What does 似てる似てない mean?


In this story, the speaker is trying to figure out the nature of a stranger's
powers, he makes comparisons with the powers of an acquaintance but comes to
the conclusion they're quite different. But before he comes to this conclusion
he says:

> 似てる似てない以前の問題だ。

I'm not sure what the speaker is saying here, is someone could break it down
for me that would be awesome.




似てる似てない is just 似ているか似ていないか or "whether they are similar or not similar". See
[this recent question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/56180/5010), too.
For example 生きる死ぬの問題 is roughly the same as 生きるか死ぬかの問題 (a matter of life or
death).

[～以前の問題 is a set phrase](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/24561/5010),
which in this context means the mentioned "problem" is not the actual problem.
This sentence says they are so obviously different that it's not worth
questioning or wondering if they are similar or not.

