Were Overwatch characters designed to feel "familiar"?

[Captain Proton]

Visor + the entire color scheme (Red/Blue).

Except his color scheme is Blue/Yellow. Yellow is the predominant color in X-Men uniforms, which S76 lacks completely.

[xChurch]

76 is far more Captain America than Cyclops I'd say. 76 is just more globally oriented since OW was a global organization.

[Mormolyce]

Blizzard's characters, stories and settings stick to a pretty conventional range of tropes, for the most part.

To the point that the Starcraft and Warcraft universes seem to have been slowly merging...

[Orby]

Because 76 has got a visor he is supposed to be designed like cyclops?

Soldier 76 reminds me of Cable :P

[mickybrighteyes]

I think they are more direct references. Since you can easily name 1 or 2 core source characters. If it was a common trope, we'd be able to find several and lump them all into a category - but that's not necessarily the case.

Aside from appearance and attmpted leadership role, soldier doesn't really match up with Cyclops. Also, cyclops oldschool outfit (the one you provided an image of) is more yellow and blue then red. Soldier is clearly, from his story... almost a carbon copy Steve Rodgers (biologically enhanced super soldier with military background).

If you start actually digging into the subject you'll find numerous stereotypes present in basically every character and that there ARE numerous tropes/references littered throughout. Hell there's even a few things that seem quite out of place... like a couple of reinhardt skins that seem to be based on a chinese demigod of some sort (and were released long before the Journey to the West series of skins during the lunar event or whatever).

[ro9ue]

Aside from appearance and attmpted leadership role, soldier doesn't really match up with Cyclops. Also, cyclops oldschool outfit (the one you provided an image of) is more yellow and blue then red. Soldier is clearly, from his story... almost a carbon copy Steve Rodgers (biologically enhanced super soldier with military background).

I originally didn't even think about Captain America in relation to Soldier. But now that he's been brought up by you and others in this thread I'd have have to agree he's definitely another strong reference point.