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Comic book superheroes take on world hunger

Vanquishing a single supervillain suffering from severe chemical burns (the Joker, just to name one) and suffering from clear inadequacy issues is nothing for the superheroes of DC Comics when compared with real threats like drought, famine, and widespread hunger.

For the far less sexy but far more real battle with hunger in the Horn of Africa, DC's Justice League is doing a bit of crowdsourcing. DC Entertainment, home to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and a few other big brand name badasses, is matching donations to Mercy Corps, Save the Children, and the International Relief Project for their efforts providing relief on the ground in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

The worst drought in the area in the past 60 years is affecting 13 million people, with 250,000 threatened by possible starvation. As the Justice League points out in its appeal, the situation is so critical that the United Nations officially declared famine for the first time in 21 years. Makes a speeding, out-of-control train seem like a moderately difficult round of Sudoku.… Read more

Booksellers involve superheroes in e-book battle

Holy e-comic clash, Batman!

Amazon, apparently in an effort to add muscle to its recently unmasked Kindle Fire tablet, sparked a real-world fight over superhero comic books when it inked a deal with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to a hundred popular graphic novels, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, the Sandman, and Watchmen.

That arrangement apparently did not sit too well with rival bookseller Barnes & Noble, which has an e-book reader it would like to see flourish. In response to DC's deal, Barnes & Noble removed the physical copies of the titles from its store shelves, … Read more

Qwikster no more

iPhone 4S pre-orders top 1 million units, Yahoo pulls out of its bid for Hulu, and Netflix announces the cancellation of Qwikster in a brief blog post.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Netflix cancels Qwikster iPhone 4S gets more than one million orders on first day Google targets JavaScript with Dart Bidding for Hulu Barnes & Noble puts freeze on DC Comics Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (320x180) | iTunes (HD) | RSS (MP3) | RSS (320x180) | RSS HD

Barnes & Noble protests Kindle deal by yanking books

What does Barnes & Noble think of the Kindle Fire? While it may not have released a statement about the device, the company's actions speak louder than its words, at least regarding an exclusive digital graphic-novel deal that freezes out the maker of the Nook.

Just after announcing its Kindle Fire tablet last week, Amazon also announced a partnership with DC Comics to sell digital copies of 100 of DC's graphic novels exclusively on the Fire.

"We're thrilled to work with the leader in digital books to bring many of the world's most beloved and best-selling graphic novels to Kindle readers," said Jim Lee, co-publisher of DC Entertainment, DC Comics' parent company, in a statement. These included superhero books starring Batman and Green Lantern, the entirety of Neil Gaiman's fantasy/horror series "The Sandman," and Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta," which has recently seen its Guy Fawkes masks revived by members of the hacktivist group Anonymous.

Barnes & Noble responded to the deal in a statement today by revealing that it has tied its physical copies to its digital ones.… Read more

D.C. court to hear challenges to Net Neutrality rules

Challenges to the Federal Communications Commission's Net neutrality rules will be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a situation supporters of the rules had hoped to avoid.

On Thursday, the D.C. Circuit was chosen at random to be the court where challenges to the new rules, which prohibit broadband Internet providers from deliberately slowing or blocking subscribers' network traffic, will be heard. The rules were passed by the FCC in 2010. And they were officially registered with the government last month, opening up the process for legal challenges before the rules … Read more

DC Universe Online soon to be free for PC, PS3

DC Universe Online is destined to be free to play for PC and PS3 starting in late October, Sony Online Entertainment announced today. An FAQ is available for those curious about the change.

Three tiers of gameplay are coming to the MMORPG--free, premium, and legendary. Existing subscribers will automatically become premium users, and a special $9.99 per month for three months of legendary access is available (have a look at the graphic to the right for more details on access and features in each level).

Reaction to the announcement is a mixed bag on the official DCUO Facebook page, where some are a bit upset about the shift.

"What a joke. No voice chat for F2P, a mere $1,500-$2,000 cash limit for anyone not on the Legendary plan, can't form leagues if you aren't on the Legendary plan, can't even send items or cash in mail if you are F2P! Can't even TRADE items with other players! Come on, SOE, just let this game die if you are going to do this," Caio Rodrigues said.

Others more optimistic. "I'm pleased with you guys for making efforts to keep the game alive, please update the level cap and keep good content coming," Ajay Pollarine wrote in response to the announcement. … Read more

DC Comics doubles down on digital

Comic books--or at least, the superhero comics that have been a mainstay of American youth culture for 70 years--have been in a crisis. Comics sales were plummeting, direct market brick-and-mortar comic book shops that are essentially the only outlet to purchase the monthly issues of said comics were closing under the recessive economy, and the industry was in desperate need of new readers. With its new day-and-date digital initiative and line-wide reboot, DC Comics might've provided just that.

Or they might've killed it outright. It's hard to tell, on the first full day of their relaunch. Thirteen … Read more

Comic book heroes then and now

It's amazing to think how many comic book characters--some from decades ago--are still relevant to pop and geek culture today.

Lately, it feels like there's no end in sight to the surge in superhero-movie releases. In our gallery below, we look at the original comic depiction of several larger-than-life beings compared with their most recent movie equivalents. The differences are astounding, and truly indicate how far animation and artistic quality has evolved over the years.

While we didn't feature every comic book character who's had a makeover recently, we think you'll still enjoy our selections consisting of mostly Marvel (Stan Lee) and DC comic stars. The gallery includes Captain America, Thor, Superman, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Tin-Tin, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman. Think there's someone we missed that should be on the list? Leave a comment with your suggestions and we may revise the gallery down the line.

On a related note, it's worth sharing that DC Comics plans to reboot all of its franchises beginning this September.

Green Lantern USB drives protect your universe

Green Lantern fans, there's no need to freeze yourself! It's just another 30 days until the movie comes out, and in the meantime I have something that may ease the pain of waiting.

Mimoco, a maker of quirky designer USB thumbdrives, has teamed with DC Entertainment to announce a new line of drives based on Green Lantern Corps characters. Basically, they're little action figures of Hal Jordan, Tomar-Re, Kilowog, and Sinestro that can also work as USB flash drives.

The USB 2.0 drives come in capacities ranging from 2GB to 16GB. Apart from the figures themselves, which will be enough for most of you comics fanboys to adore for a month, there's also character-specific content preloaded on the drives, including wallpapers, avatars, screensavers, and other digital extras.

The Mimoco Green Lantern USB thumbdrives are available now starting at $23 for the 2GB version. The 16GB version costs around $60. Go get a couple and make yourself and your nerdy friends happy.… Read more

Sony Online offers ID theft monitoring, in-game bonuses

Sony Online Entertainment today offered more details on how it will compensate customers affected by the three-week-long outage of the PC and console gaming network, which Sony says should be online in "at least a few more days."

U.S. customers with an account for the multiplayer online gaming service will get free identity theft protection from security firm Debix. Customers in other countries will be getting similar offers soon, according to the statement. This is in addition to the offer made last week to PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers affected by the same breach.

In addition, all players will get one month of free service as compensation, plus another free day for every day past one month the service remains inaccessible. Sony Online is also giving players in-game bonuses for several of its titles, both for PC games and PlayStation 3 games such as DC Universe Online, Free Realms, and EverQuest.

Customers who've paid for "lifetime" subscriptions will get free in-game currency (20,000 coins for Free Realms, 7,500 Galactic Credits for Clone Wars Adventures, and 10 Marks of Distinction for DC Universe Online).

For a complete list of the in-game bonus items, see the company's statement. … Read more

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