" Retroactive continuity " was shortened to " retcon ", reportedly by Damian Cugley in 1988 on Usenet.

This retcon itself was later retconned, in Star Trek: Enterprise, via a storyline in which it is revealed that the original, quasi-human appearance of the Klingons is due to a genetic mutation caused by an engineered virus – as it happened, " genetic engineering " ( Chief O ' Brien ) and " viral mutation " ( Dr. Bashir ) had been the guesses Worf refused to confirm or deny.

For example, in Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, created by Russell T Davies, a drug used to erase the memory of characters is called " retcon "; the use of the drug is often referred to by characters as " retconning ".

Thus, by firing the weapon, Annorax makes a retcon to the history of the universe.

The term retcon is used several times in the 2010 novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by American writer Charles Yu.

Reason proved a highly controversial addition to the game, and was presumed to be part of an attempt by White Wolf to " retcon " Ars Magica as part of the backstory for their World of Darkness role-playing games ; neither the 4th nor the 5th edition of the games has included the " Realm of Reason ," and all references to it have been stricken from the canonical setting.

A mutant, Sage possesses a number of mental abilities and was originally presented as the personal assistant to the Hellfire Club ’ s Sebastian Shaw, but an extended retcon revealed that she had been one of the first mutants discovered by Professor Xavier.

It was then attempted to address these problems through a retcon, in the 1989 Inferno crossover, where Madelyne was not only revealed to be a clone of Jean Grey, created by Mr. Sinister to produce a child with Scott Summers, but corrupted by her anger and demonic influence into the Goblin Queen.

* Fury remained in Infinity Inc., but was retconned into being the birth daughter of ' the Golden Age Fury ' ( a character created for the purpose of the retcon ) and being raised by the 1940s heroine Miss America.

" This retcon essentially brings the modern Krypto almost identically in line with the original Silver Age version and by implication possibly removes the entire " Return to Krypton " storyline from continuity.

Lois & Clark was the second medium ( after the much ignored 1988 Superman animated series produced by Ruby-Spears for CBS ) outside of comics to break tradition and mirror John Byrne's retcon of Superman, which included making Clark Kent more assertive and less of a clumsy oaf.

The first known use of the term " retcon " was by Roy Thomas in the letter column of All-Star Squadron # 20 ( April, 1983 ).

The strip featured reporter Precious Matson trying to discover the true circumstances behind Johnny's death: the story explicitly stated itself to be a retcon and the " true " story of what happened, and diverged from The Final Solution when Precious revealed to Middenface McNulty that Johnny's body had been brought back by Feral ( the original strip showed it destroyed and the remains left behind ).

When confronted with a backlash by some fans due to his decision to dictate a controversial retcon of Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson in the " One More Day " storyline, Quesada participated in a series of interviews on the subject to address the issue of the marriage, comparing it to real life marriages.

Since then, however, their marriage and daughter has been voided by a retcon during John Byrne's Jack Kirby's Fourth World series.

Thomson and Thompson also appear in a retcon on the very first page of the 1946 remake of Tintin in the Congo though they keep at a distance, looking on as Tintin, surrounded by admirers, sets off for the Congo.

As reality was given a retcon in the book, the Duke who united the Sto Plains was Mort, and he did it by diplomacy rather than conquest.

This idea was dismissed by other writers and in the retcon origin by Steve Niles, the Creeper was the result of Yatz's experiments and had the same powers as his original incarnation, along with a laugh that seemed to disorient opponents.

Usually it is a severe near-death injury or situation ( for example, an explosion ), from which the character is saved ( off-panel, detailed in the subsequent retcon ) by his powers or skills, by good luck, or by the help of someone else.

** In the 1980s, DC Comics writer Roy Thomas invented a retcon to explain why Superman, the Spectre, and the Justice Society of America had been unable to defeat the Nazis: Hitler possessed the Spear of Destiny ( Spear of Longinus ) which gave him magical control over any superheroes who ventured into his territory.

After a previous retcon by Roy Thomas and Tom Mandrake in 1987 with the Shazam!

Upon the conclusion of this limited series, most characters in the DC Comics universe underwent some revamp or retcon in their storyline history, and Wonder Woman was one of several characters whose entire continuity was rebooted.

Usually, Mac managed to foil — either deliberately or unwittingly — The Painter's work ; only once was The Painter able to get the upper hand ( in the # 8 film, at the end of the fast-paced chase in the swimming pool where the shock of the Painter's antics literally kills Mac, but his death turns out to be a retcon as he next appears in the # 9 film ).

2, # 1-4, Oct. 1993-Jan. 1994 ) that featured a retcon of the characters ' origin story.

A retcon introduced in Secret Origins # 37 revealed that this character was actually the second Dr. Light.

Issues # 5 – 6 of the series introduced another retcon World War II team, the Liberty Legion, in two parts of a story arc, " The Red Skull Strikes ", interlaced with another two parts in Marvel Premiere # 29 – 30.

Via a retcon in a three part story running through Justice League America # 92, Justice League Task Force # 16, and Justice League International ( Vol.

* Dr. Anabolus and his formula were all created for Rex's origin in Secret Origins # 48, in a humorous retcon written by Gerard Jones which parodied the origin of Marvel Comics character Captain America.

In the 2009 retcon of the mythos, Lois Lane is fully aware from the beginning, along with Perry White, that the meek, pudgy and bumbling Clark Kent deliberately holds himself back: however, still far from associating him to Superman, they simply believe he's hiding his qualities as a good reporter.

In a retcon of Grant Morrison's storyline, there Xavier meets the " real " Magneto, who mysteriously survived Cassandra Nova's assault.

It is a retcon sequel to the 1981 film The Evil Dead.

" However, since the retcon of the Phoenix as a separate entity from Jean Grey, depictions of these powers vary ; these include Jean being one of many hosts to the Phoenix and " borrowing " its " Phoenix powers " during this time, being a unique host to the Phoenix, and being one with the Phoenix.

Retroactive continuity ( retcon for short ) is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work.

Although there is considerable ambiguity and overlap between different kinds of retcon, there are some distinctions that fans have made between them, depending on whether the retcon in question adds to, alters or removes material from the narrative's continuity.

This concept, called a floating timeline, may be interpreted as an ongoing implicit retcon of their birthdate.

A famous example of this type of retcon is the television show The Simpsons and Marvel Comics ' characters Nick Fury and The Punisher.

An unpopular retcon may even be re-retconned away, as happened with John Byrne's Spider-Man: Chapter One.

He at first attempts to retcon the events in that book, but his captor, Annie Wilkes, regards this as cheating and makes him create a sequel that doesn't actively deny what the reader already knows.

Though the term " retcon " did not yet exist when George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, the totalitarian regime depicted in that book is involved in a constant, large-scale retconning of past records.

In Champions Online, a MMORPG for the PC, a character may use a " retcon " item to reset the statistics and powers of their superhero character.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the its three successors ; The Film Crew, Cinematic Titanic, and Rifftrax, all shows which mock incredibly bad films ; regularly use the word retcon.

When Tylo reprised the character in 2005 a retcon explained that Taylor had actually gone into a coma.

) While this retcon is never addressed in the game itself it spawned a full-fledged fangame, Space Quest: The Lost Chapter.

In 2007's Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe — Spider-Man: Back in Black one-shot, the villain Videoman is given a brief biography from his " retcon " appearance in the Spider-Man Family one-shot.

Aurora, in particular, presents a sequence of historical developments which explains the lack of nanotechnology — a partial retcon, in a sense, of Asimov's timeline.

Per Degaton is aware of the pre-Crisis timeline, as he told the JSAs of the present and of 1951 that he would retcon them out of existence the same way the Huntress of Earth-Two was.