A Little Bit About Retroactive Continuity

When you are a Justice Society of America fan in the late Twentieth or early Twenty First centuries, there is one word you cannot avoid. Retroactive continuity. What is retroactive continuity? Retroactive continuity is a phrase coined by comic book historian and writer Roy Thomas (in All-Star Squadron #64) to describe instances in which previously published comic book history is contradicted. A simpler way of defining it may be "revisionist history." Since its introduction in the Eighties, the term retroactive continuity has become so common place that it has even been abbreviated simply to retcon (a word even used as a verb, as in "DC retconned The Black Canary...").

Precisely when the first instance of retroactive continuity occurred is difficult to say, although it obviously existed before the term was coined in the Eighties. It could possibly have existed as early as the Golden Age. Regardless, an example of retroactive continuity from the Silver Age can be found in the pages of Marvel Comics' Avengers. When Stan Lee revived the Golden Age character Captain America, he did it by having The Avengers discover the hero frozen in a block of ice, where he had been since 1945. It must be pointed out, however, that this contradicted the published history of the character. Captain America appeared in magazines during the Golden Age until 1949 and he was revived for a brief time in 1954. In placing Captain America in suspended animation since the end of World War II, Stan Lee then effectively retconned the character.

While retcons did occur earlier than the mid-Eighties, it was with the Eighties that retroactive continuity became common. With the reintroduction of the Golden Age Flash in The Flash #123. DC Comics introduced the concept of multiple universes or alternate realities. Initially there was Earth II, where the Golden Age DC characters lived, and Earth I, where the Silver Age DC characters lived. Eventually DC Comics would introduce yet other Earths: Earth-S, home of the Golden Age Fawcett characters (whom DC had licensed from Fawcett), Earth-X, home of the Golden Age Quality characters (DC had bought Quality out in 1956, but only used Blackhawk and Plastic Man until the Seventies when it revived yet more Quality characters), and so on. Some found the preponderance of universes at DC Comics confusing, so in 1985 DC Comics decided to consolidate its many universes into one universe (this was accomplished through the mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths). Unfortunately, DC Comics decided that in this new DC Universe many of the characters who were first published in the Golden Age (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, and so on) would not officially start their careers until the Seventies or Eighties. In other words, this meant that many (perhaps most) of the stories published by National Periodical Publications and All-American Comics Inc. during the Golden Age, Silver Age, and he Seventies and early Eighties, could not have taken place. It also meant that Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman never fought crime or took part in the war effort during the Forties; they were never members of the Justice Society of America.

Since that time retroactive continuity has become something of a necessary evil in the DC Universe. Many of the retcons created soon after Crisis had taken place were created by Roy Thomas himself in order to ensure that various Golden Age stories would have taken place in the new DC Universe (albeit a bit differently from what they had when they were originally published). Other retcons were necessary to explain the origins of characters who had originally drawn upon the Golden Age characters for inspiration. Originally Power Girl (of Seventies All-Star Comics and Eighties Infinity Inc. fame) was the cousin of the Golden Age Superman. After Crisis on Infinite Earths, however, this was impossible, as Superman did not exist before the Seventies or Eighties. In order to ensure the character's existence in the new DC Universe, Power Girl was retconned into the heir of Lord Arion of Atlantis (a character who had a short lived title in the Eighties).

To a degree, then, retroactive continuity can be good in that it can preserve characters or stories that may have been otherwise lost when continuity has changed. Unfortunately, retroactive continuity can also be a very bad thing. First, some retcons are simply poorly conceived. An example of this is a Secret Origins story by Roy Thomas in which the Golden Age Atom had a falling out with his trainer, Joe Morgan. This story ignored the fact that Morgan appeared in several early Atom stories in All-American Comics. Later, he would make an appearance as the operator of a health club. At no point did it ever appear that Morgan and The Atom had a disagreement. Quite clearly, then, the Secret Origins retcon contradicts the published history of The Atom and does so in such a way that it detracts from the original conception of the characters.

Second, once retroactive continuity has been invoked several times, it can create confusion with regards to the history of a given character or characters. The Justice Society of America is a perfect example of this. After Crisis on Infinite Earths had taken place, Wonder Woman was no longer a member of the Justice Society of America. This created two rather large problems. For one thing, many of the JSA's adventures could not have taken place as originally published. For another, one of the characters in Infinity Inc., Fury, had been conceived as the daughter of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor; now she was effectively orphaned. Initially a character called The Fury was created to take Wonder Woman's place in the Justice Society of America during the Forties and to serve as the mother of Infinity Inc.'s Fury. Later Miss America (a Golden Age Quality Comics character) was considered to have filled Wonder Woman's shoes as a member of the JSA. To complicate things further, the Wonder Woman of Earth II's role in the Silver Age Justice Society of America team-ups with the Justice League of America was assumed by The Black Canary. Even more recently there was a story line in which Diana Prince's mother, Hippolyta, who had assumed the mantle of Wonder Woman from her daughter for a while, travelled back in time to the Forties and joined the Justice Society of America (in other words, Wonder Woman was a member of the JSA after all). The end result is that the reader can easily become confused as to who took Wonder Woman's place with the Justice Society of America. In fact, I'm not even sure I got everything right!

Unfortunately, it does not appear that retroactive continuity will not cease for any time soon. Not long after Crisis on Infinite Earths was published did it become clear that it had caused nearly as many, if not more, problems in continuity than it was supposed to solve. As a result DC Comics published another miniseries, Zero Hour, in which the time line of the DC Universe was effectively changed. Naturally, this has meant more retcons. For better or worse, it appears that retroactive continuity is here to stay!

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