Captain Ersatz

Captain Ersatz noun: a fictional character created as a knock-off of another character whose copyright is owned by a separate entity.

Image: Leon Schlesinger Productions for Warner Brothers, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Captain Ersatz (plural Captain Ersatzes)

(slang) A fictional character created as a knock-off of another character whose copyright is owned by a separate entity.
- > And Astro City isn't mainly about the superhero powers and fights,
  No, it's mainly about the Captain Ersatz's and Kurt pretending to be a real novelist. Except, you know, his main characters are all superheroes and supervillains, so however much he apes Raymond Chandler his resolutions usually...2010 February 7, plausible prose man, “Doctor Doom - should he be retconned like Ultimate Nick Fury?”, in rec.arts.comics.dc.universe (Usenet), retrieved 15 Aug 2022
- > Thanos?
  He and his opposite-brand Captain Ersatz Darkseid (actually, I think it's the other way around -- Darkseid first) certainly both get to play in the "Omnicidal Maniac" area, but they didn't quite grab me as much as some of the others I listed.2014 September 23, Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor), “Just For Fun: My Top Ten Villains”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), retrieved 15 Aug 2022

he admits that as most of his creations are captain ersatz versions of rejected pitches to other companies.2017 January 3, jeffpiatt, Twitter, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2022:
He's redundant at DC, and none of Marvel's Captain Ersatzes have been half as good.2020 August 31, TheOtherMaven, “If DC and marvel could swap two characters to be in each others universe permanently which two would you...
Adaptability...I made a 'WIR' of that game in rpg.net, and one thing I did was making two Captain Ersatzes of Toph Bei Fong and Rick Sanchez.2022 March 21, DrGeraldRavenpie, “What's a system with over-the-top collateral damage?”, in Reddit, rpg, archived from the original on 15...

plural	Captain Ersatzes

From Captain + ersatz (“cheap imitation”). Coined by TV Tropes in 2007.

What does Captain Ersatz mean?: Captain Ersatz means a fictional character created as a knock-off of another character whose copyright is owned by a separate entity.
How do you use Captain Ersatz in a sentence?: he admits that as most of his creations are captain ersatz versions of rejected pitches to other companies.
What part of speech is Captain Ersatz?: Captain Ersatz is a noun.
What is the plural of Captain Ersatz?: The plural of Captain Ersatz is Captain Ersatzes.

Adapted from Wiktionary: Captain Ersatz (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “Captain Ersatz.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/captain_ersatz. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.