15 Marvel Characters Based on Real People

with comics you have an unlimited budget and you can use as many special effects props and actors as you want those are the words of legendary comics artist alex ross describing the creative process behind 1994's marvels in which the superhero painter casts actors timothy dalton as tony stark russell johnson as reed richards and even patrick stewart as professor charles xavier long before he played the character on screen in 2000's x-men ross is well known for using real world models to bolster and enrich his photorealistic paintings of men in tights but the tradition of quote-unquote casting actors as characters in the pages of comic books goes all the way back to the birth of the medium jack kirby celebrated king of comics and co-creator of much of the marvel universe would often pull faces costumes and props from film and television to inform his artwork this was just one of the many ways that kirby instilled a sense of life into his characters contributing to the idea of the marvel universe as an extension of our own reality the world outside your window for readers being able to identify who a hero or villain is based on can help us understand how the creators intended that character to be perceived from their appearance to their mannerisms and even their personality and voice hey heroes i'm josh from panels to pixels and these are the real life inspirations behind some of our favorite marvel superheroes robert downey jr may have embodied tony stark aka the invincible iron man on the big screen but in the pages of 1960s comics the character more closely resembled two other famous figures wanting to create the quintessential capitalist superhero that would subvert the spirit of marvel comics at the time stan lee partly based the character on real-life genius billionaire playboy philanthropist howard hughes hughes was a well-known businessman pilot engineer movie director and one of the wealthiest men alive during his lifetime famously parodied by mr burns in the simpsons the eccentric innovator became even more notorious for his bizarre and reclusive behavior later in life as stan lee put it howard hughes was one of the most colourful men of our time he was an inventor an adventurer a multi-billionaire a ladies man and finally a nutcase later in the comics were introduced to tony's father howard stark whose name is a cheeky nod to the original inspiration behind old shellhead meanwhile iron man co-creator and series artist don heck based tony stark's signature pencil mustache and neatly quiffed hair on the iconic 30s and 40s actor errol flynn known for swashbuckling roles in titles like 1938's the adventures of robin hood errol flynn was the ultimate golden age action hero and it's clear to see how much he inspired the look and confident swagger of the armored avenger here's one that is based purely on fan speculation and retcons but it's just too fun not to mention it's a popular little nugget of internet trivia that dr stephen strange was based on iconic horror actor vincent price and while the resemblance between price and the sorcerer's supreme is undeniable there's actually no concrete evidence to suggest any direct inspiration as a matter of fact in strange's first appearance back in 1963 in strange tales issue 110 artist steve ditko depicted the character as vaguely asian in the way that a lot of stereotypically mystic roles were filled in comics of the time that being said price's over-the-top campy performances in supernatural horror flicks like house on haunted hill the pit in the pendulum and the raven do offer an uncanny counterpart to marvel's master of the mystic arts you can feasibly see how future writers and artists might note this resemblance and run with it and it was even later revealed that steven strange's middle name is vincent as a tribute to the king of cult horror and noted gourmet cook that's not a joke by the way vincent price wrote several cookbooks and they are simultaneously amazing and awful when benedict cumberbatch was first cast as the good doctor i personally was very excited to see him bring some of price's smooth voice swarmity and flamboyant freakiness to the big screen but instead we just got a generic american man oh well if you want to imagine what a vincent price doctor strange movie might look like you can check out films like 1963's the raven or his guest role on the 13 ghosts of scooby-doo in which she plays a very doctor strange-like warlock named vincent van gool [Music] this video is brought to you by skillshare skillshare is an online learning community for creative and curious people like you explore new skills deep in existing passions and most importantly get inspires there are literally thousands of classes on there from illustration graphic design animation video editing photography music and so much more recently i've been getting really into toy and action figure photography because i'm a massive dweeb apparently but the truth is i'm a very 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beginner a pro a dabbler or a master skillshare has the tools you need to explore your creativity thanks on with the show i've always thought that jack kirby's professor x with his head like a big boiled egg and comically bushy eyebrows was kind of weird looking but when you consider who the model behind the character was his unusual visage starts to make a lot more sense created by stan lee and jack kirby and first appearing in x-men issue 1 cover dated september 1963 professor charles xavier's appearance was based on academy award winner joel bruner best known for his iconic portrayal of king mongkut in both the stage and film versions of the king and i brinner also had starring roles in 1956's the ten commandments 1960s the magnificent seven and 1973's westworld known for his trademark shaved head the russian-american actor possessed a quiet nobility that was a natural fit for the founder of the x-men now it's hard for me not to hear the exquisitely cast patrick stewart's voice in my head when i read the professor's comic book dialogue but i can definitely imagine you'll bring her playing the role in a 1960s film adaptation of marvel's merry mutants mary jane watson long time love interest and one time wife of peter parker is often depicted as the quintessential girl next door her vibrant red hair carefree personality and counterculture cred made her a hit with fans when she was first fully introduced in amazing spider-man issue 42 back in 1966. series artist john romita senior known for drawing handsome men and glamorous women based mary jane directly on ann margaret's performance in the 1963 musical comedy bye bye birdie here's john romita to tell us more actually i think i based her partially on ann margaret yeah that's right i used dan margaret dimples and a cleft in the chin yeah and some of the uh full full face smile that she had because we were trying to make a girl that was very uh with it and very modern and so it was that ramita alongside writer stanley hit the jackpot with spider-man's most enduring other heart but that wasn't the only time this creative team cast real world actors as members of spider-man's supporting cast the kingpin is most commonly known by fans as the arch enemy of daredevil but was originally introduced in the pages of amazing spider-man as one of the webhead's most formidable foes the kingpin's colossal character stood in stark contrast to the svelte supervillains that spidey had previously fought both as spider-man co-creator and original series artist steve ditko once explained stan believed the most effective villain was the heavyset one he once mentioned the movie villain sydney green street as a villain model and thus in the pages of amazing spider-man issue 50 would john romita senior now pulling art duties the kingpin was born congratulations mrs fisk it's a big beautiful bald baby boy here's what ramita had to say about the character's creation stan would come in and sometimes just pin a piece of paper with a name on it on my drawing board when i was out this one was kingpin of crime master criminal when stan did this i'd do up some sketches and bring them in and ask what he thought now some have argued that wilson fisk is directly inspired by the aforementioned sydney green street whose imposing figure allowed him to portray crooked crime bosses in movies such as 1941's the maltese falcon and 1942's casablanca others meanwhile have suggested that the kingpin is more closely modelled after robert middleton a similarly rotund screen actor who was often cast as the archetypal ruthless villain either way it's clear that lee and ramita were drawing on these larger-than-life silver screen gangsters with the creation of wilson fisk we're on the subject of spider-man's rogues i have to give a quick mention to jay jonah jameson the loudmouth newspaper editor whose deep-rooted resentment for the wall crawler makes him one of the series most under-appreciated enemies character co-creator stan lee was never shy about revealing the inspiration behind the daily bugle publisher stating that he modeled jjj as a much grumpier version of himself later spider-man writer jerry conway agreed that jameson was as close as lee ever got to a self-portrayal going even further to say just like stan is a very complex and interesting guy who both has a tremendously charismatic part of himself and is an honestly decent guy who cares about people he also has this incredible ability to go immediately to shallow just boom right to shallow and that's jameson in fact in the years leading up to the development of sam raimi's first spider-man movie stanley even lobbied for the role of j jonah jameson on screen as the man himself explains and i always wanted to play him in the movie i was so sorry that by the time the movie was made i'm too old to play the role well i don't really think i'm too old but obviously they do right mobius the living vampire may not be one of your favorite marvel characters but anybody who has been watching panel's pixels for a while will know that the blood-sucking anti-hero has a very special place in my heart created by roy thomas and gil kane and originally introduced as a spider-man foe back in 1971 dr michael morbius transforms himself through an experiment gone wrong into the nefarious neck nibbler morbius artist gil kane claimed to have based the character's appearance on actor jack palance whose menacing presence made him famous for playing movie villains in a curious twist of fate the academy award-winning actor would later go on to portray dracula in a 1973 british tv movie proving that comic book artists can either predict the future or they're just really good at casting interestingly this wasn't the only time that palance's distinguished features were the inspo behind a comic book character as it was reported that the actor's face posture mannerisms and even voice provided the model for jack kirby's dc villain darkseid in a post hugh jackman as wolverine world it's easy to forget that logan is supposed to be five foot three inches of adamantium muscle and oh so much body hair although artist john byrne didn't create wolverine he was instrumental in making the character one of the most popular superheroes of all time during his legendary run on x-men with writer chris claremont in fact prior to bern taking up art duties on the book cluemon considered dropping wolverine from the series but john byrne a proud canadian fought to save his fellow canuck burns wolverine was rough tough and always fixing for a fight and as it turns out drew direct inspiration from a character in an obscure sports comedy released the same year the artist joined the title as burn explained in a 2004 interview my wolverine is an actor whose name i don't even know who's on camera for all of five minutes in a paul newman hockey movie called slapshot that actor was paul damato who played the character dr hook in this 1977 cult classic film they don't call me dr hook for nothing how are you doing all right now no high sticking no tripping no slashing major surgery open heart i'm waiting for quiet yeah you'll have quiet now full disclosure i haven't seen slap shot i don't know anything about paul d'amato or his character but this this is just perfect this is exactly what wolverine should look like when he eventually joins the mcu the kind of guy you would be very careful not to piss off in a bar the kind of guy who tells you is going hunting but doesn't carry a gun the kind of guy you could believe has been around since the 19th century pounding beers chomping on cigars and kicking arses and while we're on the subject of wolverine john byrne and many others have speculated that frank miller who drew the first wolverine mini-series in 1982 was channeling actor clint eastwood in the role complete with furrowed brow narrowed eyes and gritted teeth the hellfire club is a secret society in marvel comics whose clandestine villainy often brings them into confrontation with the x-men if you don't know them from the comics maybe you remember the hellfire club from 2011's x-men first class in which kevin bacon as sebastian shaw attempts to manipulate the cuban missile crisis to cause an all-out nuclear war i re-watched that film recently and hot take it felt like going to the dentist but you might be surprised to learn that the hellfire club was actually a real world organization founded in london in 1718 by philip duke of wharton this satirical gentleman's club was a place for political figures and wealthy elites to come together and engage in alcohol-fueled acts of blasphemy sounds fun according to one source members of the club would attend mock religious ceremonies dressed as characters from the bible and dying on meals of ghost pie breast of venus devil's loin and hellfire punch i swear to god i'm not making any of this up the group was ultimately disbanded a few years later when king george the first put forward a bill against horrid impieties aimed at the immoral conduct of the hellfire club but this idea of a group of powerful elites secretly indulging in depravity and debauchery behind closed doors has proven to be fairly influential in fiction namely in a 1966 episode of the british tv show the avengers titled a touch of brimstone in which the main characters john steed and emma peale infiltrate a modern incarnation of the hellfire club it was from here the x-men writer chris claremont and artist john burn drew inspiration for the marvel comics version of the club and by drew inspiration i mean copied almost entirely as bern again explains i first encountered peter wingard as an actor on the avengers episode a touch of brimstone which dealt with steed and emma having an encounter with the hellfire club later he turned up on a british series called department s and its spin-off jason king when chris decided he wanted to do a hellfire club arc in uncanny x-men as part of the darkening of phoenix i suggested the in-joke of having mastermind in his disguised form resemble peter wingard and makes him character an actor that his name be jason wingard while mastermind was a character first created by stanley and jack kirby dating back to 1964 it was claire montenbern who revealed his civilian name crowned him black king of the hellfire club and made him an integral part of the dark phoenix saga m appeals bdsm style disguise as the quote queen of sin inspired the name and costume of emma frost aka the white queen as well as the look of jean grey as the black queen meanwhile the 1982 book x-men companion vol 2 identifies the direct inspirations behind the rest of the founding hellfire club members as sebastian shaw was based on british actor robert shaw donald pearce was based on canadian actor donald sutherland and harry leyland was based on american actor orson welles incidentally the late diana riggs who starred as m appeal in the avengers also inspired another marvel superheroes look when artist david aarhar based kate bishop's costume on this iconic purple catsuit [Music] monica rambo is perhaps best known now as toyona paris's character in wonder vision but many comic book readers will recognize her as the captain marvel of the 1980s created by writer roger stern an artist john romita jr the character first appeared in the amazing spider-man annual 16 in october 1982. when it came to designing the character ramita jr originally intended rambo to resemble actor pam grier the ass-kicking action star of many 1970s blaxploitation films as well as her award-winning role as the titular character in quentin tarantino's jackie brown sadly the character's appearance was changed before publication as ramita explained in a 2008 interview i just took some reference on pangrea because i always loved her and at the last moment somebody said that well we need to use this woman here because they thought maybe pangrea wasn't as good looking as the model they found it was fine because by the time she got done by other artists it ended up looking like the generic black character anyway kind of a burn on pangrea there from someone on marvel's editorial staff of the 1980s who no doubt looked like a two paid ham dressed in a polyester suit but still whenever i pick up a comic starring monica rambo i like to picture gria in the role [Music] finally we have one of the most famous examples of a real-life actor being drawn into a comic book and how it led to that same actor playing the character on screen in the ultimate marvel universe of the early 2000s an imprint of marvel comics that reimagined the company's heroes in the modern day shield director nick fury was redesigned to look like samuel l jackson in 2002's the ultimates writer mark miller and artist brian hitch weren't shy about casting jackson in the role even going so far as to name drop the pulp fiction actor directly samuel l jackson a self-confessed comics nerd discovered that his lightness had been used while flipping through the issue in a comic book store i guess i got the part because mark miller and some other people decided when they created the ultimates that nick fury was physically me so when i picked up that comic book in the comic store kind of i'm not sure i remember giving anybody the rights to use my image in a comic book so when i called my managers and agents and they checked in with marvel they said well we're thinking of making the movies and we hope he'll be so thanks to a cheeky bit of lightness theft and a savvy agent we got one of the best comic book movie moments of all time and a character who has served as the connective tissue between 23 films and counting in a case of life imitating art imitating life imitating art i guess a version of the character who closely resembles ultimate nick fury was even folded into the marvel universe proper as original recipe nick fury's estranged son nick fury jr who says comics are confusing thanks for watching this video this was a fun one to research and write so i hope you enjoyed watching it as much as i enjoyed making it thanks also to those who support the channel on patreon over at patreon.com panels to pixels i want to give a special shout out to king gigg who is the latest person to sign up at the return of the sinister six level thanks king gig you rock make sure to subscribe to panel's pixels to see more stuff like this leave a like on this video drop me a comment follow me on twitter at panels2pixels i post a lot of dumb comic book things on there and it's generally a good time and uh take care of yourselves i'll see you in the next video bye-bye

Channel: Panels to Pixels

Views: 347,138

Rating: 4.8956156 out of 5

Keywords: comic book actors, stan lee, jack kirby, steve ditko, vincent price doctor strange, howard hughes tony stark, wandavision, monica rambeau, teyonah parris, pam grier, samuel l jackson, nick fury, emma peel, hellfire club, diana rigg, real life, errol flynn, yul brynner, alex ross, mcu, marvel, ann margret, mary jane, panels to pixels, panelstopixels

Id: HMW7nNbKGwo

Length: 19min 39sec (1179 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021