well...while bored (very VERY bored)
I whipped up a custom class for pathfinder
It's an average BAB, mid-range combat and support class who must be Lawful good or lawful neutral
It get's abilities based off of wisdom and can use it's will on occasion in place of other saves
they can create barriers, chains, weapons, armor, even summoned creatures from light focused through their ring
if you haven't gotten it yet, it's called the Green Lantern class
I've also had character write ups for
-Batman
-Thor
-Capitan America
-Wolverine
-Superman
-and MANY OTHERS
i've even gotten to play a Lawful Good Gestalt Rouge/Zen Archer Monk
who used trick arrows and didn't kill named Oliver Harper
is this wrong or just fun on occasion
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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(All the below is IMNSHO, of course)
I don't think emulating 'characters' as a starting point is bad. Nor is intending to make a character into a character.
That said, making a character a carbon copy is boring. To take it (strangely enough) from an opposite direction...
When PAD started down the road of the Rictor/Shatterstar relationship, he looked to Ianto and Jack Harkness. The characters have developed differently than Ianto/Jack (espeically with Rahne in the mix) but they had a start based on other characters.
Likewise with your GL class, can you do the same thing with a standard class?
Or with feats to an existing class.
Prerequisites: Spell Focus Conjuration
Conjurations created with this feat are imbued with force. They gain the [Force] descriptor and may affect incorporeal creatures as the do corporeal creatures (a summoned monster can attack the incorporeal creature as if it was affected by a ghost touch effect, but an incorporeal creature can walk through an obscuring mist the same as a corporeal creature. A Force Summoning spell uses a spell slot two levels higher than the spell's actual level.
To use another example, playing a paladin like Benton Frasier would be challenging, to play Benton Frasier would be boring. :-)
If it's bad, then lock up most RPG players cause we're likely all guilty of it to some extent or other.
Likely the biggest problems this may cause in a roleplaying game is that the archetype one is trying to emulate doesn't match the genre very well. The other issue is that many movie and comic book characters are designed as loners who normally operate independently of others; which runs contrary to the group dynamic of most adventuring groups. Both issues could create problems in a group if handled poorly.
I do it all the time. I have a long term goal of emulating all of the original avengers. I've played a barbarian hulk, a paladin cap, designed a sorcerer iron man. Thor is e one I've had the hardest time with, but they've all been fun
Taking a D&D break right now, but I've got a party of 5th level characters, 2 of whom are based on comic characters: DC's Etrigan (unique fiend) and Marvel's Damian Hellstrom (Warlock).
Made Etrigan's parents Belial (LE) and Malcanthet (CE) to explain his partial insanity. Damian is the son of Asmodeus and a mortal woman to be determined later. Having a blast w/ them.
So, no, I don't think it's bad form. It's whatever's tolerable and fun for your group & DM.
Back in the early 80's I played w/ a guy who wanted a Wolverine-based D&D character. Made him a special worshipper of the Greek god Pan and we were off to the races.
I once made a World of Darkness character based on a Power Ranger, so I am the last person to judge on who folks base their characters on.
Really, you can do whatever you have fun with.
I think the only time basing characters on any other kind of fictional character becomes "bad form" is if the player starts asking for ridiculous abilities they otherwise couldn't have according to the game system. ("But why can't I have a ferocious awesome final attack form like Sephiroth?") Or if they're in denial about it ("My twin-sword swinging broody drow ranger isn't like Drizzt at all!"). Or similar forms of obnoxiousness that really have more to do with some general lack of player couth than what makes for a good RPG character.
And like Matthew Morris said above, it also has to do with where you take the character.
For Pathfinder and comic book characters in particular, I know I've started writing up the Birds of Prey once (so I've got a martial artist lady with a sonic SLA to go with your "Oliver Harper"), as well as the Paper Sisters from the Japanese series Read or Dream/R.O.D the TV. It's just a fun activity to do---I love taking concepts and seeing how I can build them in different systems.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Someone in my group is planning a magus who wields a warhammer and favors lightning spells, so I can't comment myself.
That reminds me, I played a cleric in the 2e Astromundi Cluster setting who was a follower of Thor, carried a mace, long blond hair in a pony tail, and a beard.
He had phenominal luck too. I rolled wild talents and got time shift, and at one point the DM gave me a 1% chance for divine intervention to avoid a TPK.
Rolled 01 on the dice. It's amazing what a 7th level spell can do to a 3rd level encounter. :-)