ATL Fiction: Marvel/DC Reversal

hey, all. i decided to really start working on a pretty generalized idea i had. most comics fans have probably noticed general similarities between alot of characters, particularly Marvel and DC Comics. i thought it would be fun to examine what it could really look like if there was a "complete" reversal of Marvel and DC characters. i'd like this to be about determining exactly who would be alternate (excluding ones that are clear expys/ersatzes of each other since that's just too obvious) to each major character and what character relations could look like as a result, and going for diversity wherever possible, like using Batman as DC's equivalent of Iron Man while, at the same time, Black Panther is used as Marvel's equivalent of Batman instead of just using Iron Man again. this could bring up some very interesting alternates by mixing and matching various characters

here's a possible example: if Black Panther is Marvel's Batman for this discussion, then he could be teamed up with Bucky Barnes, who was essentially created as Captain America's equivalent to Robin as a Boy Wonder-type sidekick, and some of his rogues gallery could include Green Goblin (Joker), the Mandarin (Ra's al-Ghul), and Dr. Octopus (Mr. Freeze). conversely, if Batman is DC's Iron Man then he still gets Robin as his sidekick who then strikes out on his own as Nightwing (similar to War Machine) and his rogues gallery could include Captain Cold (Blizzard) and Red Panzer (Crimson Dynamo)
 
i'll try to give another example, hopefully to spur some responses (i should really know better than to post when everyone else is asleep by now :p ). this goes on the supposition that the MCU is stocked entirely with DC characters but, naturally, it was easiest to write in how Batman figures into this so that's where alot of the details have gone:
  • Batman (2008): billionaire Bruce Wayne is kidnapped by the League of Assassins while demonstrating weapons made by his company and, after escaping captivity by creating several gadgets and using the dark to his advantage, the experience causes him to dissolve his company's weapons division against the advice of his friend and business partner Thomas Elliot; despite vowing to never create weapons again, Wayne uses his fortune and technical genius to create an extremely advanced suit and various weapons so that he can fight crime on the streets of Gotham City as the masked vigilante Batman, realizing his potential for good in his escape from the Assassins; meanwhile, Bruce's girlfriend Kathy Kane finds that the real culprit of Bruce's kidnapping was Elliot, using the alias Hush, who planned to have Bruce killed so that he could acquire the Wayne fortune
  • Solomon Grundy (2008): ex-mobster Cyrus Gold is on the run from General Eiling because Gold--who's actually more than a hundred years old--was exposed to a mysterious, unidentifiable element when he was murdered and his body thrown into Slaughter Swamp and Eiling wants to use this element for a supersoldier project, but Gold thwarts all his efforts by periodically turning into the hulking undead monster Solomon Grundy
  • Batman 2 (2010): the government demands that Batman step forward and unmask himself, using their agent Dick Grayson--who suspects that his friend Bruce Wayne is Batman--to do so while the caped crusader continues bringing justice to the mean streets of Gotham; meanwhile, Batman comes under threat from Bane, son of a former Wayne Enterprises associate who holds the company responsible for his hardships as well as being tormented by nightmares of a bat monster and therefore plans to kill both Bruce Wayne and Batman, discovering in short order that they're one and the same; in the final battle with Bane, the masked mercenary proves too much for Batman to handle but he's saved by the timely arrival of Grayson, who's also discovered the truth about Batman but chooses to keep his secret and fight alongside him as Nightwing
  • Wonder Woman (2011): Diana of Themiscyra disobeys her mother Hippolyta and travels to the outside world, for which she is punished with exile and loses her powers as an Amazon; while Diana immerses herself in the culture of the outside world with guidance from Steve Trevor, Ares makes a power-grab in Themiscyra and takes over seemingly with the blessing of Zeus, which the Amazons must reluctantly accept, and sends the robot Amazo to kill Diana while she's still vulnerable, but she regains her powers and fights off Amazo as Wonder Woman before returning to Themiscyra to defeat Ares, who mysteriously disappears
  • Superman: The First Hero (2011): when the planet Krypton is destroyed, only a few desperate people are able to escape, including the infant son of scientist Jor-El, who deploys him in a small one-man rocket to land in Kansas, where he's raised as Clark Kent; years later, Clark discovers his superpowers and uses them to protect the innocent as Superman; when he learns that another Kryptonian, General Zod, has also arrived on Earth and aligned himself to the Nazi regime
  • Justice League (2012): when Ares joins forces with the alien warlord Mongul, agent King Faraday rallies Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Solomon Grundy and brings them together with fellow-agents Selina Kyle and Oliver Queen to defeat Ares and stop Mongul's attack on Metropolis
with these in mind, i'm debating whether or not Wonder Woman should be counted as the Captain America equivalent instead with Superman replacing Thor. in the eventual second Justice League movie here, the antagonist would be Brainiac. thoughts?
 
i think i've made some decent progress on actually sorting out tables of characters to find equivalency, though not every character has an equivalent yet (and an asterisk indicates i'm counting that character as a villain). i'll just share them more or less verbatim. i deliberately left in some discrepancies where some characters are present on one table and some aren't (i based the list for both mainly on adaptations of the comics to film, TV, and video games since those usually give a pretty good cross-section of the best-known characters in each franchise) and while i did use the DC table (which i made first) to fill in some for the Marvel table, what i want to do is have as many differences between the tables as i can so that this project isn't literally just "these two guys switch places", like i have a possible Lex Luthor equivalent listed as Norman Osborn on the DC table while on the Marvel table Luthor is given as a possible equivalent only to Doctor Doom

anyway, here's the table of DC characters:

Aquaman (Arthur Curry) = Namor
Amazo = Super Adaptoid
Anton Arcane
Ares*
Arsenal/Red Arrow (Roy Harper)
The Atom (Ray Palmer) = Ant-Man
Atomic Skull (Albert Michaels)* = Ghost Rider
Batgirl/Oracle (Barbara Gordon)
Batman (Bruce Wayne) = Iron Man (or Black Panther or Moon Knight)
Black Canary (Dinah Drake) = Mockingbird (or Black Widow)
Blackhawk (Janos Prohaska)
Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce) = Electro
Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) = Beetle
Booster Gold (Michael Carter)
Brainiac* = Ultron
Bumblebee (Karen Beecher) = Wasp
B’wana Beast (Mike Maxwell)
Captain Atom (Allen Adam) = Molecule Man or Solar
Captain Boomerang (Digger Harkness)*
Captain Cold (Leonard Snart)* = Blizzard
Captain Marvel/Shazam (Billy Batson)
Catwoman (Selina Kyle) = Black Cat or Black Widow or Madame Masque
Cheshire (Jade Nguyen)* = Elektra
Circe*
Clayface (Basil Karlo)* = Sandman
John Constantine = Pete Wisdom
Count Vertigo (Werner Vertigo)*
The Creeper (Jack Ryder)
Cyborg (Victor Stone) = Deathlok
Darkseid* = Thanos
Deadman (Boston Brand)
Deadshot (Floyd Lawton)* = Bullseye
Deathstroke (Slade Wilson)* = Deadpool
Detective Chimp = Howard the Duck
Etrigan the Demon (Jason Blood)
Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson) = Doctor Strange
Firefly (Garfield Lynns)*
The Flash (Barry Allen) = Quicksilver
Golden Glider (Lisa Snart)*
Gorilla Grodd*
Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) = Hawkeye
Green Lantern = Quasar
Hath-Set*
Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman (Shayera Hol) = Nighthawk
Hawkman (Katar Hol) = Angel or The Falcon or Nighthawk
Heat Wave (Mick Rory)*
Hourman (Rex Tyler) = Captain America
Huntress (Helena Bertinelli)
Icon (Arnus) = Blue Marvel
Imperiex* = Galactus
The Joker* = Bullseye (or Carnage or Green Goblin)
Jonah Hex
Katana (Tatsu Yamashiro)
KGBeast (Anatoli Knyazev)* = Omega Red
Killer Croc (Waylon Jones)* = The Lizard
Krona* = Galactus
Krypto the Superdog
Lady Shiva (Sandra Woosan)* = Elektra
Lucifer Morningstar (Samael)* = Mephisto
Lex Luthor* = Norman Osborn (or Doctor Doom)
Lobo = Wolverine (or Dirty Wolff)
Man-Bat (Kirk Langstrom) = The Lizard
Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz) = Skrullian Skymaster or The Vision
Metallo (John Corben)*
Metamorpho (Rex Mason)
Doctor Mid-Nite (Charles McNider)* = Daredevil
Mirror Master (Sam Scudder)*
Mister Mxyzptlk = Impossible Man
Mister Terrific (Terry Sloane)
Nightwing (Dick Grayson)
Ocean Master (Orm Marius)*
Orion = Drax the Destroyer
Parasite (Rudy Jones)*
The Phantom Stranger (Judas Iscariot) = The Watcher
Pied Piper (Hartley Rathaway)*
Plastic Man (Eel O’Brian) = Mr. Fantastic
Plastique (Bette San Souci)*
Doctor Polaris (Neal Emerson)* = Magneto
Powergirl/Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) = Ms. Marvel
The Presence (God) = The One Above All
The Question (Vic Sage)
Ra’s al-Ġūl* = The Mandarin
Redbird/Robin (Damian Wayne)
Red Hood (Jason Todd) = Winter Soldier
Red Robin (Tim Drake)
Red Tornado = The Vision
Reverse-Flash (Eobard Thawne)*
Sgt. Rock (Frank Rock) = Nick Fury
Shadow-Thief*
Shining Knight (Sir Justin)
Sinestro*
Solomon Grundy (Cyrus Gold)* = The Hulk
The Spectre (Jim Corrigan) = The Living Tribunal
Starfire (Koriand’r)
Stargirl (Courtney Whitmore)
Static (Virgil Hawkins) = Spider-Man
Steel (John Henry Irons)
S.T.R.I.P.E. (Pat Dugan)
Superman (Kal-El) = Gladiator or The Hulk or Thor
Swamp Thing (Alex Olsen) = The Man-Thing
Timber Wolf (Brian Londo) = Wolverine
The Top (Roscoe Dillon)*
The Trickster (James Jesse)*
Vigilante (Greg Saunders)
Vixen (Mari Jiwe McCabe)
Weather Wizard (Mark Mardon)*
Wildcat (Ted Grant)
Wonder Woman (Diana Prince) = She-Hulk or Thor
Zatanna (Zatanna Zatara) = Scarlet Witch
General Zod*

and the one for Marvel:

Agent 13 (Sharon Carter)
Ant-Man (Hank Pym) = The Atom
Apocalypse (En Sabah Nur)*
Beast (Hank McCoy)
Black Goliath (Bill Foster)
Black Panther (T’Challa) = Batman
Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) = Black Canary or Catwoman
Blade (Eric Brooks)
Bullseye* = Deadshot (or Joker)
Cable (Nathan Summers)
Captain America (Steve Rogers) = Guardian (or Hourman)
Champion of the Universe (Tryco Slatterus)*
Colossus (Piotr Rasputin)
Crossbones (Brock Rumlow)*
Daredevil (Matt Murdock) = Doctor Mid-Nite
Deadpool (Wade Wilson) = Deathstroke
Demolition Man (Dennis Dunphy)
Doctor Doom (Victor Von Doom)* = Lex Luthor
Drax the Destroyer = Orion
Electro (Max Dillon)* = Black Lighting
Elektra Natchios = Cheshire or Lady Shiva
The Falcon (Sam Wilson) = Hawkman
Galactus* = Imperiex or Krona
Gambit (Remy LeBeau)
Gamora
Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) = Atomic Skull
The Grand Director (William Burnside)*
The Green Goblin (Norman Osborn)* = Joker
Groot
Hawkeye (Clint Barton) = Green Arrow
Howard the Duck = Detective Chimp
The Hulk (Bruce Banner) = Solomon Grundy or Superman
The Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
Iceman (Bobby Drake)
Invisible Woman (Sue Storm)
Iron Fist (Danny Rand)
Iron Man (Tony Stark) = Batman
Jessica Jones
Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff)*
The Lizard (Curt Connors)* = Killer Croc or Man-Bat
Loki*
Magneto (Max Eisenhardt)* = Doctor Polaris
The Mandarin* = Ra’s al-Ġūl
The Man-Thing (Ted Sallis) = Swamp Thing
Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) = Power Girl
Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards) = Plastic Man
M.O.D.O.K. (George Tarleton)*
Mother Night (Susan Scarbo)*
Namor the Sub-Mariner (Namor McKenzie) = Aquaman
Nick Fury = King Faraday or Sgt. Rock
Nomad (Jack Monroe)
Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius)*
Power Man (Luke Cage)
The Punisher (Frank Castle)
Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff) = Flash
Red Skull (Johann Schmidt)*
Rocket Raccoon
Sandman (Flint Marko)* = Clayface
Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) = Zatanna
Scream (Donna Diego)*
Shaman (Michael Twoyoungmen)
She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) = Wonder Woman
Silver Samurai (Kenuichio Harada)*
Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd)
Sin (Sinthea Schmidt)*
Spider-Man (Peter Parker) = Static
Star-Lord (Peter Quill)
Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange) = Doctor Fate
Taskmaster (Tony Masters)* = Deathstroke
Thanos* = Darkseid (or Metron)
The Thing (Ben Grimm)
Thor = Superman or Wonder Woman
Venom*
The Vision (Victor Shade) = Martian Manhunter or Red Tornado
The Vulture (Adrian Toomes)*
Ultron* = Brainiac (or Amazo)
U.S. Agent (John Walker)
War Machine (James Rhodes)
The Wasp (Janet van Dyne) = Bumblebee
White Tiger (Hector Ayala)
The Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes) = Red Hood
Wolverine (Logan/James Howlett) = Lobo or Timber Wolf
X-23 (Laure Kinney)



quick reminder: the idea here is to basically take characters from each respective company and maintain their powers, personalities, and civilian personas while giving them the dynamics, general story, and relationships of one and only one equivalent from the other company and basically see how different it could be. like, using Batman in example yet again, if he's used as DC's equivalent of Iron Man then he has a more constant relationship with the equivalent of Pepper Potts (i gave it as Kathy Kane in the earlier post) instead of Catwoman or Talia al Ghul and one of his rogues is Captain Cold, a Flash villain, since Marvel's closest equivalent to Captain Cold is Blizzard, an Iron Man enemy

now i'm off to reexamine TV Tropes' Alternate Company Equivalent page again to find more equivalency for the Marvel characters ;)
 
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