With nearly a century of history, it’s no surprise that there are retcons in DC Comics. Just about every story, every character, and every team has experienced some change in their stories, little tweaks or events that alter an established timeline or event. This is particularly true for one of DC’s most popular characters, Batman. Since his arrival in 1939 Batman and various characters that make up his particular corner of the universe have seen multiple retcons, small and large.
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Not all of the retcons stick. Depending on the creator or the era, some changes to established “fact” either get dropped or revert back to the original idea and for the Dark Knight, that might be for the best. There are plenty of weird retcons across Batman comics over the years, changes that have us scratching our heads and wondering why.
5) Tim Drake Was Never Robin
While one could argue that DC has never really quite known how to best utilize its best Robin, one of the wildest retcons in Batman comics has to be the huge change made to Tim Drake’s story that was announced at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2012 that Tim was always the hero Red Robin — never Batman’s regular Robin. The change was a big thing with Tim being important to the Teen Titans, but it was also a very weird turn.
One of the things that makes Tim’s story interesting is his history with Batman and his becoming Batman’s Robin. Eliminating that was such a major character change. Fortunately, while Tim would continue to be Red Robin during Rebirth, his proper origin and time as Robin was restored and has been reinforced ever since.
4) Batman Fires Dick Grayson
Another Robin-related retcon (there are several of those) involves the first Robin, Dick Grayson. After being Robin for decades, Dick “graduated” and became the hero Nightwing, serving as the protector of Gotham’s troubled neighbor Bludhaven. However, Batman #408 makes a controversial change to that graduation: Dick doesn’t mature out of being Robin, Batman fires him.
The post-Crisis on Infinite Earths story sees Batman and Dick’s Robin fight the Joker and Robin gets shot. The incident freaks Batman out so much that he decides to fire Dick for his own safety. Dick’s response is an uncharacteristically juvenile comic book version of “yeah, well you can’t stop me!” which prompts him to become Nightwing. The issue leads to Batman meeting Jason Todd.
3) Jason Todd Recruited to be Robin After Stealing Drugs
Jason Todd’s history has always been a little weird and messy. Before Crisis, he had an origin that closely mirrored Dick Grayson’s, but after Crisis, Jason is presented as a street orphan who Batman meets when Jason’s trying to steal the Batmobile’s tires. In what might be one of the weirdest retcons, DC made a change to that as part of the New 52.
In Red Hood and the Outlaws #0, DC retconned Jason’s origin to have him trying to steal drugs from Dr. Leslie Thompkins. It was an elaborate way of tying in other drug-related elements of Jason’s life, as post-Crisis his mother was said to have died of a drug overdose so having Jason also be stealing drugs was a logical fit. Leslie insists that Batman not turn Jason in and somehow that leads to Jason becoming Robin. Yeah, it never made sense to us, either.
2) The Owl and the Inspirational Bat
Here’s one that doesn’t really seem to have any actual purpose and it involves the bat that first inspired Bruce Wayne to take on the moniker of Batman. The origin goes that a bat flew through Bruce’s window and inspired him to model himself after a bat for his crimefighting. However, Batman: Night of the Owls flips that up a bit and has an owl kill that bat while Bruce, who is wounded, watches.
As you probably guessed, the Court of Owls is a major player in this particular Batman story so having the owl kill the bat was some sort of weird foreshadowing type of thing, but it’s also a very weird retcon that really had no actual purpose.
1) One, Two, Three Jokers
The Joker might be the one character in Batman’s overall orbit that has the least consistent origin and backstory, but there is one thing that we can count on: there’s just one Joker. Or rather, we thought we could count on that. Enter Batman: Three Jokers, which flips that one reliable Joker fact on its head. The story suggests that there are actually three different men who are the Joker: The Criminal (aka the Golden Age Joker), The Clown (the goofy Silver Age Joker who killed Jason Todd), and The Comedian (the Bronze Age Joker who paralyzed Barbara Gordon).
While there is actually a “real” joker and this retcon is short lived, it’s still super weird. It’s also still up for debate if the entire Three Jokers story was even canon.
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