Retcon
Encyclopedia
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course of events that would not have been possible in the story's original continuity
. Other reasons might be the reintroduction of popular characters, resolution of errors in chronology, the updating of a familiar series for modern audiences, or simplification of an excessively complex continuity structure.
Retcons are common in pulp fiction
, especially comic book
s published by long-established houses such as DC
, Marvel
and leading manga
publishers. The long history of popular titles and the plurality of writers who contribute stories can often create situations that demand clarification or revision of exposition
. Retcons appear as well in soap operas, serial drama, movie sequel
s, professional wrestling
, video games, radio series, and other kinds of serial fiction. Retcons have been criticized as "cheating" on the part of the author, seen as an effort to purge "unpopular" elements from the storyline and force literary fads upon the audience, thus hurting suspension of disbelief
.
.
The first known printed use of "retroactive continuity" as referring to the altering of history within a fictional work is in All-Star Squadron
#18 (cover-dated February 1983) from DC Comics
. The series was set on DC's Earth-Two
, an alternative universe in which Golden-Age
comic characters proceed and age subsequent to their first appearances in real time. Thus by the early 1980s Superman was in his 60s and the Batman
had died and been succeeded by his daughter, The Huntress
, whereas the Superman
and Batman
of Earth-One
, DC's primary universe, are perpetually young to early middle-age adults. All-Star Squadron
in particular, was set during World War II on Earth-Two, so it was in the past of an alternative universe, thus all its events had repercussions on the contemporary continuity of the DC multiverse. Each issue literally changed the history of the fictional world in which it was set. In the letters column, a reader remarked that the comic "must make you [the creators] feel at times as if you're painting yourself into a corner," and "Your matching of Golden-Age comics history with new plotlines has been an artistic (and I hope financial!) success."
Writer Roy Thomas
responded, "we like to think that an enthusiastic ALL-STAR booster at one of Adam Malin's Creation Conventions in San Diego came up with the best name for it a few months back: 'Retroactive Continuity'. Has kind of a ring to it, don't you think?" The term, possibly in limited similar use before All-Star Squadron
#18, then took firm root in the consciousness of fans of American superhero comics.
"Retroactive continuity" was shortened to "retcon", reportedly by Damian Cugley in 1988 on USENET
. Hard evidence of Cugley's abbreviation has yet to surface, though in a USENET posting on August 18, 1990, Cugley posted a reply in which he identified himself as "The originator of the word 'retcon'." Cugley used the newly-shortened word to describe a development in the comic book Saga of the Swamp Thing, which reinterprets the events of the title character's origin by revealing facts that, up to that point, are not part of the narrative and were not intended by earlier writers. In this case, the revelation is that the titular character's memories are false and he is not who he thinks he is. Alan Moore
's retcons often involve false memories, for example Marvelman
(aka Miracleman
in America), and Batman: The Killing Joke
.
. Kurt Busiek
took a similar approach with Untold Tales of Spider-Man
, a series which told stories that specifically fit between issues of the original The Amazing Spider-Man
series, sometimes explaining discontinuities between those earlier stories. John Byrne utilized a similar structure as well with X-Men: The Hidden Years
.
Related to this is the concept of shadow history or secret history
, in which the events of a story occur within the bounds of already-established events (especially real-world historical events), revealing a different interpretation of (or motivation for) the events. Some of Tim Powers
novels are examples of this, such as Last Call
, which suggests that Bugsy Siegel
's actions were due to his being a modern-day Fisher King
.
Alan Moore
's additional information about the Swamp Thing
's origins did not contradict or change any of the events depicted in the character's previous appearances, but changed the reader's interpretation of them. Such additions and reinterpretations are very common in Doctor Who
,.
In the Star Trek
franchise, the books The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh (Volumes 1 & 2)
, by Greg Cox, detail the fictional Eugenics Wars
of the early 1990s – still many years into the future when first mentioned in the episode "Space Seed" in 1967 – giving alternative explanations for real world events such as the Indian nuclear test of 1974 and the violent breakup of Yugoslavia
in the early 1990s, presenting them as small parts of a single wider conflict.
The History Monks appear in Terry Pratchett
's Thief of Time
and explain anachronisms in the Discworld
(such as Elizabethan theatre existing simultaneously with opera) by describing how history was previously destroyed by a magical clock and they have been haphazardly attempting to reconstruct it.
In the Stargate
franchise, the TV show that followed the original film established the main antagonist from that film, the now-deceased Ra, as part of an alien species called the Goa'uld
, establishing many more instances of that species as enemies as the series progressed.
. This is well known in horror film
s, which may end with the death of the monster, but when the film becomes successful, the studio plans a sequel, revealing that the monster survived after all. The technique is common in superhero
comics, where it has been used so frequently that the term comic book death
has been coined for it.
An early famous example in popular culture is the return of Sherlock Holmes
: writer Arthur Conan Doyle
killed off the popular character in an encounter with his foe Professor Moriarty
, only to bring Holmes back, due in large part to audience response.
J. R. R. Tolkien
in The Hobbit
described the circumstances in which Bilbo Baggins
won a magic ring
from Gollum
. However, by the time he wrote the sequel, The Lord of the Rings
, his concept of the ring's nature had changed, at odds with the previous depiction. To explain this discrepancy, Tolkien retold this incident in the new work, explaining the original version as a lie inspired by the malevolent influence of the ring. However, later editions of The Hobbit incorporated the revised version of the story.
In many of his detective novels, Rex Stout
implies that his character Nero Wolfe
was born in Montenegro
, and gives some details of his early life in the Balkans prior to and during World War I
. However, in Over My Dead Body
(1939), Wolfe tells an FBI agent that he was born in the United States. Stout revealed the reason for the change in a letter obtained by his authorized biographer, John McAleer: "In the original draft of Over My Dead Body Nero was a Montenegrin by birth, and it all fitted previous hints as to his background; but violent protests from The American Magazine, supported by Farrar & Rinehart, caused his cradle to be transported five thousand miles."
Fans may invent unofficial explanations for inconsistencies, the challenge itself becoming a source of entertainment. Sometimes these fan-made explanations become so popular and widespread that they slip into accepted canon
, and the original creators of the characters accept them. For example, in the film Return of the Jedi
, the character Boba Fett
suffers a horrible death. However, the character was popular, so some fans held that he had somehow escaped "off-screen", and later books, graphic novels, and even an official action figure
accepted this conjecture and depicted Boba Fett as having escaped the ordeal. In the commentary for the Special Edition Release of the film, George Lucas
stated that had he known of the character's popularity, he would have made the death scene more impressive. Lucas left it ambiguous if the new interpretation was correct. However, in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, which takes place after Episode 6, the player must fight Boba Fett in Ord Mantel. (One reason Fett might have survived is he was drawn into the Sarlaac with all his weapons, unlike Jabba's other victims. It is not inconceivable he was able to use them to escape, killing the creature instead.)
It is commonplace for fictional characters appearing over a long period of time to remain the same age, or to age out of sync with real time. This concept, called a floating timeline
, may be interpreted as an ongoing implicit retcon of their birthdate. When historical events are involved in their biography, overt retcons may be used to accommodate this; a character who served in the army during World War II might have his service record retconned to place him in the Korean War
, the Vietnam War
, the Gulf War
, etc. A famous example of this type of retcon is the television show The Simpsons
and Marvel Comics' characters Nick Fury
and The Punisher. The James Bond
movie series is another well-known example of this technique.
While retconning is usually done without comment by the creators, DC Comics has on rare occasions promoted special events dedicated to revising the history of the DC Comics universe. The most important and well known such event was the mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths
; this allowed for wholesale revisions of their entire multiverse
of characters. The storyline of this mini-series involved an alternative version of Lex Luthor
(called Alexander Luthor) surviving the destruction of his entire universe by a malign entity known as the Anti-Monitor
. Alexander would then go on to lose his sanity along with Superboy-Prime
after the small group of survivors of the first Crisis of which they were a part had been trapped in a pocket universe
for an unspecified amount of time. (See DC Comics' Infinite Crisis
) The repercusions of the second Crisis led into the events of 52
. The wave of retcons and hero killings and resurrections didn't stop there or indeed ever. After the events of 52, DC was on the road to one of the largest single retcons in their history. (See Countdown
and Final Crisis
)
A storyline in Spider-Man
, named One More Day
, culminated in the magical revision of history, eliminating the marriage between Peter Parker
and Mary Jane Watson
, and subsequent developments in the character's history over the previous twenty years. It has been argued that these were not true retcons, however, because the cause of the changes to their universe actually appeared within the story, similar to stories in which a time travel
er goes to the past and changes history from how he remembered it.
In live-action television series, real-world developments may prompt alteration-type retcons. For example, in Star Trek: The Original Series
, limits in budget and technology resulted in the appearance of Klingon
s as metallic-skinned people with vaguely central Asian features. When the franchise was later revived in films and new series enjoying larger budgets and improved makeup techniques, the appearance of Klingons was changed drastically. Skin looked more natural and spinal bones were brought up into the foreheads for a decidedly more alien appearance. The new look was explained by the producers to be how Klingons had always appeared, but that they could not be portrayed accurately before. The difference was marked upon in dialog between characters in "Trials and Tribble-ations", an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
when modern-era characters travel back in time to the days of Kirk and Spock (and via then-brand new CGI techniques, appear within the TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles", frequently coming into contact with the Enterprise crew). When (modern) Klingon Worf
and his crewmates see an original-series Klingon, his crewmates ask about the stunning difference in appearance; Worf says tersely that the matter is something Klingons "do not discuss with outsiders". This retcon itself was later retconned, in Star Trek: Enterprise
, via a storyline in which it is revealed that the original, quasi-human appearance of the Klingons is due to a genetic mutation caused by an engineered virus – ironically, "genetic engineering" (Chief O'Brien
) and "viral mutation" (Dr. Bashir
) had been the guesses Worf refused to confirm or deny.
were specifically intended to wipe the slate clean, and permit an entirely new history to be written for the characters. This is commonly referred to as a reboot. This is often very unpopular, upsetting fans of the material that has been removed from continuity.
Unpopular or embarrassing stories are sometimes later ignored by publishers, never referred to again, and effectively erased from a series' continuity. They may publish stories that contradict the previous story or explicitly establish that it "never happened" – for example by claiming that events in a previous installation were "just a dream", like one season of Dallas
, which became Pam
's dream so that her husband Bobby could return from the dead. An unpopular retcon may even be re-retconned away, as happened with John Byrne's Spider-Man: Chapter One
.
An example of subtraction can be found in Disney's The Lion King
series. After the success of the first movie, Disney released a group of books titled The Lion King: Six New Adventures in which Simba
is said to have a son named Kopa. It is also mentioned in the storybook version of the film that he has a son. However, in the film sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
, Simba only has a daughter named Kiara. Kopa is non-existent and no mention is made of him. Kiara also has a different coloring and more feminine features than the cub shown at the end of the first movie.
This concept was parodied in She-Hulk
(vol. 2) #3, in which the title character is threatened with erasure from continuity via a device that does such a thing. Eventually, she is pardoned, but not before two characters never seen before or since, Knight Man and Dr. Rocket, are erased from continuity, leaving those who didn't see it to respond, "Who?"
(in which the timeline of the family's history must be continually shifted forward to explain them not getting any older. For instance, when the series started, Bart would have to have been born in about 1980, but that would make him 30 years old as of 2010) reflects intentionally lost continuity, not genuine retcons. However, in series with generally tight continuity, retcons are sometimes created after the fact to explain continuity errors.
Retconning is also generally distinct from replacing the actor who plays a part in an ongoing series, which is more commonly an example of loose continuity rather than retroactively changing past continuity. The different appearance of the character is either ignored, as was done with the character of Darrin Stephens on the television show Bewitched
, or explained within the series, such as with "regeneration
" in Doctor Who
, or the Oracle in The Matrix: Revolutions.
It also differs from direct revision. For example, when George Lucas
re-edited the original Star Wars trilogy, he made changes directly to the source material, rather than introducing new source material that contradicted the contents of previous material.
The "clean slate" reinterpretation of characters – as in movie and television adaptations of books, or the reintroduction of many superheroes in the Silver Age of Comics – is similar to a reboot retcon, except that the previous versions are not explicitly or implicitly eliminated in the process. These are merely alternative or parallel reinterpretations, such as the character re-interpretations of the DC animated universe
or the Ultimate Marvel
line of comics.
by plunging him to his death over the Reichenbach Falls
with his arch nemesis Professor Moriarty
, the public's demand for Holmes was so great that Doyle was compelled to bring him back to life in a subsequent story, where he details that Holmes had merely faked his death.
In Stephen King
's novel Misery the protagonist, Paul Sheldon, is forced to write a sequel to his book Misery's Child, in which the main character, Misery Chastain, dies. He at first attempts to retcon the events in that book, but his captor, Annie Wilkes, regards this as cheating and makes him create a sequel that doesn't actively deny what the reader already knows. The second attempt to bring Misery Chastain back to life (which Annie Wilkes likes) is almost an example of a comic book death
.
Though the term "retcon" did not yet exist when George Orwell
wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four
, the totalitarian regime depicted in that book is involved in a constant, large-scale retconning of past records. For example, when it is suddenly announced that "Oceania was not after all in war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia and Eurasia was an ally" (Part Two, Ch. 9), there is an immediate intensive effort to change "all reports and records, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks and photographs" and make them all record a war with Eastasia rather than one with Eurasia. "Often it was enough to merely substitute one name for another, but any detailed report of events demanded care and imagination. Even the geographical knowledge needed in transferring the war from one part of the world to another was considerable." See historical revisionism (negationism)
.
Continuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
. Other reasons might be the reintroduction of popular characters, resolution of errors in chronology, the updating of a familiar series for modern audiences, or simplification of an excessively complex continuity structure.
Retcons are common in pulp fiction
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
, especially comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s published by long-established houses such as DC
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
and leading manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
publishers. The long history of popular titles and the plurality of writers who contribute stories can often create situations that demand clarification or revision of exposition
Exposition (literary technique)
At the beginning of a narrative, the exposition is the author's providing of some background information to the audience about the plot, characters' histories, setting, and theme. Exposition is considered one of four rhetorical modes of discourse, along with argumentation, description, and narration...
. Retcons appear as well in soap operas, serial drama, movie sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
s, professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
, video games, radio series, and other kinds of serial fiction. Retcons have been criticized as "cheating" on the part of the author, seen as an effort to purge "unpopular" elements from the storyline and force literary fads upon the audience, thus hurting suspension of disbelief
Suspension of disbelief
Suspension of disbelief or "willing suspension of disbelief" is a formula for justifying the use of fantastic or non-realistic elements in literary works of fiction...
.
Origins of the term
The first published use of the phrase "retroactive continuity" is found in Elgin Frank Tupper's 1974 book The theology of Wolfhart PannenbergWolfhart Pannenberg
Wolfhart Pannenberg is a German Christian theologian. His emphasis on history as revelation, centred on the Resurrection of Christ, has proved important in stimulating debate in both Protestant and Catholic theology, as well as with non-Christian thinkers.-Life and views:Pannenberg was baptized as...
.
Pannenberg'sWolfhart PannenbergWolfhart Pannenberg is a German Christian theologian. His emphasis on history as revelation, centred on the Resurrection of Christ, has proved important in stimulating debate in both Protestant and Catholic theology, as well as with non-Christian thinkers.-Life and views:Pannenberg was baptized as...
conception of retroactive continuity ultimately means that history flows fundamentally from the future into the past, that the future is not basically a product of the past.
The first known printed use of "retroactive continuity" as referring to the altering of history within a fictional work is in All-Star Squadron
All-Star Squadron
The All-Star Squadron is a DC Comics superhero team that debuted in a special insert in Justice League of America #193 . Created by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway.-The concept:...
#18 (cover-dated February 1983) from DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. The series was set on DC's Earth-Two
Earth-Two
Earth-Two is a fictional universe appearing in American comic book stories published by DC Comics. First appearing in The Flash #123 , Earth-Two was created to explain how Silver-Age versions of characters such as the Flash could appear in stories with their Golden Age counterparts...
, an alternative universe in which Golden-Age
Golden Age of Comic Books
The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...
comic characters proceed and age subsequent to their first appearances in real time. Thus by the early 1980s Superman was in his 60s and the Batman
Batman (Earth-Two)
The Batman of Earth-Two is a parallel version of the DC Comics superhero, who was introduced after DC Comics created Earth-Two, a parallel world that was retroactively established as the home of characters which had been published in the Golden Age of comic books...
had died and been succeeded by his daughter, The Huntress
Huntress (Helena Wayne)
The Bronze Age Huntress was Helena Wayne, the daughter of the Batman and Catwoman of Earth-Two, an alternate universe established in the early 1960s as the world where the Golden Age stories took place...
, whereas the Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
and Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
of Earth-One
Earth-One
Earth-One is a name given to two fictional universes that have appeared in American comic book stories published by DC Comics...
, DC's primary universe, are perpetually young to early middle-age adults. All-Star Squadron
All-Star Squadron
The All-Star Squadron is a DC Comics superhero team that debuted in a special insert in Justice League of America #193 . Created by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway.-The concept:...
in particular, was set during World War II on Earth-Two, so it was in the past of an alternative universe, thus all its events had repercussions on the contemporary continuity of the DC multiverse. Each issue literally changed the history of the fictional world in which it was set. In the letters column, a reader remarked that the comic "must make you [the creators] feel at times as if you're painting yourself into a corner," and "Your matching of Golden-Age comics history with new plotlines has been an artistic (and I hope financial!) success."
Writer Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
responded, "we like to think that an enthusiastic ALL-STAR booster at one of Adam Malin's Creation Conventions in San Diego came up with the best name for it a few months back: 'Retroactive Continuity'. Has kind of a ring to it, don't you think?" The term, possibly in limited similar use before All-Star Squadron
All-Star Squadron
The All-Star Squadron is a DC Comics superhero team that debuted in a special insert in Justice League of America #193 . Created by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway.-The concept:...
#18, then took firm root in the consciousness of fans of American superhero comics.
"Retroactive continuity" was shortened to "retcon", reportedly by Damian Cugley in 1988 on USENET
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
. Hard evidence of Cugley's abbreviation has yet to surface, though in a USENET posting on August 18, 1990, Cugley posted a reply in which he identified himself as "The originator of the word 'retcon'." Cugley used the newly-shortened word to describe a development in the comic book Saga of the Swamp Thing, which reinterprets the events of the title character's origin by revealing facts that, up to that point, are not part of the narrative and were not intended by earlier writers. In this case, the revelation is that the titular character's memories are false and he is not who he thinks he is. Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
's retcons often involve false memories, for example Marvelman
Marvelman
Marvelman, also known as Miracleman for trademark reasons in his American reprints and story continuation, is a fictional comic book superhero created in 1954 by writer-artist Mick Anglo for publisher L. Miller & Son. Originally intended as a United Kingdom home-grown substitute for the American...
(aka Miracleman
Miracleman
Marvelman, also known as Miracleman for trademark reasons in his American reprints and story continuation, is a fictional comic book superhero created in 1954 by writer-artist Mick Anglo for publisher L. Miller & Son. Originally intended as a United Kingdom home-grown substitute for the American...
in America), and Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Killing Joke is an influential one-shot superhero graphic novel written by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland. First published by DC Comics in 1988, it has remained in print since then, and has also been reprinted as part of the trade paperback DC Universe: The Stories of Alan...
.
Types
Although there is considerable ambiguity and overlap between different kinds of retcon, there are some distinctions that fans have made between them, depending on whether the retcon in question adds to, alters, or removes material from the narrative's continuity. These distinctions often evoke different reactions from fans of the material.Addition
Some retcons do not directly contradict previously established facts, but "fill in" missing background details, usually to support current plot points. This was the sense in which Thomas used "retroactive continuity", as a purely additive process that did not "undo" any previous work, a common theme in his work on All-Star SquadronAll-Star Squadron
The All-Star Squadron is a DC Comics superhero team that debuted in a special insert in Justice League of America #193 . Created by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway.-The concept:...
. Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.-Early life:...
took a similar approach with Untold Tales of Spider-Man
Untold Tales of Spider-Man
Untold Tales of Spider-Man is an American comic book series starring Spider-Man published by Marvel Comics for 26 issues from September, 1995 to October, 1997....
, a series which told stories that specifically fit between issues of the original The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. Being the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously until it was...
series, sometimes explaining discontinuities between those earlier stories. John Byrne utilized a similar structure as well with X-Men: The Hidden Years
X-Men: The Hidden Years
X-Men: The Hidden Years was a comic book series set in the Marvel Comics universe, which starred the company's popular superhero team, the X-Men...
.
Related to this is the concept of shadow history or secret history
Secret history
A secret history is a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed, forgotten, or ignored by established scholars.-Secret histories of the real world:...
, in which the events of a story occur within the bounds of already-established events (especially real-world historical events), revealing a different interpretation of (or motivation for) the events. Some of Tim Powers
Tim Powers
Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare...
novels are examples of this, such as Last Call
Last Call (novel)
Last Call is a fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It was published in New York by Harper Collins in 1996 with ISBN 0-380-72846-X. It is the first book in a loose trilogy called Fault Lines; the second book, Expiration Date , is vaguely related to Last Call, the third book, Earthquake Weather , acts as...
, which suggests that Bugsy Siegel
Bugsy Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American gangster who was involved with the Genovese crime family...
's actions were due to his being a modern-day Fisher King
Fisher King
The Fisher King, or the Wounded King, figures in Arthurian legend as the latest in a line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin, and incapable of moving on his own...
.
Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
's additional information about the Swamp Thing
Swamp Thing
Swamp Thing, a fictional character, is a plant elemental in the created by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson. He first appeared in House of Secrets #92 in a stand-alone horror story set in the early 20th century . The Swamp Thing then returned in his own series, set in the contemporary world and in...
's origins did not contradict or change any of the events depicted in the character's previous appearances, but changed the reader's interpretation of them. Such additions and reinterpretations are very common in Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
,.
In the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
franchise, the books The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh (Volumes 1 & 2)
The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh
The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh is a two volume set of novels written by Greg Cox about the life of the fictional Star Trek character Khan Noonien Singh. He is often referred to as simply "Khan" in the Star Trek episode "Space Seed" and in the Star Trek movie Star Trek...
, by Greg Cox, detail the fictional Eugenics Wars
Eugenics wars
Eugenics wars may refer to:*In biopolitics, “eugenics wars” are sociopolitical conflicts characterized by coercive state-sponsored genetic discrimination and human rights violations such as compulsory sterilization of persons with genetic defects, the killing of the institutionalized and,...
of the early 1990s – still many years into the future when first mentioned in the episode "Space Seed" in 1967 – giving alternative explanations for real world events such as the Indian nuclear test of 1974 and the violent breakup of Yugoslavia
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
in the early 1990s, presenting them as small parts of a single wider conflict.
The History Monks appear in Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
's Thief of Time
Thief of Time
Thief of Time is the 26th Discworld novel written by Terry Pratchett, a 2002 Locus Award nominee.-Plot summary:The Auditors are upset because the human race are living their lives in - what the Auditors consider to be - an unpredictable way...
and explain anachronisms in the Discworld
Discworld
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
(such as Elizabethan theatre existing simultaneously with opera) by describing how history was previously destroyed by a magical clock and they have been haphazardly attempting to reconstruct it.
In the Stargate
Stargate
Stargate is a adventure military science fiction franchise, initially conceived by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Stargate. It was originally released on October 28, 1994, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco, and became a hit, grossing nearly...
franchise, the TV show that followed the original film established the main antagonist from that film, the now-deceased Ra, as part of an alien species called the Goa'uld
Goa'uld
The Goa'uld are a fictional symbiotic race of ancient astronauts from the American-Canadian military science fiction television franchise Stargate. The Goa'uld are parasites from the planet P3X-888, integrated within a host, most of the time human. The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent...
, establishing many more instances of that species as enemies as the series progressed.
Alteration
Retcons often add information that effectively states "what you saw isn't what really happened" and then introduce a different version of the backstory. This is usually interpreted by the audience as an overt change rather than a mere addition. The most common form this takes is when a character shown to have died (sometimes explicitly) is later revealed to have survived somehowComic book death
In the comic book fan community, the apparent death and subsequent return of a long-running character is often called a comic book death. While death is a serious subject, a comic book death is generally not taken seriously and is rarely permanent or meaningful...
. This is well known in horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
s, which may end with the death of the monster, but when the film becomes successful, the studio plans a sequel, revealing that the monster survived after all. The technique is common in superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
comics, where it has been used so frequently that the term comic book death
Comic book death
In the comic book fan community, the apparent death and subsequent return of a long-running character is often called a comic book death. While death is a serious subject, a comic book death is generally not taken seriously and is rarely permanent or meaningful...
has been coined for it.
An early famous example in popular culture is the return of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
: writer Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
killed off the popular character in an encounter with his foe Professor Moriarty
Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was...
, only to bring Holmes back, due in large part to audience response.
J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
in The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
described the circumstances in which Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins is the protagonist and titular character of The Hobbit and a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, two of the most well-known of J. R. R...
won a magic ring
One Ring
The One Ring is a fictional artifact that appears as the central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy novels. It is described in an earlier story, The Hobbit , as a magic ring of invisibility. The sequel The Lord of the Rings describes its powers as being more encompassing than...
from Gollum
Gollum
Gollum is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He was introduced in the author's fantasy novel The Hobbit, and became an important supporting character in its sequel, The Lord of the Rings....
. However, by the time he wrote the sequel, The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, his concept of the ring's nature had changed, at odds with the previous depiction. To explain this discrepancy, Tolkien retold this incident in the new work, explaining the original version as a lie inspired by the malevolent influence of the ring. However, later editions of The Hobbit incorporated the revised version of the story.
In many of his detective novels, Rex Stout
Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the...
implies that his character Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's...
was born in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
, and gives some details of his early life in the Balkans prior to and during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. However, in Over My Dead Body
Over My Dead Body (novel)
Over My Dead Body is the seventh Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. The story first appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine...
(1939), Wolfe tells an FBI agent that he was born in the United States. Stout revealed the reason for the change in a letter obtained by his authorized biographer, John McAleer: "In the original draft of Over My Dead Body Nero was a Montenegrin by birth, and it all fitted previous hints as to his background; but violent protests from The American Magazine, supported by Farrar & Rinehart, caused his cradle to be transported five thousand miles."
Fans may invent unofficial explanations for inconsistencies, the challenge itself becoming a source of entertainment. Sometimes these fan-made explanations become so popular and widespread that they slip into accepted canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
, and the original creators of the characters accept them. For example, in the film Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
, the character Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
suffers a horrible death. However, the character was popular, so some fans held that he had somehow escaped "off-screen", and later books, graphic novels, and even an official action figure
Action figure
An action figure is a posable character figurine, made of plastic or other materials, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, video game, or television program. These action figures are usually marketed towards boys and male collectors...
accepted this conjecture and depicted Boba Fett as having escaped the ordeal. In the commentary for the Special Edition Release of the film, George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
stated that had he known of the character's popularity, he would have made the death scene more impressive. Lucas left it ambiguous if the new interpretation was correct. However, in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, which takes place after Episode 6, the player must fight Boba Fett in Ord Mantel. (One reason Fett might have survived is he was drawn into the Sarlaac with all his weapons, unlike Jabba's other victims. It is not inconceivable he was able to use them to escape, killing the creature instead.)
It is commonplace for fictional characters appearing over a long period of time to remain the same age, or to age out of sync with real time. This concept, called a floating timeline
Floating timeline
A Floating timeline is a device used in fiction, particularly in comics and animation, to explain why characters age little or not at all over a period of time - despite real-world markers like notable events, people and technology appearing in the works and correlating with the real world.A...
, may be interpreted as an ongoing implicit retcon of their birthdate. When historical events are involved in their biography, overt retcons may be used to accommodate this; a character who served in the army during World War II might have his service record retconned to place him in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, etc. A famous example of this type of retcon is the television show The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
and Marvel Comics' characters Nick Fury
Nick Fury
Colonel Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury is a fictional World War II army hero and present-day super-spy in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee, Fury first appeared in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 , a World War II combat series that portrayed the...
and The Punisher. The James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movie series is another well-known example of this technique.
While retconning is usually done without comment by the creators, DC Comics has on rare occasions promoted special events dedicated to revising the history of the DC Comics universe. The most important and well known such event was the mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths is a 12-issue American comic book limited series and crossover event, produced by DC Comics in 1985 to simplify its then 50-year-old continuity...
; this allowed for wholesale revisions of their entire multiverse
Multiverse (DC Comics)
The DC Multiverse is a fictional continuity construct that exists in stories published by comic book company DC Comics. The DC Multiverse consists of numerous worlds, most of them outside DC's main continuity, allowing writers the creative freedom to explore alternative versions of characters and...
of characters. The storyline of this mini-series involved an alternative version of Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and the archenemy of Superman, although given his high status as a supervillain, he has also come into conflict with Batman and other superheroes in the DC Universe. Created by Jerry Siegel and...
(called Alexander Luthor) surviving the destruction of his entire universe by a malign entity known as the Anti-Monitor
Anti-Monitor
The Anti-Monitor is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain and the antagonist of the 1985 DC Comics miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths. He first appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths #2 , and was destroyed in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12, only to return after a long absence in Green...
. Alexander would then go on to lose his sanity along with Superboy-Prime
Superboy-Prime
Superboy-Prime, also known as Superman-Prime, or simply Prime, is a DC Comics superhero turned supervillain, and one of several alternate Supermen. The character first appeared in DC Comics Presents #87 , and was created by Elliot S...
after the small group of survivors of the first Crisis of which they were a part had been trapped in a pocket universe
Pocket universe
-In science:A pocket universe is a concept in inflationary theory, proposed by Alan Guth. It defines a realm like the one that contains the observable universe as only one of many inflationary zones.-In fiction:...
for an unspecified amount of time. (See DC Comics' Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis is a 2005 - 2006 comic book storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous, seven-issue comic book limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, and a number of tie-in books...
) The repercusions of the second Crisis led into the events of 52
52 (comics)
52 was a weekly American comic book limited series published by DC Comics that debuted on May 10, 2006, one week after the conclusion of the seven-issue Infinite Crisis. The series was written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid with layouts by Keith Giffen...
. The wave of retcons and hero killings and resurrections didn't stop there or indeed ever. After the events of 52, DC was on the road to one of the largest single retcons in their history. (See Countdown
Countdown to Final Crisis
Countdown, known as Countdown to Final Crisis for its last 24 issues based on the cover, was a comic book limited series published by DC Comics. It debuted on May 9, 2007, directly following the conclusion of the last issue of 52...
and Final Crisis
Final Crisis
Final Crisis is a crossover storyline that appeared in comic books published by DC Comics in 2008, primarily the seven-issue miniseries of the same name written by Grant Morrison. Originally DC announced the project as being illustrated solely by J. G. Jones; artists Carlos Pacheco, Marco Rudy and...
)
A storyline in Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
, named One More Day
Spider-Man: One More Day
"One More Day" is a four-part, 2007 comic book crossover storyline, connecting the six main Spider-Man series concurrently published by Marvel Comics at the time. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada, with art by Quesada, this story arc concludes the fallout of Spider-Man's actions...
, culminated in the magical revision of history, eliminating the marriage between Peter Parker
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
and Mary Jane Watson
Mary Jane Watson
Mary Jane Watson, often shortened to MJ, is a fictional supporting character appearing, originally, in Marvel comic books and, later, in multiple spin-offs and dramatizations of the Spider-Man titles as the best friend, love interest, and one-time wife of Peter Parker, the alter ego of Spider-Man...
, and subsequent developments in the character's history over the previous twenty years. It has been argued that these were not true retcons, however, because the cause of the changes to their universe actually appeared within the story, similar to stories in which a time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
er goes to the past and changes history from how he remembered it.
In live-action television series, real-world developments may prompt alteration-type retcons. For example, in Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
, limits in budget and technology resulted in the appearance of Klingon
Klingon
Klingons are a fictional warrior race in the Star Trek universe.Klingons are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and eight feature films...
s as metallic-skinned people with vaguely central Asian features. When the franchise was later revived in films and new series enjoying larger budgets and improved makeup techniques, the appearance of Klingons was changed drastically. Skin looked more natural and spinal bones were brought up into the foreheads for a decidedly more alien appearance. The new look was explained by the producers to be how Klingons had always appeared, but that they could not be portrayed accurately before. The difference was marked upon in dialog between characters in "Trials and Tribble-ations", an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
when modern-era characters travel back in time to the days of Kirk and Spock (and via then-brand new CGI techniques, appear within the TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles", frequently coming into contact with the Enterprise crew). When (modern) Klingon Worf
Worf
Worf, played by Michael Dorn, is a main character in Star Trek: The Next Generation and in seasons four to seven of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also appears in the films based on The Next Generation. Worf is the first Klingon main character to appear in Star Trek, and has appeared in more Star...
and his crewmates see an original-series Klingon, his crewmates ask about the stunning difference in appearance; Worf says tersely that the matter is something Klingons "do not discuss with outsiders". This retcon itself was later retconned, in Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series. It follows the adventures of humanity's first warp 5 starship, the Enterprise, ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous Star Trek series was formed.Enterprise premiered on September 26, 2001...
, via a storyline in which it is revealed that the original, quasi-human appearance of the Klingons is due to a genetic mutation caused by an engineered virus – ironically, "genetic engineering" (Chief O'Brien
Miles O'Brien (Star Trek)
Miles Edward O'Brien, played by Colm Meaney, is Chief of Operations in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Before DS9, he appeared as a recurring transporter chief in Star Trek: The Next Generation...
) and "viral mutation" (Dr. Bashir
Julian Bashir
Lieutenant Julian Subatoi Bashir, M.D., played by Alexander Siddig, is a main character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Bashir is the chief medical officer of space station Deep Space Nine and the USS Defiant.-Overview:...
) had been the guesses Worf refused to confirm or deny.
Subtraction
Sometimes retconned alterations are so drastic as to render prior stories untenable. Many of the retcons introduced in Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC's later Zero HourZero Hour (comics)
Zero Hour: Crisis in Time is a five-issue comic book limited series and crossover storyline published by DC Comics in 1994. In it, the former hero Hal Jordan, who had until then been a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, mad with grief after the destruction of...
were specifically intended to wipe the slate clean, and permit an entirely new history to be written for the characters. This is commonly referred to as a reboot. This is often very unpopular, upsetting fans of the material that has been removed from continuity.
Unpopular or embarrassing stories are sometimes later ignored by publishers, never referred to again, and effectively erased from a series' continuity. They may publish stories that contradict the previous story or explicitly establish that it "never happened" – for example by claiming that events in a previous installation were "just a dream", like one season of Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
, which became Pam
Pamela Barnes Ewing
Pamela Jean "Pam" Barnes is a fictional character in the popular American television series Dallas, played by Victoria Principal and Margaret Michaels.-Early pre-series life:...
's dream so that her husband Bobby could return from the dead. An unpopular retcon may even be re-retconned away, as happened with John Byrne's Spider-Man: Chapter One
Spider-Man: Chapter One
Spider-Man: Chapter One is a comic book limited series starring Spider-Man published by Marvel Comics for 13 issues from December 1998 to October 1999. The entire series was written and drawn by John Byrne....
.
An example of subtraction can be found in Disney's The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
series. After the success of the first movie, Disney released a group of books titled The Lion King: Six New Adventures in which Simba
Simba
Simba is a lion character and the protagonist of Disney's most successful animated feature film, The Lion King. He is the son of Mufasa and Sarabi, nephew of Scar, mate of Nala, and father of Kiara. He has golden fur and when he grows into an adult, he has an auburn mane...
is said to have a son named Kopa. It is also mentioned in the storybook version of the film that he has a son. However, in the film sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride is a 1998 American direct-to-video animated film released by Walt Disney Home Video on October 27, 1998. The film is the sequel to the 1994 Disney animated film The Lion King...
, Simba only has a daughter named Kiara. Kopa is non-existent and no mention is made of him. Kiara also has a different coloring and more feminine features than the cub shown at the end of the first movie.
This concept was parodied in She-Hulk
She-Hulk
She-Hulk is a Marvel Comics superheroine. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, she first appeared in Savage She-Hulk #1 ....
(vol. 2) #3, in which the title character is threatened with erasure from continuity via a device that does such a thing. Eventually, she is pardoned, but not before two characters never seen before or since, Knight Man and Dr. Rocket, are erased from continuity, leaving those who didn't see it to respond, "Who?"
Related
Retroactive continuity is similar to, but not the same as, plot inconsistencies introduced accidentally or through lack of concern for continuity; retconning is done deliberately. For example, the ongoing continuity contradictions on episodic TV series such as The SimpsonsThe Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
(in which the timeline of the family's history must be continually shifted forward to explain them not getting any older. For instance, when the series started, Bart would have to have been born in about 1980, but that would make him 30 years old as of 2010) reflects intentionally lost continuity, not genuine retcons. However, in series with generally tight continuity, retcons are sometimes created after the fact to explain continuity errors.
Retconning is also generally distinct from replacing the actor who plays a part in an ongoing series, which is more commonly an example of loose continuity rather than retroactively changing past continuity. The different appearance of the character is either ignored, as was done with the character of Darrin Stephens on the television show Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
, or explained within the series, such as with "regeneration
Regeneration (Doctor Who)
Regeneration, in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, is a biological ability exhibited by Time Lords, a race of fictional humanoids originating on the planet Gallifrey. This process allows a Time Lord who is old or mortally wounded to undergo a transformation into a new...
" in Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, or the Oracle in The Matrix: Revolutions.
It also differs from direct revision. For example, when George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
re-edited the original Star Wars trilogy, he made changes directly to the source material, rather than introducing new source material that contradicted the contents of previous material.
The "clean slate" reinterpretation of characters – as in movie and television adaptations of books, or the reintroduction of many superheroes in the Silver Age of Comics – is similar to a reboot retcon, except that the previous versions are not explicitly or implicitly eliminated in the process. These are merely alternative or parallel reinterpretations, such as the character re-interpretations of the DC animated universe
DC animated universe
The DC Animated Universe is a fan term that refers to a series of popular animated television series and related spin-offs produced by Warner Bros. Animation which share the same continuity. Most of these series are adapted from DC Comics properties...
or the Ultimate Marvel
Ultimate Marvel
Ultimate Marvel is an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring reimagined and updated versions of the company's superhero characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. The imprint was launched in 2000 with the publication of the series...
line of comics.
Literature involving retconning
When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off his most-beloved character Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
by plunging him to his death over the Reichenbach Falls
Reichenbach Falls
The Reichenbach Falls are a series of waterfalls on the River Aar near Meiringen in Bern canton in central Switzerland. They have a total drop of 250 m . At 90 m , the Upper Reichenbach Falls is one of the highest cataracts in the Alps...
with his arch nemesis Professor Moriarty
Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was...
, the public's demand for Holmes was so great that Doyle was compelled to bring him back to life in a subsequent story, where he details that Holmes had merely faked his death.
In Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's novel Misery the protagonist, Paul Sheldon, is forced to write a sequel to his book Misery's Child, in which the main character, Misery Chastain, dies. He at first attempts to retcon the events in that book, but his captor, Annie Wilkes, regards this as cheating and makes him create a sequel that doesn't actively deny what the reader already knows. The second attempt to bring Misery Chastain back to life (which Annie Wilkes likes) is almost an example of a comic book death
Comic book death
In the comic book fan community, the apparent death and subsequent return of a long-running character is often called a comic book death. While death is a serious subject, a comic book death is generally not taken seriously and is rarely permanent or meaningful...
.
Though the term "retcon" did not yet exist when George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
, the totalitarian regime depicted in that book is involved in a constant, large-scale retconning of past records. For example, when it is suddenly announced that "Oceania was not after all in war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia and Eurasia was an ally" (Part Two, Ch. 9), there is an immediate intensive effort to change "all reports and records, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks and photographs" and make them all record a war with Eastasia rather than one with Eurasia. "Often it was enough to merely substitute one name for another, but any detailed report of events demanded care and imagination. Even the geographical knowledge needed in transferring the war from one part of the world to another was considerable." See historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
.
See also
- Back-storyBack-storyA back-story, background story, or backstory is the literary device of a narrative chronologically earlier than, and related to, a narrative of primary interest. Generally, it is the history of characters or other elements that underlie the situation existing at the main narrative's start...
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
- Cousin Oliver Syndrome
- Historical revisionismHistorical revisionismIn historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
- Jumping the sharkJumping the sharkJumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery....
- List of retcons
- Plot holePlot holeA plot hole, or plothole, is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot, or constitutes a blatant omission of relevant information regarding the plot...
- PrequelPrequelA prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
- Retcon (Torchwood)
- RetronymRetronymA retronym is a type of neologism that provides a new name for an object or concept to differentiate the original form or version of it from a more recent form or version. The original name is most often augmented with an adjective to account for later developments of the object or concept itself...
External links
- Retconning: Just Another Day Like All The Others at websnark.com An essay on the advantages and disadvantages of the various types of retcons.