The defiant lawsuit was definitely just sticking it to Shooter, so no argument there but I don't really see the Unworthy Thor comparison to the Eternal Warrior...I mean his costume in that iteration was a hooded cloak, a gladiator style arm band and a tunic which is all very generic barbarian attire which is what Aaron was going for.
Haven't read X-O in a while so I can't say anything there, but I definitely don't see it with Thor.

As long as it's an imaginative twist on an old concept, I can enjoy it. When Supreme originally came out at Image, it was one of the first " evil Superman" books and it was kind of fresh. Since then, there are dozens of those types of characters. It became  like beating a dead horse.

It's kind the reason why I minored in psychology/sociology in college, to get a better understanding of some of the more perverse parts of the human psyche. I'm aware that pedophilia is something that's been going on for literal centuries, but you'd think that this would be something that we'd have a far better understanding of by now

Not wanting to derail the thread, but Icc's post above touches on a real problem because a pedophile's sexuality is just hardwired that way. And you'll never change someones' sexuality. It's like the law trying to stop me from finding women attractive; it's never gonna happen. Not in a million years.

So, society has a real problem where pedophilia is concerned because, on the one hand, obviously children need to be protected from predatory pedophiles, but, on the other, if the perpetrators are led to break the law by their own natural sexual urges, which they clearly can't help having, is it right for society to demonise them as much as we currently do?

This problem is added to by the fact that awareness of and prosecutions for pedophilia have both risen steeply over the last 20 years, and as a result, I think it's becoming increasingly clear that there are a LOT more pedophiles in society than anyone would've guessed a couple of decades ago. And my feeling is that what we've still only seen the tip of the iceberg.

Clearly convicted pedophiles need to be locked away in order to protect the underage population, but my feeling is that, as time goes on -- and with the instances of pedophilia prosecutions continuing to rise -- society will eventually have to start regarding pedophilia as a psychological illness or an undesirable biological condition, rather than a disgusting sexual kink...with the perpetrators of pedophilia needing care and help, rather than the demonisation and condemnation that they currently receive. I just don't see how society has any other choice. Remember, it's not that long ago that the mentally ill or those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder were shunned by society and incarcerated in asylums. I think we will have to find a more pragmatic and compassionate way of dealing with pedophiles eventually.

Statistically, paedophilia is not a natural sexual urge; it is the end result of sexual abuse. Overwhelmingly, perpetrators of sexual abuse were also victims of it. In most cases, they fixate on children who are the age of when they were sexually abused, perpetuating the cycle. The difference between them and other survivors is very hard to gauge and is a big focus of those professionals who try to treat survivors of abuse and the perpetrators of it. Why does one grow up to be a (relatively) healthy adult while the other becomes a predator? Is it related to how systematic the abuse was, if there was intervention and treatment or some other factor that came into the life of one, but not the other? Far more questions, than answers.

The 4th series of the Prime Suspect detective series, with Helen Mirren, had an episode that explored this, as Tennison investigates a child abduction and murder, that seems to be linked to a convicted pedophile. What she finds is that the case is not so clear cut, nor is child sexual abuse and she discovers that one of her team was a survivor of abuse and is, thus, overly aggressive in his investigation, to the point of endangering other children. In the course of the story, Tennison consults with a psychologist who explains the psyche of the perpetrator and the difficulty in treating such things, as well as the lack of documentation about healthy survivors of abuse. It followed on the heels of the third series, which featured "rent boys," (adolescent male prostitutes and drug addicts) and a pedophile ring that was exploiting them. Lot of dark material there.

Getting back to the original focus of the thread, imitation goes to far when it is mere copy, with nothing new to offer, in my opinion. All literature draws upon past work and there is little original, under the sun. Prime is a good example as it reworked the basic concept of Captain Marvel, while giving it a more sci-fi bent. It also delved into a darker, more realistic world than the flights of fantasy that typified the Golden Age Captain Marvel stories. By contrast, many of the original Image offerings were just cookie-cutter copies of X-men and the like and never really grew into something of their own. The stuff that did, like Savage Dragon, had either origins before Image or were turned over to someone else, who added the missing ingredient (like Warren Ellis, on Stormwatch). Some, like The Maxx, were more original ideas, in genre clothing.