Superman 13 big news (spoiler)
Planeis
Posts: 980
According to the Drudge Report and other news sources, Clark Kent will be quiting the Daily Planet.
Obviously we have to see this play out. But on first blush my thoughts are that it's being done simply to get eyeballs and buzz.
If course the goal is to get readers, but it just strikes me as something that is being done in a hurry as an attention grabber. Again, have to see how it plays out. But if it were being done for real character development I think such a big change would have happened gradually and seemed more organic. This just seeks like "hey, let's shake things up."
Obviously we have to see this play out. But on first blush my thoughts are that it's being done simply to get eyeballs and buzz.
If course the goal is to get readers, but it just strikes me as something that is being done in a hurry as an attention grabber. Again, have to see how it plays out. But if it were being done for real character development I think such a big change would have happened gradually and seemed more organic. This just seeks like "hey, let's shake things up."
Comments
It could be "let's shake this up", but of course it is hard to have story without a changes in status quo, even temporary ones. Often that is where the drama comes from. Characters have to make decisions, whether right or wrong, for there to be consequences of decisions.
I've also read 'Clark Kent gets fired from the Daily Planet' and 'Clark Kent becomes Managing Editor of the Daily Planet'.
I'll react later.
And I thought that question of why he needed a secret identity was already thoroughly covered over the past 75 years!?
When a character has been running this long, across so many titles, should we even expect something new or different? Especially when there is, clearly, only so much variation and experimentation the readership will allow? Seems like damned if you do/ damned if you don't.
At the end if the day, the work is either entertaining to you or not. I don't think the metrics of whether or not it is new, or whether it not they are trying to generate interest are a useful way to approach a nearly 80 year old serial.
Because none of it is new. And if they are doing their job, then they are always trying to grab attention and compete.
And before anyone defers to the, 'I just want good strories'. Well, of course. I think we all do, and I think they do. This story is getting published because some people think it is a good story that people will want to read.
Of course, they've done that storyline before too... and had some interesting and prescient takes on it, back in the late 90's, when Luthor bought the Planet and turned it into a web-only enterprise that simply data-mined rather than research and write news stories.
Of course, the present could make for more interesting background, given that print newspapers, as noted, is a dying enterprise, and the Superman background has to evolve, even if the character isn't doing much along those lines. Clark could simply become a newsblogger, and post from any location in the world. The problem with that would be a serious lack of interaction with any colleagues, because he wouldn't need it anymore in his combined profession of blogger and hero; but his personality would suffer from the loss.
To be completely realistic, Clark Kent could never have been a reporter. You can't be gone for days or weeks at a time fighting some global or deep-space threat and not be filing reports every day. Editors do not like being kept out of the loop. Especially now with cell phones. Reporters are on their phones constantly.
But a blogger with a smart phone (and Kryptonian tech) that can post updates from anywhere he happens to be? Perfect.
Full body scanning with x-ray vision sans the embarrassment of seeing a nekkid doughboy on a vid screen.
I thought Superman already quit and became a fireman.
Is Superman going to become the Mike Rowe of super heroes?
And, yes, it was covered by the news media then, too, since he was leaving the great metropolitan newspaper, to work for the enemy, the nightly news.