Quote Originally Posted by marhawkman View Post
Yeah, you can't have history... without having the setting change over time. People care because of the history... not the concept. Mega-retcons like OMD break the history. It gives you less reason to care about the characters or setting. It literally damages the brand.
Precisely.

I don't want One More Day ignored. I want it FIXED. Because despite what Editorial keeps saying, it's still a huge problem. The very rationale behind One More Day hurts every single story that follows, because Peter CAN'T GROW with its restraints in place. He CAN'T grow up. He CAN'T have a wife. He CAN'T have a family. It's a failure that is never addressed, thus Peter can never get resolution. Even if you take Mary Jane out of the equation, that same rationale prevents any future with Felicia. It prevents Aunt May from passing on and Peter coping and growing. One More Day didn't "free" Spider-Man; it shackled him to a misery limbo that can't ever truly be defeated until One More Day is addressed head-on.

Call this recency bias, but I just finished reading Jeremy Adam's immaculate retcon of Wally West's low-point in Heroes in Crisis, and... apart from making me cry a bit, it's a masterclass is using the power of retcons to ENHANCE a character, address a controversial story head-on, and build a bright future of possibilities. It doesn't avoid Heroes in Crisis; it has Wally confront it head-on, with revelations that both absolve him of his greatest mistake, but also has those that love him remind him exactly why he's the hero and friend (and family) that earned his spot as one of the greatest heroes in comic book fiction. It takes what was viewed as a moment of weakness and by the end of it has me cheering and punching the air as it definitively tells its readers, no, THIS IS THE FLASH. He doesn't quit. He doesn't give up on those he loves. He acknowledges the tragedies of his past, and takes one step forward, hand-in-hand with everyone whose lives he made better along the way.

That is a retcon used so amazingly well that it has me SCREAMING for Spider-Man to get this treatment. Don't tell me it can't be done; I just READ it in a better book.