Comic Catalog of Continuity

Very exhaustive list of continuity tropes. [Link]

14 Answers to “Why So Many Retcons?”

Years ago I tried to classify retcons into general categories. That piece, among others, can be reached via a link at the bottom of this post. But this time I’m going to look at the problem of retconning from a different angle, by trying to answer a popular question: “Why do the creators and editors of new stories about old characters keep inflicting so many retcons upon us?”

Sometimes it seems as if every time you finally think you’ve perfected your mental model of what the modern Batman continuity (for instance) says about the histories and current motivations of each major figure involved, some troublemaker in the industry erases ten percent of this old story, fifty percent of that old story, and one hundred percent of another story arc you have in your collection, in the process of making room for a supposedly “new and improved version” of the relevant continuity as he imposes his own retcons upon the larger structure! You are supposed to quickly realize what has happened and make all necessary mental adjustments on your own time! Why do they keep doing this to us? Over the last few months I’ve written down another motive whenever I thought of one, and here’s my current list of the different things which might be going through someone’s head as he or she contrived yet another retcon!