DC has over eighty years of continuity and things can get pretty tangled. Over the years, DC has used its events books to make widespread changes to the line with retcons. They’ve become a staple of DC storytelling in a way they aren’t with their marvelous competition, with the big events often making sweeping changes to the line. Retcons have become a useful tool for DC, as they’ve allowed the publisher to make multiple little changes so everything works seamlessly.
Over the years, some retcons have been surprising than others, with the changes they’ve wrought shocking fans and changing how they look at the DC Multiverse.
10 Grant Morrison’s Batman Run Retconned Every Batman Story into Existence
Grant Morrison is one of DC’s most prolific writers and their work has had a massive effect on the publisher over the years. They’ve created many fan-favorite runs but it was their Batman run that had the most sweeping changes. Morrison posited that every Batman story that was ever published has happened in their run, even the bizarre imaginary stories of the Silver Age.
This simple retcon was shocking to readers because of just how strange some of the Batman stories they re-canonized were. No one ever expected for these stories to ever be brought back into continuity but Morrison made it work.
9 Damian Wayne’s Entire Existence Was A Shock To Readers
One of Morrison’s first acts on Batman was to introduce Damian Wayne, the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul. It wasn’t the first time that a child of the two was posited to exist, as Batman: Son Of The Demon was the first time it was established that the two had a child. The story was non-canon but Morrison used it as a jumping-off point for his new idea.
Damian has become a fan favorite Robin in his time but fans were shocked to see him exist at all. It was a completely surprising retcon but one that paid dividends over the years.
8 Swamp Thing’s Origin Has Been Retconned Several Times Over The Years
Swamp Thing was pretty much DOA when writer Alan Moore got on the book. He revived the character with a miraculous little retcon that changed everything that was known about Swamp Thing. Moore posited that Swamp Thing wasn’t Alec Holland at all, but a monster that was formed from his formula and thought it was Alec Holland.
This retcon was a massive change and acted as the perfect jumping-on point for readers. It would become something that would define the character for years, so it was just as shocking when DC switched gears and revealed that Swamp Thing was indeed Alec Holland.
7 The Amazons Were Massively Retconned In The New 52
The New 52 was known for the changes it wrought on the continuity and one of the characters most affected was Wonder Woman. The character herself got an origin retcon but the most surprising retcon was to the Amazons. Before the New 52, they were warrior women but also lovers of peace; after the New 52, it was revealed that they attacked ships and kidnapped men to procreate with.
While this approach to the Amazons was much closer to the Amazons of mythology, something the book was generally going for, it was quite a shock for fans to see these peaceful women transformed into man-raping pirates.
6 The Legion Of Superheroes Have Had More Surprisingly Complete Retcons Than Any Other DC Property
The Legion Of Superheroes is one of DC’s most venerable teams and that has led to a lot of problems over the years. It seems like every Crisis-level event in DC history has somehow completely transformed the Legion in some surprising ways. Crisis On Infinite Earths removed Superboy and Supergirl, leading to some interesting continuity gymnastics to make the whole thing work.
Zero Hour saw the Legion completely changed and then what is known as the Threeboot Legion took over until Infinite Crisis returned Superboy into continuity, restoring the Silver Age Legion. Flashpoint would change it again and then there’s all the changes to Legion continuity post-DC: Rebirth #1. It’s not exactly surprising that the Legion gets retconned; what’s surprising is how far DC goes with it.
5 The New 52’s Evil Donna Troy Threw Readers For A Loop
The New 52 wasn’t very kind to the original generation of Teen Titans, with Wally West being completely removed from continuity before being replaced by a new version of what happened with Donna Troy. Much like Wally, Donna was also removed from continuity in favor of the Cassie Sandsmark Wonder Girl but she would eventually make an appearance in the New 52.
This Donna Troy was nothing like what fans knew, an evil version of the Amazon who tried to destroy Wonder Woman. DC: Rebirth #1 would bring back her Teen Titans origin, yet another retcon for a character that had a lot of experience with them.
4 Bringing The Post-Crisis Superman And Lois Back Into Continuity Was The First Sign Of The End Of The New 52
The post-Crisis Superman and Lois Lane are two of the most popular versions of the characters ever but after the New 52 started, fans didn’t know if they were going to see them again. It took Convergence, one of the most panned DC events of the last twenty years, to bring them back. Appearing in the miniseries Superman: Lois And Clark, they would be folded into the New 52 universe at the end of the story.
Events played out at the end of the New 52 which killed that version of the Man of Steel and post-DC Rebirth #1, this older version of Lois and Clark, along with their son Jon, took over. It was one of many improvements DC: Rebirth #1 made to the New 52.
3 The Identity Crisis Mindwipes Were A Massive Shock For Fans
Identity Crisis has become a very divisive event, with a lot of things labeled problematic. Like many major DC events of the time, it threw some heavy retcons at readers and some of the most shocking retcons in the story where the Justice League mindwipes. In some ways, they made sense since the Silver Age was lousy with stories where the villains learned the heroes’ identities but it was still shocking that the League would do that sort of thing.
The most shocking mindwipe was the Batman one, as his friends voted unanimously to take away his memory, something that changed the Justice League forever.
2 No One Expected Flashpoint To Completely Reboot The DC Universe
Flashpoint heralded in the changes of the New 52, the biggest retcon/reboot since Crisis On Infinite Earths. Fans were not at all expecting an event that would massively alter the DC Universe like Flashpoint did, especially judging from the teaser page at the end of Flash: Rebirth #6. Once the story ended, fans were shocked to say the least.
DC fans were used to small-scale retcons since CoIE but definitely were not ready for the massive line-wide change that Flashpoint brought about. At first, the New 52 was a success but that success wouldn’t last forever, as fans soured on the concept and the lack of explanations about continuity.
1 Crisis On Infinite Earths Is The Grandaddy Of All Surprising DC Retcons
Crisis On Infinite Earths is one of the greatest event books of all time and for good reason. The story delivered in every aspect, giving fans an epic story in every definition of the term. One of the best parts about it is the fact that its line-wide retcon/reboot created a much stronger and more popular DC Universe.
Mixing old and new, the resulting retcons streamlined the DC Universe and made it more accessible. Fans didn’t expect the story’s ending at all, which makes it all the better. The fact that it was able to accomplish so much and become so popular is a testament to how well this shocking change paid off.
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