History Main / SupermanSubstitute

* Omegaman from ''Webcomic/EnnuiGo'' not only takes plenty of cues from the Man of Steel (i.e. His secret identity is a newspaper reporter, has his own version of Kryptonite called "Alphasite", started his hero career at a young age as "Kid Omega", etc.), but he even explicitly considers Superman to be an inspiration for his heroic career.
* ''Webcomic/LoveAndCapes'' focuses on the love between Abby Tennyson and one of these, named Crusader.
* The first page of ''Webcomic/KongTower'' introduces Sergeant Omega, whose wavering competence due to lack of RequiredSecondaryPowers, KryptoniteIsEverywhere, and general [[IdiotBall stupidity]] is a recurring joke.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' was seen less as a Disney take on antiquity and more as an attempt to retell the story of Hercules in the style of Superman. In this version, he's a god BroughtDownToNormal ([[SuperStrength but not entirely]]), was raised by Muggle parents, had an awkward teenage year at the farm, goes to a temple and talks to his space-Dad... er God-Dad, and as an adult falls for a snarky civilized girl (Megara) who dresses in purple and the bad guy is a megalomaniacal huckster in the vein of Creator/GeneHackman's Luthor ([[EverybodyHatesHades Hades]]). One of the more interesting twists is that Meg/"Lois" starts out as a PunchClockVillain until LoveRedeems.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has All Might, who is the BigGood, TheCape, and a PrimaryColorChampion. He can't fly, unlike most Superman Substitutes, but he can [[InASingleBound Super jump]], like the Golden Age Superman, and his power was passed down similar to [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] rather than alien heritage.[[note]]While he can't fly the normal way, he can still achieve NotQuiteFlight thanks to his SuperStrength being strong enough to create [[BlowYouAway powerful wind blasts]] that he can use to propel himself in the air by punching/kicking and then allowing the momentum of the air blast to carry him in the opposite direction.[[/note]] He also manages to be a CaptainPatriotic for America, despite being Japanese. He is also taken as TheParagon for all heroes to take guidance for being the strongest, most charismatic, most effective, and one of the longest serving heroes. Plus his status as "the Symbol of Peace" is very similar to Superman's status as "the Symbol of Hope".

* [[Characters/IrredeemablePlutonian The Plutonian]] from ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'' is a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype of the Man of Steel. The basic premise of the series is that he snaps from the pressure of heroism and becomes [[FallenHero the world's greatest villain]], with the exploration behind what led up to this. Twists include all his typical flying brick superpowers being derived from being a RealityWarper, and rather than being an [[GreenRocks extraterrestrial source]] of radiation his KryptoniteFactor is run-of-the-mill radiation that can be generated on Earth, but in an utterly ''immense'' dose. Like, enough to cause a global nuclear holocaust, all concentrated on him.

* The ''Marvel Knights ComicBook/SpiderMan'' storyline "Wild Blue Yonder" introduced Ethan Edwards/Virtue. The story basically shifts from AffectionateParody [[DeconReconSwitch to deconstruction to reconstruction]]. The two twists on the Superman formula are that he's ''deeply'' religious (believing that his powers are literally a gift from God) and has ''{{healing|Hands}}'' vision. His attempts at a secret identity are presented as absolutely useless; not only do the glasses not work, but he won't lie. When he discovers the Marvel U ''doesn't'' work like Silver Age DC, and also that he's actually a ''Skrull'', he goes full NinetiesAntiHero for a while as the Tiller (and is equally inept as that, coming across like a naïve farmboy ''trying'' to be ComicBook/ThePunisher), before getting talked down by Aunt May and eventually moving overseas, where he seemed to become a MessianicArchetype (with the final twist that the Super-Skrull genetic engineering he had [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane didn't include the healing powers]]).

->''"This tabula rasa for reader's ideal self slowly became overwritten. This being born of motion became too solid. So writers over the years made dummy Supermen: reflections, dissections, parodies and perversions of Siegel and Shuster's Son of Krypton. In Creator/DCComics: ComicBook/{{Bizarro}}, [[Characters/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaCrimeSyndicate Ultraman]], [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman Eradicator]]. In [[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel]]: [[ComicBook/SquadronSupreme Hyperion]], [[ComicBook/AdamLegendOfTheBlueMarvel Blue Marvel]], ComicBook/TheSentry. In Creator/ImageComics: Comicbook/{{Supreme}}, [[ComicBook/{{Invincible}} Omniman]]. In Creator/{{WildStorm}}: [[ComicBook/TheAuthority Apollo]], [[ComicBook/WildCATSWildStorm Mr. Majestic]]. Creator/MarkWaid's [[ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}} Plutonian]], Creator/GarthEnnis's [[ComicBook/TheBoys the Homelander]]. Creator/KurtBusiek's [[Comicbook/AstroCity Samaritan]]. All attempts to understand this ever-more archaic idea: where does that goodness come from?"''

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has All Might, who is the BigGood, TheCape, and a PrimaryColorChampion. He can't fly, unlike most Superman Substitutes, but he can [[InASingleBound Super jump]], like the Golden Age Superman, and his power was passed down similar to [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] rather than alien heritage.[[note]]While he can't fly the normal way, he can still achieve NotQuiteFlight thanks to his SuperStrength being strong enough to create [[BlowYouAway powerful wind blasts]] that he can use to propel himself in the air by punching/kicking and then allowing the momentum of the air blast to carry him in the opposite direction.[[/note]] He also manages to be a CaptainPatriotic for America, despite being Japanese. He is also taken as TheParagon for all heroes to take guidance for being the strongest, most charismatic, most effective, and one of the longest serving heroes. Plus his status as "the Symbol of Peace" is very similar to Superman's status as "the Symbol of Hope".

*** Comes full circle in as in a ShoutOut to ''Dragon Ball'', ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]'' #25 illustrated by Jorge Jiménez has a moment directly inspired by the manga. When Superman has a HeroicSecondWind, the images of his father and son appear behind him as a clear reference to the Gohan/Goku Kamehameha from the Cell Saga. Jiménez later [[https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.cbr.com/justice-league-25-dragon-ball-z-kamehameha/amp/ confirmed]] the connection on Twitter.

* [[ComicBook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew Captain Carrot]] fills this role in the Zoo Crew, though he's otherwise pretty unique, being a comic artist who [[PowerUpFood uses carrots to gain his powers]]. That, and he's a FunnyAnimal.

** DC later spun off an entire ''race'' of Supermen Substitutes in the form of Mon-El's people, the Daxamites. They played an integral role in the 1988 CrisisCrossover series ''[[Comicbook/InvasionDCComics Invasion!]]'', along with the 1982 Legion storyline ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga''. In addition, Creator/AlanMoore's prophesied "Ultimate ComicBook/GreenLantern" was eventually revealed to be a Daxamite named Sodam Yat. Being a Daxamite means that Sodam Yat has all the powers of Superman combined with all the powers of a Green Lantern.
* Iron Munro was created because ''ComicBook/AllStarSquadron'' couldn't use Superman due to the Post-[[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]] changes that came from the DC Multiverse being done away with and the inhabitants of Earth-One (home of the Silver Age and Bronze Age characters), Earth-Two (home of the Golden Age characters), Earth-S (home of the Fawcett Comics characters) and Earth-Four (home of the Charlton Comics characters) now inhabiting the same universe, particularly the Justice Society now being the Justice League's predecessors in-universe as well as out-of-universe and the Golden Age incarnations of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman being among the characters erased from existence. [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute True to form]], he has the same powers as the Golden Age Superman (SuperStrength and invulnerability), he basically looks the same only wearing street clothes and with a streak of white in his hair, and he's stated to be the son of [[Literature/{{Gladiator}} Hugo Danner]]. Iron Munro is inspired by Aarn Munro, the character in the novel The Mightiest Machine by [[Creator/JohnWCampbell John W. Campell]].
* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'' became derivative of Superman over time, with him possessing [[FlyingBrick the powers]], [[LastOfHisKind the origin]], [[KryptoniteFactor the weakness]], and [[TheCape the costume]]. It's often rumored that he was an outright stand-in in early issues of ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica''. He has a number of twists to it, however: his powers include [[ComboPlatterPowers several others]] (particularly intangibility, telepathy, invisibility and shape-shifting), he came to Earth as an adult and therefore actually experienced the loss of his people (especially haunted by the loss of his wife and [[OutlivingOnesOffspring daughter]]), he was teleported to Earth by a scientist's experiment rather than arriving there in a rocket ship, his weakness is [[WeaksauceWeakness fire]], and he's [[HumanoidAlien clearly alien]] in appearance [[HumanAliens while Superman isn't]].

* Creator/{{Wildstorm}} features ComicBook/MrMajestic, [[ComicBook/{{Stormwatch}} the High]], and [[ComicBook/TheAuthority Apollo]], all of whom parallel Superman in various ways. Majestic has the alien origin and the role as a BigGood, The High has a late-'30s debut and an AllLovingHero attitude [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans gone sour]], and Apollo has the sun-fueled powerset and relationship with a vigilante. They've been stated several times to be in the same ballpark. Once the Wildstorm characters were brought into the DC universe proper, Apollo's status gets a direct acknowledgement that Apollo is in fact a huge Superman fanboy.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' has Metro Man, defender of Metro City, who is more or less Superman with a few elements of [[Music/ElvisPresley Elvis]], complete with analogues to Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Lex Luthor. He's a bit of a SmugSuper in order to give more sympathy to the VillainProtagonist. [[spoiler:He's also a downplayed CorruptedCharacterCopy; Metro Man is basically what might happen if Superman went through a mid-life crisis.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/MarvelRisingSecretWarriors'' tweaks [[ComicBook/AmericaChavez America Chavez's]] origin so that her parents put her into an Interdimensional teleporter to save her from their dying planet. In the comics, she left under her own power after her parents had died successfully saving the planet.

* ''ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying'' has the CaptainPatriotic themed pastiche All-Star, and his sidekick All-American Girl who fulfills the same concepts as [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Supergirl]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' was seen less as a Disney take on antiquity and more as an attempt to retell the story of Hercules in the style of Superman. In this version, he's a god BroughtDownToNormal ([[SuperStrength but not entirely]]), was raised by Muggle parents, had an awkward teenage year at the farm, goes to a temple and talks to his space-Dad... er God-Dad, and as an adult falls for a snarky civilized girl (Megara) who dresses in purple and the bad guy is a megalomaniacal huckster in the vein of Creator/GeneHackman's Luthor ([[EverybodyHatesHades Hades]]). One of the more interesting twists is that Meg/"Lois" starts out as a PunchClockVillain until LoveRedeems. His mythological status as the son of a god sent to Earth and spending significant time there as well as the human love interest are derived from [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] while the blue cape and Pegasus horse are more akin to [[Characters/MarvelComicsValkyrior Valkyrie]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'':
** DC's Captain Marvel may be the TropeCodifier, as his creators, Fawcett Comics, were notoriously sued for it. In his case, he has the design and the powers, and was even smashing a car on the cover of his first appearance, but he's otherwise not that similar, being an ordinary boy empowered by a wizard. It's often stated that it was exactly this difference that led him to outsell Superman, as [[HenshinHero a boy who could become a hero]] [[EscapistCharacter struck a chord with readers]]. Captain Marvel's similarities led to a 12-year-long lawsuit as Superman's owners claimed Captain Marvel constituted copyright infringement. As he now exists in the same universe as Superman, he has gone through some DivergentCharacterEvolution, with writers playing up his nature as a KidHero whose power set is based on magic and the gods, which can complement Superman's weakness with the former. Longtime writer of the character, Otto Binder, also prominently wrote ''Superman'' in the 1960s, and brought in many elements that he'd used with ''Captain Marvel'' -- most obviously, ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}.
** Captain Marvel himself has a CaptainErsatz in the form of Marvelman, better known as ''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}'' (who is currently owned by Marvel). In Creator/AlanMoore's run, the similarities are played up even further, with him introducing a DistaffCounterpart and a Lois Lane {{Expy}}, [[TimeSkip aging up]] Mike Moran, and linking the character's origin to aliens. Add in the fact that Kid Miracleman is redesigned to be more like Captain Marvel, and the final battle ends up basically being a recreation of ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'''s ''Superduperman'' but PlayedForDrama.

There are many reasons why this trope is so common in superhero fiction. Superman's iconography is easily recognizable and immediately implies a superhero setting. This makes it easy to twist and put the writer's own spin on it. Superman is also considered the starting point for superheroes, which means discussions of him can have more meaning. While doing an {{Expy}} of a character like ComicBook/{{Batman}} might come across as critiquing or celebrating only Batman, stories attempting to [[{{Deconstruction}} critique]] or [[{{Reconstruction}} celebrate]] the superhero genre can use Superman as a base and be reasonably certain their attitudes can translate across to other characters. Superman is also famously considered [[SuperpowerLottery one of the most powerful heroes]], giving the character and their actions a sense of [[SuperWeight weight]], whether as a hero or a villain. Superman's OlderThanTelevision status and idealistic nature make him an easy target for parody or deconstruction as the embodiment of "The Man". Conversely, often a Superman Substitute is created because a writer wants to write a Superman story, but doesn't want to deal with the trouble of negotiating with Creator/DCComics to handle one of their biggest characters without ExecutiveMeddling, and so creates a CaptainErsatz to write him anyway.

* Major Man from the ''[[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "Major Competition", who wins over the people of Townsville and appears to make the girls redundant. However, it turns out that he [[EngineeredHeroics deliberately causes problems so he can fix them]], and when faced with a threat he ''didn't'' create, he's totally helpless.

*** Comes full circle in as in a ShoutOut to ''Dragon Ball'', ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]'' #25 illustrated by Jorge Jiménez has a moment directly inspired by the manga. When Superman has HeroicSecondWind, the images of his father and son appear behind him as a clear reference to the Gohan/Goku Kamehameha from the Cell Saga. Jiménez later [[https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.cbr.com/justice-league-25-dragon-ball-z-kamehameha/amp/ confirmed]] the connection on Twitter.

** In the ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'' storyline, Peter creates four identities to clear his name. One of them is Prodigy, who uses Spider-Man's iconic super strength and a bulletproof vest to be like the Golden Age Superman. He also had Superman's more altruistic and heroic sense of identity. Because of how super popular Prodigy was with the populace (even J. Jonah Jameson loved him!), Mary Jane tried to convince Peter to stick with it and Peter was tempted, but he ultimately returned to being Spider-Man.

** It has also been noted that the [[PowerTrio Triumvirate]] each have aspects of Superman: Alexandria is an aloof FlyingBrick, Legend has [[TheCape the personality]] and is the leader of the Protectorate (with his versatile laser blasts being compared to Superman's heat vision, cold breath, etc), and [[DiscardAndDraw Eidolon]] [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers representing the Silver Age Superman's tendency to]] [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands randomly pick up new powers]]. (Eidolon is also the strongest superhero in the Protectorate — and, Scion excepted, the world.)

[[AC: Creator/DCComics]]