Daily Planet
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- For other uses see Daily Planet (disambiguation)
The Daily Planet is a fictional newspaper that appears in Superman stories published by DC Comics. The Daily Planet is based in Metropolis and employs Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen; its chief editor is Perry White. Within the Superman comics, the Daily Planet is depicted as a famous nationally published newspaper of the same caliber as the New York Times.
In the comics, the newspaper is located in the heart of Metropolis, at the corner of Fifth Street and Concord Lane. The Planet began publication in 1775; George Washington wrote a guest editorial for the first daily edition. The Daily Planet building's most distinguishing and famous feature is the enormous globe that sits on top of the building.
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History
Golden and Silver Age
When Superman first appeared in comics (in 1938's Action Comics #1), his alter ego Clark Kent worked for a newspaper named the Daily Star, under editor George Taylor. Superman co-creator Joe Shuster likely named the Daily Star after the Toronto Daily Star newspaper in Toronto, Ontario, which had been the newspaper which Shuster's parents received and for which Shuster had worked as a newsboy. (Called the Evening Star prior to 1899, the Toronto Daily Star is now known as the Toronto Star.) When the Superman newspaper comic strip appeared, the fictional newspaper's name was permanently changed to the Daily Planet to avoid a name conflict with real newspapers which had Star in their name.
When DC made use of its multiverse means of continuity tracking between the early 1960s and mid-1980s, it was declared that the Daily Star was the workplace of the Golden Age or "Earth-Two" versions of Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, while the Daily Planet was unique to their Silver Age or "Earth-One" versions. The Clark Kent of Earth-Two eventually became the editor-in-chief of the Daily Star, something his Earth-One counterpart didn't achieve at his newspaper.
In Silver Age continuity, Clark's first contact with the Daily Planet came when reporter (and future editor) Perry White came to Smallville to write a story about Superboy, and wound up getting an interview where the Boy of Steel first revealed his extraterrestrial origins (the story wound up winning Perry a Pulitzer prize). During Clark Kent's years in college, Perry White was promoted to editor-in-chief upon the retirement of the Daily Planet's previous editor, the Earth-One version of George Taylor.
After graduating from Metropolis University with a degree in journalism, Clark Kent went to work at the Planet, and quickly met Lois Lane (who had been working there for some time already). Some time after Clark was hired, Jimmy Olsen joined the paper's staff.
In 1971, the Daily Planet was purchased by Morgan Edge, president of the Galaxy Broadcasting System. Edge proceeded to integrate Metropolis television station WGBS-TV's studios into the Daily Planet building, and named Clark Kent as the anchor for the WGBS evening news. Eventually, Clark's former schoolmate from Smallville Lana Lang joined Clark as a co-anchor.
After the 1985-1986 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, many of these elements, including Morgan Edge buying the Daily Planet, were retroactively changed or eliminated from Superman canon.
Modern Age
In the modern comics' canon, years before Clark or Lois began working for the paper, Lex Luthor owned the Daily Planet. When Luthor, deciding to sell the paper, began taking bids for the Planet, Perry White convinced an international conglomerate, TransNational Enterprises, to buy the paper. They agreed to this venture with only one stipulation: that Perry White would become editor-in-chief. White has served as the Planet editor-in-chief ever since, barring the few times he was absent. During those times people such as Sam Foswell and Clark Kent have looked after the paper. Franklin Stern, an old friend of White's, became the Daily Planet's publisher.
The Planet saw its share of rough times during White's tenure, including: worker strikes; the Daily Planet building being totally destroyed during the Fall of Metropolis storyline; the Planet building sustaining heavy damages after the villain Doomsday's rampage; and possibly its darkest hour, Franklin Stern's decision to put the paper up for sale. Lex Luthor, who (disliking the heavy criticism of himself and his company that the Planet became noted for) purchased the Daily Planet and subsequently closed the paper down. Luthor fired every employee of the newspaper save for four people: Simone D'Neige, Dirk Armstrong, Jimmy Olsen, and Lois Lane. As a final insult, Luthor saw to it that the Planet globe was unceremoniously dumped in the Metropolis landfill. In the Planet's place emerged "LexCom," a news-oriented Internet web site that primarily catered to Luthor's views of "quality journalism."
Eventually, after Lois Lane made a deal with Luthor, Luthor sold the Daily Planet to Perry White for the minuscule sum of one dollar. The paper was quickly reinstated, rehiring all of its old staff. Some time later, ownership of the Planet fell into the hands of Bruce Wayne.
During the "Y2K" storyline (involving the city of Metropolis being infused with futuristic technology thanks to a descendant of the villain Brainiac), the Daily Planet building was "upgraded" along with the rest of Metropolis, and a holographic globe replaced the physical one. Eventually,Metropolis and the Daily Planet building, globe and all, were restored to their former states.
In the current comics and media spinoffs, the Daily Planet is presented as a thoroughly modern news operation, including operating an Internet web site much like most large newspapers. The Planet's reporters also have access to the best modern equipment to aid their work, though Perry White has often been shown as still favoring his manual typewriter.
The Planet's major competitors in Metropolis include the tabloid newspaper the Daily Star, WGBS-TV (which briefly employed Jimmy Olsen), and Lex Luthor's various media operations.
External links
- "Superman at the Star": An interview with Superman co-creator Joe Shuster from the Toronto Star, April 26, 1992, about Shuster's memories of Toronto and the Evening Star newspaper. (http://members.tripod.com/~davidschutz/superman3.html)
- The Superman Homepage's entry for the Daily Planet (http://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics/who/who-intro.php?topic=daily-planet)
- Supermanica: Daily Planet (http://supermanica.info/wiki/index.php/Daily_Planet) Supermanica entry on the Pre-Crisis Daily Planet