10 Retconned Marvel Plots That Make No Sense

Marvel‘s superhero universe technically started in the 1940s, but the story construct known as the Marvel Universe was an invention of the Silver Age. This continuity of events, with the earlier stories brought in to make sense of characters like Captain America and Namor, has survived without any major alterations for over sixty years, which is something that Marvel’s distinguished competition can’t say. Marvel has avoided wide-scale reboots of their line by using retroactive continuity and changing the past to fit new story ideas from the present.

Retcons can sometimes make things better, but there are other times when they cause much more trouble than they are worth. There are a lot of retconned plots out there that readers wish had never happened; instead of adding something new to the stories, they have overly complicated things, taken away concepts that readers enjoyed, or ruined characters. Some Marvel retcons would be better undone because what came after them wasn’t worth losing what came before.

10 The Hydra Cap Retcon Was Done For Shock Value

Secret Empire was a controversial Marvel book built off an idea that didn’t sit well with readers. The idea’s genesis came from Steve Rogers: Captain America, when the issue ended with the Sentinel of Liberty, Marvel’s greatest hero, saying two words – “Hail Hydra.” This moment sent shockwaves through the comic industry, and Marvel doubled down on it by having writer Nick Spencer say that this wasn’t an alternate reality version of Cap or mind control. The Hydra Captain America was the real deal.

Captain America was able to take command of SHIELD, manipulating everyone around him, including Sharon Carter Steve Rogers: Captain America showed glimpses of the new history of Captain America and his upbringing as a member of Hydra It was eventually revealed that Red Skull had Kobik, the sentient Cosmic Cube, change Captain America’s history so that he was always a member of Hydra

Hydra Cap’s action led to him taking over the US, which was the crux of Secret Empire, as the heroes tried to figure out a way to beat their former friend. Eventually, Kobik was convinced to create a version of Captain America based on the non-Hydra version, and he came and defeated Hydra Cap. However, the retcon was never undone. The current version of the 616 universe is one where Steve Rogers was a born and bred member of Hydra. Marvel only enacted the Hydra retcon for shock value and there are a million ways to undo it, they’ve just allowed it to stand.

9 Civil War Retconned Iron Man To Make Sense Of Its Plot

Iron Man is a founding Avenger and was a linchpin of the early Marvel superhero community. Tony Stark was never a perfect character, but he still always did the right thing, or at least what he thought was right. That’s one of the things that made Civil War so infuriating for readers. Iron Man was portrayed as way more pragmatic, bordering on villainous, and the creation of Ragnarök revealed something disturbing about him.

Ragnarök was a clone of Thor created using the Asgardian’s DNA and cybernetics Iron Man got the DNA by keeping hair from a comb that Thor used Civil War established that he had been doing similar things with other Avengers since the beginning

Civil War hinged on Iron Man’s despicable actions while also making sense from a pragmatic point of view. However, this conception of the character hurt the way fans viewed him. Iron Man was always smart, but these retcons gave him a sinister air that took away from the character.

8 The Fate Of Vulcan’s X-Men Team Destroyed How Fans Viewed Professor X

Professor X is the X-Men’s mentor, having founded the team to fight for his dream of peaceful human and mutant existence. Charles Xavier was noble and would do anything for his cause, but he still had morals. However, all of that started to change when it was revealed in Astonishing X-Men: Danger that he had kept the Danger Room’s computer enslaved even after learning it was sentient. This was a terrible action, but things were about to get much worse with X-Men: Deadly Genesis.

X-Men: Deadly Genesis revealed that there was a team of X-Men sent to Krakoa to save the original team before the All-New, All-Different team This team was trained by Moira MacTaggert and consisted of Darwin, Petra, Sway, and their leader, Kid Vulcan, who was secretly the brother of Cyclops The team rescued Cyclops before it seemed like Krakoa killed them, and the Professor mindwiped his memory of the group to make it seem like he escaped alone

It’s one thing to cover up the team’s death but another to have Xavier mindwipe Cyclops. Marvel seemingly had it out for Xavier, as Deadly Genesis and Danger came around the same time. This retcon helped destroy reader faith in Xavier, and recent revelations about Moira MacTaggert would make it easy to get rid of this retcon and replace it with something Moira-based. “Evil” Xavier has always been a bad idea, and this retcon showed that he’d even hurt his students to “help” them.

7 Making It So Jean Grey Was Never Dark Phoenix Was Always Needlessly Complicated

Many consider the Dark Phoenix Saga the best X-Men story ever, and an argument can be made for it being the best Marvel story. Jean Grey is the patron saint of the X-Men, so her gaining immeasurable power and then falling into darkness is a major moment in X-Men history. Jean ending her life to save the universe from Dark Phoenix was a poignant moment, undone by a retcon that has confused creators and readers for years.

Jean Grey’s body was found in a cocoon in Jamaica Bay after her death The Phoenix Force hadn’t possessed Jean but had made a copy of her and replaced her while she healed Jean was never the Phoenix, absolving her of her crimes as the Dark Phoenix

Dark Phoenix killed billions, so this decision was made to get Jean back without that baggage. However, the simplest solution would have just been to say that the Phoenix was responsible for those deaths and that Jean took control back at the end – which was shown in the original story – and then she ended her life. She still could have been resurrected normally and would have been blameless. Marvel has actually done this with characters like Scarlet Witch and Cyclops in recent years when they committed heinous actions, so this retcon would be simple to undo.

6 The Sentry’s Dark Turn Into A Drug Addict Destroyed The Potential Of The Character

The Sentry exists entirely because of a retcon. The Sentry was a “forgotten” hero from the Silver Age who was forced to mindwipe himself and everyone else of his existence to keep his dark side, known as the Void, from destroying the world. Robert Reynolds’s original origin was that he was a man with agoraphobia and DID, and when he was dosed with the supersoldier serum, his mental issues created the Void. His opening story ended with him wiping his existence from the world again to live a normal life.

The Sentry came back in New Avengers with his powers and joined the team Over time, his relationship with the Void became more sinister, and Norman Osborn used him as his boogeyman His wife Linda revealed that he was addicted to drugs and broke into a lab to steal a serum to get high

This retcon was seemingly meant to rationalize why the Sentry was so easy to manipulate and make him a better villainous character. However, it also destroyed any potential the character had as a hero. The Sentry’s mental issues were enough to explain why the Void existed, and this retcon felt like it was surplus to requirements. There was no reason to change his origin other than edginess.

5 Making The Terrigen Mists Deadly To Mutants Seemed Pointless

The Inhumans were an interesting concept – a genetically engineered strain of humans who gained powers when exposed to the Terrigen Mists. While some of them were popular, they were just one of many superpowered offshoots of humanity. Marvel decided to push the Inhumans in 2013 when they didn’t have the film rights to the X-Men, and eventually, they made a big change to the Terrigen Mists to foster conflict between Inhumans and mutants in 2016.

After the Terrigent Mists were released into the Earth’s atmosphere, it was revealed that they made mutants sick The M-Pox would kill some mutants, take away the powers of others, or sterilize them This led to Inhumans Vs. X-Men, a story which killed the Inhumans push by Marvel

The problem with this entire retcon is that mutants were exposed to Terrigen before, and it never killed them. In fact, it took several years before Marvel even got the idea to make it harmful to mutants, even though it had been floating around in the atmosphere for a while. It was a retcon that only existed to get another hero-versus-hero story, and it didn’t do any favors for anyone. Restoring the Terrigen Mists to their former aspect would probably take another retcon, but it would improve things.

4 Bringing Silver Fox Back To Life Ruined An Impactful Wolverine Story And Led To Another Retcon

Wolverine (Vol. 2) #10 gave readers several key pieces of Wolverine lore. It introduced readers to Sabretooth going after Wolverine on his birthday, introduced Wolverine’s Silver Fox, and showed their first fight against each other. Sabretooth was sent to kill Silver Fox by Romulus, a piece of lore that was itself a retcon, and Wolverine tried to kill Sabretooth. He failed miserably and was beaten almost to death. However, a retcon was coming that would needlessly confuse the issue.

During the story “The Shiva Scenario,” Wolverine learns that many of his memories were implants, including what happened at his and Silver Fox’s cabin Silver Fox then showed up in that story, killing Weapon X director the Professor Silver Fox would get embroiled with the Weapon X shenanigans of Wolverine (Vol. 2)for a time before she was killed

Marvel was obsessed with keeping Wolverine’s past a secret, so it did retcons like this to keep the mystery going. However, bringing back Silver Fox – be it as an imposter or the real deal, the story was never sure – took away the impact of a classic Wolverine story. Then, they went out of their way to say that the Silver Fox death had really happened. It was a messy batch of retcons and should just be reverted back to the original story without any complications.

3 Sins Past Never Should Have Been Taken Out Of Continuity

“Sins Past” is generally considered a terrible Spider-Man story, and most fans were happy when it was retconned out of existence. “Sins Past” set up that Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn had sex while Gwen and Peter were on a break, she got pregnant, and the resulting twin babies hyper aged thanks to Osborn’s Goblin formula. The twins came into Peter’s life, and he learned the shocking truth. Then it was retconned.

It was revealed the whole thing was a ploy by Harry Osborn in AI form, who had never been resurrected The AI worked with Mysterio and Mendel Stromm to fool everyone into believing the story The twins were created as a revenge scheme against Norman Osborn, who had sold Harry’s soul to Mephisto

“Sins Past” isn’t a good story, but it shows that Gwen Stacy isn’t a saint. She wasn’t some perfect part of Peter’s life, and she made mistakes and bad choices like any other human being. Marvel has an obsession with making Gwen Stacy perfect, mostly because Marvel editorials prefer the character to Mary Jane, and “Sins Past” shows that she isn’t. While it didn’t make much sense, it was still a bold storyline.

2 Magneto Should Be Quicksilver And Scarlet Witch’s Father

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were founding members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants alongside Magneto. Eventually, they left that team and joined the Avengers. This began the saga of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s family tree, which eventually settled on Magneto as their father. Magneto as a manipulative, absentee father helped explain many of their problems and became a key part of all three characters. However, Marvel’s not owning the film rights to mutant characters struck again, and it was changed.

Marvel retconned away Magneto as their parents in AXIS Scarlet Witch cast a spell that affected people related to her, and it didn’t work on Magneto Since then, Magneto has still acted with affection towards Scarlet Witch and his usual fatherly disdain for Quicksilver

This retcon was basically unpopular right from the get-go. Marvel has never replaced Magneto as their parent with anyone nearly as interesting, and the fact that the three still act the same way towards each other as they did before makes the retcon useless anyway. Marvel owns the rights to use mutants in the MCU again, so there’s really no point in keeping this retcon anymore.

1 One More Day Needs To Be Undone

Spider-Man in the 21st century is no stranger to controversial stories, and none is as hated as One More Day. One More Day only existed to get rid of the marriage between Spider-Man and Mary Jane, which then-Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada and executive editor Tom Brevoort believed aged up the character and had led to lower sales – ignoring that the best period of Spider-Man sales was the early ’90s while they were married. They also didn’t want to have them divorce, so instead, they chose the most convoluted way possible to break them up.

One More Day spun out of The Amazing Spider-Man Civil War tie-ins, where Spider-Man revealing his identity to the public led to an assassin shooting Aunt May while trying to kill him No one Spider-Man went to could heal Aunt May, so he was forced to ask Mephisto for help Mephisto agreed to heal May but demanded in return Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. They agreed, and Mephisto changed reality, overwriting the 616 reality

One More Day dropped in 2007, and fans have been outraged by the story ever since. Marvel refuses to undo it,causing a schism among the fans and the company. The easiest way to fix that would be to just undo the retcon. Ultimate Spider-Man (Vol. 2), in a universe where Peter and Mary Jane are happily married with children, outsells The Amazing Spider-Man every month, so fans obviously want the marriage back. The only reason the retcon hasn’t been undone seems to be stubbornness on Marvel’s part.