Daily Planet

This article is about the fictional newspaper. For other uses, see Daily Planet (disambiguation).

The Daily Planet

The Daily Planet building under attack from Titano, from Showcase Presents Superman Volume 2 (2006). Art by Curt Swan and George Klein. Note: the cover is a recolored version of the cover from Superman #138, July 1960.
Type	Fictional daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	Bruce Wayne
Publisher	Perry White
Editor	Perry White
Founded	1932
Headquarters	Metropolis, U.S.A.
Website	Daily Planet Website

The Daily Planet is a fictional broadsheet 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.

History

Gold, Silver and Bronze Ages

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 named the Daily Star after the Toronto Daily Star newspaper in Toronto, Ontario, which had been the newspaper that 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 both the Silver Age and Bronze Age continuities, 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 destroyed during the "Fall of Metropolis" storyline; the Planet building sustaining heavy damages after the villain Doomsday's rampage; and possibly its darkest hour as Franklin Stern decided to put the paper up for sale. Lex Luthor, 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 (a fictional counterpart of conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh), 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, where it has remained ever since.

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 due to temporal instabilities caused by the B13 Virus, 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.

Superman: Birthright

In the Superman: Birthright limited series, the Daily Planet's publisher is Quentin Galloway, an abrasive overbearing loudmouth who bullies Jimmy Olsen, and later Clark Kent, before being told off by Lois Lane, whom Galloway cannot fire because of her star status.

In other media

File:Daily-planet-globe.jpg

The Daily Planet as seen in Superman Returns (2006).

The Marine Building in Vancouver, which stands in as the Daily Planet building in Smallville.

The Daily Planet has featured in all adaptations of Superman to other media.

• During most of the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman, the Daily Planet exterior was Los Angeles City Hall.

• In 1978's Superman: The Movie and its sequels, the Daily Planet exterior was the New York Daily News Building. The globe, which used to be on the top of the building, was apparently replaced with one in the front lobby to make room for a helipad on the roof.

• Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman introduced the idea of a smaller globe above the building's entrance (the rooftop was never shown).
  At the end of the first season the paper was bought and closed down by Luthor (as would later happen in the comics). Its relaunch was funded by Metropolis businessman Franklin Stern.

• In the 2000s live-action television series Smallville, the Daily Planet building is located across the street from the LuthorCorp building. The editor-in-chief of the Planet in this series is Pauline Kahn. One of the main characters of Smallville, Chloe Sullivan, works in the basement of the Planet. In episode 10 of the 6th season a street sign is shown as Chloe (Allison Mack) runs out of the Daily Planet from Linda Lake (Tori Spelling) and shows that the Planet is located at 355 Burrard st.

• The 2006 Superman Returns movie has redesigned The Daily Planet as a completely computer generated image of a fictional building in a fully fictional city.

Cultural references

• The band The Dukes of Stratosphear, an alter ego for XTC, makes reference to the newspaper in a song called "Brainiac's Daughter" on their 1987 album Psonic Psunspot: "Brainiac's daughter talks like a Daily Planet reporter."

• The band Love has a song called "The Daily Planet" on their 1967 album Forever Changes. The phrase "Daily Planet" is never actually mentioned in the song, and none of the lyrics make reference to Superman.

• The real-life newspaper in Metropolis, Illinois is named after the Daily Planet. However, as it is a weekly newspaper, it is named the Metropolis Planet.

• The Asheville Daily Planet , an alternative weekly newspaper, debuted in Asheville, North Carolina in December 2004. The first article of the first issue made references to the Superman mythos. "I thought [it] would be kind of a smashing name, because everybody reads Superman comics," Publisher John North has said.

• The Brazilian humor group Casseta & Planeta created a satiric newspaper in 1984 called Planeta Diário (Daily Planet in Portuguese) in a nod to Clark Kent's newspaper. The newspaper sold 100,000 copies per edition.

• The cable television network Discovery Channel features a show called Daily Planet. Hosted by Jay Ingram and Natasha Stillwell, the Discovery Channel Web site describes it as "a one-hour long science magazine show that brings you the world like you've never seen it before."

• American sportscaster Chris Berman of ESPN, who is well known for his pun-ny nicknames for various baseball players, dubbed St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Ken Dayley (1984-90) "Ken Dayley Planet".

External links

• DAILY PLANET A Brasilian great site devoted to the Superman Universe
• "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.
• The Superman Homepage's entry for the Daily Planet
• Supermanica: Daily Planet Supermanica entry on the Pre-Crisis Daily Planet