Is Superman Clark Kent or is Clark Kent Superman? That's been a question among readers. Superman has always strived to embrace his human upbringing. This helps him relate to those that he is trying to protect. He may be a Kryptonian by birth but he definitely considers Earth his home.
To maintain his human guise, Clark Kent has established himself as a top newsreporter. This is something he developed a passion for and it allowed himself the opportunity to run out to cover any big events while also saving the day as Superman.
Lately we haven't seen much of Clark Kent. Superman spent a year living on New Krypton and as soon he returned, he went on his walk across America. During all this, how has Clark Kent kept his job? Has he taken a leave of absence or is he still phoning in article submissions while on the road? More importantly, does Clark Kent even need a job?
Because he's Superman, he can easily do things at super speed. That means 'Clark Kent' could easily cover the breaking news and type it up at lightning speed in order to appease Perry White. Is this really the best use of his time? While it might only take him a few minutes total to get the story, talk to witnesses, type it up and send it out, those few minutes could be used to save someone from a burning building or a deadly car crash.
Superman needs his time as Clark to maintain his connection to his human side. Being Superman all the time could make him forget about the people he's trying to protect. If he became cold and sterile to the needs that humans have, it could affect his judgement when performing as Superman. But to maintain that human connection, does he really need to have a job as a reporter? It's not like he's soaking in all this time hanging out at the Daily Planet because he's hardly even there these days.
Because Clark has the advantage of essentially covering any story he wanted anywhere on the planet, combined with his speedy typing and filing, he could be the best reporter around. Due to his noble nature, Clark would never take advantage of his super-abilities to that extent. Clark is more than willing to let Lois take the big stories.
Lois Lane is the better reporter and Clark could let Lois be the breadwinner in the family. Clark could spend his human time being a regular writer if he wanted to have a job in order to fit in with the human race. He has written (at least) one novel before and writing from home gives him a way not to have to worry about disappearing whenever trouble pops up.
The question is how good of a reporter is Clark Kent? How good does he allow himself to be? Perry's been very forgiving allowing Clark to maintain his job when he's never around. I'm surprised he hasn't actually been fired (and not part of some secret scheme between Perry, Clark and...Superman).
Superman has the ability to fly anywhere in the world in seconds but he has plenty of other responsibilities with the Justice League and to his wife. The idea of having a job as a reporter in order to maintain a connection to humanity is silly if he's doing his reporting at lighting speed in between Superman's missions. He's never around the Daily Planet anymore so it's time Perry White gave the job to someone willing to commit to being a journalist, someone that actually needs the job. There's the chance that Perry White suspects Clark really is Superman, otherwise it doesn't make sense that he would allow him to keep his job...unless Clark earns a really low salary.
