Retroactive continuity

Origins

An early published use of the phrase "retroactive continuity" is found in theologian E. Frank Tupper's 1973 book The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg: "Pannenberg's conception of retroactive continuity ultimately means that history flows fundamentally from the future into the past, that the future is not basically a product of the past."

A printed use of "retroactive continuity" referring to the altering of history in a fictional work is in All-Star Squadron #18 (February 1983) from DC Comics. The series was set on DC's Earth-Two, an alternative universe in which Golden Age comic characters age in real time. All-Star Squadron was set during World War II on Earth-Two; as it was in the past of an alternative universe, all its events had repercussions on the contemporary continuity of the DC multiverse. Each issue changed the history of the fictional world in which it was set. In the letters column, a reader remarked that the comic "must make you [the creators] feel at times as if you're painting yourself into a corner", and, "Your matching of Golden Age comics history with new plotlines has been an artistic (and I hope financial!) success." Writer Roy Thomas responded, "we like to think that an enthusiastic ALL-STAR booster at one of Adam Malin's Creation Conventions in San Diego came up with the best name for it a few months back: 'Retroactive Continuity'. Has kind of a ring to it, don't you think?"

Types

Addition

Retcons sometimes do not contradict previously established facts but instead fill in missing background details, usually to support current plot points. Thomas referred to "retroactive continuity" in this sense, as a purely additive process that did not undo any previous work; such additions were common in All-Star Squadron. Kurt Busiek took a similar approach with Untold Tales of Spider-Man, a series which told stories that specifically fit between issues of the original The Amazing Spider-Man series, sometimes explaining discontinuities between those earlier stories. John Byrne used a similar structure with X-Men: The Hidden Years. Possibly the earliest Marvel Comics example of new stories placed between long-established stories was the 1977–1978 magazine The Rampaging Hulk. In The Godfather Part II, the character Frank Pentangeli is introduced as an old friend of the family though he is not referenced in the first film; similarly Don Altobello is one of the "old time" Dons, though he is not mentioned until The Godfather Part III. Neither addition affects the plot line of the previous films. The addition, in later seasons, of an attic to the family's home in Full House stands as a similar additive example.

A similar concept is that of secret history, in which the events of a story occur within the bounds of already-established events (especially real-world ones), revealing different interpretations of the events. Some of Tim Powers' novels use secret history, such as Last Call, which suggests that Bugsy Siegel's actions were due to his being a modern-day Fisher King.

Alan Moore's additional information about the Swamp Thing's origins – revealing that Swamp Thing was not actually scientist Alec Holland converted into a plant, but actually a plant that had absorbed Holland's body and consciousness so that it merely thought it was Holland – did not contradict or change any of the events depicted in the character's previous appearances, but instead changed the reader's interpretation of them. Such additions and reinterpretations are very common in Doctor Who.

Alteration

Retcons sometimes add information that seemingly contradicts previous information. This frequently takes the form of a character who was shown to have died but is later revealed to have somehow survived. This is a common practice in horror films, which may end with the death of a monster that goes on to appear in one or more sequels. The technique is so common in superhero comics that the term "comic book death" has been coined for it.

An early example of this type of retcon is the return of Sherlock Holmes, whom writer Arthur Conan Doyle apparently killed off in "The Final Problem" in 1893, only to bring him back, in large part because of readers' responses, with "The Empty House" in 1903.

The character Zorro was retconned early in his existence. In the original 1919 novel, The Curse of Capistrano, Zorro ends his adventures by revealing his identity, a plot point that was carried over to the 1920 film adaptation The Mark of Zorro. In order to have further stories starring Zorro, author Johnston McCulley kept all the elements of his original story, but retroactively ignored its ending.

One notable example is Isaac Asimov’s 1950 fixup novel I, Robot, a collection of science fiction short stories originally published in Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction from 1940 to 1950. Compiled into a single publication by Gnome Press in 1950, the collection features a framing sequence in which the stories are told to a reporter by Dr. Susan Calvin, chief robopsychologist at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. Changes necessary to fit the new version included the name of the company (originally the Finmark Robot Corporation), new, earlier references to the Three Laws of Robotics, and new interpolated scenes featuring Dr. Calvin herself.

The TV series Dallas annulled its entire ninth season as just the dream of one of its characters, Pam Ewing. Writers did this to offer a supposedly plausible reason for the major character of Bobby Ewing, who had died onscreen at the end of season eight, to be still alive when actor Patrick Duffy wanted to return to the series. This season is sometimes referred to as the "Dream Season" and was referred to humorously in later TV series such as Family Guy and Community as a "gas-leak year". Other series such as St. Elsewhere, Newhart, and Roseanne employed the same technique.

Subtraction

Unpopular stories are sometimes later ignored by publishers, and effectively erased from a series' continuity. Later stories may contradict the previous ones or explicitly establish that they never happened. In television, when a character is subtracted with a retcon, this is often known as "Chuck Cunningham syndrome," after a character from the series Happy Days that was retconned out of existence shortly through the series run, or "going to Mandyville," after Mandy Hampton, a character that suffered a similar fate in The West Wing.

Notable examples of subtractive retconning include Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), which is a sequel to the first two Terminator films and ignores the events of every other film in the franchise, and Halloween (2018), which is a sequel to only the original film and disregards all the other sequels.

Stories that involve time travel can be used to undo the events of poorly received installments. After X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) faced criticism for abruptly killing off characters such as Cyclops and Jean Grey, its sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), features the character Wolverine traveling back in time to 1973 to prevent an assassination that, if carried out, would lead to mutant extinction. The result of this is a new timeline where Jean and Cyclops never died.

Related concepts

Retroactive continuity is similar to, but not the same as, plot inconsistencies introduced accidentally or through lack of concern for continuity; retconning, by comparison, is done deliberately. For example, the ongoing continuity contradictions on episodic TV series such as The Simpsons (in which the timeline of the family's history must be continually shifted forward to explain why they are not getting any older) reflects intentionally lost continuity, not genuine retcons. However, in series with generally tight continuity, retcons are sometimes created after the fact to explain continuity errors. Such was the case in The Flintstones, where Wilma Flintstone was mistakenly given two separate maiden names over the course of the series: "Pebble" and "Slaghoople".

Though the term "retcon" did not yet exist when George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, the totalitarian regime depicted in that book is involved in a constant, large-scale retconning of past records. For example, when it is suddenly announced that "Oceania was not after all in war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia and Eurasia was an ally" (Part Two, Ch. 9), there is an immediate intensive effort to change "all reports and records, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks and photographs" and make them all record a war with Eastasia rather than one with Eurasia. "Often it was enough to merely substitute one name for another, but any detailed report of events demanded care and imagination. Even the geographical knowledge needed in transferring the war from one part of the world to another was considerable." See historical revisionism (negationism).

Notes

References

References

1. (2017). "Retcon Game: Retroactive Continuity and the Hyperlinking of America". University Press of Mississippi.
2. Personal View. (2007-03-12). "One of these comic heroes really is dead". Telegraph.
3. Clarke, Arthur C. ''2061: Odyssey Three''. New York: Ballantine Books, 1988. Page ix
4. (2010). "Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels [Two Volumes].". ABC-CLIO.
5. "A Short History of 'Retcon'".
6. (1973). "The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg". Westminster Press.
7. (February 1983). "All-Star Squadron". [[DC Comics]].
8. (1984). "The Final Problem". Edward Arnold.
9. "TV ACRES: Quotations > Signoffs > Classic Series Finales > St. Elsewhere".
10. Moser, Margaret. (1997-06-05). "TV Eye". [[The Austin Chronicle]].
11. Abramson, Dan. (June 17, 2010). "The 13 Most Ridiculous Sitcom Mysteries Of All Time (PHOTOS)".
12. Dyer, James. "15 things you didn't know about ''The West Wing''". [[Empire (magazine).
13. Ryan, Tim. (May 22, 2014). "Critic Consensus: X-Men: Days of Future Past is Certified Fresh".
14. (2013). "100 People who Changed 20th-century America, Volume 1". ABC-CLIO.
15. "Wilma Flintstone: A fox in leopard clothing?". Canada.com.