10 Popular Comics Characters Imported From Other Media

Amidst the eager anticipation and even more eager condemnation of David Ayer's upcoming Suicide Squad movie, there is one thing that all the film fans and comics fans seem united in approving of: Margot Robbie's seeming scene stealing role as The Joker's psychiatrist turned psycho sidekick-cum-love interest Harley Quinn.

The unhinged hammer-wielding crazy clown has always been a popular fan favourite and came close to appearing on film 15 years ago in the mooted Batman Triumphant, but of course she had already appeared on screen long before that courtesy of the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series, so her screen appearance is really just things coming full circle.

It's kind of interesting that, for all the complaints from comics fans regarding movies' lack of fidelity to their comic book sources, those same fans have been only too happy to embrace a character completely imagined for a screen adaptation with no prior comic appearances. It just goes to show that the important thing really isn't being faithful to the source, it's developing well written characters.

Harley, who followed her screen debut in 1992 with a 1994 one-shot comic origin story within the Animated Series continuity, appearances in the non-canonical Elseworlds in 1997 and being adopted into the mainstream Batman canon in 2000, wasn't the first character to transition from outside comics and she definitely won't be the last. Just look at these ten examples that show that sometimes not being faithful to the source gets rewarded by a retroactive stamp of approval.

First appearance: Richard Donner's Superman movie and its sequel needed an identifiable henchman to do the villainous Lex Luthor's bidding (or at least listen to his latest schemes to take down the Man of Steel), and so invented the role of bumbling idiot Otis, played by Ned Beatty (these days promoted from henchman to main villain duty in Toy Story 3).

In comics: Smallville's comic book continuation gave Lex an overweight and slightly useless personal assistant for its Season 11 in 2012. Deciding that the role was essentially the same as Beatty's in the film, the writers decided to call the character Otis (now with the surname Berg). Meanwhile, the version of Lex on cartoon Young Justice also had an Otis that ran his security (and spoke in a fashion similar to Beatty in the film) who would also appear in that show's spin-off comics in 2012.

It took until DC's latest big reboot, the New 52, for Otis to make his way into the main DC continuity, however. In 2013's Forever Evil, the first big New 52 crossover story, a LexCorp security guard named Otis appears briefly, only for Lex to have him killed.

And back again?: Otis hasn't gone back to appearing on screen since his 2013 debut in the main DC canon, but it would not be at all surprising for this to be the name screenwriters reach for if they're going to give Jesse Eisenberg's Lex a named useless minion.