I mean does anyone know of a character who's a vigilanty,works in shadow,dresses in the night,preps for the worst,often gets side kicks,know almost every form of martial arts,is at the peak of human physice,is a expert technology and chemistry,I'm mean does anybody know of character like this?

Nighthawk (Marvel)

Hawk-Owl (Ultimate marvel)

Midnighter (Wildstorm/DC)

Black Noir (Wildstorm/Dynamite)

Shroud (DC Comics)

Moon Knight (DC Comics)

Nightwing (Van-Zee) (DC)

The Fixer (Legendary Comics)

Just a few off the top of my head to get you started ;)

@onemoreposter: do any of these prep for the worst to come?

Moon Knight is....Marvel.

And he's not really a rip-off of Batman...

Darkwing (image)

Black Panther (marvel)

@kraytrawk: do any of these prep fot the worst?

@lifeofvibe: Darkwing was supposed to be able to take down Omni-Man (superman-like character.) so yeah. And Black Panther is... Black Panther.

@kraytrawk: And is he smart? (technology and chemistry)

And does he have a sidekick?

The highlighted names are stupid.

Black noir is super double extra stupid. :P

@lifeofvibe: If you're talking about Darkwing, yeah, Darkwing had a sidekick and was super smart.

@ace20xd6: wait when you say darkwing your not refering to darkwing duck are you

@lifeofvibe: You realise that Batman is actually based off of characters like Zorro, The Shadow, The Spider, Black Bat ect

there are Batman rip-offs and Batman is a rip-off himself

No fictional character is created in a creative vacuum. Every character ever created was influenced or inspired by other characters. Just like Superman's creators, Bob Kane and Bill Finger took inspiration from pulp icons of their era and from heroes of the past. And after Batman was created, people realized he's a pretty cool dude and took inspiration from him.

The term 'rip-off' is pretty much open to interpretation. In most cases, 'inspired by' or 'loosly based off' would be better terms to use.

No, I'm talking about the Darkwing from Invincible, not the Disney character :)

@lifeofvibe: @ace20xd6: bahaha

@lifeofvibe: Dude you don't need to copy every little detail of something to be considered a ripoff. If that were the case then there wouldn't be any ripoffs/knockoffs of anything. Knock off Jordans: every sneaker-head in the world can spot the difference, does that make them not knockoffs?

How about Green Arrow? He's nowhere near Batman's level, but they're pretty similar.

Still he has developed his own character over there years. Just because you are Billionaire vigliante witch technology doesn't mean you are the same character.

Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Batman was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

@divine_disorder: Green Arrow was created for one sole reason. Batman was popular and whoever was calling the shots at National wanted to capitalize on that.

I never said they were the same character. I said they were pretty similar.

This. I read somewhere that DC basically plagiarized itself when it introduced GA as sort of a Batman copy -- also a millionaire playboy, also has no superpowers, also has a young sidekick, an arrowcar, an arrowplane, even a freakin' arrowcave.

@divine_disorder: You got it. Inspiration was drawn from Robin Hood and pulp serial character the Green Archer, but more than anything the powers that be wanted another Batman.

The Hornet

@divine_disorder: It was all (Green Arrow, Arrowcar, arrowcave) introduce in the same comic (More fun comics 73).

@tupiaz: Yeah I know who created Superman. You misread my comment. I can rephase it as "Just like Superman's, creators Siegal and Shuster, Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Batman's creators took inspiration from pulp icons of their era and from heroes of the past."

He's not a rip-off,but he's based on Zorro.

Batman was inspired by Zorro (that obvious every comic book artists or writer has always alluded to that especially with that being the last film that the Waynes saw together) and Black Bat which gave the idea of the gloves that Batman wears. There is also irony that Black Bat's origin was that acid was thrown his face and blinded him and this is what Jeph Loeb did with Two-Face in The Long Halloween.

Yeahh...No.

@rdclip: @chrisj_1: @punyparker: @lyrafay: there was inspiration yes but that prooves my point

Now these are some rip offs

Clay face to sand man powers shape shifting motive just want to rob banks

Catwoman to black cat powers agile motive just want steal and get away from it note:they both have a relationship both with a hero

Namor to aquaman powers invulnrability superstrenght motive both want the best for there own life and those they care about

So yeah

Each individual had the reputation and acknowledgement to live beyond that comparison.....with the most "known" one being the Felicia X Selina.
Everyone has stopped accusing Black Cat of being a rip-off,because she has established her own personallity and her own character.....and ironically the similarities between those two are beyond comparable, y'know....burglar,daddy issues,black costume,hero crush,free spirit......and of cource the damn CATS!!!....

To be honest the SandmanXClayface....i hadnt noticed that....

AquamanXNamor.....well,duh! :P

Also one more obvious, Deadpool X Deathstroke!

I wasnt annuling your points(they are true),i was just adding subplot to them! :)
And that is true too,inspiration,and rip - off are two different "sports".

DUUuuuUUDE!!!.....im NOW reading the "Long Halloween"!!....c'mon!! :P

So let me get this straight......Jeoh Loeb ''created'' Hush and re-established Dent's' origin?.....doesnt that make him,like....a Batman legend?!....

So according to you a rip-off means there should have 9 defining features: type of character, how they work, when they work, how they think, relationship with other characters, physical skill set, body type, and mental skill set. And I am assuming you are looking for outside of the Bat family since well, many do just that. (also curious that origin /motivation doesn't matter for you, even though that is KEY to Batman).

But the problem is for clayface and sandman you gave 2 defining features: type of character and powers.

Catwoman and Black Cat, 3 defining features: skill set (which is also inacurate since Black Cat has powers, and Catwoman does not), motive (which is terribly inaccurate for Catwoman since she has proven that stealing isn't her main priority all the time, and that Black Cat now is more like a robin hood character), and relationship with other characters

Namor and Aquaman,2 defining features: powers, and motive.

So why are these rip offs, but the list provided by @onemoreposter don't count? It's also curious that you didn't count some things for batman like origin, motive, even costume or whether he works on a team. Are those traits not important for a character to be a rip off of Batman?

In fact if we were to look at Black Cat:Catwoman and Batman:Midnighter, we would find the characters are similar in many ways. Black Cat, and Midnighter both have powers, their counterparts do not. Batman and Catwoman are orphans, Black Cat and Midnighter are not. So I don't get how one is a rip off, and the other is just a similar character.

This

Oh my god,so much this.

I honestly hate the term "rip-off". People love to use it in the most selective,hypocritical ways that are almost like double-standards. They love to bend it to their own convenience and abuse the term.

And many "rip-offs" tend to turn out completely distinct and unique:

examples:

Namor/Aquaman

Deadpool/Deathstroke

Lobo/PunisherxWolverinex90s

Batman/ZorroxTheShadow,etc

Gladiator (Marvel)/Superman

Come to think of it,people should just stop looking at the similarities of characters and look at the differences.

@cameron83: What do you mean Wolverine ?

Lobo was based off of antiheroes/characters like Wolverine and Punisher.

Mainly the 90s,though....at least that's what I've been told

Batman took inspiration from many characters and he also inspired many characters.

He was made actually as a parody of the 90's action/anti hero

That is characters' job right?!.....to inspire others.....and of cource,be inspired.

Yeah

Correctamundo

Ripping someone off is creating a character that is identical to theres then saying you came up with it first so STFU with 99% of these characters that aren't even rip-offs

I don't think I have ever stated or implied that they even have similar or the same motives.

True,they both have taken some things here and there from the other.

If that's what you think Aquaman is about,then sure...I don't really define a character though by one trait,though.

Yeah,I think it was stated that Namor was the first hero in comics to fly or something like that.

This