I find "rip off" to be such a jaded, defensive and cynical term. Why did Superman rip off so many other characters before him? Why did those characters rip off so many characters before them? Why do so many stories cover themes and experiences like death, love, conflict? Why can't we have absolutely original characters that are one hundred percent unique and novel? Its impossible, only really a few cavemen from tens of thousands of years ago can really have claim to the ideas of heroes and relatively over proportioned qualities as far as scales of strength and morality. In other words super strength and bad and good guys.
Personally I reserve the term rip off for situations where legality and law is concerned. If I tried to start selling a comic called DCvsMarvel and had characters like Superman2 and Hulk2 and those characters looked like Superman but he had a 2 tattooed on his ear and Hulk had black shorts instead of purple. Yeah thats a rip off, I am trying to con people into giving me money because they might be under the impression I had these wonderful original ideas and characters and that I deserved financial reward for letting them read stories about these characters.
When it comes to big businesses their can be valid accusations of ripping off IP, but otherwise most writers, creators, artists know that characters will share traits, be inspired by characters, plots ideas that preceded and that characters ideas and so on will be referenced over and over for ever and ever. Marvel and DC I believe partially own the trademark on "super-heroes" so any body here who has their own creative and original ideas about superheroes, well no... apparently you are ripping off Marvel and DC just thinking about superheroes. Marvel and DC own superheroes heh heh.
So yeah creators don't exist in bubbles, they crawl, walk, talk and then read and are always influenced by external factors since their birth. Their can be relative originality and uniqueness but not absolute. Some ideas and characters creation to be tied and linked to causes and catalysts a lot easier than others, Sentry for example is a deconstruction of Superman. A writer who knows their comic history well can point and recognize that Superman is extremely important historically in the advent of superhero comics. He is also a cultural icon and well crafted and refined fictional character that is adored, loved and cherished by many. So a good writer can use their skills to disassemble the character, identify and analyze certain aspects of the character individually and reassemble the character for a new purpose. Whether that be homage or providing commentary on comics or fans or all sorts of ideas and views around the character deconstructed. Marvel's Gladiator is more of a fun homage with less meta commentary and more references and illusions, Kallark being Kal El combined with Clark Kent Kal + Lark from Clark = Kallark. All the Imperial Guard being homages to Legionnaires and also referencing Superman being partially inspired by Philip Wylie's Gladiator.
Observant comic fans who know their comic characters will recognize this of Gladiator and the Imperil Guard and recognize the nod, so the potential accusation of ripping off would lack merit and substance. not just that but Superman is a character thats in a product thats ongoing. Superman and all characters involved in ongoing mediums, will borrow and change, be influenced and inspired by what came before. In many ways Superman is a constant rip off of himself. The people who invented Superman aren't writing him anymore, DC comics owns the character, he is IP that is also designed and refined to sell and make money. He evolves and adapts with the times. He picked up flight along the way and thats now an integral part of him. Even though Namor flew before Superman, we still recognize that because Superman had it for so long that characters inspired by him should have it to (Gladiator Hyperion etc)
Finally as to why their are so many? Well Superman is comic books version of Dracula. He is one of the, if not the most globally recognized and iconic characters to the medium and in many ways he transcends the medium. His logo for example. His colors, his association with certain ideals and traits like freedom. That recognition and awareness make him a fast, easy and effective character to borrow traits from similar to Dracula. You make a character that sounds similar to Dracula, looks similar, has similar powers, explores similar themes and people get the character, plot, story much faster. When I read the Boys and still Homelander I recognized that is the character thats probably the most powerful guy on his team, he can fly, he has laser vision and X-Ray vision and probably well loved by the public. Homelander was a twisted subversion of Superman naturally to fit the Boys Universe but yeah.
The most popular ideas are the ones that resonate with the most people. What's popular or iconic or adored, isn't usually because its unique or original, but usually because it resonates with people and takes the best bits (bits that can be relatively unique and original) and discards unnecessary parts. Thats when, where and why Superman succeeded where the characters he was inspired by didn't, and the extent of his success means that characters can borrow from him like he borrowed from other characters but that doesn't mean they will necessarily surpass him unless they tap into peoples consciousness and the era of the times a lot better. Which is possible. Hercules was huge 2000 years ago, in 1000 years their is probably going to be a more recognized and popular cultural character that better epitomizes super heroism for its age and people.
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