Well, again, I gave more than one example. But those are just examples of many, many other stories. If you want to know why they rely on continuity, you should read them.
But even recently, look at the likes of Dark Knights: Metal. That story just wouldn't have even been possible without the events of Final Crisis, a story that was published a decade before Metal came out.
Doesn't it say something that the response to its popularity of the story was to bring it into continuity?? That shows that fans
want the stories they read to matter and to have consequences. Killing Joke had consequences and it set up a status quo that lasted for over two decades.
If she hadn't gone through Killing Joke, she'd have been out in the field and wouldn't have enlisted Dinah. It would have changed the whole dynamic of the Birds of Prey as a team.
You do know that DC benched her...
to prepare her for Killing Joke, right?? Alan Moore had to clear the story with DC editorial, so DC set it up to have her retire just in time for that story. That also casts some serious doubt on the argument that Killing Joke was intended as a non-canon story.
So, no, without Killing Joke, the Batgirl mantle would not have been open.
And many, many DC fans will tell you that that was likely a mistake because it trivialized a lot of the character growth Barbara had gone through.
Except we're not talking about casuals. We're talking about people who actually read the books. To act as if it could have been Dick is ridiculous. It dances around the fact that that whole story wouldn't have turned out the way it did if it wasn't for how fans felt about
Jason. Literally. The fans were the ones who voted him dead.
Because the story wasn't A Death
in the Family. It was an adaptation of another story that DEPENDED on A Death in the Family. If DC chose to actually adapt A Death in the Family, it would probably be a lot more accurate. But the animated movies don't have the luxury of having years of canon preceding any individual story. The books DO have that luxury, hence why they depend on that canon to tell the stories that they do.
That's not related to the point AT ALL. Also, Wonder Woman's origins were referenced in later Post-Crisis stories. The Perez run was very influential.
Except the Death arc
did define these characters. The whole point of these characters was to either kill Superman or to take his place after his death. Superboy's whole deal is that he was a clone created to take Superman's place. John Henry Irons wouldn't have taken up the Steel identity if not for Superman being gone. The Eradicator wouldn't have taken on the classic humanoid form without Superman being dead and it using his body as a template. And, finally, Hank Henshaw as Cyborg Superman would not make sense because literally the whole point of him taking up that identity was to fool people into thinking he was the real Superman returned from the dead. And given how Hank Henshaw and Eradicator have never been successfully adapted into animation or any other medium EXCEPT in the Death of Superman movies, I'd say that story is necessary for those characters to function.
But also, the point needs to be made here that cartoons, TV shows, films, and the books are all completely different mediums. The continuity of the comics matter
to the comics and the comic book storylines depend on that continuity to tell future stories set in that universe. That is just a basic rule of fictional storytelling. Did Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix pick up with Cedric Diggory alive and well despite him being killed off at the end of Goblet of Fire? Do you tend to see 616 Gwen Stacey walking around perfectly unfazed in Spider-Man comics? Is Bucky Barnes still Captain America's sidekick? No. To all of those. That is why continuity
matters.
Also, as an aside, the very presence of Eradicator in the Death arc depended on years of Superman continuity from before the Death arc.
Actually, that's very wrong. Parallax played a HUUUUUGE part in Geoff Johns's Green Lantern run and was critical in stories like Sinestro Corps War, War of the Green Lanterns, etc. Again, you should really read those books.
You just hit on the central issue here. For people who are just casual fans and who don't really invest in these characters and their universe, continuity might not be all that important and they might just dip in for one story every so often. They just pick up a book and are willing to accept whatever status quo is there. But for people who actually do invest in these stories and the universe, continuity is important because people don't want to have the stories they read mean nothing in the long run. That's just how it is. And, since the whole point of DC and Marvel
is to get people to invest in their stories and their universe, continuity is important because continuity is what builds up their
lore.
After all, DC has to rely on
regular readers to stay in business.
Still doesn't disprove my point.