Warning: contains spoilers for Justice League: Road to Dark Crisis #1!
DC's with death in the Marvel Universe, the superheroes in DC Comics are rarely 'dead' for long, and eventually return to fight evil once again. This trope is so prevalent that even the DC heroes know not to take death too seriously, and in Justice League: Road to Dark Crisis #1, the company proves it.
In Justice League #75, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and the rest of the team (minus Barry Allen's Flash; Wally West's Flash remains behind as well) are transported to a barren universe that appears to contain only a desolate cityscape and the villain Pariah. Pariah has been taken over by the Great Darkness, an otherworldly primordial force that seeks to destroy the universe - but first, it seeks to destroy the Justice League. The entire team is set upon by a Dark Army: numerous villains (including Darkseid) enthralled by the Great Darkness. One by one, the entire Justice League falls to Pariah's power, and only Black Adam manages to escape.
In Justice League: Road to Dark Crisis #1, written by Joshua Williamson with art by Dan Jurgens, the world copes with the death of Earth's premiere superhero team. Nightwing makes banter with his villain-of-the-week and Superman's son (Jonathan Kent) is astounded at his cavalier attitude - how can he makes jokes when Batman and the entire League is dead? The two discuss the concept of attempting to move on even when not all hope is lost. In particular, Dick Grayson discusses the impact both Superman and Batman's deaths had on him.
Grayson recounts the events of the aftermath of The Death of Superman, in which the Justice League attended the Man of Steel's funeral. "At Superman's funeral, Batman had such a matter-of-fact attitude about your dad's death. He didn't want us to know how he really felt." This implies that even a person with Bruce Wayne's experience can feel pain, even as he believes in Superman's eventual return. This is why death is still impactful in comics: it's not the actual death that is the source of sadness but the lack of a person's presence in the world.
In that respect, death in comics can still be a source of drama - but only after a prolonged absence. Deaths in which characters are missing for only a year, such as in the original Death of Superman arc, lack the impact of Supergirl or the Flash's death (both characters returned from the dead after nearly 20 years). If DC wishes for Dark Criss to be an impactful event, they would do well to keep the Justice League dead for some time.
