Every once in a while, a retcon is made to the DC Universe that just leaves fans stunned. For nearly a century, creators have added to the DCU and the longer it’s around, the more writers and artists revisit moments in time and shed new light on certain events.
While some retcons can benefit a story or character, that’s not always the case. In fact, some retcons can really set readers off, even years after they were revealed. Read on to discover five retcons in DC’s history that didn’t just anger fans in the moment, but kept their blood boiling years later.
5 Green Lantern Emotional Spectrum Became a Finite Resource
As Seen In: Green Lantern #23.1: Relic (2013)
One of the greatest contributions Geoff Johns made during his lauded run on Green Lantern was the Emotional Spectrum. It was revealed that the light the Green Lanterns have used for eons was actually one fraction of a greater whole. Six other lights existed, each one correlating to a specific emotion or feeling (red for anger, blue for hope, etc.). When his time with Green Lantern came to a close, the next creative team were free to use the Emotional Spectrum however they desired, and they most certainly did.
Robert Venditti and Phillip Tan took over the main Green Lantern book after Geoff Johns departed from the title and their first arc featured a huge change to the Emotional Spectrum. The creative team introduced Relic, a scientist from a previous iteration of the DC Universe who knew a grave secret about the various lights. It turns out that the Emotional Spectrum wasn’t a boundless resource, but a finite reservoir that, when completely drained, causes the destruction of the universe. Relic lost his world that way and embarked on a mission to stop it from happening again.
This change was not welcome among fans, as it put a hard and needless cap on a brand-new aspect on Green Lantern lore. Not to mention, the storyline ushered in the destruction of the fan-favorite Blue Lantern Corps. Thankfully, the retcon didn’t stop the rest of the Corps, and it doesn’t appear to be much of a problem for the Green Lanterns. But this change was a bizarre shift to something that fans were really starting to appreciate, especially since it was the first major Green Lantern storyline post-Johns.
4 The New 52 Erased Mr. Freeze’s Tragic Backstory
As Seen In: Batman Annual #1 (2012)
Tragedy goes hand-in-hand with the members of Batman’s rogues’ gallery. And few villains have a backstory as harrowing as Mr. Freeze. Victor Fries’ origin story received an update in the infamous Batman: The Animated Series episode “Heart of Ice” that revealed Fries was in love with a woman named Nora, who had an uncurable heart condition. Fries froze her and worked tirelessly to find a cure for her, only to get into an accident that forced Fries to live in subzero conditions. The origin was so well-received that it became the Batman villain’s canon Post-Crisis backstory.
However, the New 52 came with a lot of changes to Batman’s history, including the backstories of his greatest foes. Batman Annual #1 was one of the first major stories involving Mr. Freeze and it came with the shocking twist. Instead of Victor actually being in love and married to Nora, the new continuity presented Nora as being frozen since the forties and had Victor develop an obsession with her, believing her to be his wife. There were a lot of controversies with the New 52, but this one ruffled more feathers than most.
In fact, years after this story, Scott Snyder looked back on this and admitted that he regretted making the change to Mr. Freeze and Nora. Thankfully, most have ignored this wrinkle to Mr. Freeze’s history and thanks to DC’s modern approach of everything being canon, one can interpret Victor and Nora as husband and wife again. While bold swings can sometimes net big results, this change to Mr. Freeze robbed fans of one of the most profound villain origins in the entire DC Universe.
3 Doctor Manhattan Was Made Responsible For the New 52
As Seen In: Doomsday Clock (2017)
After the New 52, DC Comics attempted to get long-time fans hyped again with the “Rebirth” publishing initiative. Instead of a clean slate like the New 52, “Rebirth” was meant to honor DC history, and it all began with DC Universe Rebirth #1. This one-shot tugged at readers’ heartstrings, bringing the long-neglected Wally West back into the fold and hinting at the big stories to come. But its most ambitious element was the cliffhanger ending, which saw Batman discovering the Comedian’s button from Watchmen in the Batcave and a watch being assembled on Mars.
After that shocking ending, it didn’t take long for DC Comics to announce that it was doing its first official crossover with Watchmen in Doomsday Clock. The miniseries brought several characters from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ series to the DCU, such as Ozymandias, the Comedian, and yes, Doctor Manhattan. Doomsday Clock also revealed that the New 52 and the missing five years from DC’s timeline were a result of Doctor Manhattan experimenting with the universe after leaving his own world at the end of Watchmen.
Aside from using Doctor Manhattan to explain how the New 52 occurred, it didn’t sit well with fans that Jon would do something so needlessly cruel. However, this revelation was later retconned by revealing that Manhattan was actually being influenced by the Great Darkness (which itself was being manipulated by Pariah, who had gone mad). It’s still canon that Doctor Manhattan came and made big, sweeping changes to the DC Universe, but at the very least, it wasn’t the iconic Watchmen character’s fault.
2 Batman Somehow Missed There Being Three Jokers
As Seen In: Justice League #50 (2016)
The Joker and his unknown past has long been one of the greatest mysteries in the DC Universe. As he infamously said in The Killing Joke, “If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!”. However, the “Darkseid War” arc of Justice League finally saw Batman use the greatest resource for knowledge, the Mobius Chair, to gain insight into his nemesis. Upon asking the chair what the name of the Clown Prince of Crime really was, Batman discovered there wasn’t just one, but three Jokers.
Fans wondered what this meant for years, and it wasn’t explained until the publication of Batman: Three Jokers, a miniseries that revealed the original Joker (referred in-story as the Criminal) had transformed two other individuals into Jokers (known as the Clown and the Comedian). Together, the trio of Jokers attempted to make a fourth Joker worthy of being Batman’s nemesis, while Bruce, Batgirl, and Red Hood confronted their respective pasts with the villain. Though the miniseries did follow up on the unexpected twist established in Justice League, its reception was lukewarm among fans.
Batman: Three Jokers’ place in canon was debated as elements from the story were never brought up in other books. In fact, the story was retconned in the “The Joker: Year One” storyline in Batman, which interpreted the ‘three Jokers’ as individual personas within the original Joker’s head (similar to Batman’s alter-ego, Zur-En-Arrh). Though that development somewhat retcons what Batman heard in the Mobius chair, Joker having two other split personalities makes a lot more sense than the World’s Greatest Detective somehow missing three individual Jokers for years.
1 Everything Identity Crisis Brought to Light
As Seen In: Identity Crisis (2004)
Revisiting older periods of comic book history can make for an interesting story. But what Identity Crisis did for the sake of dramatic storytelling was so out-there, it still stands out as one of the most controversial stories in DC history two decades later. To be fair, it starts out with an engaging premise. A killer is going around attacking the loved ones of famous heroes, and the entire hero community is on edge. But the events force the heroes to look back on one of the darkest and most disturbing events in Justice League history.
It’s revealed that years before, Elongated Man’s wife, Sue Dibny, was sexually assaulted on the Justice League’s Watchtower by Doctor Light. Light was stopped by the Justice League, who voted to mind-wipe the villain. Unfortunately, the team was interrupted by Batman, who vehemently opposed the action and tried to stop his allies, only to have his memories erased by Zatanna. This wasn’t even the team’s first mind-wiping, as Zatanna had previously erased the original Secret Society’s memories after they discovered the heroes’ identities.
On the surface, showing heroes as fallible isn’t a bad idea for a story. But Identity Crisis was so shocking for seemingly no reason other than to ramp up the shock value. Aside from heroes violating one of their own leader’s autonomy, the treatment of Sue Dibny was horrid, and something fans look back on with vitriol. Parts of it are definitely still canon, but most fans would be happy never to hear this particular DC story ever again.
