What is going on with all the retcons of longstanding characters lately?

[Chris0013]

Captain America and Bucky have pretty much had their origins and histories altered to have been created and controlled by the Outer Circle since the beginning...even going so far as to change the origin of the Shield from a happy accident that could not be reproduced to being purposely created.

Monica Rambeau is now maybe a mutant from that scene in her recent LS

The Black Knight is not able to control the darkness of the Ebony Blade because of being honorable, noble and all those other "knightly" traits but because he is kind of mentally messed up.

And now in Hellcat Patsy has seemingly had some sort of demonic influence throughout her life.

Add in the disrespect that some of them (Hawkeye, Ant Man and Black Knight) seem to be getting crap from people who were friends and allies who used to treat them with respect.


And for Honorable Mentio...even though she in not such a long standing character...America Chavex and her not really being from an alternate dimension but from 616 and her moms were not that altruistic.

[Digifiend]

You missed a big one. Tony isn't the son of Howard Stark, he was adopted.

[Chris0013]

You missed a big one. Tony isn't the son of Howard Stark, he was adopted.

Yes...that as well.

[Frontier]

The Outer Circle thing was really unnecessarily convoluted.

[Chris0013]

Also what they did with the FF...Reed didn't screw up with his calculations on the shielding...it was the Overseer on Spyre doing something.

The Outer Circle thing was really unnecessarily convoluted.

Like I said about it before...a retcon on top of a retcon with Project: Rebirth being part of the Weapon Plus programs.

[CaptCleghorn]

Lately?

Cap being frozen in 1945 per Avengers 4 as opposed to his 1950's appearances.
Did the Original Human Torch become the Vision?

Writers have long been redoing what they see as mistakes or just something they can do better.

[Username taken]

You missed a big one. Tony isn't the son of Howard Stark, he was adopted.

This is a retcon that I can't get my head around.

Like, why? It hasn't added to or changed Tony in anyway.

[Digifiend]

Why? To introduce Arno, Howard's real son.

[Exciter]

It’s weak writers and editors. Brunaker and Ellis could retcon Cap and Iron Man and make the characters better. The current crop of Marvel writers just aren’t at that level.

[U.N. Owen]

It seems that writers and editorial really need gimmicks and retconning things is the easiest way to get a gimmick.

[Bruce Wayne]

This is a retcon that I can't get my head around.

Like, why? It hasn't added to or changed Tony in anyway.

We know Gillen's run got truncated (for example he had further plans for Godkiller) and stuff got changed (I think he has mentioned that Recorder 451 was originally intended to be Unit from his SWORD/UXM stuff) and that Bendis having Tony joining the GotG really screwed with his run (since he apparently wanted a more grounded approach to space travel about the limitations of human biology/technology with regards to tackling the issues with space travel). So probably a result of various compromises and editorial stepping in and vetoing whatever his original idea was. Maybe Tony was intend to be a designer baby (instead of Arno) and editorial stepped in and had him change it. It would explain all the press initially in his run about redoing Tony's origin like Moore did with Swamp Thing.

[Chris0013]

It’s weak writers and editors. Brunaker and Ellis could retcon Cap and Iron Man and make the characters better. The current crop of Marvel writers just aren’t at that level.

Brubaker definitely. Out of Time and The Winter Soldier are epic and the retcons give serious depth to Steve and Bucky...I just can't forgive what he did to Jack Monroe.

[The Cool Thatguy]

We know Gillen's run got truncated (for example he had further plans for Godkiller) and stuff got changed (I think he has mentioned that Recorder 451 was originally intended to be Unit from his SWORD/UXM stuff) and that Bendis having Tony joining the GotG really screwed with his run (since he apparently wanted a more grounded approach to space travel about the limitations of human biology/technology with regards to tackling the issues with space travel). So probably a result of various compromises and editorial stepping in and vetoing whatever his original idea was. Maybe Tony was intend to be a designer baby (instead of Arno) and editorial stepped in and had him change it. It would explain all the press initially in his run about redoing Tony's origin like Moore did with Swamp Thing.

I have a hard time believing that Gillen wanted a grounded approach to space travel with Tony, given that he just had Tony decide to go 'Screw it' and start traveling the universe in a single thing of armor.

[Omega Alpha]

It's just easier to.mess up the past than create something new. Plus, it's a cheap and easy way to tie your name to an established character.

[D.Z]

Marvel goes to the retcon well alot over decades. They just increased the usage of retcons in this century.