Retcon

Retroactive continuity – commonly contracted to the portmanteau word retcon – refers to the act of changing previously established details of a fictional setting, often without providing an explanation for the changes within the context of that setting.

Table of contents

1 Origins
2 Usage
3 Well-known examples of retcons
4 See also

Origins

"Retroactive continuity" was coined by comic book writer Roy Thomas in his 1980s series All-Star Squadron, which concerned the DC Comics superheroes of the 1940s. The earliest known use of the term is from Thomas's letter column in All-Star Squadron #20 (April 1983). The term was shortened to "retcon" in 1988 on USENET.

Usage

Retconning is common within the fictional universes of comic books, especially those of large comic-book houses such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics, due to the lengthy history of publishing and the large number of independent authors contributing to their development. Retconning also occurs in television shows, radio series, and series of novels.

Some forms of retconning do not directly contradict previously established facts, but instead retroactively "fill in" missing background details necessary for current plot points, or reveal new information that radically changes the interpretation of old stories. The shortened form was coined in 1988 to describe this situation in the comic book Swamp Thing, in which Alan Moore revealed that the title character was not Alec Holland transformed into a monster, but instead a plant-monster infected with Alec Holland's memories and personality. Similarly Phoenix was revealed not to be Jean Grey but an alien force masquerading as Jean Grey, thus allowing other superheroes to discover her body and resurrect her; the facts of the older story where she sacrificed herself remained, but the emotional resonance was lost (Phoenix was just a clone of Grey).

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 (especially real-world historical) events, but have been hitherto unrevealed.

Retroactive continuity is similar to, but not exactly the same as, plot inconsistencies introduced inadvertently; retconning is usually done deliberately. Unpopular retcons are often unofficially combatted through the judicious use of Krypto-revisionism, which is the phenomenon of a fan base deciding to ignore a particular retcon.

While retconning was usually done in the past without explanation, DC Comics has on rare occasions promoted special events dedicated to retroactively rewriting the history of the DC Comics universe. The most important and well known such event was the mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths; this was a profound change that allowed for wholesale revisions of their characters. A second major retcon in DC Comics was in a similar event called Zero Hour.

Retconning has occurred a number of times in the history of the Star Trek universe. The various Star Trek television series and movies were produced over many decades, with multiple writers and producers. In both cases significant amounts of time, effort, pages and film have been used by later writers to explain or qualify apparent inconsistencies from previous stories. In addition, Star Trek shares a problem with many works of future history in that historical events occurring in the future eventually become part of the past, and hence some effort is needed to make the story line consistent with actual history.

Well-known examples of retcons

Erasing an entire season of the soap opera Dallas as one character's dream.
Frasier Crane's father being a living ex-cop on Frasier instead of a dead research scientist as stated in Cheers.
A common type of retcon occurs in many genres but is perhaps best known in horror films: many films have ended with the death of the monster, only to be followed, upon becoming successful, with a sequel revealing that the monster survived after all. Notable examples include James Whale's Frankenstein and the original 1954 Godzilla movie.
Sherlock Holmes's return from the dead.
J.R.R. Tolkien rewrote the way Bilbo Baggins acquired his Ring in The Hobbit, to better suit the story he wanted to tell in The Lord of the Rings.
In his sequels to the novel , Arthur C. Clarke made slight alterations to background history in order to keep each novel consistent with the events of the real world.

Star Trek includes a well-known multiple retcon: When ' was first released, Gene Roddenberry claimed that the radically different visual appearance given the Klingons in the film was how they were always supposed to have looked; they simply did not have the make-up budget to do this on the original 1960s television series. Years later, an episode of ', explicitly addresses the fact that Klingons in the 22nd century did not have forehead ridges; this fact was acknowledged within the continuity of the show itself. Commander Worf, a Klingon, admits that at least some Klingons did at one time not possess forehead ridges. Embarrassed, Worf stated that it is "a long story" that they "do not discuss with outsiders". In fact, the episode in question contained footage from the original series, thus requiring some reference to the discrepancy.