You may be seeing a lot of press about a new version of Superman these days, from a graphic novel called Superman: Earth One that comes out today. People have been throwing around adjectives with no regard for the safety of those around them, words like “cinematic,” or “staggering,” or “hipster.” You may be wondering how this new version of the Man of Steel will affect you and your loved ones.

Is he really a hipster? Does he still stand for Truth, Justice, and the American Way? Is he going to lobotomize me with his laser eyesohgod.

Allow us to explain.

Remember those alternate universe comic book covers that DC cooked up for a sneaky appearance in an episode of Fringe?

No?

Well, go look, they were pretty cool. They appeared in this year’s Fringe season finale, as alternate versions of some of the most famous DC issues. Meltdown Comics has gotten a hold of one of each of the five fake covers, and is auctioning them off, with all the proceeds going to Autism Speaks.

Exactly two weeks ago, Marvel comics announced that it would be cutting the price of “selected” titles debuting in January, but, unlike DC, Marvel’s price announcement didn’t mention specifically how many or which titles would be miraculously cheaper.

Eyebrows have risen regarding how closely Marvel’s price announcement followed DC’s. With only an hour between the two, many wondered whether Marvel had really planned on it, or if it was an emergency statement made so that they could say that they had it planned all along and totally weren’t scooped by DC, guys. Whether that is true or not is neither here nor there.

However, Marvel has now made public knowledge exactly which titles will go on sale for $3 instead of $4 this January, and, well. Turns out that “selected” means 3 out of 10.

No one was really allowed to film in the preview rooms of New York Comic Con, but we know that doesn’t actually stop people.  And for hand-cam footage, this actually ain’t that bad.

Although I could nitpick about some of the dialogue and Batman appearing in broad daylight, overall, the show looks worth checking out.  The animation is slick, and, as a Bruce Timm/Paul Dini-verse fan, not a style that I’m used to seeing my heroes in.

But seriously where are the girls.  Not even one?  We know that Miss Martian and Artemis (that’s Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman’s proteges) are in the show.  Why didn’t they make the preview?

(via Bleeding Cool.)

How to explain why you’re not being as ambitious as your competitor by saying that you’re actually so much more awesome than them that you don’t have to be, oh and by the way what they’re doing is totally lame anyway why would you even want it:

I’m going to speak frankly: I think our characters are bigger than Marvel’s.

That was Geoff Johns, Chief Creative Officer at DC, speaking at New York Comic Con yesterday.

He said that he’d rather spend time building each character on his or her own rather than “smashing them together.”

Good news, perennially exploited comics fans: DC Comics has announced that they’re cutting standard, 32-page issue prices by a dollar, from $3.99 to $2.99.

DC:

“As Co-Publishers, we listened to our fans and to our partners in the retail community who told us that a $3.99 price point for 32 pages was too expensive. Fans were becoming increasingly reluctant to sample new titles and long term fans were beginning to abandon titles and characters that they’d collected for years.” said Dan DiDio, DC Comics Co-Publisher. “We needed a progressive pricing strategy that supports our existing business model and, more importantly, allows this creative industry to thrive for years to come. With the exceptions of oversized comic books, like annuals and specials, we are committed to a $2.99 price point.”

More detailed list of impacted titles here.

How Dangerous is Image File Metadata? (The Assurer)

Playboy’s Most Scandalous Fiction (Flavorwire)

12 Questions About the DC Move (The Comics Reporter)

Facebook’s Zuckerberg Gives 100 Mil to NJ Schools (Google News)

Scrabble on the Kindle. …Scrindle. Krabble? (Wired)

A Chemist and A 3-Year-Old (Science Creative Quarterly)

Reddit Quietly Booms (The Awl)

(pic via Reddit user Schizocat.)

Inspired casting by Dave Wachter. I do love the fact that George/Batman is holding a golf ball.

See also: Julie Bell‘s Seinfeld/Star Wars mashup.

(Dave Wachter via Super Punch)

Yesterday DC Comics made a long expected announcement that they will be moving part of their offices to Burbank, California, to be closer to the movie studio that is looking forward to exploiting their characters for box office proceeds. As a part of that announcement, they also mentioned that they will be shutting down WildStorm, one of their relatively independent imprints. And so begins the speculation of what, exactly, will happen to the WildStorm Universe, a specific superhero setting with its own rules and concepts, much as the DC and Marvel Universes themselves.

I can pretty much guarantee that if you don’t read comics, you won’t recognize many of the titles that I’m going to mention below (although you might use it as a recommended reading list). If you do read comics, you’ll notice me mentioning quite a few examples of the most interesting out-of-the-box superhero stories of the last 20 years. They’re all Wildstorm titles, and they’re all being indefinitely boxed up at the end of this December so that they can maybe be incorporated into the DC Universe.

But before I get into what Wildstorm titles will be affected by the editorial apocalypse, a brief history lesson is in order, for irony’s sake if nothing else.

There’s been a lot of hubbub this weekend over an interview published on Bleeding Cool, where Adi Tantimedh, a writer of comics and film, interviewed Alan Moore, a writer of a great many different things, over a subject that was bound to get Moore to say some inflammatory things: Watchmen, who has the rights to it, and his current relationship with DC Comics.

It should come as no surprise that Moore said some pretty inflammatory things. The post interview commentator debate seems to be between two camps: those who believe that Moore is a paranoid weirdo, and those who believe that Moore is a justifiably paranoid weirdo.

Allow us to explain.