Cover of Amazing Spider-Man Annual special #21 When Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) married Mary Jane Watson in 1987, comic fans wondered if the marriage would last, since Spidey's luck was notoriously bad. The marriage finally did end a couple weeks ago, but it wasn't through death or divorce; it was via a retcon. "Retcon?" we hear you ask. "What's that?" Retcon is shorthand for retroactive continuity, a device used to make changes to a character's past, whether or not they make any sense in -- or flat-out contradict -- the present. Comics suffer the most from this syndrome (characters like Captain America are alive, then dead, then alive again, then dead again), but it can happen any time a writer gets stuck. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought Sherlock Holmes back, the detective's death was simply retconned away. The Wicked Witch of the West becoming a heroine? Retcon. Richie Cunningham's older brother who suddenly never existed? Guess. The most notorious of all retcons came in 1986 when Bobby Ewing stepped out of his shower to reveal that everything that had happened on Dallas that season had been a dream. Many consider that to be the moment the show jumped the shark -- but that's a whole other can of worms. Suggested Sites... Marvel Comics: Spider-Man - Spidey's official bio, with information about his life before and after his marriage that didn't happen. Wikipedia: Retroactive Continuity - history of the literary license that makes bad things -- and good things -- go away. Comic Book Resources: One More Day - Marvel Comics editor Joe Quesada tries to explain why he ended Spidey's marriage. Newsweek: Spider-Man and Mary Jane's Breakup - the mainstream media reacts to the story. Chuck Cunningham Syndrome - list of television characters who vanished and never existed again.

Directory categories: Marvel Comics, Spider-Man, Comic Books, Sherlock Holmes, Dallas TV Series

Archived under: Comic Books, Comics, Entertainment, Fiction, Literature, Retcon, Spider-Man, Superheroes

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