Some comic book characters have existed for over 70 years, and with their age comes all the confusing continuity.

Marvel comics with the launch of the X-Men and Spider-man movies solved this issue with their “Ultimate” line of comics which threw out the continuity and created an easy starting point for new readers to hop on.

These comics also followed their movie companions more closely making them even more familiar to audiences who discovered the characters from there or people getting re-acquainted with characters they hadn’t followed for years.

DC has decided to take a page from the Marvel playbook.  In 2010 will see the launch of Earth One.

Announced today on the DC Source blog, DC will forgo the traditional comic format, instead publishing longer form graphic novels.  The first two characters to receive the treatment are no brainers, and will feature Batman and Superman.

Starting next year, DC Comics will unveil SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE and BATMAN: EARTH ONE, two graphic novels spotlighting the most powerful heroes of the DC Universe, with their first years and earliest moments retold in a standalone, original graphic novel format, on a new earth with an all-new continuity.

J. Michael Straczynski and artist Shane Davis are taking on Earth’s ad

opted son in Superman.  The series will see his early days as a boy to his first experiences as a super hero.

JMS has said he wants to bring Superman into the modern world keeping intact all that makes him great.  How would one of the grandfathers of modern super heroes look through modern eyes?

Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank will bring us BATMAN: EARTH ONE.  Johns has said he gets to “break the restraints of any continuity and focus on two things: character and story.”