As avid movie buffs, Siegel and Shuster made Superman look like famous movie star Douglas Fairbanks (minus the pencil-thin mustache). His altar ego, Clark Kent (using the first names of actors Clark Gable and Kent Taylor) was modeled after another actor, Harold Lloyd. Lloyd had made a career of melding a deceptively meek look with strength and athleticism.

Siegel wrote. “What inspired me was Glenda Farrell, the movie star who portrayed Torchy Blane, a gutsy, beautiful, headline-hunting reporter, in a series of exciting motion pictures.”

Warner Brothers offered Robert Ripley, creator of “Ripley’s Believe it or Not,” a contract to produce 10-minute shorts. Ripley was already a popular icon. His newspaper cartoon strips were syndicated around the world, and his first best seller had been published in 1929, followed by a radio program in 1930. But his Vitaphone shorts became a sensation, and Warner Brothers agreed to more, beginning a long, lucrative relationship between them.The video and radio programs revealed Ripley’s speech impediment. His teeth protruded so significantly that he couldn’t completely shut his mouth. Despite speech lessons, his b’s came out as v’s, and he lisped his s’s. Perhaps because of his impediment, Ripley came off as shy, only making him more endearing.It was for that reason that when Warner Brothers Looney Tunes introduced a character based on Ripley, they gave him a stuttering speech impediment. The character had a large, egg-shaped head that mimicked Ripley’s famous noggin. He was even named Egghead. In the 1939 Tex Avery cartoon Believe It or Else, several sequences appear reminiscent of Ripley’s Vitaphone shorts, with a buck-toothed, Egghead skeptical of every claim. He even wore spats and a loud suit, Ripley’s signature look. Later, Egghead would be renamed Elmer Fudd.

Stan Lee’s inspiration for Iron Man’s altar ego, Tony Stark, was Howard Hughes. The similarities between Stark and Hughes are striking

credited the Joker’s look to German actor Conrad Veidt and his role as Gwynplaine in 1928′s silent classic The Man Who Laughs. The movie adapts a Victor Hugo novel where the title character, Gwynplaine, has his face mutilated into a hideous grin.

Peter Parker’s (Spider-man’s) caustic boss at The Daily Globe (and later New York City mayor) was named J. Jonah Jameson and was modeled after one of his creators, Stan Lee.

Wonder Woman was directly inspired by the two women who lived with Marston. His wife of 25 years, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, had a bachelor, master, and law degree in an era when few women even went to college. She had helped her husband with his research into blood pressure (which led to the lie detector). So did Olive Byrne, Marston’s mistress.

Wolverine had already been unmasked, and his signature pointy hairstyle had already been established. Byrne hardened Logan’s look, inspired by a minor character in the 1977 movie Slap Shot. Actor Paul D’Amato’s depiction of Dr. Hook

Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) Malcolm X

Sleuths Doc Savage and Sherlock Holmes inspired Batman’s scientific proclivities. Kane wanted Batman to have wings similar to those in Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch of an ornothopter, but Finger changed it to a cape. Finger thought a hooded cowl—complete with the trademark pointed ears—looked more like a bat than Kane’s simple mask. Finger also contributed the name Bruce Wayne, which was a combination of the Scottish hero Robert the Bruce (or King Bruce I) and the American Revolutionary hero General “Mad Anthony” Wayne.