Looks like the Comics Code Authority is dead, dead, dead. Over the past few days, both DC Comics and Archie Comics announced that they were abandoning it. Marvel had abandoned it long ago.
Whether you like them or not, you have to agree that comics rating systems are both (1) useful to parents and teachers who aren’t familiar with comics and (2) incredibly blunt instruments. There will always be works that are rated inaccurately or defy easy rating, no matter how you define the ratings themselves. But at the same time, as a parent I do rely on ratings every now and then. In an ideal world, parents would know a little something about all the media their young children read/watch, but in the real world diaper-changing and dish-washing often sap every last ounce of media-evaluating energy you’ve got.
DC has created its own ratings system to replace the CCA:
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.
You might like ratings systems in general or you might not, but clearly the CCA sucked. Talk about blunt instruments. That was like sorting M&M’s with a bulldozer.
Full article here.
