Superman:Secret Origins pt.3

Part 3-Mild Mannered Reporter

    We pick back up our look at Superman: Secret Origins with issue 3 and we open with Clark Kent on the streets of Metropolis and looking in awe at the city around him. He gets distracted when an elderly lady bumps into him, giving him an attitude like an Oprah audience member who just found out about the taxes they have to pay for their new car that they won just from his trying to help her pick up her cell phone.  This attitude is prevalent from nearly every one he comes across until he comes onto Luthor Avenue where he sees a new emotion coming from the Metropolitans, desperation.

    A nearby cop tells Clark that every day people line up at the gates of Lexcorp., (Luthor Avenue, Lexcorp., making sure nobody forgets who he is and how important he is) in the hopes that one person will be picked by Lex for their life to be changed for the better. Clark realizes the time and catches a cab the drops him off for his first day at the Daily Planet.  After a little slapstick to establish Clark’s bumbling persona he literally runs into the janitor Rudy Jones in the elevator. As they head up Rudy relates how the Planet has seen better days, it’s brought up later on in the story that the Daily Planet has been the only paper in town to call Lex Luthor out on his actions (such as a malfunctioning drone killing a bunch of innocent people in South America) and has paid the price for it by being blackballed. He also manages to guilt Clark into giving him his lunch so we see he’s much like the majority of folks in Metropolis that Clark has already run into.

     We get to the news room and we meet the cast of character such as the crusading Ron Troupe, the sports writer Steve Lombard who is defiantly well suited to his role as he pretty much acts like a jock, gossip columnist Cat Grant, and put upon cob photographer Jimmy Olsen, whom Clark instantly befriends. Its a loud shout from the editor’s office that we meet editor-in-chief Perry White and star reporter Lois Lane who’s currently in a shouting match with Perry over the Planet’s unwillingness to take on any controversial story. Remember at this point the Planet is pretty much in ruins after trying to take on political corruption and the actions of Lex Luthor and the Planet is on the brink of closing its doors because of it, Lois is still raging against the machine, but Perry who had for a long time been the loudest voice has resigned himself to the fact that they lost. He fires back at Lois that despite the fact Lois is a great writer she tends to be very cynical with her pieces, as opposed of how objective a reporter is supposed to be (which let’s be honest hasn’t been true in a long time.)

     Clark enters the scene and is introduced by Perry to Lois who immediately enlists Clark’s help on a story that involves breaking onto the ground of Lexcorp since The Planet was banned from their press events. We get a peek at Lois’ life from the complete disarray her desk is, Clark mentions how an orderly desk reflects an orderly mind and if that’s the case the Lois’ mind is all over the place and has no room for flowers as a bouquet that’s been delivered to her goes straight in the trash.

  With disguise in hand and Clark acting as a distraction Lois is able to crash the press event as Lex unveils a new and revolutionary metal called Metallo and the first thing he uses it for is to make a robotic exosuit that would make Ellen Ripley proud. Luthor flexes his new creation’s abilities by making it lift a helicopter and joking how he’s already patented his creation. Not a believer in Free Market Economics is he.

   Lois gets found out and rush the stage to get away from security but the commotion causes the exosuit to drop the helicopter which causes Lois to fall off the top of the Lexcorp building. Clark sees it and launches into action in costume and catches Lois who looks bewildered until she sees the helicopter falling towards them. Superman catches the helicopter and lands it on the ground. Superman is beset upon by people asking who he is and how he can help them. Some are all in fear of him as seen by a mother pulling her child away from the Man of Steel. The police enter the scene looking to detain Superman but we all know how well that’s going to work. Clark flies off hearing the people talking and questioning what just happened and realizes that he may have made a mistake.