It’s funny, we’re always disappointed to learn that a character we’ve come to love isn’t actually as original and unique as we thought. Like our uncle Ted, who we thought was just the sweetest guy, but turned out to be a documentary filmmaker making a life-long project about the decline of the modern family. That’s why he always had that rather expensive-looking camera at family events…

At any rate, every familiar character type comes from an earlier model, but Cracked’s listicle of 6 Famous Characters Who Were Actually Rip-Offs refers specifically to modern, blatant, sci-fi rip-offs. Like Batman’s origins in Zorro, or – since X-Men Origins: Wolverine comes out tomorrow – X-Men’s original iteration as Doom Patrol (at right).