Comic books have redefined pop culture since the superhero genre was born in Action Comics #1 in 1938. DC and Marvel have often led the way with innovative stories and fresh characters in the medium, with many looking to them to understand comics. As well-known and iconic as many heroes are, they've also experienced a lot of change.

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Retcons have altered everything from power sets and personalities to origin stories and ethics. Quite often, an idea about who a character should be resonates in a way that redefines the character for audiences. Many of these retcons prove so popular that they last and a character's previous incarnations are forgotten. Virtually every character of note has seen their story retold in significant ways, with mixed results.

Updated on 2/12/2023 by Jon Gorga: Retcons are a deep part of superhero lore, so we've added even more coverage of this topic, looking at iconic logos, powers, and home bases that DC's and Marvel's heroes are always associated with but which sprang out of rewrites, updates, and plot holes.

17 Venditti's Hawkman Origin Caught On Immediately

Hawkman smiling and gripping his mace in DC comics.

While older Hawkman fans remember a more confusing history for the character, Robert Venditti's recent update to Carter Hall's story is now the definitive one. His revamped history makes so much sense and clears up the confusion surrounding the Hawk well enough that fans readily accepted it.

Hawkman having a more coherent origin story retroactively filled in many of the gaps in the character's lore and, as a result, in fan confusion. This retcon was a clear improvement, erasing confusion that had plagued fans for decades and raising Carter Hall's profile as a hero as well.

16 Clark Kent Worked At The Daily Star

Clark Kent and his editor in the Daily Star's offices in Action Comics

In the original Superman comic, Action Comics #1, reporter Clark Kent gets a job at The Daily Star working for an unnamed editor, who's later named George Taylor. Joe Shuster used the name of the paper he'd sold as a newsboy growing up, The Toronto Daily Star.

Later, in February 1940, the name was changed to The Daily Planet to mirror the Superman newspaper strip. Incredibly, it was altered in the middle of a two-part story, but the basic idea of having Clark work for a paper with no real-world equivalent made sense. Perry White replaced Taylor in September of that year. Working for Perry at the Daily Planet has been Superman's status quo ever since.

15 Shazam Can't Use His Original Superhero Name

A split image of Shazam in his Fawcett Comics costume and his New 52 redesign in DC Comics

Shazam was initially created by Fawcett Comics to compete with Superman. However, in his Golden Age debut and well into the Modern Age, he went by Captain Marvel. Due to legal issues with Marvel Comics, who had their own Captain Marvel, DC changed his name to Shazam, the name of the wizard who created the hero.

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Over the years, Captain Marvel has become Shazam and, for the sake of minimizing confusion, doesn't go by Captain Marvel anymore. The change may be understandable, but it's unfortunate that few fans will ever know of the hero's original and true superhero title.

14 Spider-Man's Spider-Sense Was A Late Addition

Spider-Man lets a robber escape in his first appearance in Marvel Comics

Ever since The Amazing Spider-Man #1 by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Stan Goldberg, and Jon D'Agostino, Peter Parker has been able to perceive things others can't with his "spider-sense." However, this power wasn't mentioned in his origin story premiere in Amazing Fantasy #15, where it could have helped prevent his Uncle Ben's death. This is presumably both because it would have ruined the narrative but it's also probable that Lee at Ditko simply hadn't thought it up yet.

The Webhead's spider-sense has been treated differently by different writers over the years but it has become one of Spider-Man's best-known powers. Spider-Man discovered this power early in his career but it's also an obvious retcon.

13 The Speed Force Is The Flash's Biggest Retcon

Flash and Max Mercury discuss the Speed Force in DC Comics

When Jay Garrick passed out in a room full of hard water vapor, he became the first hero to go by the moniker the Flash. Flash Comics #1 from 1939 told his impossible story but fans know every amazing feat by DC's speedsters can be explained by their connection to the pervasive energy called the Speed Force.

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The Speed Force was created by Mark Waid in 1994 during Wally West's tenure as the Flash. That means both the Golden Age Flash and his successor, the Silver Age's Barry Allen, lived their lives with fast feet but no Speed Force.

12 The Question Wasn't A Conspiracy Theorist

The Question's faceless mask in DC Comics

Although the original Question largely resembles his animated counterpart, there is one key difference. The comic book version of the hero isn't the conspiracy theorist that the animated Justice League Unlimted series turned him into. This change was due to the popularity of Rorschach in Watchmen.

Rorschach was based on Steve Ditko's Question, and JLU flipped things on their head by making him a parody of Rorschach. However, this depiction worked almost too well, and fans still think of him as a man more worried about fluoride in the water than the Legion Of Doom. While this idea is very occasionally referenced, it's mostly absent from the comics, an unofficial retcon with little official backing from DC.

11 Batman's Career Didn't Begin In Gotham City

three panels of Batman on New York City rooftops in early DC Comics

In the first Batman stories from 1939, the city where Batman battles crime wasn't named. When Bill Finger did get around to giving the Dark Knight a home base, he clearly identified Batman's home as "New York City."

It wasn't until 1940's Detective Comics #48 that Batman's home was rechristened as Gotham City. The physical location was an open question for years but it's been canonically located in New Jersey since 1977. Fans often discuss how Batman is known for never killing his foes and never using guns despite a few very early exceptions but the fact that he was NYC's sworn protector almost never comes up.

10 Green Lantern Wasn't A Space Cop

Alan Scott flying with his ring activated in DC Comics

Rather than being an intergalactic cop powered by the Central Battery of Oa, the original Golden Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott, was a magical vigilante. When he found his lantern and ring after a train crash, Alan Scott became the original Green Lantern.

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Hal Jordan's status as a member of an intergalactic force of peacekeepers didn't come along until the birth of the Silver Age. The space-based heroics of the Green Lantern are now synonymous with the name and character, but he originally had a much different origin. To smooth things over, DC has even tried to subtly tie Scott's green magic to the Guardians on Oa.

9 Len Wein's Swamp Thing Wasn't A Protector Of The Green

A DC Comics image of Swamp Thing covered in snow, walking in a blizzard.

Even though the Swamp Thing was created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, Alan Moore's run on Saga of the Swamp Thing is the definitive take on the Protector of the Green. As a result, many of the changes Moore made to Alec Holland's story completely overshadowed Wein's origin for the character.

In Len Wein's story, Holland was transformed by his bio-restorative formula, building him a new body out of the swamp. Alan Moore instead added an entire mythos to the hero, retconning him as an animate plant with Holland's mind, and created the mythical Green that animated Swamp Thing as its protector and emissary.

8 The Invaders Weren't A Golden Age Superhero Team

Captain America and Namor the Sub-Mariner leading the Invaders in Marvel comics

Although mainstream American superhero comics can be a twisty patchwork, sometimes new comic books come out so complete and tailor-made that fans assume they've always been around. In the Golden Age of Superhero Comics, team books were quite rare. Marvel, then known as Timely Comics, only published two: Young Allies and All Winners Comics.

1975's Giant-Size Invaders proved successful enough to knock the All-Winners Squad, the Young Allies, and the Liberty Legion (another 1970s "Golden Age" team) out of the consciousness of older readers, and thoroughly confuse future fans as well. Today, the Invaders is the best-known World War II Marvel Comics superhero team, despite not being created during the Golden Age.

7 Wolverine's Claws Weren't A Mutation

Wolverine discovering his bone claws in Marvel Comics

Wolverine is one of the greatest heroes in comics, and one of Marvel's flagship champions. Debuting in Hulk #180, the hero is known for his gruff attitude, healing powers, and unbreakable claws. Modern comics explain the hero's claws as Adamantium-coated retractable bones, but that wasn't always the case.

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Wolverine's initial appearances had him using custom-made retractable claws built into his gloves, not as a part of his mutation. The revised power is so popular it was the go-to choice for all of Wolverine's on-screen appearances, and fans have never looked back since.

6 Hulk's Skin Wasn't Always Green

The Grey Hulk in Marvel Comics

Originally, the Incredible Hulk wasn't the "green giant" hero fans know and love today. In his earliest appearances, the Hulk was a grey-skinned homage to Stevenson's Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This was so Lee could tell a story about a hero not associated with any race, to appeal to all readers.

Hulk famously turned green as a result of coloring issues, with colorist Stan Goldberg experimenting with different inks. The Grey Hulk only lasted a few issues and has since been almost completely forgotten, except when Marvel wants to reference it with variants like Joe Fixxit and other Grey Goliaths.

5 Magneto Wasn't Quicksilver's And The Scarlet Witch's Father

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch confront Magneto in Marvel Comics

In the early days of the X-Men, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Paul Reinman, and Artie Simek introduced a team called the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Their roster included Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch and they were led by the previously-established villain, Magneto. In X-Men #4. Wanda and Pietro felt trapped by the mutant terrorist but felt like they owed him because Magneto had saved Wanda from an angry mob.

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Only years later, during Bill Mantlo's The Vision and the Scarlet Witch miniseries, was Magneto retroactively revealed as the mutant twins' biological father. Currently, this has been retconned back and they are no longer family but fans still think of the trio as family, so it's hard to guess how long that will last.

4 Deadpool Wasn't Actually Deathstroke's Copycat

An image of Deadpool infected by a Carnage Symbiote in Marvel Comics

One of the many comic book myths swirling around the fandom is the idea that Wade Wilson/Deadpool was designed to be a transparent Slade Wilson/Deathstroke rip-off. However, as Rob Liefeld himself has noted, Deadpool wasn't initially named Wade Wilson and, even though popular comics lore has Fabian Nicieza immediately identifying them as similar character designs, some of their similarities were developed in later runs.

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Deadpool's similarities to Deathstroke almost all came after Liefeld's stories but it was leaned into by subsequent writers and Marvel's editors. As a result, many fans are genuinely convinced the antihero was created to either rip off or parody Slade Wilson. However, almost all of Deadpool's current character is a retcon.

3 The Golden Age Batman Liked Guns And Murder

Batman threatening Darkseid with a gun in DC Comics

Batman's famous both for his brutality and for his aversion to killing his enemies. He has been put in many situations where he was tempted to murder his foes but realized he was better than that. He also famously hates guns, the weapons that murdered his parents. However, none of this was originally part of Batman's lore.

The Golden Age Batman, although still apprehensive about killing his enemies, had no code against it. In fact, in his very first encounter with Joker, Batman believed he had killed the evil clown. Additionally, in the earliest Batman stories, the Caped Crusader was directly inspired by The Shadow and carried an automatic pistol. Obviously, this is nothing like the Batman of comics' Modern Age.

2 Wonder Woman's Iconic Logo Started Out As An Eagle

First issue wonder woman

Superman's world-famous S-shield logo looked more like a postage stamp at the character's inception in 1938 until artist Wayne Boring redesigned it in 1940. Logos change and evolve but, at the start, the closest thing Wonder Woman had to a logo was the eagle on her bustier and the rounded cursive font on her comic books' covers.

In 1981, Wonder Woman's logo was redesigned by Milton Glaser and he captured the spirit (and marketability) of the iconic Superman S-shield by changing her eagle into a stylized doubled double-u. In the fictional diegesis of the comic, a group devoted to women's rights calling themselves the Wonder Woman Foundation designed the new symbol for her.

1 Superman Couldn't Always Fly

Superman scares criminals by destroying a car in Action Comics #1.

Today, Superman is thought of as the most overpowered superhero in comics. His decades of existence have seen his powers slowly ebb and flow. At this point, there's little the hero can't lift and he can even match the Flash in speed. However, this wasn't always the case.

Superman's Golden Age version was pretty much a baseline superhuman. As the classic stories would say, he was as fast as a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. It made him the most powerful man in his world, even if these feats pale beside the modern Superman.

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