His alter ego Clark Kent is quitting the Daily Planet, the Metropolis newspaper where he's worked since the first Superman comics were published in the 1940s, the USA Today newspaper said Monday.

The plot twist -- prompted by the Daily Planet's takeover by a media conglomerate -- is one of many to appear in the new edition of Superman that goes on sale Wednesday in both digital and hard-copy forms.

"Why am I the one sounding like a grizzled ink-stained wretch who believes news should be about, I don't know, news?" says the Man of Steel, according to a leaked panel that appeared on the Newsarama.com website.

"This is really what happens when a 27-year-old guy is behind a desk and he has to take instruction from a larger conglomerate with concerns that aren't really his own," new Superman writer Scott Lobdell told USA Today.

There was no immediate confirmation from Superman publisher DC Comics, itself part of the Time Warner multimedia empire, but Lobdell posted a link to the USA Today article on his Twitter account.