The Daily Planet is about to suffer a “Super” loss.
In Superman issue 13, Clark Kent quits his job at the Daily Planet, the fictional Metropolis newspaper which has served as his employer for over 70 years, and decides to become a blogger.
“I wasn’t going to test the waters. I was just going to do a cannonball in the Super-verse,” new Superman writer Scott Lobdell told USA Today.
The Man of Steel has been experiencing mounting emotional and work-related pressure at the Planet, including his feelings for fellow reporter Lois Lane, getting chewed out by the paper’s editor in chief Perry White and his direct boss Morgan Edge getting on his case.
Kent quits in the middle of the newsroom in front of all of his peers.
“This is really what happens when a 27-year-old guy is behind a desk and he has to take instruction from a larger conglomerate with concerns that aren’t really his own,” Lobdell explains. “Superman is arguably the most powerful person on the planet, but how long can he sit at his desk with someone breathing down his neck and treating him like the least important person in the world?”
What will Superman do with his free time when he’s not saving the world? Lobdell hints that the mild-mannered Kent could launch an online startup alongside Cat Grant, a fellow Planet employee who quits with him.
“I don’t think he’s going to be filling out an application anywhere,” Lobdell said. “He is more likely to start the next Huffington Post or the next Drudge Report than he is to go find someone else to get assignments or draw a paycheck from.”
In the issue, which serves as a prelude to the upcoming storyline H’el on Earth, Lobdell and artist Kenneth Rocafort, attempt to bring Superman up to speed with today’s media markets.
“When we started discussions,” Lobdell said. “They were like, ‘Yep, let’s see where this goes. Let’s take the sacred super-cows and start looking at Superman with a new set of eyes.’ “
Superman issue 13 will be available in stores on Wednesday Oct. 24.