Ah, who can forget that world-changing childhood moment when you first picked up a comic book featuring a truly unique superhero character? Not comic book creators, apparently -- because it turns out they straight-up jacked many of the heroes you know and love from earlier works. And no, we're not about to list the knockoff brainchildren of Rob Liefeld. We're talking A-listers, like ...

5 Captain America

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

Captain America arose during World War II as an inspiration for John Q. Public to do way more Nazi face-punching, and there's no hero more American than the red, white and blue Captain.



"This looks as ridiculous as it does awesome!"

Cap is so well known, in fact, that no one else can successfully pull off the stars-and-bars look anymore -- if they try, they may as well just print "RIPOFF" across their chest in place of the big white star. And God help them if they had some kind of trademark red, white and "everything-proof" blue shield.

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

Except ...

It turns out ol' Cap actually showed up a little late to the Stars 'n' Stripes toga party. In fact, he was beat by two other dudes decked out in Old Glory -- the first of whom was the Shield, whose January 1940 debut landed a good 14 months before el Capitan. The Shield wore an armored costume shaped like a -- wait for it -- shield that repelled bullets and also prevented him from clapping or holding babies.

comicvine.com

Thus making him the perfect 1940s father.

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

Curiously enough, in his first issue, Captain America had a shield shaped just like that (although he had the good sense to carry it instead of using it as a fashion statement). It was such a conspicuous copy that the Shield's publishers complained, resulting in Marvel changing it in the very next issue to the more practical patriotic Frisbee Cap carries to this day.