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 we look at the first meeting between Storm and Black Panther and how it was retconned and then (based on a suggestion by reader FRM) re-retconned...

The first meeting of Ororo Monroe and T'Challa was in 1980's Marvel Team-Up #100 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Bob McLeod. This is where we first learned that Storm and the Black Panther even knew each other as kids. Here is how they met...

The issue is amusing in retrospect for the tagline...

Well, since they later got married, then I suppose you could argue that that line was, itself, abandoned an' forsaked! In all seriousness, though, why would you end a story with something so definitive like that? What, the idea of Storm and Black Panther getting together was really THAT out of the picture? In the story where you JUST established that they had this shared past together? Odd.

ANYhow, in 2006, Black Panther and Storm got married. In honor of the occasion, Storm got a new mini-series telling the story of how they met (by writer Eric Jerome Dickey, penciler David Yardin and inker Jay Leisten). As you can see, it is basically Marvel Team-Up #100...only in REVERSE...

That's quite a change.

Go to the next page to see how Marvel re-retconned the story...

In Amazing X-Men Annual #1 from last year, writer Monty Nero and artist Salvador Larroca have Storm encounter a newly manifested Inhuman named Meruda who blames Storm for the death of his family years ago. You see, first he recounts the Marvel Team-Up #100 first meeting between Storm and Panther and notes that when she used her powers to save T'Challa, she inadvertently also started a dust storm in Meruda's village, killing his entire family...

At the end of the issue, Storm discovers that that's not what actually happened, that it was an unrelated storm that he just needed to blame on SOMEone, so he picked Storm and held a grudge the rest of his life, with his new Inhuman powers now allowing him to be able to DO something about it.

So there you go, the original first meeting is back in and the other one has been abandoned an' forsaked. Your turn, future BlacK Panther writers!

Thanks to FRM for the suggestion! If anyone else has a suggestion for a notable comic book retcon, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.oom!