Sometimes I like to imagine what my S/Is would’ve been like over the years/in all the remakes/re-imagines if they were canon characters. Especially for the comic S/Is like my DC and Marvel S/Is.
I like to imagine that Copycat would’ve been some random one-off character at first. Mostly meant to be some random throwaway in an early Thor comic. Something like: ‘Oh, Loki used his magic to enchant a random passerby and now they’re a cat-human creature that’s attacking Thor’ or something equally wild and weird like that.
For some reason that character ends up returning and ends up being a reoccurring character in stories involving Loki. He ends up going from some random obstacle Loki throws at Thor to becoming an actual character that follows Loki. His moral alignment would end up changing just as drastically as Loki’s through the comics as well. Loki starts as completely chaotic evil, so does he, and just like normal, Loki transitions through the years into being true/chaotic neutral and Copycat ends up being true neutral, too.
The imagery of an early comic Loki using an early version of Copycat to pull a golden chariot, reflecting Norse myth, lol-
I feel like their bond would be implied after Copycat ends up becoming a reoccurring character. Never outright stated, but implied. (If not that, Copycat’s sexuality would certainly be.) That is until current era, where everything is now out in the open and LGBT is accepted way more.
The comic it’s revealed in has Copycat and Loki sleeping in the same bed together, Copycat spooning him and Loki having to leave before Copycat wakes up. Just something like that, no ‘big kiss’ or anything.
Then for DC it’d be a bit different. Plague Rat starts as his own character. Again, pretty throwaway at first, but after an early ‘team-up’ comic with Scarecrow, the dynamic of a disease-ridden rat guy and a fear-obsessed scarecrow might catch some people’s attention. (Especially with the whole ‘one has rats, the other has crows’ thing-)
Plague Rat would most likely be one of those incredibly weird D-list characters at first who ended up being revamped by BTAS, like Mr. Freeze. Like with Copycat, his sexuality would certainly be implied a few times. (I get the idea of Poison Ivy in one comic attempting to seduce him and after she kisses him he just goes, straight faced: “Are you finished?”.)
Meanwhile, he ends up being paired up with Scarecrow in most comics where he teams up with someone, they have pretty similar themes, they’re often seen close to one another whenever they’re in the background, etc. So basically, their relationship starts as mostly a fandom creation than an actual established thing based on how often they’re seen together coupled with the implications that Plague Rat is gay.
But of course, then the comics decide to make it canon, and the city rat ends up with the country crow. (Imagining a double-date comic where Harley and Ivy go out with Jon and Blake.) Basically like Billy and Stu from Scream, except with a lot less murder and way more camp.
The comic it’s revealed in has a more casual manner to it, with Batman over the com basically telling Batgirl to watch out for Scarecrow and his ‘boyfriend’. (Before Batgirl comes across them and inevitably this reveal of their relationship is reinforced.)
Idk, I just like these little thought experiments and wanted to share. Any thoughts? Questions? I’d love to discuss this if someone wants to shoot me an ask about it, lol.
