Marvel Comics has undergone numerous character retcons throughout its history. This is particularly important when it comes to keeping the heroes and villains relevant over time. While Marvel attempted to overhaul everything with its Ultimates line of comics, fans primarily wanted to continue following the characters they had grown up with over the years. However, Marvel Comics has consistently retconned its characters across different eras, with Spider-Man and the X-Men being the characters most likely to undergo significant changes. The problem is that many of these retcons didn’t all land well and many fans hated what the company changed about their beloved characters.
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Here is a look at some of the worst retcons in Marvel Comics, where the company made changes that didn’t always work well with the fanbase.
10) Retconning “Dark Phoenix Saga”
The Dark Phoenix Saga was one of the first times in Marvel Comics that the company killed one of its major heroes, and it seemed like Jean Grey was gone for good. This happened after the Dark Phoenix took control and Jean consumed a sun, killing billions of people on a neighboring planet to that sun. The Shi’ar demanded her life, and Jean sacrificed herself to save the X-Men. This was passed down by editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, who said that Jean couldn’t live after this massive genocide. However, Marvel brought her back with a retcon, explaining that the being that killed those people was the Dark Phoenix posing as Jean, and the real Jean Grey was still in a spacecraft at the bottom of a harbor. It eliminated all guilt from Jean, but it also meant that her sacrifice meant nothing. Now, Jean’s death never means anything since that was the first of countless times she has died in Marvel Comics.
9) Nightcrawler’s Parentage
Nightcrawler’s origin has been retconned multiple times. When Nightcrawler was first discovered, he was living in a circus and was raised and protected by Margali Szardos and the circus, as his appearance would have put his life in danger as a child. However, over the years, he learned more about his parentage. First, it was a lie told to him by the demon Azazel since the two looked alike and had similar powers. However, Marvel retconned that and revealed that Kurt’s parents were a shocking couple. Kurt was born as the child of Mystique and Destiny, with Mystique changing her form and her sexual organs into a male using Azazel’s traits to get Destiny pregnant with the child. It was a bit overcomplicated, and while it is nice to have the trans and queer representation in the comics, the entire origin retcon is still hard for fans to get behind.
8) Professor X Manipulating Wolverine’s Memory
In Giant-Size X-Men #1, Professor X put together a new team of X-Men to go to the sentient island of Krakoa to save his original X-Men students. These new heroes were from all over the world, with Canada represented by Wolverine. These heroes then remained with Xavier, and the new X-Men team was born. However, years later, it was revealed that numerous underhanded tactics were involved. This wasn’t the first team, and the first one died trying to save the original X-Men, an event that Professor X quickly covered up. Even more shocking, Wolverine didn’t join out of his own free will. He was sent to assassinate Charles Xavier, and the professor brainwashed him to think he wanted to join the team. This retcon reveals that Wolverine never joined the X-Men of his own volition and Xavier used his powers to force him onto the team. It makes Charles Xavier one of the worst mentors and leaders in the Marvel Comics universe.
7) Heroes Reborn
In the 1990s, Marvel Comics was struggling, and it did something that turned many fans off. Marvel decided to try to attract new, younger fans by changing the look of their comics to resemble that of their closest competitor. They did so by hiring Image Comics talent such as Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld to reboot their entire comic book line. They led to this with Onslaught killing the Avengers and Fantastic Four, and then Lee and Leifeld launched Heroes Reborn. With new origins and what was essentially the precursor to the Ultimate Universe, the two changed everything about the heroes. While the comics sold a ton at the start, they ultimately fell a year later, and Marvel reestablished the status quo.
6) Moira MacTaggert In House Of X
Marvel Comics gave the X-Men a new coat of paint with the Krakoan Era, and things seemed better than ever for the X-Men universe. However, after a few years of a creatively new direction for Marvel’s mutants, the company decided to end the Krakoan Era. To do this, Marvel retconned a significant character, and it wasn’t something that made a lot of sense. When House of X began, it was revealed that Moira was a mutant, possessing the power to reboot the universe upon her death and subsequent resurrection, while retaining the memories of her previous lives to try to make things better. She kept trying to help mutants, but this ultimately drove her to become evil, and it was Moira who ultimately destroyed Krakoa. While the Krakoan Era was great, the retcon to Moira was not, and there had to be a better way to start and end this storyline.
5) “Sins Past” (Gwen & Norman)
Spider-Man has not had a great life, and he has lost more people close to him than almost any other hero. One of the most hated Spider-Man storylines in history was “The Clone Saga,” which began with Gwen Stacy seemingly returning to life. However, one thing was revealed that retconned Gwen Stacy’s life many years later, making many fans so angry that they almost gave up on the beloved title. In the 2004 storyline “Sins Past,” Mary Jane told Peter that Norman Osborn and Gwen had an affair, and she ended up pregnant with his twins. This goes against everything Gwen stood for in the comics, and the fact that Mary Jane had known all along was disgusting. This also led to the Kindred storyline, which was good, but the entire Gwen and Norman retcon was gross.
4) Ms. Marvel Is An Inhuman & Mutant
When Kamala Khan appeared as Ms. Marvel, it was because the Inhumans had released the Terrigen Mists on Earth, and Kamala discovered she was an Inhuman, gaining her powers in the process. However, months after her death, the X-Men brought her back to life using the Krakoa resurrection protocol because she was a mutant, a significant retcon of her origin story. In the comic book storyline, she was revealed to be a rare mutant-Inhuman hybrid, and her powers would have been different if her mutant genes had taken effect first (she later acquired new mutant powers to complement her Inhuman abilities). In real life, Kamala was made an Inhuman because Marvel was eliminating most of the mutant and Fantastic Four storylines, thanks to a feud with Fox over the characters’ movie rights. Once that was cleared up, Marvel made her both a mutant and an Inhuman. However, it just overcomplicated things, and there was no real reason to make her a mutant at all.
3) The Clone Saga
“The Clone Saga” was one of the most hated Marvel Comics storylines for nearly two decades, if not longer. This all started with Gwen Stacy seemingly coming back to life. Eventually, Spider-Man realized that the bad guy known as the Jackal was creating clones of people Peter Parker loved to drive the hero to madness. In the end, Spider-Man fought his own clone, and one of them died in the battle. For the next two years, Spider-Man went about his business until Peter Parker returned and claimed to be the real Spider-Man. The retcon here contended that, for two years, fans followed Ben Reilly, who believed he was Peter, and the actual Peter Parker had disappeared. This angered many fans, as they felt Marvel had given them two years of character development that amounted to nothing.
2) “Crossing”
“Crossing” might have been the worst decision Marvel Comics ever made in the pages of its Avengers comic books. Iron Man had gone through a lot of ups and downs in Marvel Comics as one of the company’s first major heroes. Fans watched as Tony Stark was able to overcome incredible odds, including his brilliant “Demon in a Bottle” storyline. However, in the 1990s, Marvel decided to retcon everything fans knew about Tony by claiming he had always been a villain, working for Kang, and had been a double agent with the Avengers over the years, ultimately helping Kang destroy the world. In the end, Tony died, and a teenage version from the multiverse replaced him, and fans hated him completely. This was where Iron Man truly changed, and it might be the point at which he became one of Marvel Comics’ most hated superheroes.
1) “One More Day”
There is no retcon in Marvel Comics more hated and despised than the events in “One More Day” that led into the “Brand New Day” timeline. In the first storyline, Spider-Man joined Iron Man’s side in “Civil War,” and revealed his identity to the world. This put his loved ones in danger, and Aunt May paid the price when she took a bullet meant for Peter. To save his aunt’s life and make his identity a secret again, Peter and Mary Jane made a deal with Mephisto. They gave up their marriage and had their history erased in exchange for Aunt May’s life. The next issue showed Peter had never married MJ, and everything had changed. Peter and MJ had no memories of their past together, and the entire Spider-Man comic book was basically rebooted. Fans hated it then, and they still hate it almost 20 years later.
What Marvel Comics retcon did you hate the most? Let us know the one that drove you nuts in the comment section below.
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