Journalism’s future lies online — at least according to Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent, who is about to quit his job at The Daily Planet and found a version of the Drudge Report.
In the new issue of DC Comics’ Superman series, out on Thursday, Clark will stand up in front of staff in a “Jerry Maguire-type moment” and resign, bemoaning “how journalism has given way to entertainment”, writer Scott Lobdell told USA Today.
Clark, played by Brandon Routh in Superman Returns, will call on his fellow reporters to stand up for truth, justice, “and yeah — I’m not ashamed to say it — the American way”, said Mr. Lobdell.
“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 ... a guy who takes to the Internet and to the airwaves and starts speaking an unvarnished truth.”
“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 pay cheque from.”
Clark Kent has worked at Metropolis paper The Daily Planet since the 1940s, though Comic Book Resources notes he has left the company in the past.
Mr. Lobdell said his departure this time is “what happens when a 27-year-old guy is behind a desk and he has to take instruction from a larger conglomerate with concerns that aren’t his own...”
“Superman is arguably the most powerful person on the planet, but how long can he sit at his desk with someone ... treating him like the least important person in the world?” asked the writer. © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2012
