In "Follow the Path," I spotlight changes made to comic book characters that are based on outside media, as well as characters who entirely came from outside media. I’m sure you can think of other examples, so feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you want to suggest some other examples for future installments.

As you have certainly seen from these columns, it is a very common thing for comic books to be influenced by movies based on the comic book characters themselves. However, as much of an influence as these movies have upon comic books now, it was an even bigger deal back in the early days of superhero comic book movies, when the very fact that a comic book character would even GET a movie was a huge deal. Swamp Thing, for instance, got his own comic book again specifically because he got a movie out of nowhere in the early 1980s. Luckily, that book was eventually taken over by Alan Moore and we got a whole other type of take on Swamp Thing, but the only reason that the book was there for Alan Moore to even take over was the Swamp Thing movie.

Therefore, when Supergirl was going to get her own movie in the early 1980s, DC Comics responded to that news with a big push for the Girl of Steel, as well.

They had already given Supergirl her own title again after she had been appearing mostly in Superman Family for years (she had finally gotten her own series for the first time in the early 1970s and that was quickly canceled and folded into Superman Family, which ran from 1974-1982). Titled The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, the book was especially noteworthy for the fact that these adventures were not really remotely "daring." I mean, they were fine. I liked the comic book, but it was an odd title choice.

Supergirl was famously one of the few DC Comics characters who really embraced the idea of doing different costumes. Most characters locked in a look and stuck with it and when they did make changes, they were a big deal, like Batman adding the yellow oval behind his bat symbol on his chest in the early 1960s.

So while Supergirl stuck with the look that she debuted with in Action Comics #252 for many years...

When she became the lead in Adventure Comics right before she got her own series, she tried out a few different looks...

However, by the time she got the aforementioned solo series, she had settled into the look with her logo on the one side of her top...

Even when she got her second solo series a decade later, that costume remained...

However, then the news came out that there was going to be a Supergirl movie in 1984 and DC quickly adjusted to match the movie. The funny thing is, though, that the adjustment they made ended up not matching the costume that the movie finally chose!

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In 1983, DC changed the title of Supergirl's series to just "Supergirl" to match the upcoming movie and also gave her a new costume to match the upcoming film's costume...

Here is Helen Slater in her test screening for Supergirl...

The top now matches, but not the headband!

Sure enough, in Supergirl #17 (by Paul Kupperberg, Carmine Infantino and Bob Oksner), the headband was added, as well...

People reacted to it the next issue...

But then, of course, the other shoe dropped. The movie decided to just use her classic costume!!!

So the comic book changed her costume to match the film and then they ended up NOT matching the film because the film went to her previous costume! Hilarious.

Not so hilarious is the fact that the movie did not do so well, leading DC Comics to be willing to kill off Supergirl in Crisis on Infinite Earths, where she died wearing her tie-in costume that wasn't a tie-in after all in the end...

If anyone else has a suggestion for a comic book character changing due to TV or movies, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!