DC Comics and retcons have gone hand in hand for decades now. For a long time, DC continuity was merely a suggestion, but the rise of Marvel Comics changed that. Suddenly, fans wanted a shared universe where everything mattered and DC did its best to fit their old style into this new way of telling superhero stories. This led to numerous parts of the past having to be changed to make sense of everything, retcons becoming indispensable to the company’s superhero comics. Eventually, Crisis on Infinite Earths would reset everything and creators deployed all kinds of retcons, using them to add and subtract things they didn’t like about the characters they were working on.
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Retcons are sometimes the only thing that can make an idea work, but that doesn’t mean that they’re always a good thing. Some retcons make no sense whatsoever, changes that fans just have to accept despite the problems with them. However, some retcons are honestly perfect. They not only do everything they set out to do, but they also make sense in the moment. These seven DC retcons worked flawlessly, making the comics better with their very existence and not raising too many red flags for fans.
7) Restoring Power Girl’s Original Origin
Power Girl was introduced as the Earth-Two Supergirl, which was fine while the multiverse still existed. (“Foreshadowing is a literary device…”). Supergirl died in Crisis on Infinite Earths and Power Girl was the Kara that got folded into the new universe. However, no one really had any idea how it was going to work or who Power Girl was going to be. Was she an Atlantean descendant of the sorcerer Arion? Was she Andromeda from the reboot Legion, her mind wiped and sent back in time for a mysterious purpose? Was she none of these things? Eventually, all of these various clues would be abandoned and she was given back her original origin. The explanation was that the DC Universe – which has a degree of sentience representing the creators and their actions – created various origins to make sense of her continued existence but she was still the girl from Earth-Two. It’s a bit far-fetched – a sentient universe tries to make sense of something by creating origins for her – but it’s honestly the most DC thing ever.
6) Parallax Possessing Hal Jordan
Some DC characters take years to become villains and one of the best examples of this is Hal Jordan. Hal was the first Green Lantern of a new generation, becoming an iconic hero in the process. Eventually, it was decided to shift him out of the mantle, as part of ’90s DC breaking their icons, and he was made into the villain Parallax. At first, it was described as him going crazy because of the destruction of Coast City, but it would get retconned in Green Lantern Rebirth. This story revealed that Parallax was the yellow fear entity that had been imprisoned in the Central Power Battery, causing the “yellow impurity” that limited Lantern rings, and that it broke down Hal’s willpower over the years until it was able to possess him completely. This made way more sense than him just going crazy; Hal isn’t the type of character to just snap like that. It made a good story great and helped pave the way for the return of the greatest Green Lantern.
5) Canonizing Every Batman Story
Batman has had 87 years worth of stories and, like most long-running DC characters, many of those have been de-canonized. The biggest example of this is the post-Crisis changeover; the entire history of the DC Universe was being changed and numerous old school Bat-stories from the ’50s and ’60s that didn’t fit the tone of the current Batman origin were taken out of canon. However, Grant Morrison didn’t like that at all – as they are one of Silver Age DC’s biggest fans – and decided to bring everything back into canon, even the weirdest of stories. Morrison did this in the most Morrison way possible, having the old stories chalked up to hallucinations and experiments that the Dark Knight did on his own mind, as well as establishing the Black Casebook, where he wrote down all of his most bizarre cases. This made perfect sense as far as it goes; Morrison was able to sell this idea flawlessly and their run has gone down as one of the best of all time because of how they pulled off this retcon.
4) Superboy-Prime Punching the Walls of Reality
Superboy-Prime is getting a well-deserved redemption, with creators giving him a chance to shine as a hero for the first time in decades. He was reintroduced to the DC Multiverse in Infinite Crisis and it was soon revealed that he was the reason behind numerous strange happenings in DC history. Prime was outside reality watching the new DC Universe unfold along with Alexander Luthor of Earth-Three and Earth-Two Superman and Lois Lane, and his frustration at the actions of the heroes made him take out his anger on the walls of reality, each punch changing something. This was a weird retcon, but honestly it makes sense. There have been numerous changes to characters over the years that really didn’t make sense, so an angry fanboy causing the changes by taking his anger out on the universe is honestly the most valid explanation many of them have gotten. It was an idea that at first didn’t make a lot of sense but the more you think about it and the way the DC Multiverse works from a meta standpoint, the most you realize it does make perfect sense.
3) Post-Crisis Wonder Woman Origin
Crisis on Infinite Earths changed two characters more than anyone else – Superman and Wonder Woman. Both of them were given new origins, but the one that took the most retcons to work was Diana’s. Her entire history was changed; she was no longer one of the original heroes, but showed up in the modern day, winning the contest that would see her gain the right to come to Man’s World. Setting her debut in the present day instead of the past led to a lot of changes to the history of the DC Universe, but creators were able to make them work beautifully. They established a new, more mythology-inspired Diana, allowing her stories to go in new directions, one who was just joining the superhero community and forging relationships for the first time. It seemed like a weird choice at first, but creators were able to sell it and tell amazing stories with this new history (I personally still prefer the Black Canary as a founding member of the Justice League origin from JLA: Year One #1-12, but then again, I’m such a mark for post-Crisis DC).
2) Batman and Talia al Ghul Having a Baby
Batman and Talia al Ghul have had quite a relationship over the years. Their attraction was obvious from the moment they met; in fact, the only reason they met at all was because Ra’s al Ghul wanted Bruce Wayne to impregnate his daughter as her perfect match. They had one of most important on-again, off-again relationships in comic history, with the out of continuity stories like Son of the Demon and Kingdom Come dealing with them having a child, introducing readers to an idea that they liked. Eventually, Morrison, already in the middle of canonizing every Bat-story, decided to give them a secret child. As far as it goes, this made perfect sense. The two had many dalliances over the years. so them having a secret love child is something that could have happened. While the New 52 changing the history of the DC Multiverse, making Batman’s overall superhero career shorter, and eventually Morrison revealed it was a bit more rape-y on Talia’s part than we had imagined, made it a bit nonsensical, it’s become one of the most important retcons in Bat-history.
1) The Existence of the Speed Force
Barry Allen’s death changed the Flash mythos forever. Wally West took his mentor’s place as the Flash and he became more powerful than ever. Super speed became a much more broken power and eventually, it needed an explanation for how it was able to break the laws of physics all the time. That’s where the Speed Force comes in. Suddenly, there’s a reason why speedsters have gotten progressively more powerful and why they are able to break all the laws of the universe. It was a perfect retcon; you could insert it and say it always there powering the speedsters and the only proof you really need, since you establish that no one had actually discovered its existence until that moment, is that their powers have worked the whole time. It basically retconned itself in a lot of ways.
What’s your favorite DC retcon? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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