Monster month is fully swinging, and I've been thinking about the classic movie monsters. I noticed that they seem to map fairly well onto the members of the Defenders, Marvel's classic misfit team from the 70s, which happened to be a boom for the supernatural on the big screen while such things were largely forbidden in Marvel's pages by the officious rulings of the Comics Code.
Anyway.
Obviously, Frankenstein's monster was an admitted influence on the Hulk. Big brute who rampages around but really just wants to be left to himself.
The gill man? Namor, the king of the oceans.
Silver Surfer, like the mummy Imhotep, is an aloof displaced member of an ancient civilization imbued with mysterious power who wanders around and pines for his lost love.
And finally the big D's. Doctor Strange and Dracula. They love capes. They're relentlessly theatrical. And while they still measure up to their cohorts in terms of weirdness, they are occasionally able to muster up attempts to interact with society at large without making a complete mess.
Also, Strange was explicitly modelled on Vincent Price, who was involved in that whole monster mix too.
And Hulk's rival Talbot shares a surname with the wolf man. I don't know if that's significant.
Bonus Monster!
Some people like to include the Phantom of the Opera in this bunch, and the idea of a disgraced burn victim in a threatening mask who's obsessed with causing havoc for some dude he's pinned his misfortune on fits pretty well with Doctor Doom.