Clark Kent simply quits his long-time job at the Daily Planet in the latest comic book release of Superman. Since Vol. #1 in 1940, his alter ego has worked as a reporter for the newspaper.
In the actual current Superman story timeline however, Kent has really only worked for the paper for about 5 years. In the new issue, Kent has an exchange with the paper’s editor Perry White.
Kent tells White, “I’ve been a journalist barely five years now. Why am I the one sounding like a grizzled ink-stained wretch who thinks that news should be about — I don’t know, news?”
“Go easy on us mere mortals, Clark. Times are changing, and print is a dying medium,” White responds.
Kent then has a heated exchange with Daily Planet owner Morgan Edge about the state of journalism and announces in front of the newspaper’s staff that he is quitting.
“This is the beginning of a multifaceted story line that will challenge Clark on all levels — personally and professionally, as both himself and as Superman,” a DC Entertainment representative said in a statement. “This is not the first time in DC Comics history that Clark Kent has left the Planet, and this time the resignation reflects present-day issues — the balance of journalism vs. entertainment, the role of new media, the rise of the citizen journalist, etc.”
Meanwhile writer Scott Lobdell, speculated on where Kent would go from here. “Rather than Clark be this clownish suit that Superman puts on, we’re going to really see Clark come into his own in the next few years as far as being a guy who takes to the Internet and to the airwaves and starts speaking an unvarnished truth,” Lobdell told USA Today. “I don’t think he’s going to be filling out an application anywhere … 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.”