The Art of the Retcon

The only time a retcon has been deliberately VISIBLE.

Ah, the retcon. Short for retroactive continuity, retcons are an inevitability in long-running series. With the change in writers and continuity trackers, eventually someone will come along who forgets one tiny detail of some character's background and end up writing a story that can potentially completely contradict an earlier story. Sometimes, a story is written that is incredibly unpopular and another story will be written that intentionally makes the previous story non-canon. Now, by definition, retcons sound horrible, but there are such things as good retcons.

Take for example, Albert Wesker from Resident Evil. Originally, he was killed by the Tyrant... or Barry Burton... or a zombie... all depending on how many of your teammates you let die or whatever. In Resident Evil: Code - Veronica, Wesker was seemingly brought back from the dead... WITH SUPERPOWERS. It turned out that he didn't really die, he just pretended to die while under the influence of a new drug/virus that gives him his current superpowers. The reason he was constantly wearing sunglasses was because while under the influence of the drug/virus, his eyes glow bright red. With the return of the first villain of the series, WITH SUPERPOWERS, Wesker revealed that he had been working behind the scenes, orchestrating the events of RE2 and RE3 and planning far bigger things in the future. The revival of Albert Wesker, WITH SUPERPOWERS, is probably one of the greatest positive retcons in recent history.

He was just getting started back in that mansion!

Now what makes the revival of Wesker such a great retcon is that it was done without mucking up any continuity. Wesker is still allowed to seemingly die inside the mansion in the first Resident Evil and he can become Ada Wong and Nikolai's boss easily, because they never said they had one in the first place! This retcon fits in so cleanly and is written so cleverly that it actually strengthens Wesker's character and the story of the RE series in general to one of being Wesker's master plan of world domination.

Now for an example of a BAD retcon: One. More. Day. After revealing to the world his secret identity of Peter Parker, Spider-Man's life quite expectantly goes to hell in a hand basket. One day, a sniper's bullet meant for Peter hits Aunt May instead. She is taken to the hospital and given a slim chance of living through her wounds, compounded by her age. Peter seeks help from the superhero community, hoping that supernatural means may save his aunt's life. The demon Mephisto, a Marvel character that is supposed to represent THE DEVIL, says that he will cure May of her wounds in exchange for Peter and Mary Jane's marriage. To put it in simpler terms, for May to live, the marriage of Peter and Mary Jane will have never happened. After weighing his options, the life of his 80-year-old aunt, or his memories of his marriage to his wife, Peter decides to make a deal with the devil to save Aunt May. Peter makes a deal with the devil to save his aunt. PETER PARKER MAKES A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL TO SAVE HIS 80-YEAR-OLD AUNT.

Answer: The total sales of Marvel Comics, that's what cost.

The result of said deal with the devil caused everyone in the world to forget who Spider-Man's secret identity is. Even such close confidantes as the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and the Black Cat all forgot his true identity. Parker's arch-nemesis the Green Goblin even forgot who Spider-Man was! Peter lost all memory of marrying Mary Jane because they broke up before he could propose to her and reveal his identity as Spider-Man. Also, Peter is back to living with his Aunt May and his friend Harry Osborne, the 2nd Green Goblin has come back from the dead! THIS SHIT IS FUCKING STUPID. People have written entire essays detailing the many reasons why One More Day is the worst storyline and worst retcon in the history of printed type. One huge reason that One More Day does not work is that it re-writes 20 years worth of Spider-Man stories that are all affected by how Spider-Man feels after marrying and the countless characters that know Mary Jane is Spider-Man's wife. Even before Civil War, a staggering amount of people knew that Spider-Man was Peter Parker. It was truly impossible to know exactly how many people knew because at minimum, S.H.I.E.L.D., the X-Men, and the Avengers all knew his true identity, not to mention the Fantastic Four, several of Spidey's villains and personal friends, etc. Making it so NO ONE knew his identity at all is just incredibly lazy storytelling and a shitty idea in general.

Wait, I thought Quesada was an artist, not a writer?

I used to be a huge Spider-Man fan. But ever since Joe Quesada took over as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics 10 years ago, it seems as if Quesada has personally gone out of his way to change everyone's status quo as much as possible. Wolverine has a bisexual son and a clone daughter, Bucky was revived and became Captain America, the Incredible Hulk has 2 new enemies, Red Hulk and Red She-Hulk, revealed to be General Ross and the Hulk's OWN WIFE, Jean Grey died AGAIN and Cyclops got together with Emma Frost, and of course the mother of them all, One More Day. I don't know what's happened to Marvel, but the last 10 years have created doom and gloom for their company, only to hit the iceberg completely with Civil War. Since the conclusion of Civil War, sales for Marvel Comics have sunk to lows not seen since the Bronze Age of comics. Stock has plummeted and yet the investors have not gotten it through their heads that maybe having Joe Quesada in charge of continuity and story direction is a BAD idea. It's as if people at Marvel suddenly forgot that there's a reason writers don't try to be artists and artists don't try to be writers!

My favorite kind of retcon is when stories are written in such a way that they intentionally contradict prior source material as if the writer is saying, "I don't like that shit either, so here's what I think of that!" A great example comes from J. Michael Straczynski's current run on Superman. While in Philadelphia, Superman decides to order a Philly cheese steak sandwich from a diner. If you'll remember from my previous review of Superman: Birthright, Superman is now canonically a vegetarian because of his feelings on his "Aura Vision" that allow him to see life forces. JMS, by having Superman order and eat a Philly cheese steak sandwich, has made a "take-that" at Mark Waid's idiotic idea of making Superman a vegetarian.