Have you ever gotten all dressed up and went out somewhere for a big night only to have the awkwardness of someone else wearing the same thing as you? Nobody likes to feel like their fashion is so generic that they might see their outfit on someone else. We like to be one of a kind and recognizable, and comic book characters are no different. Somebody certainly doesn't go outside in a cape and a mask hoping to look ordinary.
Superheroes and villains look far more distinct than the average person, so it's even more impressive that there are actually a fair amount of them that look similar to other comic book characters. Some of these heroes and villains might have been ripped off by another company, or some might just have a look alike out there purely by chance.
None of us are unique snowflakes, so here are 15 Superheroes (And Villains) With Oddly Similar Outfits.
15. SILVER SABLE AND STORM
A lot of the characters that share similar looks come from different comic companies. It does make sense that one company would not want to detract from an established star by introducing someone with a similar look. But in this case, Marvel is the one responsible for not only Storm, but also her lookalike, Silver Sable. It would have been impressive if both characters had been able to achieve a huge level of popularity, but obviously Storm is the more noteworthy person here.
Storm's signature has always been her white hair, with her most recognized style being a long and flowing mane. In the '90s X-Men cartoon, in particular, Storm was known for dressing in all white. Silver Sable is almost an exact match for that look, even though in terms of abilities the two are not alike at all. Storm has weather powers that allow her to summon lightning and even fly, while Silver Sable is a mercenary who relies on guns to get the job done.
14. PROFESSOR X AND LEX LUTHOR
Your first instinct might be to say this is not a good match since Professor X has the wheelchair, but that's really the only difference between these two. And besides, as we've seen from the X-Men movies, it is not like Professor X is always in a wheelchair. Depending on the story the writers want to tell, they could cover Xavier's life before he was crippled but still retaining his signature bald look.
Looking beyond the wheelchair, though, these two look almost identical simply because their trademark appearances are so simple. They are both middle-aged bald men who have a taste for wearing suits. It doesn't sound like much, but putting them side by side, they pretty much do look like twins. It's not as impressive a match as some of the more elaborate costumes of other characters, but sit's till enough to make you do a double take.
13. CHEETAH AND TIGRA
In this case, it's not the outfits that make these characters similar, but rather the lack of outfits. Tigra is pretty infamous for having a ridiculous costume that is really just a bikini. Cheetah sometimes goes the same route, but other times, she forgoes even that and just goes about without anything on.
There's really no reason either of these women should require clothes since they're covered in fur. Seeing either of them without clothes should be about as awkward as seeing your house cat without pants on.
Obviously it's not just their lack of outfits that make these two comparable. Despite one being from DC and the other from Marvel, these cat ladies look like they could be sisters. They're both redheads, and aside from one having cheetah print and the other having tiger print, these furry heroes are basically going out in the same style.
12. CYBORG AND DEATHLOK
Once again we have two highly similar characters, and they are from the two big rivals in the comics industry. The comparison here is pretty obvious, with both Cyborg and Deathlok being younger black men with cybernetic enhancements attached to their bodies. Their similarities even extend to which halves of their faces are still human. If you saw one of these guys in a comic without any context, you could easily mistake them for the other. Or at least maybe you would if Deathlok were more popular.
You might be tempted to think this was Marvel copying off of the more popular Cyborg, but Deathlok actually first appeared in 1974, while Cyborg didn't appear until 1980. We don't know for sure if DC was getting inspiration from their competitor, but if there was any borrowing of ideas going on, Marvel would have claim to the original in this situation. Obviously DC made the bigger impact, though, with Cyborg set to become a lot more well-known as the first Justice League movie comes out.
11. RAVEN AND PSYLOCKE
When people talk about Psylocke the conversation inevitably turns to her leotard. Fans are aware of how she was not an especially popular mutant in the X-Men stories until she started forgoing pants in favor of thong leotards. That is certainly not a rarity among female comic book characters, so if we were using that criteria alone, there could be quite a few characters to count as similar to Psylocke. But Raven is a little more similar than most.
Admittedly one of Raven's big costume features is her hood that obscures much of her face. But when she has the hood down, her outfit really is not very different from Psylocke's at all. They both have the same purple and black color scheme, the same thong leotard, and the same unusually unprotected arms and legs.
Basically if Raven ever considered consistently leaving the hood down on her outfit, she and Psylocke could easily swap outfits for a while.
10. STEEL AND COLOSSUS
The outfits of the X-Men have varied drastically depending on the iteration because they are often more remembered for their powers than their costumes. That is certainly true for someone like Colossus, who you might recall best in his comic book duds, but it's not like those are his most striking feature. It is Colossus' shiny silver exterior that really makes him the hero everyone recognizes, and it turns out he has a bit of a counterpart over at DC.
After his aspirations to fill the role of Superman fell through, Steel became a more prominent hero in his own right. As his name suggests, his defining characteristic is metal, which he is covered in. In fact, when he loses the cape, he looks a lot like Marvel's own steel hero.
There's no doubt Colossus is the more popular of the two heroes, but Steel still has his fans, so he won't be signing up to be a stunt double for Colossus any time soon.
9. WILDCAT AND BLACK PANTHER
One good lesson from this list should be that it is pretty hard to look unique in a cat costume. Yes, they are distinct at first, but then someone else comes along with one and you'll inevitably get compared. We already talked about Cheetah and Tigra, but the guys don't have it any better.
DC's Wildcat and Marvel's Black Panther aren't quite twins since Wildcat usually opts for a half mask while T'Challa prefers full coverage. Still, you don't exactly see two spider-themed heroes at rival companies, so two cat-themed characters makes it seem like someone is being a copycat.
Fortunately, as is usually the case in these situations, the characters are actually quite different in terms of abilities and personality. Wildcat is more known for his boxing skills, but T'Challa is a bit more complex thanks to his status as king of a country. Black Panther will likely be the bigger star for a while thanks to his movie roles on the horizon, so we'll see if Wildcat can catch up again down the road.
8. DEADPOOL AND DEATHSTROKE
You might not classify these two as being "oddly" similar since Deadpool is pretty commonly recognized as a parody of Deathstroke, but you would really only know that if you have followed Deadpool since his early days. At this point Wade is so far removed from any relation to Slade that they are both very distinct characters in their own rights. The only thing they still share is an affinity for two-toned costumes and swords.
When the masks come off, these two could not look more different. The only person who really looks like an unmasked Deadpool is an unmasked Spawn. Slade on the other hand is a grizzled old warrior with silver hair and one eye. They might share similar outfits, but their personalities differ so much that we doubt they'd complement each other's style.
7. DARKSEID AND APOCALYPSE
Your first instinct might be to say that Thanos is the more logical character to compare to Darkseid. Thanos was pretty heavily inspired by DC's villain, after all. Beyond their similar roles in their respective universes and having faces that look a bit alike, their outfits are extremely different. Marvel didn't want to make their inspiration too obvious, we guess. Yet another Marvel villain actually winds up looking even more like Darkseid than Thanos does.
Apocalypse of the X-Men looks like he could be a pretty close cousin of Darkseid. Their faces both usually have the lack of pupils thing going on, but their choice of clothing is also very similar. They both favor darker color schemes with lots of blue and black. Darkseid's costume is a bit less elaborate, but both of these tyrants look like they shop for their armor from the same store. Must be a dictator-supervillain thing.
6. ULTRON AND BRAINIAC
We are not going to pretend that the most commonly thought of versions of Ultron and Brainiac look like twins. Ultron looks like a pretty typical robot with a human-like body, whereas Brainiac more typically is depicted looking like an organic, yet alien, being. That being said, there have been times where the two have looked alike. Brainiac has had armored forms where he bears a particularly strong resemblance to Ultron, as you can see in the picture above.
Beyond that, the two have similarities in their personalities. With Brainiac, his name says it all; he is a genius supervillain who uses his intellect to cause trouble. Ultron, meanwhile, is a machine that became so intelligent that it became autonomous and rebelled against its creators to become a supervillain for the Avengers.
Both villains probably have too much ego to ever work together even if they had the chance, but at least they both have good fashion sense for geniuses.
5. KILLER CROC AND THE LIZARD
This is another case where it is not so much the outfits of these characters that are identical, but their lack of outfits. Rather than their clothes, these two reptiles are known for their huge scaly green bodies. They both do wear clothes on occasion, but when their outfits get shredded in battle or just rot away from getting soaked in sewer water, neither character complains about it.
The Lizard is known to appear in a lab coat to reflect his alter ego as a scientist, but in The Amazing Spider-Man he bore a particularly strong resemblance to Killer Croc. Even more interesting is that both characters have been depicted as humanoid characters covered in scales, as well as more monstrous creatures that have mutated into full blown walking crocodiles.
We could definitely picture these The Lizard and Killer Croc being buddies who hang out in the sewer.
4. SPAWN AND NIGHTWATCH
We can't say for a fact that Nightwatch was inspired by Spawn, but the Marvel hero came out after Spawn did, and honestly just look at them! Nightwatch looks like he could be Spawn as drawn by a new artist. Given how popular Spawn was in the '90s, it really would not be a surprise at all if Marvel decided they wanted to try and get a slice of that. Unfortunately for Marvel, Nightwatch did not catch on at all.
One of Nightwatch's more prominent early appearances was in the "Maximum Carnage" storyline in the Spider-Man comics, but he didn't stand out all that much alongside Spidey, Venom, and Carnage. The popularity of Al Simmons may have waned drastically over the years, but at least he's a recognizable name. What's there to say about Kevin Trench other than he's that Marvel hero who looks like a Spawn ripoff?
3. BLACK CAT AND CATWOMAN
These two women are compared to each other a lot, but that's usually more because of their personalities and superhero names. The similarities are obvious there, with both of them being seductive feline-themed women who tease having relationships with the protagonists of their stories. There's no denying they fill basically the same roles in their stories, but even their outfits are pretty similar.
Black Cat and Catwoman both take to wearing catsuits to go out and deal with crime, though Catwoman's has varied a bit more over the years. Black Cat also has more of a plunging neckline, combined with white fur at the cuffs of her outfit. But otherwise, they both favor black, skintight leather, and masks that would stand no chance of concealing their identities. They couldn't quite swap outfits and still look like themselves, but it's pretty close. They could pretty much swap companies and fill the same roles in Spider-Man’s and Batman’s stories.
2. SWAMP THING AND MAN THING
It is always a bit amusing when Marvel and DC have extremely similar characters. It easy to think that someone was definitely getting inspired by their competitor. Regardless, these two don't really have outfits to speak of, but that only makes it all the more impressive how similar they look. Though, admittedly, it is hard to picture how different of a take anyone could really do on a swamp monster. A green creature covered in moss, leaves, and roots is definitely the obvious route.
Swamp Thing is the more humanoid of the two creatures, but both characters also function in pretty similar ways. They don't venture outside of their worlds of nature very often, but they are nonetheless extremely powerful background characters. Swamp Thing has been able to subdue Wonder Woman, while Man Thing outright killed the Taskmaster. They really seem like they should be best friends.
1. RED SKULL AND BLACK MASK
These two certainly aren't as close a match as other entries on this list, but there is no denying that their masks are almost identical. Black Mask does not have any death or skeleton motifs to him, but he nonetheless looks like he could very aptly be called "Black Skull." Maybe that sounds like a weak connection, but imagine someone had a mask almost exactly like Batman's except it was a different color. Masks are like a comic character’s face, and these two are almost identical twins in that regard.
Beyond the masks, the outfits don't have much in common. Red Skull is partial to military inspired uniforms thanks to his whole Nazi connection. While Black Mask favors his mafia suits, like a version of Red Skull who decided to dress up to go out on the town. Red Skull is probably the more feared villain thanks to being Captain America's arch enemy, but Black Mask puts a cool spin on a similar look too.
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Are there any other characters that look like they shopped at the same store? Share any lookalikes you can think of in the comments!
