It doesn't matter if you're a starship captain or one of Earth's mightiest heroes; once you go massively multiplayer it's only a matter of time before free-to-play finds you. Sony Online Entertainment's DC Universe Online breaks free of subscription fees next month.

Starting in October anyone with a PlayStation 3 or a gaming PC will be able to download and play DC Universe Online for free. They'll have access to all game content, two character slots, and the ability to purchase optional expansion packs should they choose to do so.

Players that have spent more than $5 on the game (returning players, subscription paying customers that opt to not continue paying, and in-game store shoppers) will be upgraded to premium membership, with more character slots, a larger inventory, and a bigger wallet.

And if players want to continue paying $14.99 (or have purchased a lifetime subscription) they'll be granted Legendary status, which gives them an enormous inventory, more than 15 character slots, and free access to expansion packs and other downloadable content as it comes along.

Why does a game like DC Universe Online go free-to-play? Speaking to IGN, SOE executive producer Lorin Jameson says it was the model the developers envisioned all along.

"In terms of 'Is it a result in a drop in subs' – absolutely not," he said. "This is the right business model. If I can be honest, the game ended up costing a lot more than we thought it would, and this was our preferred business model from day one."

With Champions Online already free-to-play and City of Heroes going there later this year, massively multiplayer online superhero fans will have to choose which style of crime fighting suits them the best — or just play all three.

DC Universe Online Going Free to Play [IGN - Thanks, Ursus-Veritas!]

The first major dose of downloadable content for DC Universe Online, Fight for the Light goes live on September 6 in the U.S., with active subscribers donning green and yellow rings without having to pay a dime. Time to resubscribe!

New comics come out on Wednesdays. So why is my weekly list of new-comics recommendations running on a Thursday? I blame the avalanche of gaming news, screenshots and trailers tumbling out of Gamescom. I briefly found space, however, to recommend some comics.

These are the ones I think you should consider buying, either in shops or on your favorite digital device, all new or newly-re-issued this week.

Comics You Should Consider Buying (from comics shops)

Daredevil #3 The first issue of the new Daredevil was one of the year's best new comics. I am optimistic about the second one. Official summary: "Given his recent past, Matt Murdock has a lot to answer for and Captain America is doing the cross-examining. Daredevil's quickly learning that burned bridges with his friends and former allies aren't easy to repair particularly when Klaw, the Master of Sound, is on his tail!"

Legion of Super-Heroes #16 This is the last issue of Legion of Super-Heroes, until the series is re-started again next month (with minimal alterations to continuity, or so the powers-the-be-claim). There are other DC Comics series ending this week, including the current Justice League of America, Power Girl, Superman/Batman and Zatanna. But it's in Legion where we're promised a Legion tradition: the death of a Legionnaire. At this point, has any member of the Legion of Super-Heroes not been killed (and maybe restored to life)?

WE3 Deluxe Edition A hardcore collection of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's acclaimed three-issue series about the daring escape of a dog, a cat and a bunny who have been turned into deadly bio-weapons by the U.S. military. This volume includes a few new story pages.

X-Men Schism #3 Schism has been my favorite Event Comic of the summer, possibly because it feels more character-driven. It's basically a story about two heroes who disagree about what to do in a crisis. That's it. Official summary: "The events of Schism #1 have launched the world into turmoil, and the all-new Hellfire Club is ready to take advantage of the chaos. But when the survival of the mutant race is on the line, just how far will the X-Men go? Once a line is crossed, there's no going back."

Comics With Video Game Connections (new this week in comics shops)

DC Universe Online #14 Official summary: "It's a tale of tragic proportions as an unexpected character falls in the line of duty...but who and how will forever change the course of the series."

Resident Evil (trade paperback collection) Official summary: "The terrifying world of Resident Evil returns in this title, as the dedicated agents of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance face off against Virus-spreading bio-weapons both in space and on land. The Joint Nations Space Station has gone offline; BSAA Agent Mina Gere investigates and is confronted by a crew of flesh-eating bio-weapons. Veteran mercenary Holiday Sugarman is sent to remote Grezbekistan; when his team is wiped out by G-Virus infected militiamen, he must face G-Prime - alone."

Sonic Universe #31 Official summary: "Inside Job,' Part 3. Scourge the Hedgehog, evil doppelganger to Sonic, is half-way to his goal: put together a gang and bust out of Zone Jail! But first he'll need to win the loyalty of two of the most dangerous members of the Destructix. If he can survive that, the rest is easy: fighting an army of Zone Cops and rival inmates!"

And Over On The iPad/iPhone/Droid/WebBrowser…

The ComiXology Comics app and website offer a fresh batch of new and old digital comics this week (and as of this week, Marvel's are available on Comixology's website, instead of just on iOS… but still not on Droid). Highlights this week include more vintage 1990's Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle Batman comics and the first collection of Jeff Smith's terrific all-ages adventure Bone as well as the first collection of the original series he did after that, Rasl. Plus, they're selling the 20 X-Factor, X-Mem and New Mutants comics that accounted for the late '80s cross-over Inferno. I never read it. Was it any good?

Best Comics I Read Last Week

I finally finished the full 15-issue run of Captain Britain and MI: 13 that I downloaded to my iPad earlier this year. I'd heard good things and understood that fans of the series thought Marvel cancelled it far too soon. Writer Paul Cornell followed that book up with a terrific run on Action Comics that turned Luthor into the book's protagonist. That's where I discovered Cornell. I grabbed the Captain Britain comics to see how good this guy tended to be.

Captain Britain turned out to be worth the hype. It's a book about an odd collection of heroes, the least interesting of whom is the patriotic lead. The possibly-cursed sword-swingers, vampire, vampire-killer, and mystics in the Captain's crew are the real stars, struggling to make sense of their abilities while dealing with the successive England-threatening problems of alien shape-shifters, evil spirits and Dracula. Each of those conflicts spans several issues and crackles with unusual plot twists. Some of them are cheap. There's an over-reliance on apparent hero deaths. But as you're getting to the end of the run and see a story turn on whether Dracula's moon-launched space-ship is or isn't full of vampires who have or haven't been invited to England—lest they burn up upon entry into British airspace—you'll know you're reading a series worth your time.

Track the run down. It's only a couple of bucks an issue on ComiXology's iPad app. It's an enjoyable 15-issue read. It may not be a classic worth repeated re-reads, but it's a fun run to go through at least once.

Tell me what you're reading this week and which great comics I'm missing.

Four "Megaservers" unifying DC Universe Online by platform and region will deploy on Monday, offering larger populations for raids, alerts and other missions, as well as swapping between PvP and PvE on demand.

Now, many of you are already wondering "Whoa, what about my hero's name?" Or villain's. See, if that cool moniker you thought up was taken on one server, maybe it was clear on another. But now all servers are getting merged down into four groups. So if two North American PS3 players separately chose "Ulterior Motive Man," on the old Killing Joke and Justice servers, who gets to keep it on the new, single PS3 megaserver for that region?

At a fan appreciation event at Comic-Con 2011, the DCUO staff laid out the rules. Basically, if there's a "collision" in name choice, whoever has an active subscription at the time of migration will get to keep the name. If two players have active subscriptions and the same name, then whoever has the most hours logged in the game gets to keep it.

If you lose out, you will get a free Name Change token and instructions on how to change your character's name if you don't wish to keep the handle assigned by the system. All I can say is, look for alternate spellings, ways to abbreviate or shorten the name, or delete spaces. All Captains can become Capts, Doctors are Drs and vice versa.

Or you may use the opportunity to completely rename yourself, and then go re-spec your powers and essentially create a new character at whatever level you've achieved.

Hopefully, that's the only icky detail of switching from individual servers to one giant server for each system and region. In the new layout, DCUO members will be able to swap between PvE and PvP "phases" by visiting the Watchtower (if they are heroes) or the Hall of Doom (for villains). A "Phase With" command will be available in DCUO's Social quick menu, allowing you to participate in the same PvE/PvP phase as a friend.

Here's where the MMO's old servers will go:

European PC Megaserver
(Conversion begins Aug. 8 at 4 p.m. Central European Time)
Bloodstorm
In Brightest Day
Looking For Trouble
Reality Lost

North American PC Megaserver
(Conversion begins Aug. 10 at 11 a.m U.S. Eastern Time)
Brave New World
Cry For Blood
Darkness Falls
Death and Glory
Last Laugh
New Frontier
Public Enemies
Virtue and Vice
Zero Hour

North American PS3 Megaserver
(Conversion begins Aug. 11 at 11 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time)
Birthright
Blood Will Run
Countdown
Crisis
Justice
No Man's Land
Redemption
Relentless
The Killing Joke

European PS3 Megaserver
(Conversion begins Aug. 15 at 4 p.m. Central European Time)
Absolute Power
Crossfire
For All Seasons
Justice For All

New Producer's Letter From DeadMeat - MegaServers Are Coming! [DC Universe Online Facebook]

DC Universe Online's latest game update delivers a new group raid in Superman's hideout, and tunes up the difficulty in the old one at Batman's crash pad. It's available now for the game on PS3 and PC.

The narrative behind the Fortress of Solitude raid involves heroes and villains forming an uneasy alliance against Brainiac, bent on taking control of Supe's sanctuary and use its technology to blow up planet Earth. Heroes will be led by Superman, villains by Lex Luthor, through ice caverns leading to the fortress and then finally to duke it out with Brainiac's minions inside.

The raid supports eight players and will award "Marks of Krypton" good for picking up new swag either in the Watchtower or Hall of Doom. There will also be three Kryptonian-inspired armor sets, branded either S (Superman) for heroes or Z (Zod) for villains, and two Brainiac-inspired PvP armor sets.

A PvP deathmatch arena, the game's first, also is included.

Additionally, the Batcave group raid has been upgraded to a Hard Mode alert, offering four-player Group Combat and Tier 2 gear rewards.

Good luck squeezing into your local comics shop this week. Plenty of strangers will probably be dropping in to pick up the new Spider-Man comic with the new Spider-Man in it. But squeeze on in, because there are some cool new comics out this week. And there are some good old ones available for legitimate digital download today as well.

Read on for some recommendations:

Comics You Should Consider Buying (from comics shops)

Batman: Knight of Vengeance #3 The penultimate issue of DC's summer crossover series Flashpoint may be shipping this week, but it might be overshadowed by the final issue of its Batman spin-off. The cover reiterates the shocking revelation of the last issue. Bruce is dead. Mom and dad are Batman and Joker. This series has been extraordinary so far.

DC Retroactive: The Flash, The 80s I've yet to read DC's Retroactive comics, each of which includes a new story created in an old style along with reprints of comics from the homaged era, but I've heard very good things about many of them. This Flash issue comes from writer William Messner-Loebs and artist Greg Larocque, who were responsible for a fun run on the series in the '80s. I'm looking forward to seeing their latest. There's also a Batman '80s issue out this week, by the creative team of Mike Barr and Jerry Bingham, the team behind classic '80s graphic novel Batman: Son of Demon.

Infinite #1 Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld's new series about time-traveling freedom fighters. Would you get it because it's written by the Walking Dead guy or because its drawn by the Youngblood guy (who supposedly has a few issues in the can and won't be late)?

Punisher #1 They're starting Punisher over again. This time, Greg Rucka's the writer. I loved his Gotham Central, but have not loved his Wonder Woman and Superman work. Punisher should be more his speed, if he can manage to tell stories that have endings, an omission in recent work of his that I've read.

Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 In this one, we find out who the new Spider-Man is, if the national news coverage hasn't already gotten the message through to you yet.

Walter Simonson's Mighty Thor: Artists Edition I'll let publisher IDW's official description for this $125 book do the talking: "Last year, IDW Publishing released the inaugural Artist's Edition book, printing the entire Rocketeer saga by Dave Stevens from the original art and at the same size it was drawn. The book was a smash hit and quickly sold out. This year, IDW Publishing, in cooperation with Marvel Comics, is pleased to offer the second book in the series: Walter Simonson's Thor: Artist's Edition! This collection will present Thor 337-340 and 360-362-Simonson's first story, followed by one of his favorite arcs. Thor #337 is one of the groundbreaking issues in modern comics, introducing the classic character, Beta Ray Bill. It was a runaway sellout when first released and it has only gained prominence with time. Simonson went on to write and draw approximately 40 issues of Thor and his legendary run on the title is an undisputed classic. All the pages in the Artist's Edition were scanned from Simonson's personal original art to ensure the highest possible quality reproduction. While appearing to be in black and white, each page was scanned in color to mimic as closely as possible the experience of viewing the actual original art-for instance, corrections and blue pencils. Each page is printed the same size as drawn, and the paper selected is as close as possible to the original art board."

Comics With Video Game Connections (new this week in comics shops)

Batman: Arkham City #4 Official summary: "The miniseries that leads into the video game continues under the guidance of game writer Paul Dini. The gates swing shut on Arkham City, trapping small-time criminals and deadly Super-Villains behind its walls. As the prisoners struggle for survival, a rogue unit of Mayor Sharp's security force hunts down rival gang bosses The Joker and Two-Face. Not only must Batman save the lives of his greatest foes, he's got to fight his way through an army to do it!"

Crysis #3 Official summary: "The mysteries of Lingshan deepen as Prophet and the remnants of Raptor Team race to reach an extraction point on the far aside of the island. Their only route of escape-through the mountain stronghold of the alien creatures. What they find waiting for them there will shatter all their previous ideas about the Ceph threat and place them further from rescue than ever before."

DC Universe Online Legends #13 Official summary: "Superman's power fluctuations are out of control, and while he's battling everyone around him in a mass of confusion, a surprising figure tries to intervene! But can anyone - or anything - stop an enraged Kryptonian?"

And Over On The iPad/iPhone/Droid/WebBrowser…

The ComiXology Comics app and website offer a fresh batch of new and old digital comics this week (though beware that Marvel doesn't offer comics on all of the services' platforms). Highlights this week include the first few issues of Batman: Shadow of the Bat, for '90s Batman readers nostalgic for vintage Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, a few Mike Barr and Alan Davis issues of Detective Comics, the full six issues of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Hulk: Gray, and the 12-issue Jim Kreuger and Alex Ross series Universe X (anyone want to vouch for that one?). Plus, they added a pile of Superman comics over the weekend, including the first several issues of Action Comics, circa 1938, and the six issue Man of Steel mini-series by John Byrne that rebooted the character (and made me a lifelong comics reader) in 1986.

Best Comics I Read Last Week

Secret Avengers #15. This was the best of a small stack of comics I managed to read in the last week. I've been distracted by other stuff and haven't read enough comics!. So, take this as a good one, not a great one. What it is is a done-in-one story about super agent Black Widow arguing with the staff of a tabloid news website about their report that Captain America's death was not real. Seriously. That's what it is about. It's unusual and not the most natural of stories, but the conversation goes in interesting directions. It's a good, fresh take on super-hero deaths, a tonally fitting follow-up to the previous issue's one-issue take on the death of regular people during super-hero battles.

Tell me what you're reading this week and which great comics I'm missing.

Nearly everyone who plays DC Universe Online has an anecdote about spending a good hour or more in its character creation stage, fine-tuning the costume, getting the colors and powers just right, and then taking a deep breath at the name-generation screen and hoping no one's yet taken that perfect one you just thought up.

At Comic-Con 2011, I asked Jim Lee, the game's executive creative director, DC Comics' co-publisher, and an eminent comic book artist and writer for the past 25 years, if he's used the MMO to create superheroes from scratch.

"Absolutely," Lee told me. "[My family was] creating a league called Panda Express, so we were naming all of our characters after Chinese food dishes."

"So my character was Orange Chicken, my wife was White Rice, and one [kid] picked their own, Crab Rangoon, what have you," Lee said. "So, it worked out pretty well."

For the record, Orange Chicken is a fire-based metahuman.

Doctor Tomorrow's power is Super Procrastination. Because I believe in setting achievable goals for myself.

That's funny, I said, before revising the question to ask if Lee ever uses DC Universe Online to make serious characters, or even uses it in his creative process at all.

"You could," he said, "but I choose not to, because if I have a really great name I probably would save it for comics, in print, because great names are hard to come by."

It was refreshing to hear this from DC's co-publisher. It made me feel like I had something in common with him. Any daydreaming adolescent knows how hard it is to pick an evocative, powerful, hell, cool name for his new superhero that hasn't been taken, or isn't a blatant ripoff of someone else. About two months into DC Universe Online I went on a character-creating binge, bringing my total up to seven. Five of them remain very low level, but I wanted to park the names I'd thought of because they were just that cool.

"In an open world space where there are potentially other creators, other writers who work for other comic book companies, I wouldn't want to create a character from scratch and then have it show up elsewhere in print," Lee said. "It's a little paranoid. But it also distinguishes, in my mind, when I'm having fun and playing, versus when I'm sitting down and working, because sometimes it's hard to distinguish the two.

"Sitting down, creating a character in a game space, trying to come up with a cool origin, a cool name, and powers that reflect that name," Lee said, "that's kind of what I do for a living."

Turns out it is easy being green. The newest DC Universe images give us a pretty good idea of what's possible with the green guy's powers in the new Fight for the Light update. Giant fists too traditional? Why not put your enemy into a man-sized green baseball?

If that doesn't do it for you, a fight with a group of cat people or a none too happy Bane will do the trick. Put on your power rings caped crusaders, there's evil afoot!

To become a member of DC Comic's Green Lantern Corps, a being must be willful beyond imagining and fearless to a fault. Should they meet that criteria and the time be right, one of the fabled power rings may just find its way to them.

In DC Universe Online, Sony Online Entertainment's super-powered massively multiplayer online role-playing game, gaining the power of the Green Lantern Corps costs $9.99.

The first in a series of paid downloadable content for DC Universe Online that will take the place of traditional MMO expansion packs, Fight for the Light expands the scope of the game beyond Earth and into the far reaches of the universe, for the first time giving players the ability to wield the green light of hope or the horrific yellow of the Sinestro Corps.

Does this mean you can finally become a member of the fabled corps? According to DC Universe Online creative director Jens Andersen, not quite.

During a roundtable interview announcing the upcoming expansion pack for DC Universe Online, Jens Andersen explained that while players would be getting rings and hard light powers, they weren't quite becoming Green or Yellow Lanterns.

"DC Comics doesn't want just anyone getting a power ring," Andersen explained, after I asked whether the iconic Lantern symbols would be available for player costumes. "In the comics, in times of great emergencies, power rings will duplicate themselves, recruiting temporary Lanterns to the cause."

Folks that purchase Fight for the Light will become the recipients of those emergency rings. Heroes and villains will be able to fight alongside the Green Lantern Corps and the Sinestro Corps respectively, either by starting a new level one character or respeccing their existing level 30 characters as light wielders.

"These hard light powers play very differently than the other powers in the game," Andersen told us. Players will be able to generate weapons with their rings, say a chainsaw, performing combo attacks as they would with any other melee attack in game. As they power up they'll unlock new constructs, and will be able to chain combos together. Imagine tearing into an enemy with a chainsaw, switching to a giant power drill to finish the job. Sounds like a Lantern fight to me.

Andersen said the players will become reservists, worthy of wielding the rings but not worthy of the symbol. To that end the two new iconic sets of armor high level players can earn based on Sinestro and Hal Jordan's Green Lantern will feature blank white circles where the symbols should be.

A recently converted Green Lantern fan, I found the news somewhat disappointing. Still, there's plenty of content coming in the pack to make Lantern faithful drool, so perhaps we can overlook this one tiny detail.

It's not just about the powers, but the places as well. For such a far-reaching comic book galaxy, DC Universe Online has stuck rather close to Earth. The introduction of Oa, home of the Green Lantern Corps, marks the game's first foray into the comic continuity's rich interstellar continuity.

On Oa four players will team up to help either quell or stir a riot in the Sciencells, the intergalactic prison of the intergalactic police force. As you can see in image above, big, dumb, and lovable Lantern Guy Gardner will be making an appearance during the jailbreak. He'll likely hit some things. He does that.

Things aren't going so well back on Earth either. Brainiac is attempting to create a pure logic battery that will cancel out all colors of the emotional spectrum, causing heroes and villains alike to flock to S.T.A.R. Labs to try and put a stop to it.

In Coast City, home of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, another color of emotion has flared up: Rage. The Red Lantern Corps led by Atrocitus is tearing up the town, and Hal can't have that. Expect a very bloody time in the old city when four players team up to take the redheads down.

So that makes Green, Yellow, and Red lanterns. Are the rest of DC's corps in the works? "The short answer is yes," said Andersen. "All of these guys are at our disposal to use in the future. Now that we have light powers it's very easy to expand in that direction."

So fans of the Blue Lanterns, Indigo Tribe, Star Sapphires, and all of those other color groups can sit tight, secure in the knowledge that there's a strong chance your favorite characters will be making an appearance.

Me? I'm a traditionalist. Expect to see me hitting bad guys with a giant glowing green fist later this summer, when Fight for the Light hits the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of DC Universe Online for $9.99.

D.C. Universe Online has launched something called the "DCUO Marketplace," and while its shelves are pretty bare, what it could portend down the line is worth paying attention, if not cash.

Currently all you can buy are "Proto Repair-Bots" (tune your gear without visiting a tech in HQ) and extra Vault Tickets. Given that you usually leave the Vault with $13 and a bunch of crap, there's little reason to visit this Marketplace now.

A microtransaction basis for an MMO is, naturally, the way to take that thing to free-to-play. No one's saying that will happen with DCUO, which released in January, but hey, it's already there.

D.C. Universe Online Launches In-Game Market [Massively]