I wasn't sure whether this should go in the DC or Marvel forum, so I put it in DC because they looked like they were going to do this in the 90s (obviously they didn't).
Why don't comics have different generations? At the most there's the WW2 generation and everyone else. It annoys me that most of the 1940s heroes got old, retired and were replaced by a new generation (like in real life) but the 1960s generation lasts forever, barely aging, and every other generation just joins them. Now, I realize that the only reason there are even two generations is because superheroes stopped being published for a decade. But now that there's a precedent, I think that there should be more than just two.
Like I said, it looked like DC was going to do this in the 90s--they had a third Flash, a third Green Lantern, a second green arrow - even a second Superman and Batman (technically, four second Supermen) for a while! But Superman and Batman came back quickly, and the rest came back in the 2000s. Now, with the New 52, even the WW2 generation is gone!
It's also annoying that all the Marvel comics set during 30s-50s comics (in DC they're all non-canon) can have dates and references to the times (like WW2 or FDR) but comics set during later comics (like Untold Tales of S-M) can only say "a few years ago".
I know this post is convoluted--it's the first thread I've started. Basically what I'm saying is that I wish there were three or more generations of heroes, and I'm wondering what you all think (and this thread is about Marvel too--there just isn't a generic comics forum).