May 25th, 2006

Filed under:
Books, Movies, Television, Words

What’s a Retcon?

I was recently reading something related to the new X-men film, and encountered the term retcon. It refers to comic book continuity, and apparently works both as a noun and a verb:

Retroactive continuity–commonly contracted to the blend retcon–is the adding of new information to “historical” material, or deliberately changing previously established facts in a work of serial fiction. The change itself is referred to as a “retcon”, and the act of writing and publishing a retcon is called “retconning”.

The afore-linked (heh) Wikipedia article has plenty of examples. Everything from She-Hulk to Roseanne has been retconned at one time or another.

Comments: One Response so far

For a slightly more academic view, check out my good friend Orion’s writeup on retcon (Orion is currently working on his PhD, focusing on comics and graphic novels):

http://www.staticred.net/four-colour/archives/002439.html

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