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Today, we look at the various different ways of how Clark Kent got his job at the Daily Planet over the years!
This is “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking,” a feature spotlighting notable examples of retcons that don’t fit into the framework of Abandoned an’ Forsaked, which is specifically about stories that outright “overturn” older stories. There are many examples of “retroactive continuity” that do not actively abandon the works of the past (especially cases where the overall continuity was rebooted). Some of them are minor, some of them are major, all of them are interesting enough to me that I figure that they are worth writing about.
I don’t have it in my notes who asked me this one (whoever it was was specifically wondering when the version of events that involved Clark interviewing Superman debuted), which reminds me to remind you all that it is easiest to just e-mail me question at brianc@cbr.com, as that way I have an easy record of who asked me what. A question asked on, say, Twitter or Facebook or wherever will certainly get to me, but it is hard to keep track of who asked the question. If you just want the question answered and don’t care that I mention your name, then that’s fair enough, just letting ya know.
ANYhow, on to the topic!
The first time we saw Clark Kent going to work for the Daily Planet was in 1948’s Adventure Comics #128 (by Bill Finger, Al Wenzel and George Roussos), where Clark and Lois Lane both win gigs as cub reporters at the Daily Planet, where Lois repeatedly scoops Clark as Clark is too busy trying to save her as Superboy. The whole deal is hilarious since it is just filled with lots of winks and nudges. “I hope it won’t be like this if I meet her when I’m Superman!” And the captions are all, like, “It WILL be, Superboy!”
That story is ignored two years later when this time, Clark gets an “offer” from Perry White at a high school ceremony, but when Clark goes to look him up when he’s ready for a job in Action Comics #144 (by Al Schwartz, Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye), White has forgotten about about him and so Clark has to work multiple jobs while trying to get in with Perry, including a hilarious bit as a vacuum cleaner salesman!
Bizarrely, Clark gets his first Daily Planet gig while Perry isn’t even THERE, as Clark delivers his scoop to the Planet while Perry is out of commission and Perry is upset that the Planet has been scooped by every other paper out there when it turns out that the other papers are just piggybacking off of the Planet’s EARLY day coverage, courtesy of Clark’s article!
1958’s Superboy #63 (by Otto Binder and John Sikela) now have Clark getting a cub reporter gig at the Daily Planet, only this time it was Perry White himself and Lois DOESN’T get a gig. Amusingly, Clark gladly uses his Superboy connections to get the gig.
Clark is so bad at the job (from being distracted by having to save the day repeatedly as Superboy) that he gets fired and he is only bailed out by Perry not remembering his name, so he won’t remember him when he applies years later as Clark Kent.
Then we get to 1959’s Superman #133 (by Jerry Siegel and Al Plastino) that became THE definitive story of how Clark was hired for DECADES.
This time, Perry is basically being a jerk to Clark, giving him boring assignments that Clark keeps turning into scoops through the presence of Superman (or Clark doing stuff with his super powers. It’s super unethical, but Perry is being a jerk, so I’m okay with it)…
Finally, Perry gives him a SUPER jerky assignment of getting Superman to pose with some kryptonite, but Clark pulls it off and is hired…
Then Crisis on Infinite Earths changed continuity and we got the NEXT most notable version of how Clark got his job, as Lois Lane is doing everything she can to get the first interview with Superman, but in Man of Steel #2 (by John Byrne and Dick Giordano), she finds out she has been scooped by…Clark Kent!
SUPER UNETHICAL, CLARK!
Mark Waid plays it much more natural (by far the MOST natural one out of any of the origins) in Superman: Birthright (by Waid, Leinil Franci Yu and the late, great Gerry Alanguilan). In the first issue, Waid establishes that Clark has been traveling the globe working as a freelance reporter. Clark then interviews in Birthright #4, but he is so meek that it looks like he might not get hired, but we see in #5 that Clark did a great bit of in-depth reporting and finds the first piece of dirt on Lex Luthor and is then hired…
In Superman: Secret Origin #3 (by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Jon Sibal and Brad Anderson), it is purely economics, as the Planet is losing reporters like crazy and so Perry is just willing to hire pretty much anyone, but Lois sees through that and knows that Perry obviously saw SOMEthing in Clark and so as soon as he gets to the job, she decides to work with him on an expose…
Finally, in Superman: Year One #3 (by Frank Miller, John Romita Jr., Danny Miki and Alex Sinclair), Clark works for Kansas State University’s newspaper while he is in college and gets recommended to Perry White and gets hired…
That was probably the most non-descript of all of the hirings over the years, which is kind of funny that we’ve gotten LESS descript over the years.
Okay, folks, feel free to suggest more examples of this sort of thing! Obscure ones, famous ones, whatever! Send your suggestions to brianc@cbr.com!
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