That’s just ‘cos we’ve all grown used to what comics sound like in the Age of Decompression. Stories used to be fully fleshed out in done-in-one-(or-two)-issue(s) rather than hyper-extended arcs, and characterization/soap-opera elements were more holistically integrated with the main storyline. Ever since Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont showed that, yes, you =could= decouple the two and that you =could= tell stories that built up organically over the course of several months or even years, the industry seems to have believed that you =had= to construct stories in that manner.

Dixon comes from a slightly older school than that. Thank goodness.

I think that the explanation given by Dixon for Lesley Thompkins’ ‘disappearing’ her is solid — after what had just happened to her at the hands of Black Mask, having her out of the picture for a good long while (over a year, per One Year Later) to give her time to heal from the physical and mental scars that must’ve left was a good idea.

And, it’s exactly what Thompkins would have done, and explains away the otherwise unbelievable “I’m a heartless b**** who let Stephanie die just to teach you a lesson, Brcue” characterization at the end of War Games …