Clark Kent Fired

Jeph Loeb ends his run on Superman and brings to fruition the story lines that he seeded in his first issue.  Though Loeb's departure was planned, in his final issue Clark Kent was unexpectedly fired from the Daily Planet.

Superman #183

The Daily Planet prints Lois and Clark's story that President Luthor had knowledge of the Imperiex invasion before it happened, and Luthor immediately lashes out at them with a denial.  Perry White calls the two reporters into his office, knowing that they were both behind it, and demands hard evidence by the end of the day.  The Justice League is called to the White House so that the Martian Manhunter can probe Luthor's mind to see if he's telling the truth.  Unfortunately, the Martian Manhunter is forced to admit that Luthor is saying what he believes is true.  Reluctantly, Superman announces the JLA's conclusion to the world.  At the same time he communicates telepathically to Luthor via the Martian Manhuner, to let him know he still knows Lex is lying.  Lois confronts Luthor's bodyguard Hope, who had been her source, but Hope denies ever even speaking to Lois before.  At the end of the day, Clark returns to Perry White's office and, failing to produce any supporting evidence, Clark is fired.  But on the last page, Superman visits Perry White at the top of the Daily Planet building where we find out the firing was just for show.  Perry White knows Superman knows Luthor is lying too, and he discloses that Clark Kent is still working for him undercover.  Not even Lois is aware of this secret.

Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness would reunite more than a year later for the opening arc of the new series,  Superman/Batman, which would bring Lex Luthor's presidency to an end.

Adventures of Superman #605

Mirror, Mirror part 3 of 3

The baby that was previously thought to be the lovechild of Superwoman and Owlman is revealed to be the Brainiac from their world, who Ultraman had enslaved.  Brainiac starts to enlarge the tesseract Fortress of Solitude, and its mass rapidly grows larger than Metropolis, causing world-destroying gravitational disturbances.  

Owlman claims to possess a white dwarf ingot, his world's equivalent of Kryptonite, which would kill both Ultraman and Brainiac.  Ultraman turns on Brainiac to save his own life, but is then furious to find out it was just a bluff.  Superwoman follows the Brainiac baby to the Phantom Zone and kills him.  The Crime Syndicate villains return to the anti-matter universe and Superman returns his Fortress of Solitude to its place in the North Pole.

This story arc was intended to be an epic sequel to Grant Morrison's Earth 2 graphic novel which reintroduced the Crime Syndicate.  The Carlos Pacheco covers are reminiscent of Frank Quitely's art, but Carlos Meglia's cartoony interior art is a pale comparison.  Both stories end in a stalemate, but this conclusion isn't as satisfying in the format of an ongoing comic book series.  This story did bring these characters into mainstream continuity, although they wouldn't be seen again until a few years later in the pages of JLA.

Superman: The Man of Steel #127

Pantheon part 2 of 2

While Superman fights the evil gods who transformed Lois into the Goddess of Integrity, Lois goes to her father's grave to see if her new divine powers can help her bring him back from the dead.  Sensing this disturbance, Wonder Woman goes to have a talk with Lois.  Diana explains to Lois that the more she uses this power the less integrity she'll have, and that she's always had everything she needed within her mortal self.  

After Superman defeats the evil gods, Zeus and an entourage of benevolent deities come to collect them.  Superman asks Zeus about his Kryptonian deity, Rao, but Zeus becomes angry and tells Superman never to speak that name in his presence again.  Superman finds Lois at her father's grave, where she is slowly returning to mortal as her powers evaporate.  Lois and Superman have an overdue talk to come to terms with why he was there for Diana but couldn't be there to save her father during the Imperiex war.

Action Comics #792

The worker at a newsstand near the Daily Planet stops showing up one day, but only Clark Kent seems to care about this insignificant disappearance.  With no day job to distract him at the moment, Clark puts his journalist skills to use to find out what happened to a man whose last name he didn't even know.  It is odd that there's a scene of Clark talking to Lois about his investigation at the Daily Planet, comfortably sitting in a seat behind a desk as if he belongs there.  Though the dialogue makes it clear that Clark was already fired, it feels like this scene was drawn before that plot development.  Clark uncovers a gambling conspiracy that trapped his friend who was desperate to pay for his daughter's med school, but though he was lucky to win big, he was more unlucky that the mafia couldn't afford to pay him.  The crime boss is shocked that Superman uncovered the murder, because he had assumed nobody would miss a guy working at newspaper shack.  Superman retrieves the body and Lois Lane writes the story, telling the city that when one person disappears somebody should notice, because every one of us matters.