I read death of the new gods, I think this is still the appropriate thread to discuss, as it's related...I think they are dead, the new gods (not this avatar malarky)...they're not coming back.
Darkseid isn't the same as before cuz he's got uber-power
Orion isn't the same as before cuz he got ressurcted and can't speak.
The mini ends with darkseid and orion just dissappearing...It sounds like they reappear on earth in the pages of countdown and finish the fight...it's not a continuity error.
Am I right in thinking that 'The old gods' that die..in the original Kirby series is that Thor and his mates over at Marvel? Do they die at the end of the Lee & Kirby Thor run? Also Orion's story is continued in Captain Victory - after reading the wiki article this is clear. (I haven't read any of these)
I loved the way that death of the new gods tied in with the ressurection of the 52, it actually sounds a little like that was why they did it. Rather than just, hey wouldn't it be cool if we had some parallel universes, not loads just say 50...oh hey we're doing a series called 52, maybe we can tie these together...oh hey that's cool.
I'm also thinking that Grant Morrison is a bit like the Quentin Tarrantino of comics. Not the same style at all, but the way that Tarrantino films are good, but they're all pretty much tributes to different genres of film, Morrison stuff is tributes to different bits of golden /silver age comics he likes - most obviously in seven soldiers and all star superman. I probably need to think of more examples but I think there are similarities between the two. [Extending this metaphor final crisis and the legion of 3 worlds becomes the grindhouse double feature - geoff johns being rodriguez...that might be stretching it]