The 15 Dumbest Superhero Retcons Of All Time

This. I haven't seen GL this popular since.....well.....ever.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

The Marvel universe needs a reboot badly. But not on the epic level of fail that Ultimatum was. Yuck.

A Marvel crisis should accomplish the following IMO:

1. One origin for everyone. Only one origin.

2. Get rid of the hatred for superpowered beings and especially mutants. (I kind of have the same reactions that Superman did when he visited the Marvel Universe......he was horrified at the way Marvel heroes were treated by the populace. Actually.....the entire Justice League agreed that things were very wrong compared to the DCU.)

3. Give depowered mutants their powers back. Please?

4. Keep the X-titles to a minimum of 3. Maybe even less than that.

5. Remove the effects that Civil War had. It may be just me that feels this way, but it really was a waste of time.

6. Make the threat of Annihilation pale in comparison of that to the Marvel Crisis.



Any other ideas?

You don't prepare for certain things because you can't. Nobody is going to be able to tell you how you are going to react because they aren't you, but as a Green Lantern and superhero, the possibility of those tragedies always exist. It comes with the job.

If you get depressed or get hammered, fine. But tragedy doesn't give someone the right to inflict tragedy on others.

And that's why the Guardians determined him unfit for duty at the time. Or are we supposed to be okay with the unstable man remaking the universe as he sees fit?

Was the oppression of a minority theme getting old? Possibly. However, it always felt rushed to me on the massive amount of mutants they had going.

Now you might be saying, "The comic has been around for 30 years! How was that rushed." but that's not what I mean.

It all of a sudden went from there's so few mutants in the world, to BOOM 1 mutant for every 1000 non-mutants in the world.

Then to add to that, there was alot of them that really werent all that great to begin with (Beak...I mean really...he wasn't that interresting).

And just saying it was a massive mutant gene awakening, is just as lazy as the other stories people are complaining about in this thread.

Actually, he already did that in Superman/Batman during an impromptu trip through time. Superman had to go back again and remind him who he was. Batman eventually recognized that more would be saved if he was Batman, watching his parents get shot all over again.

and it was by THAT point, some time well after the events in Emerald Twilight that Hal really became the villain Parrallax. The Guardians had been noted for pushing Hal too far before, and IIRC, he'd even 'quit' the Corps for sometime letting Guy & John stand in as GLs for the sector. Was the Emerald Twilight story rushed, yes. But it wasn't a 'crazy/not crazy' switch that was flipped that turned Hal to Parrallax.

Minorities love being repressed and discriminated against.

THEY LOVE IT.

I agree, but the following consequence - the 98 (or whatever) remaining mutants, or known remaining mutants, or main remaining mutants of the X-Men etc - has generally been retconned away. Lots of mutants who officially lost their powers got them back with little to no explanation.

I don't follow Marvel since I'm a DC man. But did they ever get rid of that HORRIBLE explanation for mutant powers yet? You know the one where mutants when they use their powers actually draw the energy needed from a pocket universe or some such nonsense. So like in Colossus case he is drawing extra mass from his alternate Universe counterparts and then channeling that energy to create his organic steel body. God that had to be the worst explanation for mutant powers I had ever heard.

And the Guardians, who also self-appointed themselves as arbiters of life and death? What are they known as?

Firstly, they aren't folks who decide who lives and who dies. Otherwise, they might have wanted their guys to live and the other guys to die during the Sinestro Corps War. For all their power, they aren't gods.

Secondly, for the most part, "douches."

no u!

In a word? Failures.

In two words? Repeated failures.

Point # 3 makes point #4 difficult for the Marvel writers....

Just because there's tons of mutants all over the place doesn't mean you have to WRITE about them.

There's tons of ants all over the place, but ant literature is few and far between.

And neither has Warner Borthers!

Well, I guess the Marvel writers make good enough pitches to convince the Marvel editors that certain stories about obscure mutants need to be written. After a few iterations of this, new teams are born and new books are created.

Or you just throw random, underused mutants into a book with Wolverine or Deadpool and watch the $$$$ roll in!

Kang the Conqueror and Immortus are the same person from different time periods, Immortus is the older of the two. Of course then there is the fact that there are enough kangs to have a council of them because of fractured multiple reality nature of Marvel's time travel.

Doom/Batman in 2012

The Resistance has boobs too, and better hair!

Wait, then what do you think is going to happen when the Guardians are discovering what John Stewart has been trying to do...?


In regards to the Hal retcon, heroes do have their breaking points and at that level there is a valid reason to believe they can be the most dangerous. Its also why i don't buy everyone's "get on Batman's back because of Brother Eye" thing. He has the right idea of thinking of contigency plans in case one of them shifts to the other side.

I like the premise that with increased power, there is increased temptation to abuse it, no matter to the intention. I believe the writing could have been better, but it wasn't too far-fetched a story. Like someone said before, this guy is all about willpower! If anyone had the will to go against his bosses,friends and foes over a desperate grab at sanity, he would.

Were enough Kangs. Apparently they got themselves wiped out if the notes in Avengers Forever are to be believed. BTW, for folks who are sick of some of the older Avengers retcons, id suggest reading Avengers Forever if only because they manage to get their hands on most of the inconsistencies throughout the years and turn the whole damn thing into what it is one of my favorite Avengers stories That and the notes after every couple reprinted issues make for as much amusing reading as the story itself.

Avengers Forever is one of the best mini series ever writen. I had to buy a second set so I could re-read the first without destroying any value the second set might have.

I can totally make sense with the concept of Emerald Twilight. I just can't make sense of the story as its printed on the page. Especially the bit when the all powerful Guardians decide the proper response to all this is to simply kill themselves.