Welcome back, everyone! Just a quick reminder of what our goal for each and every Saturday is: Stirring the pot is the act of causing trouble for the sake of your own amusement. So we here at Comic Booked would like to formally invite you to discuss, debate, and start some shit talkin’ about the characters, the creators, and the storylines given to us from the industry we all know and love, hate, and love to hate. So let’s quit wasting time and start the mud (or web) slinging!
This Saturday’s question: What is the dumbest comic book retcon you can remember?
Does Superboy-Prime’s temper tantrum-induced reality-changing wall-punches still have you shaking your head? Did Mary Jane Watson-Parker’s deal with Mephisto completely ruin the character of Spider-Man for you? Are you still convinced that Magneto really was Xorn? Does the New 52 seem too different for you to ever truly get behind? Is the Summers Family Tree something that you have spent hours trying to figure out, what with all of the various clones, time travel changes, and alternate realities? Or are you okay with the occasional retcon?
So go forth and debate! But be sure to back up your responses. Don’t be scared. And don’t give up. After all, no one likes a quitter. And you’re not a quitter, are you?
Hmmmm, well I might argue right off that the new 52 isn’t a retcon at all because it is simply barreling ahead within its own new continuity, and is not changing how we look at past issues of the JlA, superman, wonder woman, etc. at all because they are totally unrelated. The same could be said of the Summers Family Tree, Marvel has kept it pretty clear who’s who and how it’s all laid out. The only real retcon in the xmen universe that stuck was saying that Pheonix was never Jean at all, but actually some clone, and Jean was healing in the waters off Manhattan in some weird cocoon.
The BEST retcon in recent memory, and this might piss some people off, in my opinion, was Meltzer’s Identity Crisis, which created a modern poignant story which seemlessly told a story between the lines of a Bronze age JLA book, changing our perception of not just one past storyline, but also calling into question all of the adventures of that era’s JLA.
Easy one: Ghost Rider. After the Hammer Lame, er, Lane story and those god-awful movies came out Marvel totally retconned the character to the point a long time fan like myself no longer recognizes him.
Suddenly Blaze is the Rider again, for no apparent reason, and then later we end up with almost as many Ghost Riders as we have Avengers. All this after it was explained that there can only be one Rider at a time, which made sense.
At some point it was explained in one of the Ghost Rider books that the entire origin and story told since the beginning was a lie. What a total crock! Decades of stories were lies? That's a load of crap.
But, for my money, Marvel is the biggest offender of these things. The current Marvel NOW! gimmick is designed to do nothing more that shove the 616 into the movieverse for no valid reason.
Even before this Marvel had the nasty habit of ignoring continuity after they pretty much pioneered the concept. It's no wonder how I went from over 10 Marvel titles a month to just two.
I dont think anyone wants to climb the Summers family tree.
I'd have to agree with you on that one. I've just found it increasingly more difficult to care about the character because, quite honestly, I wouldn't even know where to start post-1990s. And as for Marvel being one of the biggest offenders, I'd also have to agree. Hopefully they figure out that alienating old fans for the sake of potential new ones is simply not the way to go… Before it's too late.
It is quite a perilous journey of clones, alternate realities, and time-travel nonsense.
My vote goes to the almost immediate "Xorn wasn't Magneto" explanation by Chris Claremont in the pages of Excalibur and then further "explained" (AKA ruined) by Brian Michael Bendis in New Avengers. Such a great surprise (that, in retrospect, was a near-perfect reveal) completely ruined by editorial decisions and further escalated by a has-been writer and a hack who continues to ruin X-Men to this day.
You have no idea how difficult it is for me to be locked out of a new Ghost Rider series. But I have the original Ghost Rider run (both in the monthly format and in the Essentials, I have the full 90's series and who knows how many miniseries and one-shots. Basically I have enough GOOD Ghost Rider stories that I really don't need the new messed up crap that doesn't make any sense at all.
Still… Sure would be nice if they could do another great run.
I will agree Xorn wasn't Magneto was stupid. But you think Brian Michael Bendis is ruining X-Men!? Have you read All-New X-Men? It's great!
Agree to disagree. 🙂
I even had hopes for the last run, with the chick but it was obvious they weren't doing it to make a good story, they were more interested in having a female and minority character than a good run with the concept.
And since when does any vehicle Ghost Rider jumps on get flaming wheels?! Who's lame-ass idea is that?