Why Batman, Aquaman, and Flash don't seem dead after 'Death of the Justice League'
How Dark Crisis DC continuity will be solved by the power of the c﷽olon

Did you happen to catch that other piece of blockbuster news in DC's announcement that writer Chip Zdarsky is taking o❀ver as the new Batman ongoing series for "the long haul" starting in July?
Or how about in the announcement of the new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Aquaman-Flaജsh team-up limited series Voidsong?
No? How about in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:DC's May solicitations?
Yo🐻u savvy DC readers have probably figured out what we're talking about byꦰ now.
Because by the lo෴ok of things, Bruce Wayne, Arthur Curry, Barry Allen, and not to mention Superman and Wonder Woman don't seem very dead in May and beyond.
Huh?
Despite promises of impactful deaths that ramifications of which would last a while, life for the nine superheroes slated to die a high-profile death in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:April's Justice League #75 seems to be continuing as normal, with no sign outside of May's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dark Crisis le🐽ad-in specials that anything's amiss in Gotham City, Themyscira, Metropolis, or the DC Universe at large.
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So what's the deal here?
Is Dark Cr༒isis an 'Elseworlds'-like story outside of continuity?
No.
Not according to DC who told Newsarama on the record clearly and directly 'Death o♛f the Justice Leag𝕴ue and Dark Crisis' was in continuity.
Wi⭕ll the monthly ongoing titles like Batman, Detective Comics, Wonder Woman, Action Comics, the new Aquamen catch up with the death of their main characters and the events of Dark Crisis sometime in June or beyond?
Probably no and yes, meaning 'no,' it looks unlikely those titles will tie into Dark Crisis while it's h🎉appening, but at the same time, 'yes,' Dark Crisis continuity will likely cross paths with those titles eventually.
So how's that possible? How can the death of most of DC's most iconic sup♎erheroes happen in continuity but also not affect their ongoing titles?
The power of the colon.
And if we could break into a Schoolhouse Rock musical nu🌊mbe♒r right now, we would.
But first, some background.
When DC first announced 'Death of the Justice League,' its writer, an aware Joshua Williamson, preemptivelℱy made sure readers got the signal that it wasn't an 'imaginary' type story🍷.
"We want people to understand, this is serious and this is gonna have a major impact in the DCU moving forward," Williamson was sure to tell who announced the event to the world. Williamson added that Justice League #75 would be the last issue of Justice League for "a while" and that the team's absence would be a major part of what the DCU looks like after this story."
Remember that word "after."
DC hedged its bets a little in a subsequent announcement of the event 'Death of the Justice League' leads into - Dark Crisis - including language that implies that although thought dead on Earth, the Justice Leaguers might just be missing and presumed dead.
Now we've been upfront that not🦩hing will convince us DC's most iconic h🅺eroes will be dead for any significant period of time, but 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Superman's death 30 years ago, which is the direct inspiration for 'Death of the Justice League,' did last a couple of years and did impact the main ✃DC line 🎃including the ongoing Superman titles while he was dead.
So we started imagining what that sort of approach wo꧂uld look like in 202ꦍ2🌸 … bu﷽t then a funny thing happened on the way to Dark Crisis.
In what seems like to us a vital piece of information that has not been reflected in DC's official news releases or solicitations (yet anyway), Williamso🔯n dropped some knowledge from his informing൩ DC readers that follow him that 'Death of the Justice League' takes place "a bit in the future of the DCU," likely explaining why the ongoing series are (so far) showing no signs of existing with deceased main characters.
So how💞 can something happen in a bit of the future of the DCU but also be a major part o♏f what the DCU looks like "after"?
This is starting to sound like one of those time travel conversations fromღ Avengers: Endgame.
The answer ♍is almostౠ certainly in the aforementioned colon.
It's beginning to become clear 'Death 🔴of the Justice League' will exist in continuity very much the same way 2020's Dark Nights: Death Metal did.
Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's tour de force Death Metal, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:firmly in continuity mind you, began its story ꦇwith a DC Earth-0 transformed, utterly unrecognizable from the more familiar DC Earth-0 of the then-concurrent monthly ongoing titles, with the transformation occurring off-page before the series b🔯egan.
The conclusion of the series wrapped up so while superheroes of Earth remembered it happen♑ed, Earth was reverted back to what it looked like before its transformative events. Back to normal, more or less.
In other words, Death Meﷺtal happened in a pragmatically self-containe꧒d bubble of DC continuity time, that writers or DC readers could drop into their ongoing in-continuity stories whenever convenient to do so.
So it all happen🌼ed to Batman and Superman, just in-between other Batman and Superman adventures.
The 'Death of the Justice League' and Dark Crisis appears as it will happen in continuity in a similar way - following its conclusion to be dropped instantly somewhere in-between the stories of the ongoing series, which at the point in time🙈 writers can start reflecting any game-changing events that happened within the Dark Crisis bubble.
If that sounds a little like D⛄C having its continuity and eating it too (if you'll pardon the paraphrased proverb), it is.
Which brings us back to the colon. How does DC keep Chip Zdarsky writing the adventures of Bruᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚce Wayne in Batman or keep new launches like Aquamen on track for overꦺ half a year while at the same time impacting the DCU with Dark Crisis?
Answer:
Dark Crisis: Batman. Dark Crisis: Aquamen (or Man), and Dark Crisis: Wonder Wom⛎an - that's how. Simply put, a series of tie-in series and/or specials (almost certainly beginning in June along with Dark Crisis #1), set during the self-contained continuity bubble of the series showing a DCU 𝓰picking up the pieces "after" the death of the Justice League.
And if the seven-issue/seven-month Dark Crisis ends with the "lost" Justice Leaguers returning, each ong♐oing series writer can just insert the relevant impact of the storyline in-between story arcs and begin reflecting any necessary continuity developments whenever able.
So that way interested readers do get tܫo see Dark Crisis's "epic event about legacy" and how the DCU deals with the Justice League's death 🐭while Batman and Wonder Woman readers loyal to Bruce and Diana aren't asked to follow along with another character in the lead.
And perhaps more importantly, a beleaguered DC editorial staff and freelance creators aren't spending precious t𓂃ime trying to solve a Rubick's cube of concurrent continuity.
So look for those♚ colons in DC's upcoming June solicitations. And we'll get to work on that Schoolhouse Rock anthem.
However the 'Death of the Justice League' happens, it'll take an army to do it, and we have the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:lowdown on the Dark Army and its soldiers that does it.
I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama jou🐻rney. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.