Superman: Planetary Matters

• Credits: by Immortalwildcat
• Published: March 5, 2001
• Link: Superman: Planetary Matters

• January, 1986: Ra's al Ghul returns home after Lex Luthor's “kryptonite city” scheme fails and instructs his agent Jeff Richardson to go ahead with their plan to buy the Daily Planet. [“Superman: Planetary Matters, Chapter 1: The Daily Planet for Sale”]
• A week after his meeting with Ra's al Ghul, Jeff Richardson approaches Morgan Edge with the offer to buy the Daily Planet. Although Edge at first refuses to sell the newspaper, he relents when Richardson presents evidence tying his rise to power with crime and Intergang. [“Superman: Planetary Matters, Chapter 1: The Daily Planet for Sale”]

February 10-12: GBS sells the Daily Planet to Nomed Ventures. The Daily Planet is expanded and moved to another building, which Ra's al Ghul is secretly duplicating. Jeff Richardson asks Superman for his help dedicating the new building. [“Superman: Planetary Matters, Chapter 1”]

• February 10-12: Perry White celebrates the sale of the Daily Planet to Nomed Ventures. Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen discuss the Planet's sale and Nomed Ventures itself. The next day, Jeff Richardson informs Perry White that he's moving the Daily Planet offices to the Taylor Building two blocks away, which had been the original Planet building before it moved in 1928 to its current location, which is now the GBS Building. Richardson also explains that he is upgrading the Planet's equipment and wants to make the paper a national daily like USA Today. In the Middle East, stone carvers working for Ra's al Ghul complete a lookalike of the Taylor Building before Talia kills them all with poison. The day after, Perry White introduces Jeff Richardson to Superman and asks his help for the dedication ceremony of the new Daily Planet building. [“Superman: Planetary Matters, Chapter 1: The Daily Planet for Sale”]
• February 28: The mayor of Metropolis rededicates the Taylor Building for the Daily Planet, and Superman affixes the repaired Daily Planet globe atop the building, which was missing from the skyline since Argo City was dropped on Metropolis last October. [“Superman: Planetary Matters, Chapter 2: The Planet Destroyed”]

April: The Daily Planet is expanded into a national newspaper. Superman battles a new super-villain called MadFire, who is secretly equipped by Ra's al Ghul with Luthor's technology. MadFire destroys the Daily Planet building, but Ra's al Ghul had secretly switched it with a duplicate building and shrunk the original using Brainiac's shrinking ray. [“Superman: Planetary Matters, Chapter 2”]

• April: In the two months since Nomed Ventures purchased the newspaper, Jeff Richardson sets up Daily Planet satellite offices in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Miami, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Morgan Edge is surprised by the newspaper's rapid success. Ra's al Ghul plans Superman's downfall. After Superman returns from saving a ship in the North Atlantic and returns to the Daily Planet, Perry White assigns Clark Kent to cover breaking news of a super-powered attack by a costumed man on Metro Stadium. Superman battles MadFire, who was equipped by Ra's al Ghul with Luthor's solar generator. MadFire blasts the Daily Planet building, apparently vaporizing it and killing everyone inside. In fact, the Daily Planet building was shrunk using Brainiac's shrinking ray, and it was replaced by the lookalike of the Taylor Building just before MadFire blasted it. Superman is blamed for not saving the Daily Planet building. Meanwhile, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen – shrunken with the building in a bottle – recognize the figures of Ra's al Ghul and Talia looming over them. [“Superman: Planetary Matters, Chapter 2: The Planet Destroyed”]