Popular comic book heroes never stop developing. Unlike heroes in other mediums, superheroes will endure as long as comics keep printing and movies/series keep getting adapted from the source material. This continuation provides the characters with near-infinite inspirations. For instance, Spider-Man has absorbed the culture of the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, ’10s, and the start of the ’20s. For other superheroes, cultural influences run even deeper.
However, we’ve focused more on the foremost inspirations for said heroes: the people, places, and things that gave them their foundation. These are whatever the writers and artists considered germane. Don’t doubt their instincts because the following superheroes are among the most popular in the world.
1. Kitty Pryde Was Named After A Classmate Of Creator John Byrne At The Alberta College of Art and Design
Kitty Pryde (AKA Shadowcat, Red Queen, and many others) has a name doppelganger who hails from Calgary and is an alum of the Alberta College of Art and Design, just like her creator, John Byrne. This is no coincidence:
I met her, as noted, in 1973, when she was the girlfriend of a former classmate. On hearing her name for the first time, I noted it was a great superhero name, and after her boyfriend, Tom, explained to her why I would say such a thing, she said, “Feel free to use it!” I suspect at that time neither of us thought I ever would. I was not working in comics yet. Certainly there was no “promise” on my part.
About seven years later, Chris [Claremont] and I were working up a new team of junior members for the X-Men, and I came up with the idea of a girl who walks through walls… I jotted down some random ideas, wondering if any might work with the new character, or suggest a different one. One was Kittyhawk, from which my brain jumped to Kitty Pryde, and that became her real name.
I’d had no contact with the real Kitty for at least five years at that point, but through a mutual friend, I arranged to send her the original art for one of the pages on which her namesake appeared.
So what does the real Kitty Pryde, also an accomplished artist, think about her namesake?
She may bear my name, but she wasn’t modeled after me. I only wish I had knockers like that.
Although the attention from Marvel fans annoys her, she keeps the original art Byrne signed and sent her in a vault, its value increasing by the day.
2. Wolverine Was Modeled After Actor Paul D’Amato’s Character In The Hockey Movie ‘Slap Shot’
Canadian-bred John Byrne stained many superheroes with his maple syrup-soaked fingers, the most famous of which is Wolverine. While he didn’t create the cranky, clawed crusader, he helped turn him into the single greatest Canuck in comic book history.
Wolverine’s popularity has everything to do with his style, which comes from Canada’s pastime, hockey. Byrne was watching the 1977 puck picture Slap Shot when actor Paul D’Amato skated on screen. Playing an agitator named Tim “Dr. Hook” McCracken, D’Amato sported winged hair, thick sideburns, and crazed eyes with dark shadows, invoking a ferocious animal. Dr. Hook’s aggression and profanity sealed the inspiration. “[That was] my Wolverine,” Byrne said. Another Canadian connection is that Wolverine’s real name, Logan, was taken from Mount Logan, the highest peak in Canada.
Coincidentally, D’Amato, now in his 70s, cuts through snow-capped mountains as a skier and ski boot fitter.
3. Deadpool’s Speech Was Patterned After Comedian Denis Leary
he “Merc with a Mouth” comes from the “Jerk with a Mouth,” AKA sardonic stand-up comedian, Denis Leary. In creating Deadpool, Fabian Nicieza differentiated his new character’s speech from others in the comic pages by making the bubbles yellow rather than white and putting the words in a rough-edged font.
4. Superman’s Style And Attitude Were Lifted From Silent Film Actor Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks was a superhero before superheroes. This silent film actor lent his talents to Zorro, Robin Hood, Don Juan, and many other fictional heroes, mesmerizing moviegoers across America and Canada. One of those viewers was Toronto-born Joe Shuster, who used Fairbanks as a model when creating Superman with Jerry Siegel.
Superman’s costume comes from Fairbanks; his stance comes from Fairbanks; his flying style comes from Fairbanks; even his playfulness (more overt in early comics than recent ones) comes from Fairbanks.
For his alter ego, Clark Kent, Shuster and Siegel drew upon silent film comedian Harold Lloyd, pictured here.
5. Blade Was Drawn To Resemble ’60s Football Star Jim Brown
When he debuted in Marvel Comics in 1973, Blade became one of the first Black superheroes. Fittingly, he was a visual composite of the era’s most prominent Black figures. Co-creator Gene Colan didn’t divulge all of the influences, but he did mention Jim Brown, a ’50s and ’60s football phenom turned actor.
6. Iron Man Was Patterned After Eccentric Billionaire Industrialist Howard Hughes
Wealthy, weird, womanizing, pill-popping, iconoclastic inventor Howard Hughes is the only person who could have given Tony Stark a run for his vast amount of suspiciously earned money. Unsurprisingly, Hughes was the basis for Stark, AKA Iron Man, which was confirmed by Stan Lee himself. Lee wanted to test the principles of ’60s anti-war comic fans by introducing a weapons-building superhero who’s so charismatic and troubled that they’d have to root for him:
I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like, none of our readers would like, and shove him down their throats and make them like him… Because of the fact that Tony Stark was such a great guy… his heart had been injured, and he was always afraid at any moment he could keel over.
7. Batman’s Cape Was Based On Leonardo da Vinci’s Proposed Flying Machine, The Ornithopter
The Ornithopter is among dozens of contraptions that Leonardo da Vinci devised but didn’t build. This flying machine exists as sketches, which fell into the lap of Bob Kane in early 1939. Da Vinci’s ornithopter resembles a bat more than it does a bird, where “ornith” derives from, so Kane drew its wings onto one of the earliest conceptions of the Dark Knight, which he called “The Bat-Man.” Bill Finger smoothed out the edges of the design, and on March 30, 1939, Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27.
Two other historical inspirations for Batman were 14th-century Scottish king Robert the Bruce and American Revolution hero Anthony Wayne, from whom “Bruce Wayne” was derived.
8. Green Lantern Was Influenced By The 18th Century Folk Tale ‘Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp’
That’s right: Green Lantern is a superpowered version of Aladdin. He not only possesses a magic light-emitting device but his alter ego’s name was derived from Aladdin. Initially, creator Martin Nodell and collaborator Bill Finger (best known for co-creating Batman) gave him the name Alan Ladd, which is a near-anagram of the famous Middle Eastern character. However, they changed it to Alan Scott after deciding the other name was too obvious.
Aladdin doesn’t appear in the original One Thousand and One Nights (AKA Arabian Nights). Rather, he was added to the first European edition by French archivist Antoine Galland in a tale told to him by Syrian storyteller Hanna Diyab.
9. Rocket Raccoon Was Named After A Beatles Song
This Guardians of the Galaxy star was created by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen in 1976. According to Mike Mantlo, Bill’s late brother and caregiver (Bill was rendered brain-damaged after a 1992 hit-and-run), Bill was a huge Beatles fan and developed Rocket Raccoon from the song “Rocky Raccoon” off The Beatles, AKA the White Album.
