Reincarnation, or clones?

[fajrdrako]

Take two different stories in two different media, each about two young men in their teens.

In both stories, one of the two young men is a magician, but he has to hide his true identity. He is dark-haired, with high cheekbones. When he performs magic, he holds out his hands and light emanates from them. He wears a red bandana and a dark blue tunic.

The other young man is the magician's close companion: a royal prince with fair hair and extreme physical skills in combat.

The first story I am thinking of is the American comic book Young Avengers. The second story is the British TV show Merlin.

Compare them visually:

Colin Morgan in Merlin	Wiccan (Billy Kaplan) in Young Avengers

Exhibit 2:

Colin Morgan in Merlin	Wiccan (Billy Kaplan) in Young Avengers

And look at the fair-haired Prince:

Bradley James as Prince Arthur in Merlin	Teddy Altman (Hulkling), Skrull prince, in Young Avengers

I'm not arguing any cause and effect here, or even influence. Colin Morgan (who plays Merlin on the TV show) and Bradley James (Arthur) look the way they look. The comic book characters were created and drawn in 2005, two years or more before the TV show was cast. Maybe they look like archetypes of a young Prince and his companion Magician. Or maybe, taking the magicians as the dark, slim, Celtic types, they wanted a contrast with the Prince.

Still... I can't help wondering if the casting director reads Marvel comics.

Or were they both basing the look of their characters on another source that I'm overlooking?

There are of course differences. One set of characters lives in a mythical middle ages, the other in mythical modern times. The Skrull planet is not Camelot, so Arthur isn't a shapeshifter. And Merlin doesn't wear greaves.

Besides, Teddy and Billy are in love, while Merlin and Arthur only act that way.