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Daily Planet |
| 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. |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Action Comics #23 (April 1940) |
| In-story information | |
| Type of business | Newspaper |
| Owner(s) | Franklin Stern (former) Lex Luthor (former) Bruce Wayne |
| Employee(s) | Perry White (publisher/editor) Clark Kent Lois Lane Jimmy Olsen Cat Grant Ron Troupe Steve Lombard Lana Lang |
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.citation needed The Planet began publication in 1775; George Washington wrote a guest editorial for the first daily edition.citation needed The Daily Planet building's most distinguishing and famous feature is the enormous globe that sits on top of the building.
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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.)1 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.
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. It has had violent worker strikes. The building itself, along with most of the city, is destroyed during the "Fall of Metropolis" storyline; it is only much later it is restored by the efforts of various superheroes. The Planet building sustained heavy damages after the villain Doomsday's rampage. Later, 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, 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- where, in exchange for him returning the Planet to Perry, she would kill one-story of his choosing at some future date with no questions asked-, 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.
 Perry White, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Cat Grant, Steve Lombard, Ron Troupe and Jimmy Olsen at The Daily Planet |
The Planet's major competitors in Metropolis include the tabloid newspaper the Daily Star, WGBS-TV (which also employed Jimmy Olsen and Cat Grant for a time), and Lex Luthor's various media operations.
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.2
The Daily Planet has been featured in all adaptations of Superman to other media.
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