Well, this is the new creative direction for Superman with Scott Lobdell writing and Kenneth Rocafort leaving Red Hood and the Outlaws to illstrate Superman.
You may have heard Clark quit the Daily Planet. (newsarama.com) It's meant as a Jerry Maguire/Aaron Sorkin The Newsroom-esque indictment of the falling standards of the Daily Planet, but it's soft because we haven't really seen these falling standards in the Superman books or anywhere in the DC Universe, so we're left to take Clark's word for it.
Speaking of Clark's words, Lobdell loves the thought balloons. Which is fine, thought balloons are a tried and true staple of comic books. But it occurs to me, with all the thinkin' Superman does, it's because Superman is a weird cat with no friends. Of course he's always thinking and talking to himself.
This current Superman is strategically cut off from his supporting cast as a result of the DC mandate of doing stuff differently. The Kents are dead. Superman doesn't really hang out with his roommate Jimmy Olsen, whom he catches having sex in his shower with some woman. Superman doesn't have a relationship or even a friendship with Lois, whom he apparently has the hots for and even does creepy Superman Returns-esque Supervision reading of her texts, despite the fact that he also has... something... with Wonder Woman. Even his Super family doesn't like him - Supergirl shows up accusing him of something and they've never gotten along since they met in The New 52. Superman also says half the world thinks he's a savior, the other half thinks he's the front line of an alien invasion.
It seems like no one really likes Superman all that much. He doesn't hang out with the Justice League, he doesn't have that buddy-buddy thing with Batman. Superman's only friend in the issue is a strange female scientist we've never heard of named Dr. Veritas who has a lab in the center of the Earth. Superman even says she is the only person he trusts. It's bizarre.
So, you know, speaking of Bizarre, maybe... DC should start over yet again, say the last 13 months of Superman was really a new Bizarro all along, and bring back, you know... SUPERMAN... the way people really like him... in time for Man of Steel hitting theaters next summer.
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I am flabbergasted by Clark quitting the Daily Planet because they were apparently covering too many celebrity stories for his liking (perhaps the Planet is actually a tabloid sized paper in the DCnU and just started toward the gossipy direction?)
In the interview, Lobdell says he wants Clark to run "the next Huffington Post or the next Drudge Report" because those are bastions of non-sensationalized, non-tabloid news reporting!
Divorcing the political leanings from HuffPo, it's still a cesspit of bullshit science, fashion and gossip, gossip, gossip that "instruction from a larger conglomerate with concerns that aren't really [their] own." Drudge is just a poorly, oh so poorly, done aggregation site with an enormous agenda.
Why not just take the Planet virtual, as Newsweek has recently done and let it be this supposed oasis in the pile of crap that news reporting has become?
"Tattoos are the mullets of the aughts." - Mike Naimark
"Don't stop after beating the swords into ploughshares, don't stop! Go on beating and make musical instruments out of them. Whoever wants to make war again will have to turn them into ploughshares first" - Yehuda Amichai
I've actually felt for a while that Clark Kent's job at a newspaper doesn't make much sense. Not only is print a dying medium, but journalism hasn't been what it was in 1935 for a loong time. The whole idea originally was that Superman took the job so that he could hear about trouble as it happened, and thus be in the best position to do something about it. I feel like he should be in a blue collar job (Superman just seems blue-collar to me), in something that would allow him to travel a lot. Merchant sailor was what I came up with as an alternative to newsman. It would let him travel up and down the eastern seaboard, using Metropolis as his home base. It would give him a working-class connection to regular people, which has been a complaint about the character for a while, and it would also be a more organic way to put him into different locations.
Originally posted by Tenken347 I feel like he should be in a blue collar job (Superman just seems blue-collar to me), in something that would allow him to travel a lot. Merchant sailor was what I came up with as an alternative to newsman.
You mean like this?
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Originally posted by Tenken347 I feel like he should be in a blue collar job (Superman just seems blue-collar to me), in something that would allow him to travel a lot. Merchant sailor was what I came up with as an alternative to newsman.
You mean like this?
I couldn't ever quite tell exactly what his job is supposed to be in the new movie, or if that even is an indication of his career in it, but yeah. When I saw that the first time, I started thinking about what sorts of things they could be having him do, and merchant sailor is the one I came up with that I liked the best. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made, and I couldn't think of any alternatives that I liked better even outside of the context of Man of Steel.
Doesn't buildup mean anything anymore? That Daily Planet twist is completely out of left field! The closest parallel I can draw is Peter Parker getting fired from the Bugle. It was out of nowhere, it made no sense, and it played out really stupidly.
The Daily Planet publishes too many soft pieces. Since when? When has that ever come up?
This just reeks of an attempt to seem "hip" and "with it." I can't believe that I have to bring up the Kill Bill speech, but...Superman is the true person! Clark Kent is the DISGUISE! Why would he care what the Planet does? That's a secondary job, anyway! It shouldn't matter!
This is the kind of thing that would make more sense with Vic Sage, but he's too busy being reimagined as a reincarnated ancient demonic eternal entity that wears the faceless mask because he can't remember his murderous past.
Fucking hell, I can't believe I just typed that. What the hell, DC? Seriously!
If he had quit over some moral reason ie Perry won't run his piece or Lex continually blocking his efforts than yeah it would make sense. When he was "fired" it was because, he falsely accused Lex of letting Kansas get nuked which he did, but Lex was one step ahead. Even then Perry and him decided it was better for him to be on his own while saving the integrity of the paper.
Here, its more of the whinny I am too cool for this shit attitude for which people can't stand Superman. He needs the supporting cast to make him likable and if they are working with the studio to make it more like the film, than God help us. Out of any hero, Clark Kent needs a supporting cast even if its just Lois and Jimmy or the League or even Krypto. He needs someone there to ground him to a form of reality or give him a reason to fight. Instead of saving Lois or the Planet its just Metropolis until DC decides to shake things up again and send him to Detroit, again. And using Drudge as an example of newspaper integrity is a giant laugh. It feels like they want to make him social network Clark Kent who has snark comments about everything and no real facts. Clark Kent is a mild manner reporter, its worked for almost a 100 years, don't try to fix something that ain't broke.
The Wee Baby Sheamus.Twitter: @realjoecarfley its a bit more toned down there. A bit.
Originally posted by It's FalseThis just reeks of an attempt to seem "hip" and "with it." I can't believe that I have to bring up the Kill Bill speech, but...Superman is the true person! Clark Kent is the DISGUISE! Why would he care what the Planet does? That's a secondary job, anyway! It shouldn't matter!
Bill's logic was backwards! I thought that had been widely understood and accepted by now.
Originally posted by It's FalseThis just reeks of an attempt to seem "hip" and "with it." I can't believe that I have to bring up the Kill Bill speech, but...Superman is the true person! Clark Kent is the DISGUISE! Why would he care what the Planet does? That's a secondary job, anyway! It shouldn't matter!
Bill's logic was backwards! I thought that had been widely understood and accepted by now.
I really think this was the biggest loss from the reboot. Sure, the Clark Kent who works at the Planet is a disguise. But really, so is the Superman everybody sees. He's not allowed to be worried, or vulnerable, or human, because Superman is a symbol and he needs to rise above that stuff. It makes him just about impossible to relate to, though. The real Superman, to me, was the guy who was married to Lois, who hung out with Batman, who could go home to Smallville to talk to his parents or Lana. Who could be a regular person, and share some of that burden with an understanding supporting cast (and by proxy, the readers). When it comes to this new guy, I've got nothing to hang my hat on. Of course, I think I already said all this when they announced the reboot, so I'm probably just beating a dead horse at this point.
This is a fairly accurate listing of what I'd like to read this week: DARK HORSE COMICS Massive #10, $3.50 DC COMICS All-Star Western #18, $3.99 Aquaman #18 (Paul Pelletier & Sean Parsons Regular Cover), $2.
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