In this feature we examine comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An' Forsaked. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today, based on a suggestion by reader Marcus W., we take a look at a retcon that was a long time coming in my book...

Back in 2014, I wrote a piece about how I thought that Marvel really ought to just retcon Sam Wilson's (who had just become the All-New Captain America at the time) past as the street hustler known as "Snap" Wilson. That history, of course, was ALSO a retcon introduced by Steve Englehart in Captain America #186, as we learn that the Red Skull had used the Cosmic Cube to make Snap Wilson, a crook, into Cap's perfect partner, all for the purpose of eventually having the Falcon turn on his friend at a key moment...

The Falcon manages to break free of the Red Skull's control, but still, the part of his past remained in continuity...

One problem is that Englehart left the book before he could address it. He wasn't sure at the time if he was even going to keep that aspect or reveal it to be a lie by the Red Skull. Since he left the book and the book went through a couple of fill-in writers before Jack Kirby took over, no one got around to retconning it, so it just kind of stuck.

J.M. DeMatteis did a wonderful job trying to explain away the "Snap" Wilson persona, but still keeping it as a part of Sam Wilson's history in Captain America #276-278...

A priest explains the concept of the trauma "creating" Snap...

So that was something, at least.

However, in All-New Captain America #3 by Rick Remender, Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger, we finally see "Snap" no more!

Read on to see how it was handled...

Sam is fighting against Sin, the daughter of the Red Skull, and she taunts him with his originS...

Later, he defeats her and reflects on how the Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to invent the Snap Wilson persona...

And finally, as he flies away victorious, he reflects on it again...

Good stuff by Remender, Immonen and Von Grawbadger.

Thanks for the suggestion of me revisiting this now that it is an official retcon, Marcus! If anyone else has an idea for a good retcon to spotlight, just drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com