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Retroactive continuity (retcon for short)^[1] is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work.^[2] 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 books 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 also appear in soap operas, serial drama, movie sequels, 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.

Origins of the term[link]

The first published use of the phrase "retroactive continuity" is found in Elgin Frank Tupper's 1974 book The theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg.^[3]

Pannenberg's 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 #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?"^[4] 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'."^[5] 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.^[6] Alan Moore's retcons often involve false memories, for example Marvelman (aka Miracleman in America), and Batman: The Killing Joke.

Types[link]

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, removes, or restarts' material from the narrative's continuity. These distinctions often evoke different reactions from fans of the material.

Addition[link]

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 Squadron. 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.^[2]

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.

Alteration[link]

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 somehow. This is well known in horror films, 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,^[2] 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.^[7]

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.

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."^[8]

In the 1950 novel Pebble in the Sky, science fiction novel writer Isaac Asimov depicted a future Earth with a largely radioactive crust, humans precariously surviving in the uncontaminated areas in between. There was the clear implication (though it was not explicitly stated) that this was the result of a nuclear war hundreds or thousands of years before the time of the plot. It was, however, pointed out by critics that such an extensive use of nuclear weapons as to leave persistent and widespread radiation even after centuries would have completely destroyed all life on Earth at the moment when it took place. Therefore, in a much later book, Robots and Empire (1985), Asimov provided a different origin for the future Earth's radioactivity - making it the result of a gradual process in the course of which human and other life could survive.

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.

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.

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 Klingons as swarthy-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.

Subtraction[link]

Unpopular or embarrassing stories are sometimes later ignored by publishers, never referred to again, and effectively erased from a series' continuity. The publishers may publish stories that contradict the previous story or explicitly establish that it "never happened" – for example by claiming that events in a previous installment 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?"

Reboot[link]

Some retcons are used to erase all previous continuity and start a fictional universe over from the beginning. This type of retconning and its effects are commonly referred to as a reboot. Reboots differ from retcons in that reboots have an in-story explanation – such as using time travel or reality warping to rewrite history – for the changes, whereas retcons are changes caused outside of the story by writers and/or editors. Some reboots – referred to as "soft" reboots – incorporate stories from the previous continuity into the new one rather than erasing them completely, while subjecting them to revision in order to fit them in.

The retcons in DC Comics' Crisis on Infinite Earths and Flashpoint storylines – both using the time travel method – were used to write an entirely new history for the DC Universe and its characters. Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis used the reality warping method instead, resulting in minor changes to the DC Universe's history instead of a complete reboot.

The Spider-Man storyline One More Day – also using the reality warping method – 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 thirty years.

The Top Cow storyline Artifacts – also using the reality warping method – ended with the destruction and recreation of its fictional universe, with several continuity changes occurring as a result.

The "clean slate" reinterpretation of characters – as in the reintroduction of superheroes in the Silver Age of Comics, restarting a franchise (such as a film series, television series, or video game franchise) from the beginning, or adapting a comic book into another medium – are also reboots, except that the previous versions are not eliminated in the process. These are merely alternative reinterpretations, such as the character re-interpretations of the DC animated universe and the Ultimate Marvel line of comics. (In rare cases, some reinterpretations include an in-story explanation for the changes, such as the 2009 Star Trek film and the 2011 Mortal Kombat video game both using time travel to restart both franchises).

Related[link]

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 Simpsons (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, Vivian on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, or Claire on My Wife and Kids), 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.

Literature involving retconning[link]

When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off his most-beloved character Sherlock Holmes 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).

References in popular culture[link]

The revived series of British science fiction television program Doctor Who, and its television spin-offs, heavily and playfully uses retroactive continuity plot devices. For example, in Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, created by Russell T Davies, a drug used to erase the memory of characters is called "retcon"; the use of the drug is often referred to by characters as "retconning". The nod to retroactive continuity is a joke meant to be shared between the writers and the viewers as a way of pointing out that anything done throughout the course of the series can easily be undone with a simple plot device; it also points to parent show Doctor Who's frequent use of the device in its several-decade run. For example, Davies introduced the Time War in the backstory to Doctor Who's 2005 revival to account for discrepancies between the classic series and the revamp. When Steven Moffat took over in 2010, he introduced cracks in the universe which erase events and individuals from history; using this device, he 'undid' the events of "Journey's End" and "The Next Doctor" so that in the series' narrative, the people of Earth would be (once again) unaware of alien life. Moffat's fifth series finale provided a similar device when the Doctor "rebooted" the universe. In answer to a fan's question, Moffat tweeted: "The whole universe came exactly as it was. Except for any continuity errors I need to explain away."^[9] And in the sixth series, Moffat introduces new aliens the Silence, who erase your memory of them the moment you look away. Creative use of the device is mined for new kinds of television suspense. In the episode "Day of the Moon", characters were shown to have had dozens of (unseen) encounters with the creatures in the space of a few seconds in viewer's time. Commenting on this device, writer MaryAnn Johanson writes, "That could be happening throughout this story... indeed, through the entire history of Doctor Who. Moffat has just created a pretty much unassailable narratively sound reason for inserting retcons anywhere throughout the half-century history of the show."^[10]

The Daleks are another example of retconning in the Doctor Who series. Several times throughout the history of the show the Daleks have become extinct only to be 'reborn' at a later time due to their huge fan base and iconic placement as the Doctor's greatest foes.

In the Star Trek: Voyager episode Year of Hell, Voyager encounters a Krenim Temporal Weaponship made by the antagonist, Annorax. When the temporal weapon fires on an object, it moves that object outside the space-time continuum, eliminating the object from causality not only in the present and the future, but also the past, changing history to a state where the object never existed. Thus, by firing the weapon, Annorax makes a retcon to the history of the universe.

In Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, the Hobgoblin of the year 2211 carries a weapon known as a 'Retcon Bomb'; upon impact, it erases its target and all memories of the target from existence, though not erasing the consequences of their existence (which is how the cracks in the skin of the universe work as well). This weapon has not been used since, because its inventor had fallen victim to one.

In Champions Online, a MMORPG for the PC, a character may use a "retcon" item to reset the statistics and powers of their superhero character.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the its three sucessors; The Film Crew, Cinematic Titanic, and Rifftrax, all shows which mock incredably bad films; regularly use the word retcon.

The term retcon is used several times in the 2010 novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by American writer Charles Yu.

See also[link]

Writing portal

• Back-story
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
• Cousin Oliver Syndrome
• Historical revisionism
• Jumping the shark
• List of retcons
• Plot hole
• Prequel
• Retcon (Torchwood)
• Retronym

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• Retconning: Just Another Day Like All The Others at websnark.com An essay on the advantages and disadvantages of the various types of retcons.