DC Comics loves retcons. Over the decades, the publisher has used major retcons multiple times to streamline its history. The DC Multiverse has existed for over eighty years, and things can get pretty convoluted in that time, so DC has used retcons to make sense of things. Unfortunately, not every retcon has made things better.

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Sometimes, it's quite the opposite. DC has made drastic changes to its continuity more than once, and plenty of comics and characters have suffered because of them. Not every retcon works in the long run, even the ones that were meant to fix continuity problems.

10 Removing The Justice Society From History In The New 52 Was A Big Mistake

Earth -2 Society

The New 52 is DC's most infamous retcon, with multiple examples of why across the line. One of the more egregious changes was the lack of a Justice Society. While DC's Golden Age heroes got their own Earth in Earth-2 and World's Finest, completely removing them from the history of Earth-0 didn't make the Justice League more important, as it was meant to, but destroyed the concept of legacy in the new DC Universe.

The sad part about the whole thing was that there easily could have been a Justice Society in the Golden Age of Earth-0 and on Earth-2. Heroes get repeated in the DC Multiverse all the time, and it would have made JSA fans happy to see more of their favorite legacy heroes in Earth-0.

9 Retconning Wally West Out Of Existence Angered A Lot Of Fans

Flash Wally West DC Rebirth

After the return of Barry Allen in Final Crisis and Flash: Rebirth, DC went all in on the character. This was taken to the next level in the New 52 as they erased previous Flash and Barry's ex-sidekick Wally West from continuity. This state of affairs did major damage to the Flash franchise, as Wally had been a fan favorite character for nearly his entire existence.

It often seemed like a petty way to make Barry important to fans that had never actually read a Barry Allen story. A lot of people stopped reading Flash comics completely, and the introduction of Wallace West as Kid Flash did nothing to assuage readers' ire. Wally's return to continuity was a major point of celebration, even if it took DC a few years to do right by the character.

8 The New 52 Ravaged Teen Titans History

An image of the New 52 Teen Titans

The Teen Titans are a part of the trifecta of big DC teams. The history of the team has always been rather important to the publisher, which is why what happened in the New 52 is so odd. Losing Cyborg to the Justice League was a step-up for the character, but a massive problem for the Teen Titans. Without Cyborg, the entire New Teen Titans era is very different.

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On top of that, the loss of Wally West and Donna Troy, and the five years timeframe of this new DC Universe, made it so no one really knew what was canon for the team. The Teen Titans' history was nuked by the New 52's retcons, doing major damage to one of DC's most important teams.

7 The New 52 Lobo Was Terrible

New 52 Lobo vs Old Lobo

Bad New 52 retcons are a dime a dozen, but the worst have gone down in the annals of DC history. Lobo is a prime example of that. For some reason, presenting a slightly updated version of the Main Man was out of the question. DC felt the need to "modernize" the character, something that saw the fan favorite bruiser become a completely different character from before.

There was no reason at all to retcon Lobo. The original Lobo was meant to be a parody of grim and gritty superheroes. The new Lobo felt like a parody as well, but not in a good way. DC even tried to claim that this new version was somehow the "real" Lobo, insulting fans even more.

6 Retconning Wonder Woman's Origin In The New 52 Was A Huge Mistake

New 52 Wonder Woman blocking arrows

Wonder Woman is the greatest warrior in the DC Universe, but she can't fight continuity changes. Her origin was retconned in Crisis On Infinite Earths, but besides the damage it did to Donna Troy's origin, it was well regarded. The same can't be said for the New 52 retcons to her origin. Woner Woman was made into a daughter of Zeus, and Themyscira was changed into a nation that only existed because of the Amazons being attacked and sexually assaulted by men.

At the time, this change was praised as bold, but it's aged terribly. The Themyscira retcons have themselves been removed from continuity, but Wonder Woman is still a daughter of Zeus, something that most fans honestly just ignore.

5 The Legion Of Super-Heroes Came Out Of Crisis On Infinite Earths Worse Than Before

FYL legion (Glorithverse)

Nowadays, the Legion of Super-Heroes is a vastly underrated team, but it wasn't always that way. For years, the Legion was very important to the history of the DC Universe, with Superman and Supergirl's history entwined with the team. Unfortunately, the changes wrought on the Superman family by Crisis On Infinite Earth affected the Legion.

While the initial "Five Years Later" story was a hit, the problems kept compounding. Since then, beyond the successful Legion reboot of the '90s, the team has never been able to sustain the kind of popularity it had pre-Crisis.

4 Hawkman's History Became A Mess Post-Crisis

Hawkman is the DCEU's version of Iron Man

Crisis On Infinite Earth is rightfully lauded, but not everything about its aftermath was perfect. Before Crisis, Hawkman existed on Earth-1 and Earth-2. The Earth-1 version was the Thanagarian Katar Hol and the Earth-2 version was the archeologist Carter Hall. The incorporation of the two Earths' histories messed with the character like few others.

The different versions of Hawkman both had to exist at different points in the timelines, and no one seemed to have any ideas on how to make the whole thing work. DC struggled with the character until the early 2000s when Hawkman was reintroduced after disappearing in the '90s.

3 Identity Crisis's Sue Dibny Reveal Was Terrible

Elongated Man with Sue Dibny

Identity Crisis is a very dark comic. It was meant to inject realism into the DC Universe, and it did so in very edgelord ways, something that was endemic in the '00s. The Justice League mindwipes were a pretty good idea that added complexity to the DC Universe, but the book didn't end there. It introduced the concept by revealing that Sue Dibny had been sexually assaulted by Dr. Light.

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Trying to make old-school superhero comics more complex and realistic isn't bad, but there are ways to do it. Sexually assaulting a fan favorite character for the sake of drama isn't one of those ways. As good as much of Identity Crisis is, this plot point has destroyed the book's legacy.

2 Making The Reverse-Flash The Cause Of All Barry Allen's Problems Is Lazy

Reverse Flash runs with red lightning from DC Comics.

Barry Allen's return also brought back his nemesis Reverse-Flash. Eobard Thawne was a deadly foe of the Flash, but creators took him to the next level after his return. Thawne became the cause of all of Flash's problems. At first, it was just Reverse-Flash going back in time and killing Allen's mother. As time went on, Reverse-Flash going back in time and messing with Allen's history became a cliché.

Reverse-Flash didn't really need anything else to make him Allen's most iconic foe. It's one of the reasons many fans got tired of Allen rather quickly; Reverse-Flash became a trope more than a villain.

1 John Byrne's Superman Changes Cut Off So Many Story Options

John Byrne Superman flying over Metropolis

Post-Crisis Superman is a fan favorite incarnation of the character. Writer/artist John Byrne was given complete control of the character and allowed to make all kinds of changes to Superman. His past as Superboy? Gone. Supergirl? Gone. Miscellaneous Kryptonians? Gone.

Byrne's Superman was very different from what came before. He was the Reagan Republican version of Superman. So much of the best parts of Superman's history came from the things that were now gone. Byrne's Superman feels so limited compared to what came before. Post-Crisis Superman got better once Byrne left, once again becoming the iconic hero that everyone loves.

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