The central characters of Marvelman (later Miracleman) were direct Expies of the cast of Shazam!, with Captain Marvel being reimagined as Marvelman/Miracleman, Captain Marvel Jr. as Kid Marvelman/Kid Miracleman, Black Adam as Young Nastyman, Dr. Sivana as Dr. Gargunza, and so on. Ostensibly, this would make Young Marvelman/Young Miracleman the group's stand-in for Mary Marvel, despite being a boy. Decades later, Alan Moore's acclaimed Marvelman revival introduced Marvelwoman/Miraclewoman, a far more direct Expy of Mary Marvel.
This also happens in the Amalgam Universe, despite said universe being built on the opposite trope. In some cases, a single Marvel or DC character originated more than one amalgam: Marvel's Daredevil originated Dare (merged with Deathstroke, in Assassins) and Deaddevil (merged with Deadman, in The Exciting X-Patrol); DC's Batman originated the titular characters of Legends of the Dark Claw (merged with Wolverine) and Bruce Wayne: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (merged with Nick Fury); and Professor X originated both Mr. X (merged with the Martian Manhunter) and Dr. Strangefate (merged with both Doctor Fate and his fellow Marvel hero Doctor Strange). In one instance, Magneto and the Magnetic Men, this happened within the same issue: Doc Magnus was amalgamated with both Magneto and Bolivar Trask, creator of the Sentinels, to create the Big Good and Big Bad of the story respectively. Two instances only had the actual amalgam on one side of the decomposite — in Spider-Boy, Dr. Curt Connors exists, but instead of becoming the Lizard, his removed arm become King Lizard, an amalgam of the Lizard and King Shark, while in Super-Soldier (an amalgam of Superman and Captain America), the 'alien baby arriving on Earth via crashed spaceship' part of the backstory was a separate character from Super-Soldier proper.
In The Smurfs comic book story "King Smurf", the title character gives Harmony Smurf a drum to become the official messenger of the Smurf Village as Drummer Smurf. Later appearances of Drummer Smurf are assumed to be Harmony Smurf temporarily taking the role again to give important information. However, Harmony Smurf and Drummer Smurf briefly appear together in "The Finance Smurf" thus becoming separate characters from then on.
Most versions of Sonic the Hedgehog's Super Sonic is just a transformation of Sonic's but in Sonic the Comic Super Sonic is a separate character. Originally he was Sonic's Superpowered Evil Side but he eventually ended up separated from him.
In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Doctor Robotnik and Doctor Eggman are two different characters. Eggman started off as Robotnik's Alternate Universe counterpart, but replaced him once Archie decided to have Robotnik Killed Off for Real and wanted to introduce a more game-accurate version of the character.
Mecha Sonic from the games is both this and a Composite Character in both comic adaptations. In the games, the robotic Sonic from Sonic 2 and the one from Sonic & Knuckles are two different models of the same robot, Mecha Sonic (not to be confused with Metal Sonic). A redesigned version of the first model made a cameo in Sonic Adventure. Another alternate design of the original one was seen in the 8-bit version of Sonic 2 (which was actually called "Silver Sonic" in the European Master System manual), which is a separate game, and possibly a separate continuity, from the 16-bit game.
Fleetway: The Sonic 2 incarnation had a brief unnamed appearance in one of the earliest issues. Then when the Sonic & Knuckles adaptation came, its Mecha Sonic version was used, but instead of being a new model of the Sonic 2 robot, he was treated as a new version of Metal Sonic (or at least that's what Sonic seemed to think). Also worthy of note is the Emperor Metallix saga, in which the villains are an army of Metal Sonics, led by a large red Metal Sonic whose design is loosely based on (Metal Sonic's ultimate form from Chaotix).
Archie: Sonic's roboticized form was given the name of Mecha Sonic, as well as a similar (but not identical) look to the S&K incarnation. Then a robotic Sonic based on the Sonic 2 incarnation named Silver Sonic was introduced a bit later. After that, another robot going by the name of Silver Sonic II, whose design was based on the Sonic Adventure look, was introduced. Adding to the confusion, Metal Sonic was incorrectly called Mecha Sonic in his first appearances, despite being a separate character.
Adding even more confusion, it was eventually established that the original Metal Sonic that went by the name of Mecha Sonic is a separate character from the current Metal Sonic and goes by the name of Shard the Metal Sonic now. So Metal Sonic is both a composite and decomposite character as well.
Sooooo, to recap, we have, in order of first appearance:
Shard the Metal Sonic, aka Mecha Sonic, aka Metal Sonic, who is based on Metal Sonic from Sonic CD.
Mecha Sonic, Sonic's roboticized form, which seems to be loosely based on Mecha Sonic from S&K.
Silver Sonic, who is based on the Sonic 2 model of Mecha Sonic.
Silver Sonic II, who is based on the Sonic Adventure redesign of the Sonic 2 version of Mecha Sonic.
An army of Metal Sonics based on Neo Metal Sonic, Metal Sonic's enhanced form from Sonic Heroes. They all appeared in a single story arc and were destroyed at the end of this one.
The current Metal Sonic, originally treated as the same character as the first one. Also based on the games' Metal Sonic.
Prototype Silver Sonic, who was retroactively introduced in a flashback after the Continuity Reboot and is based on the Mecha Sonic from the 8-bit Sonic 2. Wheeeeew!
In the Transformers: Generation 1cartoon and comics, Galvatron was a future version of Megatron that was reformatted by Unicron. In the ongoing IDW continuity, Galvatron is an ancient Transformer who left Cybertron long before the miner from Tarn named Megatron began his uprising. As of the Dawn of the Autobots storyline, Megatron has renounced the Decepticon movement he founded and become The Atoner, while Galvatron has taken the opportunity to take command of those Decepticons still loyal to the cause.
Galvatron's lieutenants Scourge and Cyclonus, and their Sweep Mooks, were created by Unicron in the same way as Galvatron, only using different materials: Scourge was Thundercracker, Cyclonus was Skywarp and/or Bombshell, don't ask, and the Sweeps were made from Kickback and Shrapnel. IDW's Scourge and Cyclonus are ancient Cybertronians on the same ship as Galvatron, and the Sweeps were produced through weird Dead Universe cloning shenanigans. No Decepticons were turned into them at all, Cyclonus actively rejects the label, and far from being turned into Scourge by Unicron, Thundercracker ends up outliving both Scourge and Unicron.
In the original cartoon and comic, Bumblebee was critically injured and received an upgrade while being rebuilt, becoming Goldbug and joining the Throttlebots. In the IDW franchise, Goldbug is a Throttlebot unrelated to Bumblebee, with both existing contemporaneously (circa the events of All Hail Megatron). So far, though, Goldbug has appeared only once, in Spotlight: Metroplex.
Like with Galvatron and Goldbug, the IDW 2005 version of Rhinox was presented as a separate entity from the Beast Machines character Tankor. In BM, that Tankornote the name was also applied to Octane for copyright reasons; in the 2005 IDW canon, Octane is called "Tall Tankor" and BM Tankor is called "Fat Tankor" to differentiate between the two was a brainwashed Rhinox.
The Transformers: Prime version of Breakdown was merely the Transformers Aligned Universe version of the character as was theTransformers: Animated of Blitzwing was that universe's version of that character. Both exist in this universe alongside their G1 selves — though the Blitzwing based on Animated went unnamed, whereas IDW did bite the bullet and still called the Breakdown based on Prime's version "Breakdown", too.
In original The Green Hornet media, Britt Reid was Britt Reid and the fact the radio series was made and set in the thirties and forties and the TV series was made and set in the sixties was just one of those Comic-Book Time things. The NOW comics series famously established that the original Britt was the uncle of the TV Britt, who in turn was the uncle of the comic's Paul and Alan Reid, making the Hornet a Legacy Character.
Transformers/G.I. Joe established that there were two Flints, with Nathaniel Faireborn using the codename in the original miniseries and his traditional identity Dashiell Faireborn taking up the codename in the cancelled continuation and one-issue wonder Transformers/G.I. Joe: Divided Front.
