George Maxwell "Max" Taylor was Chloe's editor when she had a column at the Daily Planet her junior year in high school.
Season Three[]
When Chloe refused to provide Lionel Luthor with additional information, he had her column canceled, and she was fired. As Chloe packed up her desk, she asked him to look over some stories she wrote, but Max remarked that she must have enemies in high places to get blacklisted while still in high school, and he was unable to print anything she had written. However, he agreed to possibly publish Chloe's works under a pseudonym (Lois Lane). Chloe then realized that someone was targeting her due to her scathing article on Dr. Lawrence Garner and called Max to warn him. However, his secretary received a hypnotic email from Gardner's patient, Molly Griggs, and killed him by stabbing Max in the ear with a pencil.
Appearances[]
Notes[]
Smallville Ledger article on the death of Max Taylor.
- When Chloe reads the obits, the audience discovers that Max's full name is George Maxwell Taylor. This could be a tribute to the original Daily Planet (then called the Daily Star) editor George Taylor.
In the Comics[]
George Taylor as he appears in the New 52.
In the Golden Age, George Taylor was the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Star (Daily Planet's predecessor). Taylor first appeared in Action Comics #1, but he was first named in Superman #2.
He possessed a good acumen, knew what sold papers, and didn't care which of his reporters brought in the story as long as the Daily Star got it first. He had its offices in Cleveland, Ohio, prior to the move to Metropolis. Inexplicably in Action Comics #2, Kent and Taylor worked for the Cleveland Evening News, the above arrangement remained unchanged through Action #22. Kent apparently had persuaded Taylor to hire him only shortly before the first issue of Action by phoning in an exclusive account of Superman's first public act—thwarting an attempted lynching at the county jail. George Taylor remained the editor (Action #25) through Action #30, after which new Daily Planet editor Perry White inexplicably appeared. Kent and Lane made no reference to the management change, though they clearly were not as enamored of White as they'd been of Taylor.
In the Silver Age, when DC Comics made use of its multiverse, it was declared that the Daily Star, edited by George Taylor, was the workplace of the Golden Age or "Earth-Two" Clark Kent while the Daily Planet, edited by Perry White, was unique to his Silver Age or "Earth-One" counterpart.
Perry White was promoted to Editor-in-Chief upon the retirement of the Earth-One version of George Taylor.
On Earth-Two, however, George was still the Editor-in-Chief and Perry was just a lead reporter and "filled in" as editor from time to time when Taylor was away. George Taylor retired in the early 1950s, and Kent was selected as the new Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Star.
George also appeared in the Elseworlds storylines, War of the Worlds and Generations.
In the New 52, Daily Star is a separate newspaper and the Planet's competitor, under George Taylor, who is a top journalist and Editor-in-Chief. In Action Comics, set 5 years in the past, George hires Clark Kent in his first reporter job, making him a friend and ally to Superman. However, in the present day Clark is shown working for the Planet before quitting to start his own blog and it is not explained why he left Daily Star.
External links[]
- George Taylor on DC Database