At the fair.

It's not that knock offs of any sort are anything unusual or unheard of; when you're trying to make a quick buck, it's easier to just repurpose someone else's idea than to come up with one of your own.  Because of this, I wasn't all that surprised to see what looked like an overgrown jungle gym at the local fair this past weekend covered with images of super heroes.  What surprised me, though, was the selection.  Let's take a look, shall we?

First off, we have an oddly-colored Spider-Man, and if that one guy would move, a claw-wielding Wolverine, who apparently has busted through a brick wall.  Those are your standard heroes for montages such as these; Spider-Man and Wolverine are on all kinds of rip off stuff.  Spawn, though, is an odd choice, one that leads me to believe that this wall was painted around 1995, back when Spawn was AWESOME! and the Pirates were just a few years away from their three NL East division titles in a row.

The heroes on the right give the impression that the airbrush artist knows a little more about comics than the average person, or perhaps he/she turned on a cartoon marathon one day that included the Justice League show with the John Stewart version of Green Lantern.  The Human Torch completes the flying duo, and is another odd choice.  No Superman?  No Iron Man?  No Wonder Woman?  Any of those would seem to have a bigger recognition factor.  Heck, what about the Thing?  He's a much better choice if you're going to pick out a character from the Fantastic Four...though perhaps I'm biased.  And really...what kid out there doesn't love a hero who can set himself on fire?  That's not a terrifying thought or anything.

Lastly, we have...this guy.  Looks like a mix between Superman, Batman, the Flash, and...I don't know, Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe.  Seriously, who the heck is this guy, and why did the artist of this compilation decide to toss in an original character with so many other copyrighted ones?  Maybe the artist thought that he/she could create an iconic image on par with other Marvel and DC superheroes...or maybe this character does actually exist, and I've just never seen it before.  But probably not.

Weird stuff, the knock off circuit.