The world of comics is an ever-expanding one. With each new title comes a bevy of new superheroes, villains and general populace that then must be worked with when dealing with the greater continuity. Sometimes, this can lead to interesting developments like The Avengers or one of their various incarnations or can even lead to massive crossover events.

Regardless, continuity marches on and things become convoluted, complex and downright difficult to work around. It should come as no surprise, then, that DC Comics has decided to go ahead and “relaunch” their universe with all new #1s in September. It’s not as if this is setting precedent either. This is following in a long tradition of reboots, relaunches and general simplifications.

These types of events are sometimes met with frustration on the part of fans, such as the M-Day aftermath in the Marvel multiverse, or with genuine enthusiasm, like the previous Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline in DC Comics. More often than not, these stories herald the death of many different versions of superheroes and others that fans have come to know and love. (Though it likely deserves to be mentioned here, the Spider-Man: One More Day saga is just too painful to talk about.)

So, it’s with cautious optimism that I look forward to the coming “relaunch,” which you can brush up on over at The Mary Sue.

DC Comics has announced that it will no longer be submitting its issues to the notorious Comics Code Authority (CCA) for their approval as of January 2011. In a letter addressed to retailers, DC unveiled a rating system designed to inform comics consumers (or their parents) about the content of the issues. DC’s decision to leave the CCA come a full decade after Marvel’s decision to leave. This leaves Archie Comics and Bongo comics — famous for printing adaptations of the Simpsons and Futurama –  as the only publishers still seeking the once-ubiquitous CCA seal of approval for their comics.

With only two publishers left, the CCA seems even more unnecessary than ever. The advent of comic book shops and online marketplaces has all but eliminated the pressure on publishers to submit to the code. Moreover, there is more interest in the artistry of comics than ever before, which places almost no importance on preserving so-called moral values. Take, for example, Art Spiegelman’s award winning graphic novel Maus. It would have almost certainly been soundly rejected by the CCA and yet it has been enormously successful — critically and commercially.

With DC joining Marvel in using their own in-house rating system, this will hopefully be the death knell for this antiquated piece of comics history. Keep going after the jump for a little more history on the CCA, and some highlights from the original 1954 rules.

In a change that was totally planned out and has nothing at all to do with DC‘s slightly previously announced decision, Marvel Comics are also dropping the price of a regular-sized monthly comic to three bucks starting in January.  According to Senior VP of Sales and Circulation David Gabriel, Marvel can afford to do this because of the success of their digital comics initiatives.

But don’t get too excited yet, though:

Gabriel confirmed that “selected” Marvel titles — including new titles — would be priced at $2.99.

That means that the stuff you’re reading now may or may not get cheaper, and only stuff that debuts in 2011 and later will start with the new pricepoint.  However, unlike DC, Marvel will not be cutting the page count on their cheaper titles.

(via The Beat.)

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.

“I was just thinking about the day Jim Lee and Scott Dunbier took me and Bryan Hitch and a few other people out to dinner in London in order to explain to us that DC were buying Wildstorm. What they were really worried about was how Alan Moore was going to take it. I spoke to Alan a couple of days later. “I’m affecting a cane, these days,” he said, “and when I got out of the taxi I took to meet them at the train station, they saw me emerging from a black car with what looked like a cudgel in my fist and went very pale.’

I still wish I’d thought of that, as occasionally I have to walk with a cane and chose not to take it to London with me because the leg was behaving itself.”

Warren Ellis, and he’s actually talking about the end of Wildstorm, from here he goes on to make some (more) interesting points, which you can read after the jump.

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)

Today on the official DC blog, DC announced their plans to pack up and move from their Manhattan offices to Los Angeles in order to achieve a greater focus on film, while ending the WildStorm Universe and absorbing its characters under the DC banner.

Today, DC Comics allowed the New York Post to break some surprise news: as of this fall there will be two Batmans. If you can call it a surprise, since the covers of DC’s November comics were released about two weeks ago and feature two different Batman costumes. Fan speculation was already off and speculating that this would mean that instead of Dick Grayson giving up the cowl when Bruce Wayne gets back, there might be some sort of timeshare agreement.

So. Keeping up with Batman continuity is the reason I started buying monthly comics, and now it looks like it’s going to be the reason I severely cut back on my monthly comics. I’m going to elaborate below, and I’m going to try to keep it down to a conversational level of nerdrage. I’m also going to try to keep from getting really depressed.

So. Lets talk about continuity.

(Yes, the plural of Batman is Batmans. Because it is a name. If you knew a family whose last name was Wolf you wouldn’t call them the Wolves, would you?)

DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns announced on Twitter this past Friday that production has wrapped on Martin Campbell’s (Casino Royale) superhero film Green Lantern. Shooting began in February 2010 in New Orleans, and lasted 100 days. In other news, the film’s co-scribe Michael Goldenberg (Contact, Harry Potter) has been hired as screenwriter for Green Lantern 2. Earlier in June, Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, and Marc Guggenheim were reported to be working on a treatment for the inevitable sequel, as well as DC’s next likely franchise, The Flash. Too bad, Ryan Reynolds would’ve been perfect. (/Film, Bleeding Cool)

Vertigo announced today that they are beginning a new series called Vertigo Resurrected, which they will use to showcase some of their impressive archive of “horror, crime, war, western, fantasy, urban memoir, science fiction or reality based” stories; resurrecting, if you will, some of their greatest “rarely seen tales.”  First off the bat is a story that actually can’t be resurrected, because it was never published in the first place: Hellblazer: Shoot, written by Warren Ellis.