Daily Bugle

Daily Bugle
The DB building, as drawn by Chris Bachalo in 2008[1]
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Fantastic Four #2
In-story information
Type of business	Newspaper
Owner(s)	Thomas Fireheart (former) William Walter Goodman (former) Norman Osborn (former) J. Jonah Jameson (former) Dexter Bennett (current)
Employee(s)	Kat Farrell Betty Brant Glory Grant Peter Parker Formerly: Joe "Robbie" Robertson Irene Merryweather Ben Urich Ned Leeds

The Daily Bugle (currently The DB)^[2] is a fictional New York City newspaper that is a regular fixture in the Marvel Universe, most prominently in Spider-Man and its derivative media. The company first appeared in Fantastic Four #2.

Publishing history

The Daily Bugle is featured prominently in most Marvel Comics titles, especially Spider-Man. In 1996, a three-issue (black and white) limited series was printed.

Since 2006, Marvel has published a monthly Daily Bugle newspaper reporting on the company's publications and authors. Marvel earlier used the newspaper format to promote Marvel's crossover events Civil War and House of M—reporting on storyline events as if the comic book Daily Bugle had come to life. Marvel restored this promotional function for the 2007 death of Captain America.

Fictional biography

The Daily Bugle was founded in 1897 and has been published daily ever since. The Daily Bugle is printed in tabloid format like its rival The Daily Globe. The editor and publisher of the Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson, began his journalistic career as a reporter for the Bugle while still in high school. Jameson purchased the then-floundering Bugle with inheritance funds, from his recently deceased father-in-law and turned the paper into a popular success. Other magazines published from time-to-time include the revived Now magazine and the now-defunct Woman magazine, edited by Carol Danvers.

J. Jonah Jameson, Inc. purchased the Goodman Building on 39th Street and Second Avenue in 1936 and moved its entire editorial and publishing facilities there.^[3] Now called the Daily Bugle Building, the office complex is forty-six stories tall, and is capped by the Daily Bugle logo in 30-foot (9.1 m) letters on the roof. There are loading docks in the rear of the building, reached by a back alley. Three floors are devoted to the editorial office of the Bugle and two sub-basement levels to the printing presses, while the rest of the floors are rented. (A panel in issue 105 of The Amazing Spider-Man showed the Bugle building located near a street sign at the corner of Madison Avenue and a street in the East Fifties (the second digit was not shown). This suggests that the building may have been relocated at some point.)

The newspaper is noted for its anti-superhero slant, especially concerning Spider-Man, whom the paper constantly smears as a part of its editorial policy. However, the Editor-in-Chief, "Robbie" Robertson, the only subordinate to Jameson who is not intimidated by him, has worked to moderate it. More positively, the newspaper has also published important exposes of political corruption and organized crime in the city, and also takes a strong stance in favor of mutant rights, which has led to its being targeted by various criminals and hate groups.

Due to declining circulation, Jameson has conceded to Robertson's objections and has created a special feature section of the paper called The Pulse which focuses on superheroes. In addition, the paper also intermittently ran a glossy magazine called Now Magazine.

Recently in the pages of the New Avengers, the team decided to strike a deal with Jameson regarding exclusive content in exchange for removing the strong anti-Spider-Man sentiment from the newspaper, to which Jameson agreed. Merely one day later, Jameson broke the spirit-though not the letter-of his agreement with Iron Man, using the headline "a wanted murderer (Wolverine), an alleged ex-member of a terrorist organization (Spider-Woman) and a convicted heroin-dealer (Luke Cage) are just some of the new recruits set to bury the once good name of the Avengers," but refraining from attacking Spider-Man. This caused Jessica Jones to sell the first pictures of her newborn baby to one of the Bugle's competitors instead.

In the first issue of Runaways Vol. 2, Victor Mancha states in an exchange about Spider-Man that "The only people who think he's a criminal are Fox News and the Daily Bugle. And the Bugle is, like, the least respected newspaper in New York City." The paper's major named competitors are the The Daily Globe, which implicitly takes a more balanced look at the superhero, Front Line, run by EIC Ben Urich and Sally Floyd, and The Alternative. After Peter Parker revealed he is Spider-Man and the Bugle planned to sue him for fraud, the paper itself was put on the defensive with front page accusations from The Globe (with information secretly supplied by Bugle reporter Betty Brant) of libeling the superhero.

The adventures of the staff of the newspaper beyond Peter Parker have been depicted in two series, Daily Bugle and The Pulse.

Recently, after Jameson suffered a near-fatal heart attack, his wife sold the Bugle to rival newspaper man Dexter Bennett, who changed the name to The DB(either standing for Dexter Bennett ot Daily Bugle.), and transformed it into a scandal sheet.^[2] Since after Brand New Day no one knows the secret identity of Spider-Man anymore, the animosity between Jameson and Parker is retconned as a simple financiary question, with Jameson's heart attack coming right after a monetary request from Peter.

The reputation of the DB since the mention in Runaways has plummeted down because of the new, scandalistic angle Bennett gives it. Several reporters unwilling, or refusing the new course, like Peter himself, are forced to go away, finding a new safe haven in the Frontline, the only magazine willing to accept people fired by Bennett, pursuing a scorched earth policy over them.

Fictional staff members

Current