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.

Today, we look at how the wedding between Lois and Clark on the TV series, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, caused the comic book versions of Lois and Clark to get married, as well, despite them actually being broken up at the time!

Everything started with Superman #50 (by Jerry Ordway and Dennis Janke on these particular pages), where Clark Kent proposed to Lois Lane...

she eventually accepts at the end of the issue...

The original plan was for them to be married in Superman #75 (which, to be frank, seems kind of fast by comic book time), but then a new TV series called Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was announced as being in development, based on the Byrne-era reboot of the Superman titles and specifically the new relationship between Lois Lane and Clark Kent where Clark is just as much of a romantic possibility for Lois as Superman is.

The Superman staff decided that it made sense to hold off on marrying Lois and Clark, as it might be a problem with synergy with this new series. So instead, they decided to put some different big event in Superman #75...

So, Lois and Clark then debuted and it was a smash success...

However, since the whole show centered on a single Lois and Clark doing the whole "Will they or won't they?" it was ultimately decided that the Superman titles couldn't very well have Lois and Clark get married in the comics while they were doing the whole "will they or won't they?" deal on television. Therefore, because the writers felt that they were straining credulity too much by having them wait so long, they decided to have Lois and Clark break up.

They set it up with a few major issues, like when Superman is put into a situation where the Joker has poisoned Lois Lane and the only cure for the poison could be found by killing the Joker. Superman cannot bring himself to do it and so Lois dies, but then comes right back to life, which was the Joker's plan all along, either Superman killed the Joker for no reason and felt terrible or he let Lois Lane die and he would feel terrible. So Lois is thinking about how Clark can never truly share his full life wit her because of his whole Superman deal.

David Michelinie, Kieron Dwyer and Denis Rodier dealt with the break-up...

And later, back at Clark's place...

Look how sad Clark looks!

So he goes off, stops the bad guys and returns and Lois has left her ring behind (the dialogue was from a separate plot where Ma and Pa Kent, who had been traveling the country, decided to go back home to Smallville)...

However, the problem was that while the ratings started strong, people seemed to be growing tired of Lois and Clark in Season 3, especially when they did a fake wedding plotline.

So they made a big deal at the start of Season 4 to finally get them married in an attempt to save the show (it ultimately failed)...

But now, suddenly, the comics had to catch up with the TV show!

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='From broken up to married in one issue!']

So, after their break-up, Lois traveled the world on all sorts of crazy adventures. On one of those adventures, she realizes that she still loves Clark, but that's not quite enough. However, when she returns to the Daily Planet in Superman: The Wedding Album #1 (written by all five of the then-regular Superman writers, namely Dan Jurgens, Karl Kesel, Louise Simonson, David Michelinie and Roger Stern) to file her latest story (which involved her pretending to marry some sleazeball), she is shocked to learn that her ex-fiancee is now the managing editor of the Daily Planet while Perry White takes some time off to deal with cancer treatments. Meanwhile, Superman has lost his powers temporarily due to the effects of the recent crossover, Final Night (where the sun was extinguished) Stuart Immonen and Jose Marzan Jr. drew these pages...

Now that they're back together, they decide to do a wedding really quickly and by the end of the issue, they are married (Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway handled the wedding pages)...

Awwww (and yes, the priest is drawn to look like Jerry Siegel)....

That's it for this installment of Follow the Path! 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!