10 Popular Comics Characters Imported From Other Media
1. Jimmy Olsen
First appearance: Comics picking up characters from their own adaptations is a concept that long predates TV and Clark Kent's buddy Jimmy is perhaps the most enduring example of the trope. Essentially just there to give Clark someone to talk to in the 1940 The Adventures Of Superman radio show, given that its not a very visually demonstrative medium, office boy Jimmy was initially more of a plot device than a developed character. He started getting a bigger and bigger role thanks to appearing on The Adventures Of Superman TV series from 1952.
In the comics: While there had been an unnamed office boy at the Daily Planet in some previous comics, Jimmy Olsen was added to the DC world in November 1941 in Superman #13, Superman Vs The Archer. After the success of the TV incarnation he was given his own title: Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen in 1954.
The comic ran for twenty years and 163 issues, filled with preposterous and often comic stories about Jimmy getting into ridiculous scrapes and often being transformed into one thing or another. He remained a regular feature of Superman's supporting cast in the various reboots ever since. In the New 52 continuity, Jimmy is a photographer regularly working alongside Lois Lane.
And back again?: Jimmy has appeared in virtually every version of Superman since the radio show. Marc McClure played the part in the 1978 movie and all three of its sequels, as well as providing the only cast link between it and spin-off Supergirl. He was replaced for pseudo-sequel Superman Returns by Aaron Ashmore (twin brother of Shawn Ashmore, who director Bryan Singer had cast as Iceman in X-Men and originally wanted for Jimmy as well).
He appeared as Chloe's love interest on Smallville from Season 6, while the new Supergirl TV show has a more adult "James" Olsen as the title character's romantic possibility. Rebecca Buller's Daily Planet reporter Jenny was suggested as a gender flipped Jimmy in Man Of Steel, but that turned out to be untrue, leaving the role yet to be filled for the DCEU.