Very few characters are "dead forever" in comics

Which is why Jean Grey's (last) tombstone made me smile. They just didn't know when they'd see her next.

It's not still going. It's a new title, starting over from #1, with a new Firestorm.

Hmm. Interesting.

There will be no killing of the Nightwing.

Do we know who's Red Hood yet? I haven't been reading the Batman title.

Nope. We find out this week, I think.

Probably explains why I enjoy The Outsiders or JLE more than most superhero titles. So many new characters, I don't have to worry about the backstory.

I think that's more a function of the odd treatment of continuity in most team books. I don't need much, if any, backstory to get into team books. (The current exception to this rule is JSA, which *is* exceedingly history rich.)

(The current exception to this rule is JSA, which *is* exceedingly history rich.)

Is that a way for them to play with pre-Crisis continuity? Because I *did* know my JSA characters (from all the reprints they used to do in the 70s).

The JSA title is all ABOUT the history, though, so it's cool. In the right hands, comics history is fun. Otherwise, it just makes stories tedious.

I think that the OMAC Project and the Villains United things both look rather interesting.

Is that a way for them to play with pre-Crisis continuity? Because I *did* know my JSA characters (from all the reprints they used to do in the 70s).

It's all post-Crisis: There was never a Superman or Batman in WWII, Hippolyta was the original Wonder Woman, etc. But beyond that, it digs pretty deeply into the span of the old stuff, going all the way back to DC's roots and into more recent stuff like Infinity Inc. and the like. It's pretty nifty.

Is that a way for them to play with pre-Crisis continuity? Because I *did* know my JSA characters (from all the reprints they used to do in the 70s).

Sort of kind of? But, not really. You'd sort of have to read it to understand.

JSA's really not like most team books, for a few reasons. One is that the characters include a lot of older characters, and the other (probably bigger) is that it doesn't contain a lot of characters who have their own titles, so it has the luxury of going into further depth with them in the team book than most team books do.

Sort of kind of? But, not really. You'd sort of have to read it to understand.

Or, you know, just wait for Victor to explain it all proper-like. *g*

it has the luxury of going into further depth with them in the team book than most team books do.

Exactly, and in doing so, it has a neat metatextual tool to really pick at DC's own history. the characters wrestle with the mantle of the legacies they've adopted, and are used to explore what made some of those old characters great, and to find value in a lot of what was otherwise forgotten or underrated.