Also this was back when death in comics meant something so readers wouldn't have expected them to come back and after the Doom Patrol was brought back and it was only Cliff who survived (which did make sense) it still didn't cheapen their deaths. And I notice back then Steve wasn't a crazy stalker and the Chief wasn't such a massive bastard.
Also I liked how it pointed out that not all super-heroes lived. Sometimes they were defeated and sometimes the price of being a hero is giving up your life instead of being invulnerable like Superman