hmmm I'd say the reason they rehash stories & don't kill off some characters or have an over use of certain characters is cause they are afraid to loose certain cash cows . the problem is some characters became cash cows cause more talented writers took risks with a good story that was told while others that are of lesser talent see that as a reason to over use certain characters and put far too much energy/ attention into that one character or thing.
like I said once they did right with the golden age with batman to a degree there both death & there were other alliterative like batman becoming commissioner & they let his former sidekicks take over while he helped in other ways and took over in other ways.
It doesn't always have be death, but there are tons of ways with progression & also there's this stubborn I want this character in this same position for ever mentality with some writers & fans that stunting the growth.
captain America / Steve Rogers as director of shield or one of the many directors agenys have more the one in real Life, yeah let bucky should have stayed as cap. If steve Rogers wants to be in the field again have another alias related to the united states, but his rank should be above captain (there are far too many captain's) but still show he's moved on. Seriously why does there have to be alot of captains from the 40/60's any way? that obsession was a bit of weird trend especially now with Carole danvers .
the problem there is alot of the people that grew up with characters from the silver age that are afraid to let go. they leave come back (like casual readers) & say what happened? (when they weren't keeping up or fallowing heavily ) and want things back to the way it was when they read it and it seems like bickering and nothing moves forward or it's reverted back. there's always a way for progression and an alternatives. The problem is some people don't like change at all. but there's always room & death isn't always the only way for permanent progression to have happen.
That change with Bruce Wayne becoming commissioner was a smart move so was bat man incorporated, and the many teams batman made before that are in the books that are the Justice league and batman beyond . there's a happy middle ground there with batman to be explored there . same can be said for alot of other stuff
I don't think comic's are the problem in that they are stuck. it's just some of the certain people running the ships. Cause of how they want things to be, but a verity of stuff can be done still.
Look what happened when the do take risk and are rewarded like when Luke cage was pushed to the for front with marvel for example. I've always said it's a matter of "want and don't want " and most importantly execution.
I will agree though the other mediums are kicking the comic's industry butt these days. I see it all the time. but it's happening to some game makers as well. it just means it doesn't matter what medium it is. What matters is what's done in them .
There is a lot of red tape within the comic world for these characters, the problem is the nature of the medium. For games, TV and movies you can have a definitive story that has an ending, it why Rocksteady can kill off The Joker for real or why Nolan can give Bruce Wayne a life. In comics the nature of the beasts makes it near impossible for any character to truly be removed from the series or for there to ever be an ending to a story. Ideas may come about but they're never pushed as far as they're allowed to for risk of alienating people, too much emphasis on preserving what's there instead of pushing things forward. It's both a corporate issue and a fan issue whereby everyone is trying to find a middle ground to suit several generations of readers, the downside is things move at a slower pace with this arrangement. I'm willing to bet a lot of people at DC would love to have been given the freedom the likes of Rocksteady and Nolan were given. Of course execution is always the most important thing, even the most cliched idea can be given a fresh coat of paint, at the same time other mediums are the ones progressing the mythology more and more than the original source material. In the end though it's probably a good thing that the mythology is no longer bound to the comics, it means Batman is not just a comic character, he's simply a part of our modern mythology.



