How Superman III Led To A Major Romance In The Comics
Today we see how Superman 3 led to a major romance in the Superman comics.
In “Follow the Path,” I highlight changes to comic book characters based on outside media, as well as characters entirely from outside media. I’m sure you can think of more examples, so feel free to email me at [email protected] if you want to suggest other examples for future installments.
As you can imagine, love interests in movies often impact love interests in comics, which is precisely what happened with Superman 3.
WHO WAS SUPERMAN’S LOVE INTEREST IN SUPERMAN III?
After Superman 2 was over, the Superman movies were set to move forward in the franchise without Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane no longer being Superman’s primary love interest. As I wrote in an old Legends Revealed movie,
In November 1980, just before Superman II had its first screenings in December 1980 (ahead of the world opening in 1981), the co-producer of the first Superman films, Ilya Salkind (who produced the films with his father, Alexander) wrote a treatment for a third Superman movie (he changed the plan in March 1981). The treatment included the introduction of Lana Lang, who ended up playing a major role in the final Superman III product. All of the other major new characters, however, did not make it into the final film, although some of the themes introduced in the original treatment did make their way into the finished film. The film’s original villain was Brainiac (with Mr. Mxyzptlk also involved) but the film’s thrust was Supergirl’s introduction into the Superman Cinematic Universe. She would land on a world controlled by Brainiac and he would raise her and eventually fall in love with her. She rejects him and escapes him and eventually ends up on Earth.
Here’s the really weird part, though. She eventually becomes a superhero on Earth, using her superpowers for good. Superman becomes curious whether she really is a good guy or not, so he pretends to be a bad guy to see what she’ll do. She proves to him that she is a heroine and then, as Salkind writes:
“The look between the two will tell the audience that they’ve magically fallen in love. Then there’s a conversation trying to figure out if they’re related. They’re not. Then there’s an idyllic sequence of Superman and Supergirl climbing to 7th heaven. . We’ll have to find a nice place on Earth or somewhere else (i.e. the Milky Way).”
Eventually, that idea fell apart and instead, Lana Lang became the movie’s love interest…
Played by Annette O’Toole, Lana Lang (who Clark meets on a trip back to her hometown of Smallville and convinces her and her young son to move to Metropolis where she gets a job as the new secretary by Perry White) was a strong love interest, really (and it gave the filmmakers the chance to do some slapstick as Lana’s jealous ex-boyfriend continues to try and embarrass Clark and fail). O’Toole, of course, then played Clark Kent’s MOTHER on Smallville.
HOW DID SUPERMAN III INFLUENCE SUPERMAN, VIS A VIS CLARK AND LOIS COMICS?
Lana Lang had been brought back into the Superman comics as a regular character in the late 1970s, but it wasn’t until late 1982, with the Superman 3 movie on the way, that a now-single Lana (she had almost married the alien superhero, Vartox), asked Clark out Superman #380 (by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Dave Hunt)…
It was right in the middle of a weird story where Superman’s body was actually possessed by SuperBOY’s spirit, kind of traveling to the future and seeing how his life was working. Because he was still a teenager (and didn’t know the details of Superman’s life and relationships), Superboy caused a lot of trouble for Superman’s friendships (as he continued to act like a boy instead of a man) but he did wonders for Clark Kent. personal life, as he went all-in with Lana Lang, who he obviously remembered from his own period…
In 1983, when the film was to be released in a few months, action comics #542 (by Marv Wolfman, Curt Swan, and Dave Hunt) temporarily settled the entire “Lois/Superman” relationship by having them pretty much officially break up…
It was sad, but it allowed for no awkwardness of a guy dating Lois Lane as Superman and dating Lana Lang as Clark Kent…
There are many things in Superman #388 (by Bates, Swan, and Hunt) where Lana and Lois get into a fight but it ends with Lana sympathizing with her on how difficult it was to lose Superman as a lover….
In the next issue, Lana and Clark are on a date where we see WHY Lana likes Clark, because he really is a responsible, decent and solid guy)…
This, however, heads into a series of stories where Vartox returns to Earth to win her back and meanwhile she has a whole other stalker and it becomes a task to do and there isn’t much room for the Clark/Lana romance in these issues.
Honestly, the Clark/Lana romance is surprisingly chaste. It was kind of like Barry Allen and Iris West when they were dating (and not after they got married, where Barry and Iris suddenly had sex like all the other trouble, to the point where Barry was late to stop the theft of a submarine because he was too busy having sex with Iris. And yes, that’s an actual plot line from a late 1960s DC comic).
They always go out together Superman #410 (by Bates, Swan, and Hunt) when a Lex Luthor plot accidentally ends with Clark getting fired from his reporting jobs and Lana is still there for him…
The storyline resolves itself three issues later, at a time when Lana threw a surprise testimonial dinner for her boyfriend to cheer him up, but instead Superman shows up and clears Clark’s name and gets his job back. …
That’s about it for the Clark/Lana relationship, they were still dating until Man of Steel rebooted the universe and then, well, obviously they weren’t dating anymore. Seems like once it was clear there would be no live Superman 3 followed, the comics just stopped caring about the Clark/Lana romance, especially since the reboot was going to fix everything.
At least she got that big scene with Jimmy Olsen in “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”…
That’s it for this episode of Follow the Path! If anyone else has a suggestion for a comic book character that changes due to TV or movies, message me at [email protected]!
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