History CanonDiscontinuity / ComicBooks

* At the end of ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}} and the Falling Sky'', the characters get their memories wiped. This was presumably done because the story broke the established rules of the universe, being a GenreShift into science fiction involving AncientAstronauts.

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[[folder:Miscellaneous comics]]

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** This seems to be the effect of the past ''two hundred fifty one issues'' of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' following the end of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide'' and its CosmicRetcon ending. WordOfGod states that, yes, those issues ''did'' happen, but it's obvious that they won't have any major standing in the new comics.[[note]][[ScrewedByTheLawyers They can't even touch the old continuity anyway due to the end result of the lawsuit with Creator/KenPenders,]] as Archie had to shunt out ''every'' character not originally created by Sega, [=DiC=] or Creator/IanFlynn in a hurry.[[/note]]

* At the end of ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}} and the Falling Sky'', the characters get their memories wiped. This was presumably done because the story broke the established rules of the universe, being a GenreShift into science fiction involving AncientAstronauts. It also had the unexpected upshot of allowing fans to doubly ignore an extremely poorly-written, poorly-drawn and borderline xenophobic story.

[[folder:DC Comics]]
* After ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', "Pre-Crisis" continuity (as it became known) became this. And yet, writers sometimes skirted around this, such as when Creator/PeterDavid's ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} somehow was able to travel back to Pre-Crisis continuity, begging the question of whether it actually ceased to exist, or just got... cosmically buried somehow. Now that the ComicBook/New52 is in place, one could be left wondering the exact same questions about the 1986-2011 Post-Crisis continuity... until ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'' revealed that [[spoiler:both universes are the same]].
* Lampshaded in the Creator/GrantMorrison run on ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'' - Animal Man meets the previous version of himself from another continuity during a peyote trip. The same storyline has him ''meet'' Creator/GrantMorrison later in the series, at which point Morrison [[spoiler:explains that the continuity differences come from [[DependingOnTheWriter different writers writing the same character for different comics]]]]. It also features a character - Psycho Pirate - who [[spoiler: remembers all the alternate continuities that have ever existed, and goes crazy as a result]].
* A storyline in ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational Justice League Europe]]'' revealed that Power Girl's IceQueen behavior was the result of chemicals in a popular soda (diet root beer) she enjoyed drinking, leading to the character becoming more personable once she kicked her habit. This was completely ignored by later writers, who brought back her rude, condescending personality with no real explanation.
* Keith Giffen's infamous "Five Years Later" TimeSkip in ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' was motivated by his desire to avoid the many dangling plot threads left over from Paul Levitz' run.
* ''Comicbook/TheWarlord'':
** The 2006 series has been largely ignored in Franchise/TheDCU continuity. With the 2009 series continuing the original series, it seems the 2006 series has slipped completely into this realm.
** Mike Grell's 1992 mini-series off-handedly dismissed the death of Tara, which occurred in issues after Grell left the original series.
** The new series seems to ignore Mariah's decision to willingly partner herself with a man who physically abused her. Grell has restored her to her original ActionGirl AdventurerArchaeologist persona.
* ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' was almost discontinuity. Grant Morrison's ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'' led into ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' but ''Countdown'' did not. However, Morrison (who also wrote ''Final Crisis'') was forced to cave in and acknowledge ''Countdown'' via a time loop scenario: Darkseid wasn't killed at the end of ''Countdown'' but thrown backwards in time and possessed the mobster who would become Boss Dark Side, resurrecting his minions in human bodies and consolidating his power base while waiting for his "death" so that he could kill his son and bring the corrupted-by-regular-Darkseid Mary Marvel into his inner circle. ''Alternatively'', Darkseid fell backwards through time after the events of Jim Starlin's ''Death of the New Gods''... but Morrison has stated that the true final war of the New Gods was fought on [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm a higher plane than mere mortals could comprehend]], and that ''both'' Countdown and [=DoTNG=] were merely the mortal characters'/writers'/artists' hopelessly limited, three-dimensional perception of what ''really'' happened.
** To name a few plot points that were changed post-''Countdown to Final Crisis'', during [[ComicBook/RedHood Jason Todd]], [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Kyle Rayner]] and [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]]'s search for [[ComicBook/TheAtom Ray Palmer]] throughout TheMultiverse, they stop by Earth-15, and leave upon learning Palmer's not there. Soon, Superboy-Prime appears and destroys Earth-15. Later, the heroes finally find Palmer on Earth-51, which is described as a "perfect world". Palmer refuses to leave because he's living an ideal life, only for Solomon and the other Monitors to invade the universe. Superboy-Prime then appears and fights Solomon, culminating with him causing the destruction of Earth-51. The heroes then spend the next few issues at [[ComicBook/NewGods Apokolips]] before being apparently sent to their home Earth. However, it appeared that this is not actually the Earth they live in, and soon [[ComicBook/{{Kamandi}} the Great Disaster]] occurs. Afterwards it was revealed that this was Earth-51, reconstructed somehow. As for the retcon, ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity The Multiversity Guidebook]]'' simplifies these events so that Superboy-Prime only destroyed Earth-15, which was designated the perfect world, and the Earth-51 where the Great Disaster occurred was never destroyed and recreated beforehand.
* Years before the ContinuitySnarl of ComicBook/{{Hawkman}}, there was a story, in the original Silver Age 1960s Hawkman series, which threatened to reveal Carter Hall's identity as Hawkman. He ended up protecting his identity, but publicly revealing that he's a space alien. Needless to say, this was ignored later.
* An odd example is ''ComicBook/SovereignSeven'', a team of humanoid aliens created by Creator/ChrisClaremont for Creator/DCComics. They were part of the ''Genesis'' CrisisCrossover, and at one point, ComicBook/PowerGirl became a member of the team. And then, in the final issue, it turned out they were entirely fictional within the DCU. This appears to have been for the opposite reason than most; Claremont wanted to separate his (creator-owned) characters from TheVerse once his book was cancelled.
* The 1990s ''ComicBook/MetalMen'' miniseries [[RetCon reveals that they are actually human minds in robot bodies and has Will Magnus become Veridium]], a Metal Man based on a fictional metal. This change was not well received and quietly dropped from continuity, along with the Metal Men themselves. When Magnus appears as one of the main characters of ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', he [[DiscontinuityNod refers to the '90's series as hallucinations resulting from a psychotic break]], and now takes regular anti-depressants to help keep his mind in one piece.
* Creator/DCComics has a series of books entitled ''The Greatest Stories Ever Told,'' each featuring one character or theme. A Batman volume came out in the late 80s, followed by a volume 2 in the early 90s. V2 was released opposite ''Film/BatmanReturns,'' and features all Catwoman and Penguin stories. Decades later, DC revived its ''Greatest Stories'' series, reprinting the first Batman volume... and produced an entirely new ''Greatest Batman Stories Volume 2,'' shoving the previous V2 into no-man's land. (By amusing coincidence, the first volume of Batman stories was the second ''Greatest Stories'' volume overall (after Franchise/{{Superman}}), and thus had ''Greatest Stories Volume Two'' on the spine. So, at a casual glance, all three different books appear to be "Volume Two" of the same series.)
* DC ran an event called ''Origins & Omens'', which had each book featuring an ominous short story hinting at future plots. The ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' story featured several major revelations, such as Comicbook/{{Static}} joining the Titans, Comicbook/BlueBeetle kissing ComicBook/WonderGirl, Sun Girl becoming pregnant with Inertia's child, and Kid Devil being turned into a withered husk. With the exception of the Static bit, literally all of these plot points were ignored.
* In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton'', Creator/JephLoeb had [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kara Zor-El]] arriving on Earth naked. Supergirl writer Sterling Gates retconned this quietly in [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Supergirl's Post-Crisis book]] during his critically acclaimed run, establishing she wore clothes during her space trip, and it was never brought up again. In the same way, most of the stories written by Jeph Loeb and Joe Kelly are disregarded by writers and fans alike.
* ''ComicBook/AdamStrange'''s late Eighties turn to the DarkerAndEdgier has become this, as most later writers ignored the ideas in it (other than the introduction of Aleea, Adam and Alanna's daughter). Oddly, however, all five issues of this phase have been reprinted by DC in glossy full color, unlike almost any other Adam Strange stories.
* Played with in regards to ''Batman: Son of the Demon'': The story was originally canonical. Then the editors decided they didn't like the idea of Batman and Talia having a son and it was declared an {{Elseworld}}s story, removing it from continuity.[[note]]which didn't stop both ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' and ''Brotherhood of the Bat'' featuring grown-up versions of the child, since they were Elseworlds themselves; although ''Kingdom Come'' was supposed to be a possible future of the then-canon DCU[[/note]]. Then it was brought back to canonicity, but {{retcon}}ned so that Batman and Talia's consensual encounter was changed to Bruce being drugged and raped by Talia, in order to produce a son, Damian.
* This has occurred to Betty Kane as ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}. While it's true Barbara Gordon was the first Batgirl to have all the main Batgirl traits, the first Batgirl (or "Bat-Girl" as it was spelled then) was ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}'s pre-Crisis KidSidekick Betty Kane. When Crisis hit, DC decided to {{retcon}} Betty's existence as Batgirl away. Barbara is chronologically the ''first'' Batgirl and Betty never even took up the mantle. Instead, Bette (as she was renamed) became the superhero Flamebird. Bette is still technically a part of the "Bat Family", but [[FanonDiscontinuity fans look her over]] and in canonicity, this is rarely brought up.
* The ComicBook/DoomPatrol has had multiple cases of this:
** John Byrne rebooted the entire franchise with his run, and nothing before is even remotely canonical. Fan reception was ''not'' positive, to say the least, which led to...
** John Byrne's run specifically not being considered canonical by the subsequent creative teams, but everything ''it'' retconned out is indeed still canon. Keith Giffen's run even brings back Crazy Jane from the Grant Morrison run, who didn't exist in the Byrne run. Unfortunately...
** The ComicBook/New52 reboot seemed to have retconned the team out of existence. Niles Caulder shows up in ''The Ravagers'' ''severely'' de-aged and Danny the Street is, well, a street again instead of a planet with no explanation as to why. Similarly, Beast Boy's origin is completely changed and no longer involves him being adopted by Mento and Elasti-Girl of the Doom Patrol. ''However''...
** The Doom Patrol, ''including Niles Caulder'' later appear in Geoff Johns' ''Justice League'' run and ''Forever Evil''. ''League'' featured an older Niles Caulder than the one in ''Ravagers'', and he is indeed in charge of the Doom Patrol. However, fan reaction to the portrayal of the team was... mixed, to say the least, as Caulder was portrayed as an absolute bully to the team, whereas he was previously a manipulator who at least ''pretended'' that he cared about them and their feelings. Eventually, this version would be regarded as not canonical as well, with...
** Gerard Way's Doom Patrol, the debut title of the ComicBook/YoungAnimal imprint! At first, it seemed like Way's DP would be a complete ContinuityReboot, in a similar vein to Byrne's. However, it is later revealed that everything except the Byrne and New 52 stuff is canonical, as the characters make specific reference to the Grant Morrison and Keith Giffen runs, and some stories even act as sequels to those runs.
* ''ComicBook/ShazamTheNewBeginning'' by Roy Thomas:
** The comic was DC Comics' first official ComicBook/PostCrisis reboot of the origin of [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] until years later when it was replaced by ''The Power of Shazam!'' by Jerry Ordway. Notably, while this carefully left Marvel's other post-Crisis appearances untouched, it removed Black Adam's significant role in the ''War of the Gods'' CrisisCrossover, establishing that Adam didn't have his powers between Billy's origin story and his return in the ''[=PoS=]'' ongoing.
** ''Crisis Compendium'' places (or maybe dumps) this story on "Earth-85", along with other early post-Crisis stories that got contradicted by later events, such as ''Comicbook/{{Catwoman}}: The Tin Roof Club'' (which has Selina wearing her pre-Crisis purple-and-green costume, and features the death of Holly Robinson) and everyone's favourite ContinuitySnarl, ''Comicbook/{{Hawkman}}''.
* In a bizarre semi-WordOfGod example, Mike W. Barr responded to a letter in an issue of ''Batman and the Outsiders'' wondering why Metamorpho didn't know Batman's secret identity when a previous story had Metamorpho delivering Batman's costume to Bruce Wayne. Barr declared that story to be out of continuity and further stated that ''any'' story previously published that contradicted one of his stories was by definition out of continuity.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]] gets hit with this so often she's ended up with her own [[ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy Continuity Snarl page]], as writers try to get rid of and replace her origin, starting with the first - and fan preferred - one presented in ''ComicBook/WhoIsDonnaTroy'', and often end up contradicting current canon in doing so.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'': With "Year One" acting as Diana's true origin, the Amazons' kidnapping sailors and raping them to produce children during [[ComicBook/WonderWoman2011 Brian Azzarello's run]] is no longer true. "The Lies" suggests that basically everything Diana thinks she remembers (i.e. her entire New 52 backstory) is false.
* Superman's career as Superboy gets this treatment a fair amount.
** Post-Crisis, it is established that he was never Superboy and only started his superhero career as an adult, going by Superman. This caused problems for the Legion of Super-Heroes, who are specifically inspired by Superboy.
** Post-''Infinite Crisis'', Clark was indeed Superboy again, and this also brought the return of the original Legion.
** In the New 52, he was once again never Superboy, with him starting his career in Metropolis as an adult.
** Then ''Doomsday Clock'' revealed why he was never Superboy in the New 52: Pa Kent dissuaded him from it because he'd be the first superhero and thus a freak. When the Justice Society of America are restored to continuity, their presence in WWII made superheroes more accepted, so Pa Kent ''encourages'' Clark and he is once again Superboy.
* ''ComicBook/DeathstrokeRebirth'' ignores ''everything'' Deathstroke-related that had been established in the New 52, which included Rose Wilson suddenly being fully white and the daughter of Slade Wilson and Adeline Kane, her history with Harvest and the weird contradictory backstories of the Wilson family in the two New 52 ''Deathstroke'' series, including which of Slade's kids were alive. Instead, ''Rebirth'' basically restores the original relationships and updates them a bit, with the only reference to the New 52 stuff being a joke about Slade having had black hair at some point (this was done to make him appear more like his Arrowverse counterpart when it was a thing).
* In the New 52, Mr. Freeze had his origin altered so that he never had a wife called Nora who he tragically had to freeze to keep from dying -- she's a random woman suffering from a terminal illness and he projects his sick obsession with cold onto her. This was only ever mentioned in one issue, and Freeze was barely used in the New 52. Once DC Rebirth started, Scott Snyder, the writer who wrote the new origin to begin with, had Batman refer to Nora as Freeze's wife with no mention of the prior origin, and later still Peter J. Tomasi would have Nora thawed out and she very clearly is Victor's wife, and Bruce himself mentions Freeze's original origin, so there is no mistaking that the New 52 origin was removed
* A downplayed example: in ''Detective Comics 23.2'' there is an infamous bit where Harley Quinn [[WouldHurtAChild rigs some video game consoles to explode and kill hundreds of innocent kids.]] While it was never officially declared non-canon, they seem to be letting it quietly fade from canon by [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse never bringing it up again]], likely because it's both really out of character (while Harley certainly doesn't have a problem killing people, she doesn't kill innocent kids, especially not ForTheEvulz), and a MoralEventHorizon to many readers.

[[folder:Marvel Comics]]
* ''Comicbook/CaptainAmerica'':
** In ''Captain America'' (vol. 1) #225, Steve Gerber created a new origin for Steve Rogers, revealing that he was from the Midwest and had an older brother who died at Pearl Harbor. The story was stricken from canonicity by later writers, with Gerber's origin {{handwave}}d away as false memories implanted by the government in case Steve was ever captured.
** ''Captain America'' vol. 4 had a controversial story by John Ney Rieber and Chuck Austen, which implied that the story of how Cap had been frozen (recounted in ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'' (vol. 1) #4) was a lie. "Ice", Austen's follow up story arc, revealed that the U.S. government had frozen Cap so that he couldn't prevent the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that the {{Flashback}}s from ''Avengers'' (vol. 1) #4 were FakeMemories. Austen was soon replaced, and the {{Retcon}} was never mentioned again.
* The ''Conspiracy'' mini-series strongly implied that the rise of superhumans during UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} was a deliberate conspiracy masterminded by a shadowy government cadre known as Control. This has never been mentioned again, and was later contradicted by the events shown in Creator/MattFraction's ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'' run.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** One series written out of continuity was ''ComicBook/SpiderManChapterOne'', which ineptly updated several bits of Spider-Man's origin; for instance, the Sandman and Norman Osborn were now related, as a way to explain their ''similar-looking hair''. In a case of this being combined with ArmedWithCanon, Bryne intended for this to overwrite ''ComicBook/UntoldTalesOfSpiderMan'' -- only for Marvel to one: tell Paul Jenkins to go with the classic ''ComicBook/LeeDitkoSpiderMan'' for ''Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man'', which given ''when'' it happened meant Marvel wasn't even waiting for ''Chapter One'' to be finished before striking it from canon and two: the events of ''Untold Tales'' was still character as events would be mentioned and characters from it seen again through later books.
** Marvel's [[http://web.archive.org/web/20061123003453/http://www.newsarama.com/000aaaTrouble.htm vague statements]] either took ''ComicBook/{{Trouble}}'' out of continuity or implied that it never was in continuity. This series depicted Peter's parents, along with Aunt May and Uncle Ben, as an unwed teenagers and [[spoiler:implied May was really his mother]]. Mark Millar ultimately tried to salvage ''Trouble'' as canonical in the last issue, trying to establish it as taking place in the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Universe via having reference be made to the Ultimate Marvel version of Bucky Barnes (who survived the war and became a famous writer). However, no one else has bothered to pick up on it and it's still a stand-alone story, mostly because it doesn't hold up to anyone with an understanding of basic math. ''[[ComicBook/TheUltimates Ultimate Avengers]]'' seemingly cleared up the issue by establishing that ''Trouble'' is simply a [[ShowWithinAShow comic-within-a-comic]] in the Ultimate universe.
** Despite the claims of a VerySpecialEpisode, Peter Parker was '''never''' molested.
* In the rebooted series ''[[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk The Hulk]]'', an angry response to writer/artist Creator/JohnByrne's reboot of the title character, particularly his "Man of Steeling" of the Hulk in Annual #1, was responded to in the title's letters page by something along the lines of, "When you not like what happen, do what Hulk do: Pretend it never happened." Thus, the six issues and an annual were simply removed out of existence.
** In ''Comicbook/IncredibleHulk'' (vol. 2) #269-287, the ''Rampaging Hulk'' stories were retconned into being techno-art movies by the Krylorian Bereet.
** During Creator/PeterDavid's "Tempest Fugit" storyline, one line discontinuitized the entirety of previous writer Bruce Jones' 42-issue run.
* A particularly brutal version happened in the first issue of the ''[=ClanDestine=][=/=]X-Men'' mini-series. In one line of dialog, Alan Davis (Comicbook/ClanDestine's creator and artist/writer on the original Clan mini) rendered the entire second half of the original mini (i.e. The Issues He Didn't Write) as AllJustADream.
* ''ComicBook/{{Magneto}}'' #0 was published as the origin of Magneto, but has been superseded by ''Magneto: Testament''.
* ''New Avengers: Illuminati'' #3 completely redefined the nature of the Beyonder, the villain of the first ''Comicbook/SecretWars1984'', as a mutant inhuman. It did not stick. Hickman introduced instead a whole race of Beyonders, with the one from ''Secret Wars'' being just a child one.
* Chuck Austen's ''Comicbook/XMen'' run is treated as such outside of the BroadStrokes. Later writers have gone back and forth on his ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' run, though. Bendis' ''Comicbook/AvengersDisassembled'' used Austen's plot point about Comicbook/{{Hawkeye}} sleeping with Comicbook/TheWasp and suddenly disliking [[Comicbook/AntMan Hank Pym]] as a key plot point (as a conversation about the Wasp's relationship with Hawkeye is what leads to Comicbook/ScarletWitch accidentally remembering her babies), but Rick Remender's ''Comicbook/SecretAvengers'' run once again had Hawkeye and Pym as close friends, seemingly ignoring Austen's story.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'':
** Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''ComicBook/UltimateIronMan'' miniseries revamped Tony Stark's origin story in a way that ended up being ignored by every other comic featuring Ultimate Iron Man, creating much ContinuitySnarl. Creator/MarkMillar eventually put his foot down and {{retcon}}ned the Ultimate Iron Man story into actually have been a ShowWithinAShow in the UltimateUniverse.
** [[https://www.cbr.com/nycc-ultimate-comics-universe-reborn/ Marvel declared]] certain issues of ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvelTeamUp'', including the ''Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special'' one-shot that closed it out to be non-canon. This was due to EarlyInstallmentWeirdness in it that depicted the Franchise/FantasticFour and ComicBook/DoctorDoom much closer to their 616 selves (including having been active for a while, and Reed, Sue, Ben, and Doom very much being adults) rather than the rookies teens that ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour'' introducted and, again, issues with Tony's origin.
** ''Literature/TheUltimatesTomorrowMen'' was a sequel to the first miniseries of ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'' in literary form. It continued the several plotlines left by it: Thor's real nature, the relation of Iron Man and Black Widow (and their "last sex before the apocalypse"), the relation of Captain America and the Wasp, the status of Henry Pym, the fate of the jailed Bruce Banner, etc. Creator/MarkMillar, the writer of the first miniseries, ignored all this and continued all those plotlines his own way in the second miniseries.
* At one point in ''Comicbook/XMen'', the lineup at the time (Storm, Wolverine, Psylocke, Longshot, Dazzler, Colossus, Havok, and Rogue) were killed and resurrected, making them invisible to cameras, and this is treated almost as a second mutant power in the next few dozen issues. When Creator/ChrisClaremont left, however, this was completely forgotten, and the lineup at the time are seen on camera without comment from then on. His run in 2000 makes a brief mention of this fact with Rogue, but this only serves to muddy the waters further -- where it's been mentioned at all, it's explained as a side effect of the Siege Perilous, except that Wolverine and Longshot never went through it, and Rogue ''did''. Common fan explanation is that Roma quietly revoked the "invisibility" gift around the time of the ''Xtinction Agenda'' crossover (which is where Claremont actively stopped referencing it) and that the gift itself may have been contingent on the X-Men both possessing and going through the Siege Perilous. Another possibility is in ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' when Meggan destroyed the Lighthouse, which was considered the "Lynchpin of the Multiverse", and its destruction may have disrupted Roma's powers. It happened shortly before ''Xtinction Agenda'', which would explain the X-Men being able to be seen on television during the storyline and afterwards.
* ''Marvel: The End'' was speculated to be in continuity. Tom Brevoort has stated it is not in continuity.
* ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}'' is probably the oddest example of this trope ever made. Officially, it ''is'' not canonical, but most fans (and quite a few writers!) treats the act of making it discontinuity as a discontinuity in and by itself. This has caused some of the lunacy contained within the series (mainly the parts containing Aaron Stack and the other team members) to spill into the Marvel mainstream.
** The Beyond Corporation from the series later reappeared in ''Comicbook/MightyAvengers''. The official explanation is that the series ''is'' canonical, but took place in an alternate universe that Monica and the others had been kidnapped and sent to. Monica claims that once she got back to Earth-616, everyone around her assumed she was insane whenever she brought up the events of ''Nextwave''.
* ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'' ignored the ''[[ComicBook/XStatix X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl]]'' mini-series, where the [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]] member Comicbook/{{Mockingbird}} appeared in the afterlife. ''Invasion'' established that Mockingbird had never really died in the first place, making the series moot. However, the series' artist Nick Dragotta did later imply the events of the series were somehow still canonical when discussing the new Miss America he created for the ''Vengeance'' mini-series, making the ''Dead Girl's'' canonicity difficult to determine. It doesn't help that much later in ''ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen'' that ComicBook/MoiraMacTaggert was also revealed to be alive all this time, having faked her death with a Shi'ar golem.
* Along those same lines, Creator/BrianMichaelBendis brought back Comicbook/TheWasp after killing her in ''Comicbook/SecretInvasion'', with the explanation that she'd never ''really'' died in the first place. However, Wasp had earlier appeared in an issue of ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHercules'' where she was seen in the Greek Underworld, establishing that she was indeed dead. Though since the fandom was quite happy to have Jan back, there wasn't too much fuss.
* Creator/JephLoeb and Daniel Way's critically-panned series ''Wolverine: Origins'' had the premise of exploring Franchise/{{Wolverine}}'s MysteriousPast, which by that point had already been quite fleshed out, so the series consisted of the writers inserting ''new, unknown'' elements of his history in among the existing stuff, making Wolverine's origin one huge ContinuitySnarl. Among the "revelations" made were the fact that Wolverine is not a mutant after all but rather a "lupine," a species that looks completely human but is actually [[ArtisticLicenseBiology canine rather than primate in origin]], and that Logan's mysterious, immortal ancestor, the founder of "lupine" society, had been behind basically every threat he'd ever faced, including the Weapon Plus program (even though the mastermind of that had already been revealed as someone else in a far better story). This was swept under the rug almost immediately after the run ended; whenever Logan's species has been referred to since then, he's always been called a human mutant, with the lupine thing revealed in the last parts of the run to be a lie, and the writer of a miniseries set during the same time period as ''Origins'' confirmed he'll be ignoring it, quite simply because it would be too confusing to acknowledge. Nothing from the run has ever been brought up again, with the exception of Daken, Wolverine's son, whose origin is heavily tied to all of the above... which writers thoroughly, thoroughly ignore and have never brought up again aside from vague references to Logan not being there to raise him and Daken having a cruel upbringing, with zero specifics as to what happened.
* If a writer writes anything involving the Phoenix Force, it is bound to be rendered non-canonical by the next writer that writes something involving Phoenix. Most notably, ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'' ignored the Alan Davis-penned Phoenix Force stories from his ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' run, which among other things established the Phoenix Force as Merlin's private energy reserve stash based off of the lifeblood of the universe, as well as establishing that any usage of the Phoenix Force is enough to bring the various cosmic forces down upon the wielder, as every time a user uses the Phoenix Force, the collective life force of the universe is drained.
* ''Endsong'', which was a sequel to ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'', was declared non-canonical almost as soon as it was written. It was not until ''Avengers vs. X-Men'' that it was restored to canonicity, with Wolverine giving a vague recap of the story to the Avengers when discussing how the Phoenix Force possessed Jean's corpse and why Scott Summers was batshit insane to want to try and force Hope to bear its power.
* Everything previously established about the White Queen (complete with her being in her 40s) was wiped out by the combination of Creator/GrantMorrison's ''Comicbook/NewXMen'' run and Comicbook/EmmaFrost's short-lived flashback ongoing series.
* The first arc of Reginald Hudlin's ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'' wasn't meant to be canonical at first, which is why the book gave a radically reworked origin to Klaw (making him a {{Cyborg}} instead of a being of living sound), and then had him KilledOffForReal. Klaw has since shown up again in the Marvel Universe with his classic appearance and no references to his "death".
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan2099'' vol. 2 disregards everything that happened in Vol. 1 after Creator/PeterDavid left. Given the way TimeTravel works in the Marvel Multiverse, fans are attempting to HandWave it by declaring it an AlternateUniverse, but there has been no WordOfGod on that point thus far.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Miscellaneous comics]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' comic, written by the series' original head writer and officially promoted by Disney, ignores the third season ''The Goliath Chronicles'' that aired in syndication on Creator/{{ABC}}, save for the first episode, which it largely retells with the first two issues.
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** [[ComicBook/SonicX The Sonic X comic]] is a curious case. As is the norm with comic tie-ins to cartoons in general, it was utterly ignored by [[Anime/SonicX the show it was based on]], and the comic even had glaring continuity issues and [[AdaptationPersonalityChange inconsistent characterizations]] with the Anime since issue #1. However, the editorial behind the Sonic X comic was also the publisher of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', and they had the two titles cross over, establishing that the Sonic X comic exists in the Archie Sonic universe as an alternate universe. In other words, the tie-in comic ''is non-canon to the Anime it's based on,'' ''[[MindScrew but is perfectly canon to the completely unrelated Archie Sonic continuity.]]''
** This seems to be the effect of the past ''two hundred fifty one issues'' of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' following the end of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide'' and its CosmicRetcon ending. WordOfGod states that, yes, those issues ''did'' happen, but it's obvious that they won't have any major standing in the new comics.[[note]][[ScrewedByTheLawyers They can't even touch the old continuity anyway due to the end result of the lawsuit with Creator/KenPenders,]] as Archie had to shunt out ''every'' character not originally created by Sega, [=DiC=] or Creator/IanFlynn in a hurry.[[/note]]
* ''ComicBook/JonSableFreelance'': Creator Mike Grell's later uses of Jon Sable have ignored the 27 issues of ''Sable'' written by Marv Wolfman.
* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'':
** The third volume of the comic book published by Image Comics, as the official continuation to the [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Mirage-produced series]], was completely ignored when TMNT co-creator Peter Laird returned to write volume 4.
** Almost all of the "guest era" portion of volume one, which took place from issues 22 through 44 and did not have any input from Laird and Eastman, has been stated to be non-canonical, with the sole exception of "The River" two-parter from issues 27 and 28.
* The "Life and Death of Johnny Alpha" story in ''Comicbook/StrontiumDog'' has explicitly relegated all of Peter Hogan's stories to the realm of InUniverse fanfic. Garth Ennis' contributions seem to have actually happened, except for maybe "The Darkest Star". The far future ''Durham Red'' stories seem to be out too.
* Devil's Due Publishing's [[ComicBook/GIJoeDevilsDue continuation]] of ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'' (including numerous side titles), intended to be a continuation of the original Marvel storyline, was segregated to its own continuity after Creator/IDWPublishing took away the comic book rights from DDP. IDW now publishes [[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroIDW its own continuation of the Marvel run]] (penned by its original writer Larry Hama), reprinting the Devil's Due run under the title of ''G.I. Joe: Disavowed''.
* In the 70's, Comicbook/MortadeloYFilemon author Creator/FranciscoIbanez lost his ownership rights over his characters after a few legal fights with his publishing house. They subsequently hired new, usually unnamed artists to take on the series instead. The change was very noticeable and unsuccessful, so the publishers allowed Ibáñez to retake his series, but under their guidelines. Some years later, the courts awarded him the full ownership rights for the series, and he proceeded to ban the publishers from ever again reprinting any of the books he hadn't authored and [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome get rid of all the characters he had been forced to write in]] but didn't really like. Interestingly enough, he did save one particular book from the purge, since the artist who had written it was a friend and had asked him for advice -- Ibáñez even drew a new cover for it.
* At the end of ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}} and the Falling Sky'', the characters get their memories wiped. This was presumably done because the story broke the established rules of the universe, being a GenreShift into science fiction involving AncientAstronauts. It also had the unexpected upshot of allowing fans to doubly ignore an extremely poorly-written, poorly-drawn and borderline xenophobic story.
* There is an obscure UK-exclusive ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' comic called "The Beast Within", wherein the Dinobots merge to form a combiner simply called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Beast]], which proceeds to slaughter most of the Decepticons and a number of Autobots before being destroyed. When asked about a Dinobot combiner, Hasbro tends to deny all knowledge of such a thing, indicating they've either forgotten the comic or like to pretend it doesn't exist, something most fans are happy to agree with. This was finally made this trope when the true Dinobot Combiner, Volcanicus, was introduced for the Power of the Primes toyline.
** Elsewhere in the franchise, in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', issue #31 established that female Transformers had "estriol-positive" spark types (the spark being a Cybertronian soul). James Roberts didn't like this much, edited it out of the trade paperback (with Nautica now being "ferrum-positive"), and -- in the continuation series, ''Lost Light'' -- had a specific reference to estriol-positive sparks being a discredited idea.
* The BOOM Studios ''ComicBook/DarkwingDuck'' comics had crossed over with the ''ComicBook/DuckTales'' comics for their respective final issues. However, the crossover has been officially declared non-canonical due to the Joe Books omnibus omitting them. Correspondences with Aaron Sparrow (who was the original editor and rewrote the stories for the omnibus) claim that the story was published without Disney's approval, as these final stories were printed after Disney revoked the license.
* Every time the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' license is given to a different comic book company, the previous company's books get tossed into the Discontinuity bin. Though, in Creator/DCComics[='=] case, they had their previous comics tossed out while ''still holding the license'', thanks to Paramount demanding a reworking of the terms of the license so that they could [[ExecutiveMeddling exert more creative control]] over the comics.
* The ''ComicBook/{{Finder}}'' arc "Torch" appears to be this, as it was abandoned halfway through and the published chapters then scrubbed from the website.
[[/folder]]

* Creator/JephLoeb and Daniel Way's critically-panned series ''Wolverine: Origins'' had the premise of exploring Franchise/{{Wolverine}}'s MysteriousPast, which by that point had already been quite fleshed out, so the series consisted of the writers inserting ''new, unknown'' elements of his history in among the existing stuff, making Wolverine's origin one huge ContinuitySnarl. Among the "revelations" made were the fact that [[ShockingSwerve Wolverine is not a mutant after all but rather a "lupine,"]] a species that looks completely human but is actually [[ArtisticLicenseBiology canine rather than primate in origin]], and that Logan's mysterious, immortal ancestor, the founder of "lupine" society, had been behind basically every threat he'd ever faced, including the Weapon Plus program (even though the mastermind of that had already been revealed as someone else in a far better story). This was swept under the rug almost immediately after the run ended; whenever Logan's species has been referred to since then, he's always been called a human mutant, with the lupine thing revealed in the last parts of the run to be a lie, and the writer of a miniseries set during the same time period as ''Origins'' confirmed he'll be ignoring it, quite simply because it would be too confusing to acknowledge. Nothing from the run has ever been brought up again, with the exception of Daken, Wolverine's son, whose origin is heavily tied to all of the above... which writers thoroughly, thoroughly ignore and have never brought up again aside from vague references to Logan not being there to raise him and Daken having a cruel upbringing, with zero specifics as to what happened.

* After ''Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', "Pre-Crisis" continuity (as it became known) became this. And yet, writers sometimes skirted around this, such as when Creator/PeterDavid's Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} somehow was able to travel back to Pre-Crisis continuity, begging the question of whether it actually ceased to exist, or just got... cosmically buried somehow. Now that the Comicbook/New52 is in place, one could be left wondering the exact same questions about the 1986-2011 Post-Crisis continuity... until ''Comicbook/DCRebirth'' revealed that [[spoiler:both universes are the same]].
* Lampshaded in the Creator/GrantMorrison run on ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'' - Animal Man meets the previous version of himself from another continuity during a peyote trip. The same storyline has him ''meet'' Creator/GrantMorrison later in the series, at which point Morrison [[spoiler:explains that the continuity differences come from [[DependingOnTheWriter different writers writing the same character for different comics]]]]. It also features a character - Psycho Pirate - who [[spoiler: remembers all the alternate continuities that have ever existed, and goes crazy as a result]].

** To name a few plot points that were changed post-''Countdown to Final Crisis'', during [[ComicBook/RedHood Jason Todd]], [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Kyle Rayner]] and [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]]'s search for [[ComicBook/TheAtom Ray Palmer]] throughout TheMultiverse, they stop by Earth-15, and leave upon learning Palmer's not there. Soon, ComicBook/SuperboyPrime appears and destroys Earth-15. Later, the heroes finally find Palmer on Earth-51, which is described as a "perfect world". Palmer refuses to leave because he's living an ideal life, only for Solomon and the other Monitors to invade the universe. Superboy-Prime then appears and fights Solomon, culminating with him causing the destruction of Earth-51. The heroes then spend the next few issues at [[ComicBook/NewGods Apokolips]] before being apparently sent to their home Earth. However, it appeared that this is not actually the Earth they live in, and soon [[ComicBook/{{Kamandi}} the Great Disaster]] occurs. Afterwards it was revealed that this was Earth-51, reconstructed somehow. As for the retcon, ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity The Multiversity Guidebook]]'' simplifies these events so that Superboy-Prime only destroyed Earth-15, which was designated the perfect world, and the Earth-51 where the Great Disaster occurred was never destroyed and recreated beforehand.

* ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'' ignored the ''[[ComicBook/XStatix X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl]]'' mini-series, where the [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]] member Comicbook/{{Mockingbird}} appeared in the afterlife. ''Invasion'' established that Mockingbird had never really died in the first place, making the series moot. However, the series' artist Nick Dragotta did later imply the events of the series were somehow still canonical when discussing the new Miss America he created for the ''Vengeance'' mini-series, making the ''Dead Girl's'' canonicity difficult to determine.

* A storyline in ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational Justice League Europe]]'' revealed that Doctor Light's IceQueen behavior was the result of chemicals in a popular soda she enjoyed drinking, leading to the character becoming more personable once she kicked her habit. This was completely ignored by later writers, who brought back her rude, condescending personality with no real explanation.

** [[ComicBook/SonicX The Sonic X comic]] is a curious case. As is the norm with comic tie-ins to cartoons in general, it was utterly ignored by [[Anime/SonicX the show it was based on]], and the comic even had glaring continuity issues and [[AdaptationPersonalityChange inconsistent characterizations]] with the Anime since issue #1. However, the editorial behind the Sonic X comic was also the publisher of ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'', and they had the two titles cross over, establishing that the Sonic X comic exists in the Archie Sonic universe as an alternate universe. In other words, the tie-in comic ''is non-canon to the Anime it's based on,'' ''[[MindScrew but is perfectly canon to the completely unrelated Archie Sonic continuity.]]''
** This seems to be the effect of the past ''two hundred fifty one issues'' of ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' following the end of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide'' and its CosmicRetcon ending. WordOfGod states that, yes, those issues ''did'' happen, but it's obvious that they won't have any major standing in the new comics.[[note]][[ScrewedByTheLawyers They can't even touch the old continuity anyway due to the end result of the lawsuit with Creator/KenPenders,]] as Archie had to shunt out ''every'' character not originally created by Sega, [=DiC=] or Creator/IanFlynn in a hurry.[[/note]]

** One series written out of continuity was ''ComicBook/SpiderManChapterOne'', which ineptly updated several bits of Spider-Man's origin; for instance, the Sandman and Norman Osborn were now related, as a way to explain their ''similar-looking hair''. In a case of this being combined with ArmedWithCanon, Bryne intended for this to overwrite ''ComicBook/UntoldTalesOfSpiderMan'' -- only for Marvel to one: tell Paul Jenkins to go with the classic ComicBook/LeeDitkoSpiderMan'' for ''Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man'', which given ''when'' it happened meant Marvel wasn't even waiting for ''Chapter One'' to be finished before striking it from canon and two: the events of ''Untold Tales'' was still character as events would be mentioned and characters from it seen again through later books.

** One series written out of continuity was ''ComicBook/SpiderManChapterOne'', which ineptly updated several bits of Spider-Man's origin; for instance, the Sandman and Norman Osborn were now related, as a way to explain their ''similar-looking hair''.

** [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]] gets hit with this so often she's ended up with her own [[ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy Continuity Snarl page]], as writers try to get rid of and replace her origin, starting with the first - and fan preferred - one presented in ''ComicBook/WhoIsDonnaTroy'', and often end up contradicting current cannon in doing so.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'': If "Year One" is Diana's true origin, then the Amazons' kidnapping sailors and raping them to produce children during [[ComicBook/WonderWoman2011 Brian Azzarello's run]] is no longer true. "The Lies" suggests that basically everything Diana thinks she remembers (i.e. her entire New 52 backstory) is probably false.

* Devil's Due Publishing's entire seven-year run of ''[[Franchise/GIJoe G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero]]'' (including numerous side titles), intended to be a continuation of the original Marvel storyline, was segregated to its own continuity after IDW Publishing took away the comic book rights from DDP. IDW now publishes its own continuation of the Marvel run (penned by its original writer Larry Hama), reprinting the Devil's Due run under the title of ''G.I. Joe: Disavowed''.

* A downplayed example: in ''Detective Comics 23.2'' there is an infamous bit where Harley Quinn [[WouldHurtAChild rigs some video game consoles to explode and kill hundreds on innocent kids.]] While it was never officially declared non-canon, they seem to be letting it quietly fade from canon by [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse never bringing it up again]], likely because it's both really out of character (While Harley certainly doesn't have a problem killing people, she doesn't kill innocent kids, especially not ForTheEvulz), and a MoralEventHorizon to many readers.

* At one point in ''Comicbook/XMen'', the lineup at the time (Storm, Wolverine, Psylocke, Longshot, Dazzler, Colossus, Havok, and Rogue) were killed and resurrected, making them invisible to cameras, and this is treated almost as a second mutant power in the next few dozen issues. When Creator/ChrisClaremont left, however, this was completely forgotten, and the lineup at the time are seen on camera without comment from then on. His run in 2000 makes a brief mention of this fact with Rogue, but this only serves to muddy the waters further - where it's been mentioned at all, it's explained as a side effect of the Siege Perilous, except that Wolverine and Longshot never went through it, and Rogue ''did''. Common fan explanation is that Roma quietly revoked the "invisibility" gift around the time of the ''Xtinction Agenda'' crossover (which is where Claremont actively stopped referencing it) and that the gift itself may have been contingent on the X-Men both possessing and going through the Siege Perilous. Another possibility is in ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' when Meggan destroyed the Lighthouse, which was considered the "Lynchpin of the Multiverse", and its destruction may have disrupted Roma's powers. It happened shortly before ''Xtinction Agenda'', which would explain the X-Men being able to be seen on television during the storyline and afterwards.

* Creator/JephLoeb and Daniel Way's critically-panned series ''Wolverine: Origins'' had the premise of exploring Franchise/{{Wolverine}}'s MysteriousPast, which by that point had already been quite fleshed-out, so the series consisted of the writers inserting ''new, unknown'' elements of his history in among the existing stuff, making Wolverine's origin one huge ContinuitySnarl. Among the "revelations" made were the fact that [[ShockingSwerve Wolverine is not a mutant after all but rather a "lupine,"]] a species that looks completely human but is actually [[ArtisticLicenseBiology canine rather than primate in origin]], and that Logan's mysterious, immortal ancestor, the founder of "lupine" society, had been behind basically every threat he'd ever faced, including the Weapon Plus program (even though the mastermind of that had already been revealed as someone else in a far better story). This was swept under the rug almost immediately after the run ended; whenever Logan's species has been referred to since then, he's always been called a human mutant, with the lupine thing revealed in the last parts of the run to be a lie, and the writer of a miniseries set during the same time period as ''Origins'' confirmed he'll be ignoring it, quite simply because it would be too confusing to acknowledge. Nothing from the run has ever been brought up again, with the exception of Daken, Wolverine's son, whose origin is heavily tied to all of the above... which writers thoroughly, thoroughly ignore and have never brought up again aside from vague references to Logan not being there to raise him and Daken having a cruel upbringing, with zero specifics as to what happened.

* In the 70's, Comicbook/MortadeloYFilemon author Creator/FranciscoIbanez lost his ownership rights over his characters after a few legal fights with his publishing house. They subsequently hired new, usually unnamed artists to take on the series instead. The change was very noticeable and unsuccessful, so the publishers allowed Ibáñez to retake his series, but under their guidelines. Some years later, the courts awarded him the full ownership rights for the series, and he proceeded to ban the publishers from ever again reprinting any of the books he hadn't authored and [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome get rid of all the characters he had been forced to write in]] but didn't really like. Interestingly enough, he did save one particular book from the purge, since the artist who had written it was a friend and had asked him for advice- Ibáñez even drew a new cover for it.

** Elsewhere in the franchise, in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', issue #31 established that female Transformers had "estriol-positive" spark types (the spark being a Cybertronian soul). James Roberts didn't like this much, edited it out of the trade paperback (with Nautica now being "ferrum-positive"), and - in the continuation series, ''Lost Light'' - had a specific reference to estriol-positive sparks being a discredited idea.

* In the 70's, Comicbook/MortadeloYFilemon author Francisco Ibáñez lost his ownership rights over his characters after a few legal fights with his publishing house. They subsequently hired new, usually unnamed artists to take on the series instead. The change was very noticeable and unsuccessful, so the publishers allowed Ibáñez to retake his series, but under their guidelines. Some years later, the courts awarded him the full ownership rights for the series, and he proceeded to ban the publishers from ever again reprinting any of the books he hadn't authored and [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome get rid of all the characters he had been forced to write in]] but didn't really like. Interestingly enough, he did save one particular book from the purge, since the artist who had written it was a friend and had asked him for advice- Ibáñez even drew a new cover for it.

* ''New Avengers: Illuminati'' #3 completely redefined the nature of the Beyonder, the villain of the first ''Comicbook/SecretWars''. It did not stick.

* A downplayed example: in ''Detective Comics 23.2'' there is an infamous bit where Harley Quinn [[WouldHurtAChild rigs some video game consoles to explode and kill hundreds on innocent kids.]] While it was never officially declared non-canon, they seem to be letting it quietly fade from canon by [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse never bringing it up again]], likely because it's both really out of character (While Harley certainly doesn't have a problem killing people, she doesn't kill innocent kids, especially not ForTheEvulz), and a MoralEventHorizon to many readers.

* Creator/JephLoeb and Daniel Way's critically-panned series ''Wolverine: Origins'' had the premise of exploring Franchise/{{Wolverine}}'s MysteriousPast, which by that point had already been quite fleshed-out, so the series consisted of the writers inserting ''new, unknown'' elements of his history in among the existing stuff, making Wolverine's origin (you know, the thing this series was supposed to be clearing up?) one huge ContinuitySnarl. Among the "revelations" made were the fact that [[ShockingSwerve Wolverine is not a mutant after all but rather a "lupine,"]] a species that looks completely human but is actually [[ArtisticLicenseBiology canine rather than primate in origin]], and that Logan's mysterious, immortal ancestor, the founder of "lupine" society, had been behind basically every threat he'd ever faced, including the Weapon Plus program (even though the mastermind of that had already been revealed as someone else in a far better story). This was swept under the rug almost immediately after the series ended; whenever Logan's species has been referred to since then, he's always been called a human mutant, and the writer of a miniseries set during the same time period as ''Origins'' confirmed he'll be ignoring it, quite simply because it would be too confusing to acknowledge. Except the plot thread is still continuing in ''Wolverine''...

* ''ComicBook/DeathstrokeRebirth'' ignores ''everything'' Deathstroke-related that had been established in the New 52, which included Rose Wilsom suddenly being white and the daughter of Slade Wilsom and Adeline Kane, her history with Harvest and the weird contradictory backstories of the Wilson family, including which of Slade's kids were alive. Instead, ''Rebirth'' basically restores the original relationships and updates them a bit.

** John Byrne's run specifically not being considered canonical by the subsequent creative teams, but everything ''it'' retconned out is indeed still canonical. Keith Giffen's run even brings back Crazy Jane from the Grant Morrison run, who didn't exist in the Byrne run. Unfortunately...

** The Doom Patrol, ''including Niles Caulder'' later appear in Geoff Johns' ''Justice League'' run and ''Forever Evil''. ''League'' featured an older Niles Caulder than the one in ''Ravagers'', and he is indeed in charge of the Doom Patrol. However, fan reaction to the portrayal of the team was... mixed, to say the least, Caulder was portrayed as an absolute bully to the team, whereas he was previously a manipulator who at least ''pretended'' that he cared about them and their feelings. Eventually, this version would be regarded as not canonical as well, with...
** Gerard Way's Doom Patrol, the debut title of the ComicBook/YoungAnimal imprint! At first, it seemed like Way's DP would be a complete ContinuityReboot, in a similar vein to Byrne's. However, it is later revealed that everything except the Byrne and New 52 stuff is canonical, as the characters make specific reference to events from the Grant Morrison and Keith Giffen runs.

* ''Comicbook/CaptainAmerica'':
** In ''Captain America'' (vol. 1) #225, Steve Gerber created a new origin for Steve Rogers, revealing that he was from the Midwest and had an older brother who died at Pearl Harbor. The story was stricken from canonicity by later writers, with Gerber's origin {{handwave}}d away as false memories implanted by the government in case Steve was ever captured.
** ''Captain America'' vol. 4 had a controversial story by John Ney Rieber and Chuck Austen, which implied that the story of how Cap had been frozen (recounted in ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'' (vol. 1) #4) was a lie. "Ice", Austen's follow up story arc, revealed that the U.S. government had frozen Cap so that he couldn't prevent the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that the {{Flashback}}s from ''Avengers'' (vol. 1) #4 were FakeMemories. Austen was soon replaced, and the {{Retcon}} was never mentioned again.
* The ''Conspiracy'' mini-series strongly implied that the rise of superhumans during UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} was a deliberate conspiracy masterminded by a shadowy government cadre known as Control. This has never been mentioned again, and was later contradicted by the events shown in Creator/MattFraction's ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'' run.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' comic, written by the series' original head writer and officially promoted by Disney, ignores the third season ''The Goliath Chronicles'' that aired in syndication on Creator/{{ABC}}, save for the first episode, which it largely retells with the first two issues.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** One series written out of continuity was ''ComicBook/SpiderManChapterOne'', which ineptly updated several bits of Spider-Man's origin; for instance, the Sandman and Norman Osborn were now related, as a way to explain their ''similar-looking hair''.
** Marvel's [[http://web.archive.org/web/20061123003453/http://www.newsarama.com/000aaaTrouble.htm vague statements]] either took ''ComicBook/{{Trouble}}'' out of continuity or implied that it never was in continuity. This series depicted Peter's parents, along with Aunt May and Uncle Ben, as an unwed teenagers and [[spoiler:implied May was really his mother]]. Mark Millar ultimately tried to salvage ''Trouble'' as canonical in the last issue, trying to establish it as taking place in the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Universe via having reference be made to the Ultimate Marvel version of Bucky Barnes (who survived the war and became a famous writer). However, no one else has bothered to pick up on it and it's still a stand-alone story, mostly because it doesn't hold up to anyone with an understanding of basic math. ''[[ComicBook/TheUltimates Ultimate Avengers]]'' seemingly cleared up the issue by establishing that ''Trouble'' is simply a [[ShowWithinAShow comic-within-a-comic]] in the Ultimate universe.
** Despite the claims of a VerySpecialEpisode, Peter Parker was '''never''' molested.
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** [[ComicBook/SonicX The Sonic X comic]] is a curious case. As is the norm with comic tie-ins to cartoons in general, it was utterly ignored by [[Anime/SonicX the show it was based on]], and the comic even had glaring continuity issues and [[AdaptationPersonalityChange inconsistent characterizations]] with the Anime since issue #1. However, the editorial behind the Sonic X comic was also the publisher of ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'', and they had the two titles cross over, establishing that the Sonic X comic exists in the Archie Sonic universe as an alternate universe. In other words, the tie-in comic ''is non-canon to the Anime it's based on,'' ''[[MindScrew but is perfectly canon to the completely unrelated Archie Sonic continuity.]]''
** This seems to be the effect of the past ''two hundred fifty one issues'' of ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' following the end of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide'' and its CosmicRetcon ending. WordOfGod states that, yes, those issues ''did'' happen, but it's obvious that they won't have any major standing in the new comics.[[note]][[ScrewedByTheLawyers They can't even touch the old continuity anyway due to the end result of the lawsuit with Creator/KenPenders,]] as Archie had to shunt out ''every'' character not originally created by Sega, [=DiC=] or Creator/IanFlynn in a hurry.[[/note]]
* ''ComicBook/JonSableFreelance'': Creator Mike Grell's later uses of Jon Sable have ignored the 27 issues of ''Sable'' written by Marv Wolfman.

* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'':
** The third volume of the comic book published by Image Comics, as the official continuation to the [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Mirage-produced series]], was completely ignored when TMNT co-creator Peter Laird returned to write volume 4.
** Almost all of the "guest era" portion of volume one, which took place from issues 22 through 44 and did not have any input from Laird and Eastman, has been stated to be non-canonical, with the sole exception of "The River" two-parter from issues 27 and 28.
* In the rebooted series ''[[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk The Hulk]]'', an angry response to writer/artist Creator/JohnByrne's reboot of the title character, particularly his "Man of Steeling" of the Hulk in Annual #1, was responded to in the title's letters page by something along the lines of, "When you not like what happen, do what Hulk do: Pretend it never happened." Thus, the six issues and an annual were simply removed out of existence.
** In ''Comicbook/IncredibleHulk'' (vol. 2) #269-287, the ''Rampaging Hulk'' stories were retconned into being techno-art movies by the Krylorian Bereet.
** During Creator/PeterDavid's "Tempest Fugit" storyline, one line discontinuitized the entirety of previous writer Bruce Jones' 42-issue run.
* A particularly brutal version happened in the first issue of the ''[=ClanDestine=][=/=]X-Men'' mini-series. In one line of dialog, Alan Davis (Comicbook/ClanDestine's creator and artist/writer on the original Clan mini) rendered the entire second half of the original mini (i.e. The Issues He Didn't Write) as AllJustADream.

* ''ComicBook/{{Magneto}}'' #0 was published as the origin of Magneto, but has been superseded by ''Magneto: Testament''.

* ''New Avengers: Illuminati'' #3 completely redefined the nature of the Beyonder, the villain of the first ''Comicbook/SecretWars''. It did not stick.

* The "Life and Death of Johnny Alpha" story in ''Comicbook/StrontiumDog'' has explicitly relegated all of Peter Hogan's stories to the realm of InUniverse fanfic. Garth Ennis' contributions seem to have actually happened, except for maybe "The Darkest Star". The far future ''Durham Red'' stories seem to be out too.

* Chuck Austen's ''Comicbook/XMen'' run is treated as such outside of the BroadStrokes. Later writers have gone back and forth on his ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' run, though. Bendis' ''Comicbook/AvengersDisassembled'' used Austen's plot point about Comicbook/{{Hawkeye}} sleeping with Comicbook/TheWasp and suddenly disliking [[Comicbook/AntMan Hank Pym]] as a key plot point (as a conversation about the Wasp's relationship with Hawkeye is what leads to Comicbook/ScarletWitch accidentally remembering her babies), but Rick Remender's ''Comicbook/SecretAvengers'' run once again had Hawkeye and Pym as close friends, seemingly ignoring Austen's story.
* Devil's Due Publishing's entire seven-year run of ''[[Franchise/GIJoe G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero]]'' (including numerous side titles), intended to be a continuation of the original Marvel storyline, was segregated to its own continuity after IDW Publishing took away the comic book rights from DDP. IDW now publishes its own continuation of the Marvel run (penned by its original writer Larry Hama), reprinting the Devil's Due run under the title of ''G.I. Joe: Disavowed''.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'':
** Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''ComicBook/UltimateIronMan'' miniseries revamped Tony Stark's origin story in a way that ended up being ignored by every other comic featuring Ultimate Iron Man, creating much ContinuitySnarl. Creator/MarkMillar eventually put his foot down and {{retcon}}ned the Ultimate Iron Man story into actually have been a ShowWithinAShow in the UltimateUniverse.
** [[https://www.cbr.com/nycc-ultimate-comics-universe-reborn/ Marvel declared]] certain issues of ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvelTeamUp'', including the ''Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special'' one-shot that closed it out to be non-canon. This was due to EarlyInstallmentWeirdness in it that depicted the Franchise/FantasticFour and ComicBook/DoctorDoom much closer to their 616 selves (including having been active for a while, and Reed, Sue, Ben, and Doom very much being adults) rather than the rookies teens that ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour'' introducted and, again, issues with Tony's origin.
* At one point in ''Comicbook/XMen'', the lineup at the time (Storm, Wolverine, Psylocke, Longshot, Dazzler, Colossus, Havok, and Rogue) were killed and resurrected, making them invisible to cameras, and this is treated almost as a second mutant power in the next few dozen issues. When Creator/ChrisClaremont left, however, this was completely forgotten, and the lineup at the time are seen on camera without comment from then on. His run in 2000 makes a brief mention of this fact with Rogue, but this only serves to muddy the waters further - where it's been mentioned at all, it's explained as a side effect of the Siege Perilous, except that Wolverine and Longshot never went through it, and Rogue ''did''. Common fan explanation is that Roma quietly revoked the "invisibility" gift around the time of the ''Xtinction Agenda'' crossover (which is where Claremont actively stopped referencing it) and that the gift itself may have been contingent on the X-Men both possessing and going through the Siege Perilous. Another possibility is in ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' when Meggan destroyed the Lighthouse, which was considered the "Lynchpin of the Multiverse", and its destruction may have disrupted Roma's powers. It happened shortly before ''Xtinction Agenda'', which would explain the X-Men being able to be seen on television during the storyline and afterwards.
* ''Marvel: The End'' was speculated to be in continuity. Tom Brevoort has stated it is not in continuity.
* ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}'' is probably the oddest example of this trope ever made. Officially, it ''is'' not canonical, but most fans (and quite a few writers!) treats the act of making it discontinuity as a discontinuity in and by itself. This has caused some of the lunacy contained within the series (mainly the parts containing Aaron Stack and the other team members) to spill into the Marvel mainstream.
** The Beyond Corporation from the series later reappeared in ''Comicbook/MightyAvengers''. The official explanation is that the series ''is'' canonical, but took place in an alternate universe that Monica and the others had been kidnapped and sent to. Monica claims that once she got back to Earth-616, everyone around her assumed she was insane whenever she brought up the events of ''Nextwave''.
* ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'' ignored the ''[[ComicBook/XStatix X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl]]'' mini-series, where the [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]] member Comicbook/{{Mockingbird}} appeared in the afterlife. ''Invasion'' established that Mockingbird had never really died in the first place, making the series moot. However, the series' artist Nick Dragotta did later imply the events of the series were somehow still canonical when discussing the new Miss America he created for the ''Vengeance'' mini-series, making the ''Dead Girl's'' canonicity difficult to determine.
* Along those same lines, Creator/BrianMichaelBendis brought back Comicbook/TheWasp after killing her in ''Comicbook/SecretInvasion'', with the explanation that she'd never ''really'' died in the first place. However, Wasp had earlier appeared in an issue of ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHercules'' where she was seen in the Greek Underworld, establishing that she was indeed dead. Though since the fandom was quite happy to have Jan back, there wasn't too much fuss.
* Creator/JephLoeb and Daniel Way's critically-panned series ''Wolverine: Origins'' had the premise of exploring Franchise/{{Wolverine}}'s MysteriousPast, which by that point had already been quite fleshed-out, so the series consisted of the writers inserting ''new, unknown'' elements of his history in among the existing stuff, making Wolverine's origin (you know, the thing this series was supposed to be clearing up?) one huge ContinuitySnarl. Among the "revelations" made were the fact that [[ShockingSwerve Wolverine is not a mutant after all but rather a "lupine,"]] a species that looks completely human but is actually [[ArtisticLicenseBiology canine rather than primate in origin]], and that Logan's mysterious, immortal ancestor, the founder of "lupine" society, had been behind basically every threat he'd ever faced, including the Weapon Plus program (even though the mastermind of that had already been revealed as someone else in a far better story). This was swept under the rug almost immediately after the series ended; whenever Logan's species has been referred to since then, he's always been called a human mutant, and the writer of a miniseries set during the same time period as ''Origins'' confirmed he'll be ignoring it, quite simply because it would be too confusing to acknowledge. Except the plot thread is still continuing in ''Wolverine''...
* If a writer writes anything involving the Phoenix Force, it is bound to be rendered non-canonical by the next writer that writes something involving Phoenix. Most notably, ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'' ignored the Alan Davis-penned Phoenix Force stories from his ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' run, which among other things established the Phoenix Force as Merlin's private energy reserve stash based off of the lifeblood of the universe, as well as establishing that any usage of the Phoenix Force is enough to bring the various cosmic forces down upon the wielder, as every time a user uses the Phoenix Force, the collective life force of the universe is drained.
* ''Endsong'', which was a sequel to ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'', was declared non-canonical almost as soon as it was written. It was not until ''Avengers vs. X-Men'' that it was restored to canonicity, with Wolverine giving a vague recap of the story to the Avengers when discussing how the Phoenix Force possessed Jean's corpse and why Scott Summers was batshit insane to want to try and force Hope to bear its power.
* Everything previously established about the White Queen (complete with her being in her 40s) was wiped out by the combination of Creator/GrantMorrison's ''Comicbook/NewXMen'' run and Comicbook/EmmaFrost's short-lived flashback ongoing series.
* In the 70's, Comicbook/MortadeloYFilemon author Francisco Ibáñez lost his ownership rights over his characters after a few legal fights with his publishing house. They subsequently hired new, usually unnamed artists to take on the series instead. The change was very noticeable and unsuccessful, so the publishers allowed Ibáñez to retake his series, but under their guidelines. Some years later, the courts awarded him the full ownership rights for the series, and he proceeded to ban the publishers from ever again reprinting any of the books he hadn't authored and [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome get rid of all the characters he had been forced to write in]] but didn't really like. Interestingly enough, he did save one particular book from the purge, since the artist who had written it was a friend and had asked him for advice- Ibáñez even drew a new cover for it.

* At the end of ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}} and the Falling Sky'', the characters get their memories wiped. This was presumably done because the story broke the established rules of the universe, being a GenreShift into science fiction involving AncientAstronauts. It also had the unexpected upshot of allowing fans to doubly ignore an extremely poorly-written, poorly-drawn and borderline xenophobic story.
* The first arc of Reginald Hudlin's ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'' wasn't meant to be canonical at first, which is why the book gave a radically reworked origin to Klaw (making him a {{Cyborg}} instead of a being of living sound), and then had him KilledOffForReal. Klaw has since shown up again in the Marvel Universe with his classic appearance and no references to his "death".
* There is an obscure UK-exclusive ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' comic called "The Beast Within", wherein the Dinobots merge to form a combiner simply called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Beast]], which proceeds to slaughter most of the Decepticons and a number of Autobots before being destroyed. When asked about a Dinobot combiner, Hasbro tends to deny all knowledge of such a thing, indicating they've either forgotten the comic or like to pretend it doesn't exist, something most fans are happy to agree with. This was finally made this trope when the true Dinobot Combiner, Volcanicus, was introduced for the Power of the Primes toyline.
** Elsewhere in the franchise, in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', issue #31 established that female Transformers had "estriol-positive" spark types (the spark being a Cybertronian soul). James Roberts didn't like this much, edited it out of the trade paperback (with Nautica now being "ferrum-positive"), and - in the continuation series, ''Lost Light'' - had a specific reference to estriol-positive sparks being a discredited idea.
* The BOOM Studios ''ComicBook/DarkwingDuck'' comics had crossed over with the ''ComicBook/DuckTales'' comics for their respective final issues. However, the crossover has been officially declared non-canonical due to the Joe Books omnibus omitting them. Correspondences with Aaron Sparrow (who was the original editor and rewrote the stories for the omnibus) claim that the story was published without Disney's approval, as these final stories were printed after Disney revoked the license.

* Every time the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' license is given to a different comic book company, the previous company's books get tossed into the Discontinuity bin. Though, in Creator/DCComics[='=] case, they had their previous comics tossed out while ''still holding the license'', thanks to Paramount demanding a reworking of the terms of the license so that they could [[ExecutiveMeddling exert more creative control]] over the comics.

* The ''ComicBook/{{Finder}}'' arc "Torch" appears to be this, as it was abandoned halfway through and the published chapters then scrubbed from the website.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan2099'' vol. 2 disregards everything that happened in Vol. 1 after Creator/PeterDavid left. Given the way TimeTravel works in the Marvel Multiverse, fans are attempting to HandWave it by declaring it an AlternateUniverse, but there has been no WordOfGod on that point thus far.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'': If "Year One" is Diana's true origin, then the Amazons' kidnapping sailors and raping them to produce children during Brian Azzarello's run is no longer true. "The Lies" suggests that basically everything Diana thinks she remembers (i.e. her entire New 52 backstory) is probably false.