', Cara was primarily the character of the same name from [[Sword of Truth|the books]] with traits of two other Mord-Sith from the third book on thrown in, and was [[Darker and Edgier|darker than]] [[Character Exaggeration|any of them]]. Nicci filled the roles of three distinct and very different Sisters of the Dark; the schemer [[Evil Sorcerer|Liliana]] who tried to deceive Richard and steal his magic, their [[The Dragon|leader]] and strongest [[Evil Genius|Ulicia]], and the [[Anti-Villain]] [[Knight Templar|Nicci]] who didn't become important until much later in the series. Curiously, Ulicia did show up briefly, only for [[The Worf Effect|Nicci to kill her]] [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|and absorb her Han]].

* ''[[Smallville]]'' featured Tess Mercer, a combination of Mercy Graves (Lex Luthor's assistant from ''[[Superman: The Animated Series|Superman the Animated Series]]''), Miss Tessmacher (One of Lex's underlings from ''[[Superman (film)|Superman]]''), and {{spoiler|Lena Luthor (Lex's sister from the comics.}}

* The made-for-tv adaptation of [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Stand]]'' merges Nadine Cross and Rita Blakemoor into one character. In the book, it was Rita who Larry Underwood met in New York, who was somewhat older than him. He only met Nadine later.

** The reverse can also happen; some scholars believe that Gawain's brother Gareth started out as a ''spelling error'' for his brother Gehris.

** There is some debate, naturally, but some historians believe that Arthur himself is a composite of several Briton (pre-England) kings who fought against the invading Saxons and Angles (and Jutes, and Frisians, and maybe the Picts and Vikings...).

 

 

* In ''[[Les Misérables (theatre)|Les Misérables]]'', Thenadier's henchman Brujon takes his name from a minor criminal who only associated with Thenadier. His status as [[The Brute]] comes from the novel's Gueulemer. The musical also does away with Thenardier's second daughter, giving her plot points to Thenardier's wife.

* Billy Flynn, "the silver-tongued prince of the courtroom" of ''[[Chicago]]'', was a composite of William Scott Stewart and W. W. O'Brien, the real life attorneys of Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan (the real life Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart).

* Anthony Burgess combines Cyrano's best friend Le Bret with his Captain Carbon de Jaloux in his adaptation of ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]''.

* [[Cirque Du Soleil]]'s Japan-only tour ''[[Fascination]]'' combined acts from ''[[Le Cirque Reinvente]]'' and ''[[Nouvelle Experience]]''; appropriately, the Ringmaster here was a composite of the ''Reinvente'' Ringmaster and the Great Chamberlain of ''Nouvelle'', who served similar emcee functions in their source shows. This Ringmaster had the ''Reinvente'' costume and backstory of a transformed "Ordinary Person", but was played by ''Nouvelle'''s actor (Brian Dewhurst) and from there participated in the latter show's slackwire act.

* Pseudolus from ''[[A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]'', an amalgam of various [[The Trickster|trickster servant]] characters from the works of Roman playwright [[Plautus]].

* Mimi in [[La Boheme]] merges the characters of Mimi and Francine from the original novel, La Vie de Boheme.

** Joanne in [[La Boheme|La Boheme's]] [[Setting Update]], ''[[Rent]]'', is a [[Gender Flip|female version]] of Alcindoro, but also inherits some traits from Marcello (the Mark character).

* The stage version of ''[[Newsies]]'' replaces reporter Brian Denton and Jack's love interest Sarah with Katharine Plummer, a reporter who becomes Jack's love interest.

** It's been suggested that Saika Magoichi is a combination of Suzuki Shigehide (Who sided with Hideyoshi in SW1-2) and Suzuki Shigetomo (Who sided with Masamune in the latter half of SW2 and SW3), both men who held the title of "Saika Magoichi".

** Kotaro Fuma may also be a composite character for the Fuma ninja clan, and Kunoichi one for the Sanada Ten.

* In the first ''[[X Men Legends]]'', Allison Crestmere (Magma of the [[New Mutants]]) is given a personality and background similar to Kitty Pryde and the powers of her mainstream counterpart. The developers admitted that they wanted to use Kitty Pryde, but her powers don't translate well to an action RPG.

** This also applies to most of the characters that appear in the game, as they appear with their mainstream "Earth 616" personalities and backstories, but start by default with their Ultimate appearances. The sequel also adds ''[[Age of Apocalypse]]'' into the mix.

 

== Web Original ==

** To clarify, Link looks at a photo of his younger self. This photo includes both, Young Link/Toon Link, implying that they are both the same guy during the same period of time. Link is just their grown-up version.

* [[Crinoverse]] The Crinoverse, existing as it does as a combination of multiple superhero universes, has a few of these. There's the Justice Avengers, a combination of the JLA and the Avengers, and a few others-Psimon is a combination of the Champions character and the DC character of the same name.

== Western Animation ==

* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' when Bart claims his comic character "Angry Dad" is not based purely on one person, but is a composite of his dad, [[Shaped Like Itself|Lisa's dad, and Maggie's dad]].

** The most notable example would be ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', in which they did it twice: condensing the two genies (magic ring and lamp) into one (lamp), and combining the sorcerer who wanted the genie with the vizier trying to discredit Aladdin after his rise to wealth.

*** In fact, the two Aladdin examples mentioned above are commonly done in ''most'' adaptations of the story. Many readers aren't even aware of the fact that there ''are'' two genies in the story until they read the original.

** Not to mention the spikes on him, which are reminiscent of Doomsday. The pale skin may be a shout out to Bizarro as well.

* Robin from the ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' is an amalgam of the first three characters who went by that name, although he is mainly implied to be Dick Grayson.

* In ''[[Wolverine and the X-Men]]'', Marrow appears in the [[Bad Future]], where she befriends Rover the Sentinel and takes on the role of Tom Skylark in the comic book [[Bad Future]] ''Here Comes Tomorrow'', only without the [[Technopath|Technopathy]] that explained ''how'' Tom had made friends with a Sentinel. Instead, she was given it by Polaris.

** The show's version of Arclight is a male like the ''[[Age of Apocalypse]]'' characters, but sported the powers of the classic Marvel version who's a woman and wears a [[Distaff Counterpart|Spear Counterpart]] version of her costume.

* Similar to Venom, another [[Composite Character]] who's literally a composite is [[Firestorm]] in ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]''. The original Firestorm was an amalgam of slacker student Ronnie Raymond and physicist Martin Stein, then Raymond and Mikhail Arkadin, then Raymond on his own. After his death the new Firestorm was teenager Jason Rusch, who would combine with whomever happened to be nearby but would eventually combine with his friend Mick Wong, then Stein, then Firehawk, then his girlfriend Gehenna. The animated version was formed by a combination of gym teacher Ronnie Raymond and his student, a pre-teen Jason Rusch (now a science whizz-kid to provide Stein's atomic knowledge). As of ''[[Brightest Day]]'', the Rusch/Raymond combo is in the comics as well.

** The Music Meister is a composite of DC villains named The Fiddler and the Pied Piper who also used mind control through music. His appearance and name are very similar to a character featured in a ''[[Justice League]]'' episode named "Music Master" who himself was an [[Expy]] villain.

** The Weeper in "Joker: The Vile and the Villainous" is based on a Golden Age character who was a foe of Bulletman, but the story itself is based on a team-up between Joker and a character called Willy the Weeper. The composite character has the original Weeper's real name and appearance (and is shown fighting Bulletman in flashback), but like Willy is an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]] who cries ''genuine'' tears for his victims.

** Krull the Eternal is mostly [[Vandal Savage]], but his name and appearance come from [[Shazam|Captain Marvel]]'s caveman enemy, King Kull.

* In ''[[Transformers Prime]]'', Airachnid at first appears to be an [[Expy]] of Blackarachnia. However, personality-wise, she appears to be more a combination of [[Transformers Animated|Lockdown]] and [[Beast Wars|Tarantulus]], with just a little bit of the [[Predator]] thrown in.

** Arcee looks and acts more like Chromia than her G1 counterpart, who was pink, [[Team Mom]] and [[The Chick]] rather than being blue, an [[Action Girl]] and [[Lady of War]].

* [[The Big Bad Wolf]] in ''[[Shrek]]'' is apparently a composite of the wolves from ''[[Three Little Pigs]]'' and ''[[Little Red Riding Hood]]''.

* [[The Flash]] in ''[[Justice League]]'' and ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' was the Wally West incarnation, but also had elements of his predecessor Barry Allen (such as being a police scientist rather than a mechanic). His foe Mirror Master was the Sam Scudder version but possessed the amped up, supernatural abilities of his successor.

** Baron Zemo is another one, mixing first Zemo (fought wih Cap during [[World War II]] and leads Masters Of Evil) with his son, second Zemo (costume and personality).

** Viper combines her comics namesake with {{spoiler|Skrull Elektra}}.

* In the original ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' animated series, the General Flagg that appears in the original "MASS Device" mini-series has the same name and role as the General Flagg from the comics, but his character design resembles that of General Austin, General Flagg's adviser from the comics.

* In ''[[Iron Man: Armored Adventures]]'', the [[An Ice Person|Blizzard]] has the real name of Donny Gill, the better-known Blizzard II in the comics. But his backstory as an embittered ex-Stark scientist who created the cryosuit comes from Gergor Shapanka, the original Blizzard.