DC's Superman has had many imitators over the years, which makes sense considering he was one of comics' first superheroes. Superman still stands out as one of the most powerful and decent heroes to ever wear tights and a cape. And while many of Superman's imitators come from his own universe, quite a few exist outside of DC's boundaries

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Marvel has introduced their own popular heroes over the years that have served to separate the publisher from its distinguished competition. Though there have also been quite a few characters who are similar to or seem directly inspired by Kal-El's origins or Superman's powerset.

Updated on 2/9/2023 by Matthew Z. Wood: Not only does Marvel continue to expand its influence across pop culture, Superman's influence over its characters is both wide and subtle. Almost every superhero is either a reflection of Superman or a reaction to his power and idealism. CBR continues to expand its articles and ideas accordingly.

15 Thor Was Marvel's Silver Age Superman

DC's Superman fight Marvel's Thor in JLA/Avengers

Obviously, the mythical Thor predates Superman by centuries. It's easy to see that Thor and similar muscular deities like Herakles and Rama inspired the Man of Steel. However, when Marvel's Thor was introduced in 1962, he deviated significantly from his mythical antecedent.

While his motives were different, Marvel's Thor was sent to Earth by his wise space-father, Odin. Since powerful superheroes needed to fly, and the mythical Thor was earthbound without his goat-drawn chariot, Marvel stretched reader credulity by having him travel by clinging to his hammer after he threw it. Since Marvel's Thor also commanded lightning and inhabited a mortal body as Dr. Donald Blake, there's more than a little Shazam in his DNA, but Superman was the primary inspiration for both characters.

14 Hyperion Leads Marvel's Justice League, The Squadron Supreme

Hyperion using his cosmic energy vision in Marvel Comics

The Squadron Supreme is Marvel's take on the Justice League. They've taken many forms, from benevolent dictators to the unabashedly evil Squadron Sinister, but these alternate-reality heroes are always led by the godlike Hyperion. Regardless of his point of origin, he always shares Superman's basic powers and iconography.

In recent iterations, Hyperion was the Eternals' last surviving member. He was sent to Earth and raised by a human family as Mark Milton. Hyperion is able to absorb cosmic energy, which gives him incredible strength, super speed, flight, atomic vision, and a weakness to the isotope Argonite. Though hardly alone in this regard, he's usually considered Marvel's Superman.

13 Wundarr The Aquarian Was Rocketed To Earth By His Parents

Wundarr the Aquarian with The Thing in Marvel Comics

Wundarr the Aquarian embodies one of Marvel's most interesting, if largely forgotten, takes on the classic Superman origin story. He's an alien who was fired to Earth by his parents, who incorrectly believed their world was dying.

Wundarr was transformed by the cosmic rays he passed through on his way to Earth, which prematurely aged his body and gave him incredible powers. He was enhanced even more after an encounter with the Cosmic Cube. While his mind was still child-like initially, he eventually matured and became a revered new-age guru. Even if the character's head was in the clouds, he was a notable attempt at a more grounded Superman.

12 The Hulk Is A Pastiche Of Superman & Mister Hyde

Marvel's Hulk fights DC's Superman

While the Hulk doesn't look or act a lot like more recent versions of Superman, he has a lot in common with the Man Of Steel's Golden Age incarnation. Like the earliest version of Superman, he's immensely destructive, tough but not indestructible, and travels by leaping tall buildings in a single bound.

Of course, Hulk's appearance and personality are quite different from any main continuity Superman's, and it's fairly obvious that he helped inspire Superman's foe Doomsday over at DC. However, this is mainly because the original Hulk was also an homage to Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde, and mashed up that novella's monstrous themes with the early Superman's slightly less formidable powers.

11 Why Did The Sub-Mariner Learn To Fly?

Namor flies out of the sea in Marvel Comics

Namor the Sub-Mariner is celebrated as Marvel's first supervillain and its first antihero, a water-based foe for the original Human Torch. However, soon after the end of the Second World War, he returned home to Atlantis and received an unexpected power-up. Exposed to an alien Rejuvenator by a scheming vizier in Sub-Mariner #38, Namor was suddenly bulletproof, could lift hundreds of tons, and could fly thanks to the tiny wings on his ankles.

In fairness, this was a return to form. Namor had been able to fly in his first appearance in 1939, almost a year before Superman learned the trick on his radio show. However, Superman's shadow had gotten even longer by the 1950s, when George Reeves' Superman series helped superheroes regain some of their lost popularity. Namor was one of several heroes resurrected to capitalize on this trend and his creator, Bill Everett, clearly wanted to remake him in Superman's image.

10 Gladiator Is The Shi'ar Empire's Superman

Gladiator fighting the Nova Corps in Marvel Comics

The X-Men were the first heroes who encountered the powerful alien named Kallark in 1977's X-Men #107, though he was better known across the galaxy as Gladiator. Also known as Praetor of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, he eventually took over the entire Shi'ar Empire as its Majestor.

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While his origins differ greatly from Superman's, his incredible powerset included enhanced strength, speed, durability, flight, and even heat vision. Along with his cape, he was an obvious Superman pastiche. The biggest difference between the characters is that Gladiator's abilities are based on his self-confidence. He's extremely confident, of course, but a moment of self-doubt can destroy him.

9 Superior Was A Superman Analog With A Twist, Published By Marvel's Icon

Superior flying with fighter jets in Marvel's Icon imprint

While Superior doesn't exist in the Marvel universe, he was created by Mark Millar and Leinil Francis Yu for Marvel's Icon imprint as a creator-owned series that featured an analog of Superman, with a twist. Equally inspired by Captain Marvel Junior, he was a young man with multiple sclerosis transformed by an alien into his favorite comic book hero.

While the premise is more like a Faustian Shazam, Superior's enhanced strength, flight, and overall look owe a lot to Superman. His sci-fi origin feels like an inverted Man of Steel's, and he lacked the Golden Age Shazam's trademark sense of whimsy. Like a lot of characters, he's a mash-up, but Superman is one of the most prominent ingredients in his recipe.

8 Omega The Unknown Is Marvel's Strangest Superman

Omega the Unknown in Marvel Comics

One of Marvel's oddest characters was Steve Gerber's powerful alien survivor known as Omega the Unknown. Omega escaped to Earth from a dying world and shared an unusual connection with a young boy named James-Michael Starling.

Starling not only dreamed about Omega's exploits after they happened, but he also began to display the hero's powers. Both Omega and Starling turned out to be mechanical creations designed by aliens. The two were forced to share the same power source until Omega's eventual death. While the story took several strange turns, Marvel made no bones about this character's inspiration, from his cape to his boots.

7 The Silver Surfer Is An Inverted Superman

The Silver Surfer flying through the cosmos in Marvel Comics

The Silver Surfer doesn't look much like Superman, and when he arrived on Earth, it wasn't to save the world but condemn it. However, he recognized that this one planet was worth saving from his master, Galactus, and ended up imprisoned on the planet he'd fought to save.

Everything about the Silver Surfer's stories reflects distorted aspects of the Silver Age Superman. Where Lois & Clark have their reliable relationship, Norrin Radd pines for his true love, Shalla-Bal. Superman absorbs sunlight, while the Surfer is powered by cosmic energy. Superman was rocketed to Earth, where Radd was stranded in an unfamiliar world and had to learn about humanity as an adult. He may not have been a conscious commentary on Superman but he's still a profound commentary on the Man of Steel, and superheroes at large.

6 Blue Marvel Is A True Hero

Blue Marvel from Marvel Comics

Created by Kevin Grevioux and Mat Broome, Blue Marvel is one of Marvel's most interesting Superman variants. Yes, he has the powers and the costume, but he also has a unique backstory that stands out. Always a brilliant Black hero, Blue Marvel's skin color threatened the racist systems he was surrounded by. Like the Black Captain America, Isaiah Bradley, a fearful US president asked him to retire from heroism.

Unlike Superman, Blue Marvel is unambiguously human. Even though people respond to him with senseless fear, he's able to respond to hatred with maturity and decency. Somehow, he's managed to hold it in check, but there's a justified anger in the Marvel that's rare in superheroes.

5 The Eternals' Leader, Ikaris, Is Coded As An Alternate Superman

Ikaris of the Eternals using his powers in Marvel Comics

Ikaris is one of the most powerful Eternals, Marvel's pantheon of immortal superheroes. Not just red and blue like Superman, his incredible abilities almost precisely mirror the Man of Steel's.

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While Ikaris and the Eternals were themselves used as inspiration for Jack Kirby's other cosmic heroes, DC's New Gods, it's easy to see the influence Superman had on Ikaris's design and personality. Ikaris' drive to protect humanity while the other Eternals segregated themselves makes him more like Superman than their shared powers ever could.

4 Zoran The Sun God Fought For His World's Survival

Zoran the Sun-God flying near the moon in Marvel Comics

Marvel's Illuminati attempted to manipulate cosmic events from behind-the-scenes to protect Earth for years, though they were eventually forced to take a more active role when a series of multiversal incursions threatened to destroy their entire reality. These incursions saw a number of alternate Earths nearly collide and merge with Marvel's reality, threatening the inhabitants of all worlds.

One of these alternate Earths featured a Justice League pastiche that was led by Zoran the Sun God, who displayed devastating powers similar to Superman's. He managed to defeat the Hulk and nearly saved his Earth before the Illuminati destroyed his planet in order to preserve their own.

3 Virtue Was Tricked Into Believing He Was An Orphaned Alien Sent To Earth

The Skrull hero Virtue meets Spider-Man in Marvel Comics

When the Skrull homeworld was destroyed by Galactus, the creator of the Super-Skrulls empowered his only son with incredible abilities and sent him in a rocket to Earth, where his shape-changing powers disguised him as a human. He was raised as Ethan Edwards and grew up to become a reporter for the Daily Bugle, as well as a superpowered hero known as Virtue.

Virtue eventually discovered his origins as a Skrull and began to think of himself as a monster until his human parents and his short-lived partnership with Spider-Man convinced him to remain a hero. Like Superman, he's an alien whose family taught him to be human and moral, distilling Superman's essence in Marvel's pages.

2 Spider-Man Was Conceived As A More Relatable Superman

DC's Superman battles Marvel's Spider-Man in a crossover event

While Spider-Man's red-and-blue color palette makes him look a little bit like Superman, the real similarities are in their alter egos. Where Clark Kent is a successful reporter, Peter Parker is a tabloid photographer. Clark Kent is a bespectacled yokel and Peter is a bullied high school nerd. Stan Lee's original intent was to create a more relatable version of Superman, and it shows.

The other ingredients in Spider-Man's formula were less impressive powers and a constant battle with poverty in New York's seedy side. Both Superman and the Webhead are selfless protectors, but by crafting a street-level Superman, Lee and Ditko managed to perfect the formula that propelled them through the Silver Age.

1 The Sentry Was The Avengers' Main Powerhouse Before Turning Bad

The Sentry flying at the reader during Marvel's Civil War

Bob Reynolds was transformed into the powerful hero known as the Sentry after he drank an experimental compound that was designed to replicate Captain America's super-soldier serum. This somehow gave him the power of a "million exploding suns."

The Sentry's mind didn't handle his new powers well and it created a dark alternate force known as the Void that threatened the Earth almost as often as the Sentry saved it. While their origins are very different, The Sentry is still known as one of Marvel's most potent Superman tributes, and even wears the 'S' on his belt, if not on his chest.

NEXT: 10 Marvel Heroes More Powerful Than They Realize