Composite Character

Composite characters are the result of the mix of different well know franchises into a new concept yet with enough elements to discover from where came the idea. Almost like the son/daughter of character A with character B became character C, but with elements recognizable from the previous original characters. This could be extended from a character to a group of characters, including elements of their name, biographies, relevant traits, background, secondary characters and so. Sometimes can be a side effect from an inter-company crossover but they are also pretty common in alternate universe stories as Elseworlds and What If.

Most well know examples of composite characters:

Amalgam Comics:

One of the main examples. Created by the combination of DC & Marvel characters as aftermath from the DC vs Marvel crossover, it has notable characters as Super-Soldier, Dark Claw, Spider-boy, Iron Lantern, Lobo the Duck and several others. For more information, see here.

In later Access miniseries, new different amalgamations would be presented (JLA plus X-men).

DC Comics:

Superman Batman: Mash Up

In this story, Superman and Batman found themselves in a world inhabited by mash-up versions of their friends and enemies.

Superman: Speeding Bullets

An Elseworlds tale where Kal-El is found and adopted by the Waynes. After the Waynes were killed, their son would become a super powered Batman.

Batman: In Darkest Knight:

An Elseworlds tale where Bruce Wayne became the Green Lantern from Sector 2814.

Books of Magic Annual 3:

In one of the several alternate worlds destroyed by the evil Tim Hunter there is one where Tim Hunter and his friends are teenage superheroes, the new Mystic Youth, very reminiscent of the Teen Titans.

Countdown Arena:

In Countdown: Arena, there were presented several versions of different characters mixed with other characters: Quantum Storm (Captain Atom and Firestorm), an atomic version of Monarch, a Ray plus Atom combination, the In Darkest Knight Green Lantern, a Shade/Nightshade combination among others.

Multiversity:

Several universes from the multiverse show composite characters traits:

• Earth-13, a world where magic and technology coexist, count among their members characters mix of DC superheroes and Vertigo Characters: Superdemon (Superman plus Etrigan), Hellblazer (John Constantine plus Batman) and Swamp-Man (a very Martian looking Swamp Thing), among others.
• Earth-17, the post-apocalyptic earth, the Atomic Knights are combined with the Justice League bringing into existence characters as the Atomic Knight Batman and Captain Adam Strange.
• Earth-32 shows amalgamated versions of the Justice League members, with the elseworlds In Darkest Knight as starting point and that includes Super-Martian, Wonderhawk, Aquaflash and Black Arrow.

Stark Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes:

Published along with IDW, both the Legion of Super-heroes from the 31st century and the USS Enterprise crew from the 23rd century are both trapped in a combined universe than mixed elements (alien races, enemies and worlds) in one universe.

Marvel:

Ultimate Comics:

Several characters were changed to be revealed as alternate versions of others:

• Cable: He is really a future Wolverine.
• Captain America X: Powerless Cyclops
• Ronin: one of the identities of Marc Spector.

Dark Reing:

In DR, Iron Patriot, a mix of Iron Man and Captain America made his debut. There is also a version which exist in a What if scenario, where Steve Rogers dons an more patriotic version of Iron Man armor.

Earth-X/Universe-X

In the universe X several characters had changed into altered composite forms resembling other characters from Marvel:

• Daredevil: The unkillable Daredevil resemble a mix of the original Daredevil and Ghost Rider.
• Iron Avengers: Robotic versions of the Avengers than resemble Iron Man armors with the original Avengers' colors.
• Namor the Cursed: Half of his body always is burning, making Namor half Human Torch.
• Dr. Doom: Reed Richards has assumed the mantle of Dr. Doom.

Bullet Points:

In the miniseries Bullet Points Steve Rogers became Iron Man, Peter Parker became the Hulk, Bruce Banner became Spider-Man and Reed Richards became agent of SHIELD.

Spider-Verse:

Some of the alternate Spider-men are composite characters:

• Captain Universe Spider-Man, from the safe zone.
• Spider-UK: Captain Britain Spider-Man
• Armored Spider-man: Not to confuse with Iron Spider. A silver wielding Spider-Man.

Heroes Reborn:

As the ending of Heroes Reborn, the Marvel characters and the Wildstorm characters were briefly mixed as with Burnout and Maul became members of the Fantastic Four.

Iron Man/X-O Manowar

In this crossover, the story of both characters got mixed when they interchanged armors.

Avengers/Ultraforce

As consequence of the discovery of a new Infinity Gem, several versions of different amalgams of the Ultraforce and Avengers characters existed briefly until the crisis was averted.

Secret Wars:

In the several realms of the Battleworld, many characters show different degree of amalgamation, being the Thor Corps and their multiple members the best example. Some character include: A Hulk Wolverine (Civil War), an Iron Man Thor (Armour Wars), a Spider-Prowler (Mighty Defenders), an Iron Goblin (Spider-Island), among others.

Image comics:

Altered Image:

Parodying the Amalgam event from the "Big two", Altered Image issue 2 presents several combined characters: Dragaxx, Shadowspawn, Witchestic, and the CyberC.A.T.s. They try to undo the amalgamations only to be combined again as Dragonspawn, Shadowblade and Maxxestic before restoring everything.