World’s Greatest Knockoffs

[Beacon]

A while back I was reading a review that was gushing about how Chris Roberson’s Edison Rex is a great Superman/Lex Luthor story. I went to check it out and he’s absolutely right.

That got me thinking about other “knockoff” properties that I like as much or better than the originals.

Halcyon is the best JLA story I’ve read in a LONG time.

DnA’s Majestic run – which guest starred Superman – appealed to me more than most actual Superman stories.

The Incredibles is the best Fantastic Four movie.

Up until the reboot, Galaxy Quest was my favorite Star Trek movie.

Hero Squared is the best Captain Marvel story I’ve read in a long time.

Empire might be my favorite Dr Doom story ever.

Tom Strong is much cooler than Doc Savage.

Mysterius: The Unfathomable and Witch Doctor are really interesting, really different takes on Doctor Strange (different enough that calling them “knockoffs” is a bit of a disservice but the basic idea seems to come from the same place).

Astro City and Planetary are great comics that are built around this sort of thing.

I’ve been reading the Grimnoir Chronicles novels and its basically a really good X-Men story set in the 1930s; just replace “active” and “magic” with “mutant” and “superpower”. The elements are all there. The initial villain is willing to do horrible things to protect his people. The heroes are hated and feared by those they protect so they mostly try to operate in secret. Then there are the government conspiracies against the heroes, the registration acts, power inhibitors, and killer robots.

Any others spring to mind?

[ExcelsiorPrime]

Better than the Question.