Retcon

Retroactive continuity – commonly contracted to the portmanteau word retcon – refers to adding 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".

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Retcons are common in comic books, especially those of large publishing houses such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics, due to the lengthy history of many series and the number of independent authors contributing to their development. Retconning also occurs in TV shows, movies sequels, video games, radio series, series of novels, and can be done in any other type of episodic fiction. It is also used in roleplaying, when the game master feels it is needed to maintain consistency in the story or to fix significant mistakes that were missed during play.

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Comic book: A comic book is a magazine or book containing the sequential art in the form of a narrative. Comic books are often called comics for short. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is not necessarily humorous, and in fact its dramatic seriousness varies widely. The term...

Marvel Comics: Marvel Comics , (AKA Marvel Entertainment Group, Marvel Characters, Inc., and Marvel Enterprises, Inc.) sometimes called by the nickname The House of Ideas, is an American comic book company. Its best-known comics include The Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Cap...

DC Comics: DC Comics is one of the largest companies in comic book and related media publishing. Today a subsidiary of Time Warner, DC is responsible for such famous characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and their teammates in the Justice League. For decades, DC Comics has been one of the two largest ...