Marvel and its fans like to talk a lot about how the Marvel Universe has never been rebooted. They wear this like a badge of honor, but they ignore the fact that retcons have been a huge part of the House of Ideas’ storytelling tools for decades now. Marvel has rarely met a retcon they didn’t like, and over the years they’ve used them to fix all kinds of “problems”. Sometimes, they’re thorny continuity issues that no one foresaw a problem with. Other times, they’re things that needed to be changed to make a story work or to change things that creators don’t like.
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Some retcons have become a beloved part of the Marvel Universe, and fans depend on them. They’ve helped fix a lot of problems, but there are some retcons that no one can understand. These ten Marvel retcons make no sense, and they’ve left fans scratching their heads.
10) Xavier, Magneto, and Krakoa
The Krakoa Era changed the X-Men, and it was built on numerous retcons. However, one that never really made any sense was the alliance between Xavier, Magneto, and Moira MacTaggert. The three of them teamed up in the years before the X-Men existed, when Charles and Magneto hated each other. Yet, somehow, we’re supposed to believe that while they were trying to kill each other, they were also secretly working together to make Krakoa a reality. It was a weird decision, and it’s never really been explained at all.
9) The Sentry as a Drug Addict
The Sentry was the Marvel version of Superman, a powerhouse superhero who would be given the characteristic foibles that made Marvel characters unique. Bob Reynolds was a man with mental issues, and once he got his powers, it created the Void, his living dark side. However, it would later be revealed that he was actually just a drug addict the whole time, and the only reason he got powers was because he found the serum and thought it was drugs. It’s one of those retcons that took a good idea that worked and made it into something dumb and kind of insulting to people with mental and addiction issues.
8) Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver No Longer Being Magneto’s Children
Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were introduced as members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants before joining the Avengers. There would be numerous teases on who there parents were, and then it was revealed that Magneto was their father. This was a great change that led to numerous stories, but Marvel was forced to sell the film rights to the X-Men, which created some problems when the MCU came around. In the comics, Marvel decided to undo the Maximoff twins’ parentage, and they were no longer the biological kids of Magneto. It’s a dumb change that has survived Marvel getting the X-Men’s film rights back, and fans still wonder why it’s still around.
7) The Weapon X Retcons
“Weapon X” is one of Wolverine’s best stories, and it led to numerous changes to the character. Some of these came from “The Shiva Scenario”, a three-part story that revealed that Weapon X had created a lot of Logan’s memories, including that of his life with his girlfriend Silver Fox. Wolverine (Vol. 2) #50 even revealed that she was somehow still alive, which was insane since we thought she had been dead since the late 1800s/early 1900s. It was a big retcon, but eventually it was revealed that she was a clone and the memories had happened. It was such a strange thing to do, messing with one of the most well-known parts of Wolverine’s history for no reason.
6) Jean Grey and the Phoenix Retcon 2024
“The Dark Phoenix Saga” is the best Marvel story, and it opened up a huge can of worms for Jean Grey. She died at the end of the story, and was resurrected years later. It was revealed that she was never the Dark Phoenix, instead being replaced by a Phoenix-made simulacrum (all because Marvel figured that fans wouldn’t root for a character that had killed billions). This retcon was weird enough even though it worked, but creators seemed to hate it, and wanted to re-establish that Jean had always been the Phoenix. So, in 2024, Marvel finally pulled the trigger on this during “Fall of X”. Now, she was not only the Phoenix the whole time, but she’s been the Phoenix since the beginning of time or something. It’s honestly more confusing than what came before.
5) Hydra Cap
The Hydra Cap retcon is one of those ones where we know why it happened — to set up an event and make money — but it still doesn’t make sense. Captain America was the creation of two Jewish men, so making him a Nazi seemed like the biggest slap in the face to the character and his creators (one of whom is Jack Kirby, co-creator of everything everyone loves about Marvel). It’s one of those decisions that feels so disrespectful to not only Cap’s creators, but every Jewish person who had loved Cap over the decades. Marvel can be quite callous to fans and creators at times, and this one of many proofs of that.
4) Vulcan’s X-Men
Vulcan is the third Summers brothers, something that was teased in the ’90s. He didn’t make his debut until 2006’s X-Men: Deadly Genesis, and we got one of the worst retcons ever. It was revealed that Vulcan, who had been a Shi’Ar slave (on Earth because reasons) after being ripped from his mother’s womb and aged up, had been found by Moira MacTaggert, and trained with three other mutants. The four of them were recruited to go to Krakoa to rescue the X-Men before the All-New All-Different team went in Giant-Size X-Men #1, and they were killed, forcing Xavier to wipe them from everyone’s memories. The whole point of this was to make people like Xavier less, but it’s always felt like it went too far.
3) The Eternals of Titans retcons
Thanos is one of Marvel’s most storied villains, but a recent retcon changed him. This retcon came from Eternals (Vol. 5), which revealed that the Eternals of Titan weren’t actually Eternals, because only Celestials could make Eternals. Instead, they were created by Mentor and his wife Sui-San, who had left Earth after the war against Uranos. They were able to create Eternals on their own, including their “sons” Thanos and Starfox. It was a strange change, one meant to make the original Eternals more important, and it was never really needed.
2) The Terrigen Mists and Mutants
The Terrigen Mists gave the Inhumans their powers, and were a key part of their culture. Eventually, the Mists were released into the Earth’s atmosphere, and they became damaging to mutants, sterilizing some and killing others who were exposed to them. However, this was a massive change from the past, specifically Son of M, a story starring a powerless Quicksilver after House of M while trying to figure out how to save the mutant race. He decided to use the Terrigen Mists, which changed the powers of the mutants they interacted with. No one died or was sterilized. The worst part is that the change was made 9 years after Son of M, with the same editorial staff in charge of things at Marvel.
1) “One More Day”
Look, it was always going to be “One More Day”. This Spider-Man story by Joe Quesada with assists from J. Michael Straczynski and basically every other writer and editor at Marvel did away with Spider-Man’s marriage to Mary Jane, all because people like Quesada and Tom Brevoort didn’t like the marriage. It’s still hated to this day, and for good reason. Spider-Man trading his marriage to Mephisto is exactly the kind of thing that the character would never do, and it’s become yet another example of Marvel not caring about its readers.
What’s your least-favorite Marvel retcon? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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Courtesy of David Production
