Retcons that worked

[Force de Phenix]

What's a retcon that you think improved a character or the Marvel Universe as a whole?

[Rosebunse]

That's a tough one because most of the time, if a retcon works, we get to a point where we don't think it's a retcon. It's just there and it works.

I guess I always liked Thor being Gaea's son. It just sort of works and really connects things and adds an interesting spin on the Odinson family. It's almost never brought up, but it's fun to keep in the back of your mind.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

What's a retcon that you think improved a character or the Marvel Universe as a whole?

1) Namor being a hobo in the Bowery who got a shave from Johnny Storm thus establishing that the Marvel Universe of the Fantastic Four is directly continuous to the Timely Era of the '40s, which paved the way eventually for Captain America being de-thawed, while also eventually leading to stuff like Winter Soldier, Baron Zemo (and so Thunderbolts), and HYDRA.

2) Moira X

[gurkle]

The first one that comes to mind is Don Blake not being a human who got the powers of Thor, but a human identity created by Odin for the actual Norse god Thor. It got rid of the resemblance to Billy Batson/Captain Marvel, clarified the question of whether Thor was the real god or not, and created a foundation for Thor and Odin's rocky relationship.

Another obvious one is Captain America being frozen at the end of World War II, though I'm not sure if you can exactly call it a retcon because Lee and Kirby simply ignored the fact that Cap had appeared in the '50s (because they didn't care, nobody read those stories, it was only younger continuity-obsessed creators who tried to retcon that).

[PCN24454]

The first one that comes to mind is Don Blake not being a human who got the powers of Thor, but a human identity created by Odin for the actual Norse god Thor. It got rid of the resemblance to Billy Batson/Captain Marvel, clarified the question of whether Thor was the real god or not, and created a foundation for Thor and Odin's rocky relationship.

I don’t know how I feel about this retcon because I feel like it discouraged Thor from taking place in the human world. Most of the human cast gradually got put on bus as a result of it.

[H-E-D]

1) Namor being a hobo in the Bowery who got a shave from Johnny Storm thus establishing that the Marvel Universe of the Fantastic Four is directly continuous to the Timely Era of the '40s, which paved the way eventually for Captain America being de-thawed, while also eventually leading to stuff like Winter Soldier, Baron Zemo (and so Thunderbolts), and HYDRA.

Does that really count as a retcon, though?

[Alpha to Omega]

One of the better retcons in my opinion is the one done to Galactus' origin. When it was originally revealed in Thor #169, he was "only" Galen of Taa, the sole survivor of a plague that wiped out his home planet and who was transformed into Galactus by flying his spaceship into the heart of the largest star in the universe. This was later retconned into the far grander origin of him being the sole survivor of the previous universe, and has a purpose in the cosmic order.

[Rosebunse]

Does that really count as a retcon, though?

This is what I mean, though, if a retcon works, you won't even notice it.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Does that really count as a retcon, though?

Maybe not but the initial FF comics were launched as Marvel and there was no sense it was continuous to any previous continuity from the get-go.

Since it wasn't intended or conceived from the start, it qualifies as a retcon in the technical sense. And in either case, nobody knew or expected that Namor eventually became a hobo after the war propaganda stuff ended. So that was added in.

The discovery of Namor in a real sense created the Marvel Shared Universe. It gave Fantastic Four access to a range of characters and stuff, made the universe dense and on the basis of that history and background later changes (like Cap being de-thawed, Bucky being Winter Soldier) was formed.

[Alpha to Omega]

I don’t know how I feel about this retcon because I feel like it discouraged Thor from taking place in the human world. Most of the human cast gradually got put on bus as a result of it.

Eh, even back back before the Don Blake reveal, Thor never really had much of a human cast outside of Jane. Seriously, I'm trying to think of a single named, non-villainous human outside of Jane who showed up with any frequency in the Lee and Kirby run and coming up blank.

[Mago dos Gatos]

The Alicia Masters that Johnny had romance with was actually Lyra,an Skrull Spy,who became an character on her own right.
The changes of the war background for both Tony Stark and Frank Castle,to match the current year.

[hawkeyefan]

Winter Soldier.

[K7P5V]

Kurt Busiek's revelation that Hank Pym's brain patterns were used in the creation of Ultron.

[your_name_here]

Caps return.
Winter Soldier
Moira X

[Panic]

Cap's convex disc-shaped shield always being indestructible.