Apparently, and I had not noticed this, DC Comics is quietly and without fanfare phasing out the comics code. This make sense - Marvel made a big to-do about doing so last year, and the code is increasingly meaningless. Only DC uses it anymore, and that only on its main line. Vertigo and Wildstorm don't. Certainly, the indepent companies - Image, CrossGen, Top Cow - don't. And there are even some ongoing DC comics, such as Green Arrow, who have never been code, so you get to see Ollie, um. Pleasure his ladyfriend orally. Still, DC originated the code, so that people wouldn't think impure thoughts about Batman and Robin. Perish the thought!

So, having learned this, I went through my recent collection of comics, and, sure enough, a number are codeless - JSA, Birds of Prey, The Legion. Others bear a miniscule symbol - Bat-titles, Super-titles, JLA. And. Green Lantern 154.

GL 154 is a remarkable issue that has made the news, because in it, the seventeen year old boy who assists Kyle Rayner in his day job is gay bashed. The cover, under that symbol, shows Terry as bleeding and broken and very damaged. Inside, not only is there a great deal of violence as the superhero tortures the one basher they caught until he tells where his friends are, and then beats up the other two, but there is also a *kiss* between Terry and his boyfriend. Very powerful and well done issue.

Interesting that the comics code, the one originated in part to defeat gay rumors, now permits two teenage boys to kiss.