History ContinuitySnarl / ComicBooks

* The first series of Creator/DCComics''[='s=] ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' comics had an odd set of dates. The first issue takes place on Stardate 41187.5, which puts it between "Encounter at Farpoint" and "The Naked Now", the first two-three episodes of the series. The second issue takes place at Stardate 42120.3, which still puts it before "The Naked Now". However, the third issue suddenly jumps ahead to Stardate 42125.7, which would put it between "The Child" and "Where Silence Has Lease", ''Season Two'' episodes that hadn't even been thought up of at that time and suddenly hits this trope as, by that time, Tasha Yar should be dead and Dr. Beverly Crusher should have been replaced by Dr. Pulaski. The final issue ''suddenly'' decides to go back in time to Stardate 41753.8, which puts it before "Conspiracy" but still after "Skin of Evil" and Tasha Yar's death, discounting the logistics of how the final issue can take place ''after'' the events of issues 3-5 yet be set before them.

* ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy
* ContinuitySnarl/{{Hawkman}}
* ''ContinuitySnarl/OnslaughtReborn''

!!Franchise/TheDCU
* ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} and [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]] have stories so complicated that they have their personal pages [[ContinuitySnarl/{{Hawkman}} here]] and [[ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy here]].
* Most Creator/{{DC|Comics}} characters (Franchise/{{Superman}}, Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/WonderWoman, Franchise/GreenLantern, Franchise/TheFlash, Comicbook/{{Hawkman}}, etc) were created during in the 1930s and 1940s. At that time, [[CaptainPatriotic a man]] [[WearingAFlagOnYourHead dressed in the American flag]] [[AcceptableTargets taking down Hitler]] was [[DancingBear everything that readers needed]]. World War II ended, the interest in such things died down, and most comic books began to close or to move to other genres. And on a day unlike any other, Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino created a new Flash, unrelated to the old one in everything except the name (and indeed, confirming in his first appearance that [[ShowWithinAShow the old one only existed as an in-universe comic book character]]), and the superhero genre was reborn, followed by similar relaunches of old DC glories. Did you follow up here? Well, one day Fox wanted a cameo appearance of the old Flash, and wrote "Flash of Two Worlds". Flash (Barry Allen) appears by accident in another world, "Earth 2", where the original Flash lives. They meet, save the day, Barry comes back home, and that's it. That's it? Hell, no. The Pandora's box had just been opened. What happens with Superman and Batman, whose titles had never been canceled? Which stories are in Earth 1 and which ones in Earth 2? If Barry knows Jay's secret identity because there are in-universe comics about the Earth 2 characters, what happens with Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne? And why stop it with 2 Earths and not [[ExpendableAlternateUniverse create new ones]]? All this led to DC deeming that the multiverse had become too "convoluted" and torching the whole thing in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', which destroyed all alternate Earths save for the main one, which is not pre-Crisis Earth-1 but a new one that combines the unique and interesting aspects of both (location, characters, backstory, etc). However, it was not followed by a full continuity reboot: some comics were rebooted, and others continued as always, rebooting just specific things they needed. Of course, this leads to several pre and post Crisis things that were equally canon, despite the inconsistencies. Ninety percent of DC's continuity snarls and messed backstories can be traced back to the Crisis and its aftermath.
* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'': The ComicBook/{{New 52}} stated that the events of the War of the Light still occurred, but that would also mean that all the events leading up to it are also in continuity including Hal Jordan becoming ComicBook/TheSpectre after Jim Corrigan gave it up, and then passing it onto Crispus Allen who helped the character during the various crisises (including subduing the red Butcher entity). In the New 52, the Spectre is once again Jim Corrigan, and has never stated to be any one else. The Alan Scott Green Lantern, who acted in a mentoring role to Kyle Rayner and is now located on a different Earth, which means that he now never helped during the ComicBook/BlackestNight or the Power of Ion storyline. Comicbook/PlasticMan first appears in ComicBook/ForeverEvil, which also has Sinestro in his post Parallax-inspired Wrath of the First Lantern costume, which means it takes place after those events, but Plastic Man was present with Kyle Rayner when he was part of the Justice League while Hal Jordan was gone after Emerald Twilight. It just goes on and on.
* Connected to the ''Green Lantern'' stuff above is Cyborg Superman, Hank Henshaw. He is essential in Hal's fall from grace, which was still canon in New 52 GL works. But in stories taking place in the present day, Zor-El (ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s father) is Cyborg Superman and completely new to the world. Crap. Okay, let's just assume he's the ''second'' Cyborg Superman and Kara just doesn't know about the original because she's new to Earth... And then ''ComicBook/SupermanLoisAndClark'' happened and features the pre-Flashpoint Superman actively trying to prevent the New 52 Hank Henshaw from becoming Cyborg Superman in the present day when he returns from a space mission, so it's ''impossible'' that ''any'' Cyborg Superman existed when Hal turned evil! With the advent of ''Rebirth'' and especially ''Superman Reborn'', ''Lois & Clark'' has been reworked and Henshaw is established as having been Cyborg Superman in the past and somehow was transformed back into his human form. He returns to his Cyborg Superman form using a gem... one he acquired ''in Lois & Clark when he was an ordinary human!''
* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': Whoo, boy. The Legion has went through ''a lot'' since the ''Crisis'' messed them up good. Where to start:
** Following the events of ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'', there was a problem - their stories continued as is, but their past still considered Superboy an integral part of their history despite the fact that ''ComicBook/TheManOfSteel'' retconned that away. This was initially solved by having the Time Trapper create an alternate universe pocket dimension where a Superboy lived. There would be a crossover with Superman that would end with Superboy performing a Heroic Sacrifice, setting the stage for ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlSaga''. The Legion would last that way until launch of the fourth ''Legion'' title.
*** In issue #5 of ''Legion of Super-Heroes'' Vol. 4, the Time Trapper is killed and, since his meddling created the Legion, the pre-Crisis Legion is now erased. In its place was now part of the "Glorithverse", where Mon-El, under the heroic name "Valor", became the inspiration for the Legion via heroics performed in the 20th century. This would last until ''ComicBook/ZeroHour'', when the Legion sacrifice themselves to give their future another chance despite the Entropy. This would effectively erase the last vestiges of the pre-Crisis universe.
** Following ''Zero Hour'' was the Reboot Legion, which returned the heroes to their old teenage selves and having new adventures despite using the books the old Legion used. This Legion would participate in ''ComicBook/TheFinalNight'' and recruited the Conner Kent Superboy into their ranks. Ultimately, sales would drop and the decision would be made to reboot the Legion ''again''.
** After a storyline involving the Reboot Legion and the Teen Titans, a new Legion was created, more of a rebellious group who fought to get rid of the peace in their future before becoming normal heroes, being referred to by fans as the "Threeboot" Legion. The title would get a change up following ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' with Supergirl joining their ranks... and then things start getting ''complicated''.
** Around this time, ''another'' version of the Legion started to pop up. While still adults, this Legion claimed to be the group active when Superman started heroics as a teenager (as ''Infinite Crisis'' restored his past as Superboy). This "Retroboot" Legion would hang around and play a role in the Superman titles before the ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' mini-series ''Legion of 3 Worlds'' arrived, using the Reboot, Threeboot and Retroboot Legions. It was revealed that the Reboot Legion came from a world destroyed during the Infinite Crisis, the Threeboot Legion hailed from Superboy-Prime's Earth-Prime and the Retroboot was New Earth's and it would stay that way until the New 52 dropped.
** Then Comicbook/{{New 52}} hit, and after limping along for a while with poor sales, the final issue revealed the current Legion was actually the Legion of a world similar to Comicbook/{{Earth 2}}, although there are few differences and WordOfGod is that it's not actually Earth 2.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** Post-Crisis Comicbook/PowerGirl went through sooo much of this - she's a Kryptonian, she's an Atlantean - she's a weird metahuman - nobody knows. Finally, it was declared that she was a survivor of the pre-Crisis multiverse and her Continuity Snarl was the universe trying to "fit her in" and failing. Now she is considered to be the Supergirl analog of the ''original'' (pre-Crisis) Earth-Two. Yes, this means now there's a ''second'' Power Girl in ''current continuity'' Earth-Two. Writers just don't know what wasp nests to leave alone. And as of ComicBook/{{New 52}}, Comicbook/PowerGirl is again the Supergirl from Earth-2, only it's a completely different Earth-2 from the previous versions.
** In a related manner, ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s continuity is also pretty tricky due to DC's decision to kill the original Supergirl (Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El) back in 1986, and then trying to replace her with different versions before returning to the original character concept. There have been several different characters to use the name, including Superman's cousin, a shapeshifting alien created by a good version of ComicBook/LexLuthor from a pocket dimension, said shapeshifting alien merged with a human who is simultaneously an angel, a completely different version of Superman's cousin and Superman and Lois Lane's daughter from the future. Oh, and some of those might be the same people, and some of them, even post-Crisis, might never have existed. Then there was the time the alien shapeshifter Matrix was removed from continuity by Comicbook/InfiniteCrisis without retconning Linda Danvers. However, if you consider only the current one, who is just Superman's cousin, it's not really complicated.
** The issues with Supergirl and Power Girl mostly stem from the same source - post-''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', there was a huge editorial push to keep Superman truly the ''last'' Kryptonian (evil ones notwithstanding), so anyone who wanted to revive Supergirl or Power Girl had to jump through a bunch of hoops to establish they're not "really" Kryptonians. For better or worse, this was relaxed by the mid-2000s.
** ComicBook/{{Superboy}}: John Byrne's reboot of Superman caused ''all kinds'' of problems since, for one, his Superman was never Superboy. No Superboy to hang out in the 30th Century with the Legion of Super Heroes. Then you have all of the splintering of Superboy - clone, Superboy Prime, Pocket Universe Superboy, etc.
* While not as extreme as some of the examples here, ComicBook/GreenArrow has had numerous minor, but confusing, problems since Oliver Queen came back from the dead.
** The problems began when novelist Brad Meltzer wrote a ComicBook/GreenArrow story called ''The Archer's Quest'' centering upon Oliver Queen going on a road trip with former sidekick Roy Harper to retrieve items that could be used to discover his secret identity. The problem with that is that Oliver Queen hadn't had a secret identity in years! In fact, in the ''Quiver'' storyline written by Creator/KevinSmith (which came out less than a year before Meltzer's story) the main piece of evidence Batman used to convince a resurrected and amnesiac Oliver Queen that he HAD been dead was newspaper articles which used his real name while discussing his death.
** Another problem was the revelation that the whole ''Archer's Quest'' was a ruse and that Ollie had really been trying to recover a photograph which proved that he had been present on the day his illegitimate son Connor Hawke was born and that Ollie, ipso facto, was a dead beat dad. The problem is that this scenario is completely implausible given the circumstances under which Ollie originally found out that Connor (who he had been traveling with for a while before his death) was his son - he had been told by the truth by his best buddy Hal Jordan, who was (at the time) nigh-omnipotent with the power of all The Guardians Of The Universe Minus One. For Meltzer's scenario to make sense, we have to believe that Hal Jordan is capable of being able to see the DNA of a person by looking at them but is unable to tell when his best friend is lying about having no idea he had an illegitimate son.
** Winick wrote a flashback scene where Connor's mom approached Ollie and was sarcastically wished good luck in trying to prove the baby was his in court. This scene apparently took place BEFORE the shipwrecking incident which inspired Ollie to become Green Arrow, as he tracks her down once he gets back to civilization and is there to have his photo taken with Connor before he has a fight with Sandra and walks out of her life again.
*** What makes this truly awful is this scene was meant to bookend the excellent ''Green Arrow: Year One'' mini-series by Andy Diggle. Suffice it to say that ComicBook/GreenArrow fans who have read that book find it hard to believe that the man Oliver is at the end of the story would ever abandon a child in need, much less his own son.
** Speaking of romantic problems, Creator/JuddWinick did a major disservice to the character when he decided to join ComicBook/GreenArrow and long-time girlfriend ComicBook/BlackCanary together again off-camera, only to break them up. He did this by having Green Arrow suddenly decide to have a one-night-stand with the niece of a friend, despite the fact that Ollie was ready to propose to ComicBook/BlackCanary not a few months earlier in the final chapter of ''The Archer's Quest'' by Brad Meltzer! Indeed, the dialogue in the scene where Ollie nearly proposes suggested that he and Dinah had gone out a few times since his resurrection but that she wasn't ready to date exclusively, let alone get married.
** Creator/JuddWinick also caused problems with his ''Heading Into The Light'' storyline, which was meant to be a lead-in to ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''. In the end, there were so many issues with the storyline that DC Comics had to retroactively declare that ''Heading Into The Light'' took place AFTER ''Infinite Crisis'', even though the story ends with a wounded Oliver Queen having visions of himself in other realities.
** Some problems also sprang up over the issue in which Doctor Light drained Kimiyo Hoshi of her powers. She appeared in ''Infinite Crisis'' and ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' with her powers intact, while other stories ran with the premise of having her powerless. This was eventually handwaved in an issue of ''Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}'', which had Kimiyo mention that while she still retained her abilities, they were now malfunctioning and only worked on certain random occasions.
* The Bat-Family has been rendered a near-complete mess thanks to the "soft reboot" of the Comicbook/{{New 52}}, where the BroadStrokes of previous continuity have been kept in numerous cases until explicitly contradicted. Among the changes are a compressed timeline, where superheroes have only been widely known to the public for five years. The problem is, Batman and company get up to a ''lot'', and the franchise's reliance on sidekicks makes the passage of time a bigger factor than with other heroes, so cramming all of Batman's history into five years seems outrageous at the best of times. A HandWave is attempted by having Batman operate in secret an extra year before the rest of the hero community, but this only helps so much. Another HandWave eventually got given that the Batman timeline spanned over ten years, which once again didn't clarify matters since the original timeline had been fifteen. It is a complete mess:
** Batman's eleven year-old son Damian has been retained. Damian was originally conceived after Bruce had become Batman, and it was reasonable for Bruce to have been Batman for at least eleven years in the previous continuity, but not in the New 52. Bruce is said to have operated for about five years at the start of the New 52, and by then Damian was already well into his tenure as Robin. The situation was left vague (''Batman and Robin'' showed only four of his birthdays without specifying his actual age) until it was eventually implied that Damian ''was'' conceived after Batman's birth and that his mother Talia aged him artificially using technology from Apokolips. However, ComicBook/DCRebirth later showed Damian celebrating his ''thirteenth'' birthday, which messed things up a bit. It would all prove moot after ''ComicBook/SupermanReborn'' expanded the timeline of the New 52 --and thus how many years Batman was active -- which makes his age plausible.
** Comicbook/{{Metamorpho}} mentions in an issue of ''[[ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman, Inc.]]'' that he used to be a member of the [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]. This was a ContinuityNod to Morrison's ''JLA'' run, which ''no longer exists'' in the current canon. It's also stated in a later issue of ''Justice League'' that the team's membership did not change at all during the 5 year TimeSkip aside from a brief inclusion of Martian Manhunter, meaning that there's no way Metamorpho was ever part of the group.
** In the previous continuity, Batman is "killed" by ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} using a special ability called the Omega Sanction, which actually unsticks Batman in time. During the year where Bruce slowly struggles back to the present, Dick Grayson becomes Batman and has Tim Drake move on to become Red Robin while Damian becomes the new Robin. The New 52 retains Bruce's disappearance and Dick and Damian's tenure as Batman and Robin while saying that Tim never took up the Robin mantle and immediately became Red Robin out of respect for Jason Todd's death, but leaves out the details on that time period until ''Batman and Robin'' eventually managed to ''simultaneously'' claim that: 1. Darkseid himself has not attacked Earth since the first arc of ''Justice League'' and 2. ''Batman was still killed by the Omega Sanction''.
** At the start of the New 52, it was established that Tim Drake had been Robin and was now called Red Robin. Then ''Teen Titans'' eventually contradicted this by saying that he was ''never'' Robin, and that he ''started'' as Red Robin. Then ''Rebirth'' happens, which is already weird with continuity, but had Bruce specifically state that Tim was never Robin... then Tim recounts his origin in a later arc, it's his pre-New 52 origin, complete with him having been Robin!
** At the start of the New 52, Michael Lane is the current person going by Azrael, after Jean-Paul Valley, who was the second Batman. However, years down the line, Valley was introduced, and had only recently taken up the Azrael moniker...
*** ''And'' Valley is established as having had no interaction with the Bat-Family up until that point, meaning he could never have been Batman! Sure, fine, whatever... except a later arc, "I am Bane" has Bane invoke the story where he broke Batman's back and Valley became the new Batman, "Knightfall"!
* ''ComicBook/DarkVictory'' caused one [[spoiler: as Arnold Flass from ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'' is among the Hangman's victims. However, while that story is set in the past (with Gordon still being married to his first wife, Barbara), the earlier-published ''Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Annual #2'' shows Flass alive and well when Jim Gordon and Sarah Essen get married]].
** ''ComicBook/CatwomanWhenInRome'', which takes place during ''DV'', caused another. While ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' would render it moot by restoring Franchise/WonderWoman's status as a founding member of the Justice League, at the time, the status quo was that she's only become active around the time of ''ComicBook/{{Legends|DC}}''. The problem? Even with the idea of Hippolyta going back in time to fight in World War II during her tenure, Cheetah appears in the story -- and is both clearly the Barbara Minerva werecat incarnation and explicitly stated to have fought Wonder Woman before in the story.
* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'': Following the post-Crisis reboot of the mid-80s, Aquaman's origin story was changed - where he was originally the son of lighthouse operator Thomas Curry and Atlantean queen Atlanna, his father was now the spirit of the Atlantean wizard Atlan, his name was changed from Orin to Arthur, and he was cast out to die near the surface during a tide for having blonde hair, a sign of the curse of Kordax. He had been reverted to his Silver Age origins circa Final Crisis, by which time he had been killed. Whether this was by continuity changes meant to be addressed or editorial overhaul is unknown, but [[TropesAreTools it did work in favor]] of Arthur and the [[HalfBreedDiscrimination discrimination he faced for being half-human]].
* In the first issue of the ''ComicBook/{{New 52}} ComicBook/TeenTitans'', it was stated that Tim Drake kept his history as ComicBook/{{Robin}} and that previous iterations of the team existed, with references also being made to past Titans teams in ''ComicBook/RedHoodAndTheOutlaws''. Come the zero issue of ''Teen Titans'' a year later, and Tim's been retconned to have always been ''Red'' Robin and this is the first team of Teen Titans, with the collected edition of the first Titans arc outright removing the details that were retconned out. And as for the previously mentioned members of the Titans in ''Red Hood'', so far the word is, more or less, that Dick Grayson, Starfire, and Arsenal (and possibly some others) hung around with each other, but never called themselves any team name.
** The references to Gar (Beast Boy) and Garth (Tempest) made by Arsenal in ''Red Hood'' can now be considered retconned out, as Garth was later introduced as an infant in the Aquaman title and Gar is a hero just starting out in New 52 continuity (and also red-skinned and red-haired, as opposed to his classic green look). An early appearance of Gar (with green skin and hair) was also edited out in the TPB run of Teen Titans, along with a cameo of Miss Martian (who was recolored to be a white blonde girl).
*** A Teen Titans arc also featured the 70's Titan Lilith rebooted as a villain, with some of the team members seeming to know who she was. This would have been even ''more'' of a continuity snarl had Scott Lobdell been allowed to go through with his original plan: The villain was going to be ''Raven'', who was responsible for founding the '80s team of Titans- who now no longer existed.
*** Speaking of Garth, he ''was'' actually later reintroduced in the pages of ''Aquaman'' as an adult, with no explanation given for the "infant" comment. However, he isn't a superhero, and is an Atlantean soldier who goes by the name Tempest.
** The removal of the Titans' history also led to a comment in ''Batwoman'' being altered, where Bette Kane mentions that she'd been a member of the team and had fought Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}}[[note]]although this itself had to be a retcon, as Flamebird never got such a chance or was on the main team. Of course, she could have also been bragging[[/note]]. The Titans reference was completely erased in the TPB edition.
*** All of these snarls from the New 52 reboot lead to the creation of ''ComicBook/TitansHunt2015'', which is designed to not only give readers the "lost" Titans team mentioned, but also rerail personality traits lost with Donna Troy, Garth and Arsenal.
* In the ''Day of Vengeance'' mini-series produced around ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis, Bill Willingham had ComicBook/TheSpectre murder the Lords of Order and Chaos, T'charr and Terataya. This caused Hawk and Dove to instantly become depowered. All other writers proceeded to ignore this for later stories, although it created confusion among fans as to how Hawk and Dove could still have their powers. T'charr and Terataya's deaths were a bit of a snarl in the first place, as both had previously died in the '90s Hawk and Dove series-- and had their powers sealed into the two heroes. Holly Granger's existence is another snarl in H&D history, as Dawn Granger was always said to be an only child in the '90s series. Tellingly, after Holly died and the New 52 reboot happened, it would appear that Dawn is back to having no siblings.
* ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' is absolutely full of this. It laid claim to being "the spine of the DC Universe," meaning that it referenced many other events going on at the time. This meant that if two events were running simultaneously, Countdown would claim they occurred simultaneously... even if that was impossible. [[http://dcu.smartmemes.com/DCTL_6_intro.html One fan]] summed it up pretty well.
-->''if you read "The Lightning Saga" in JLA #8-10/JSA #5-6 <6-8.07>, it appears to take place as an unbroken sequence of events. Likewise, if you read ''Amazons Attack'' ([[TakeThat and if so you deserve great sympathy]]), it appears to take place as an unbroken sequence as well, dominating everyone’s attention for several days. But if you read ''Countdown'', and assume (not unreasonably) that it relates events in at least roughly sequential order, then based on when it chooses to have scenes tying in to these other storylines one would have to conclude that the JLA and JSA teamed up and set out to find the Legionnaires... then put that on hold when Diana got kidnapped and the Amazons attacked DC... then (somehow) put that on hold to get together again for the climax of "Lightning Saga" and Wally West's return (which All-Flash #1 <9.07> tells us corresponds with Bart Allen’s death), and then all headed off to Keystone City for Bart’s funeral... before returning to DC and turning their attention to the Amazons again... and then left that alone again (with no sign of any resolution) and turned to other business like, e.g., going to work at the Daily Planet or spying on Mary Marvel... all before the final scene of "Lightning Saga" in which the Legionnaires leave our era. Oh, and all in the space of about four days. Make sense to you?''
* Speaking of the Flash, there's the West family in the New 52. Initially, Wally West was the thirteen year old nephew of Iris West, son of her brother Rudy West, as he had been pre-Flashpoint. He had a CoolUncle in the form of Daniel West (the Reverse-Flash). However, ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'' featured the return of the ''original'' Wally West, who is established to be the son of Rudy and Mary West as he'd always been, and both Wallys were named after their great grandpa, Wallace. Wally West II (the New 52 Wally) is retconned into being the son of Daniel... except Daniel very clearly established that he's, at oldest, about 24 when then-current stories take place, as he was caught committing a robbery by the Flash on his eighteenth birthday. Meaning he had a son at the age of ''eleven''! This was ''eventually'' softly retconned by giving Daniel an AgeLift, as an adult Daniel was present alongside Rudy and Iris for Wally West's birth.
* When Bart Allen became the fourth Flash, it's shown that Barry Allen, the second Flash and Bart's grandpa, had an active role in Bart's upbringing in Bart's series ''The Flash: Fastest Man Alive''. This flies in direct contradiction with what has been previously said: Barry died before seeing ''his'' kids reach adulthood, never mind Bart. This ''might'' be explained with ''Infinite Crisis'' happening and retconning some of Bart's upbringing... but when Barry returns in ''The Flash: Rebirth'', Bart is outright hostile towards him and the subsequent ''Flash'' series has him try to be closer to Barry because ''they were never close''. Given the unpopularity of ''The Flash: Fastest Man Alive'', it's likely that Geoff Johns (the writer of ''The Flash: Rebirth'' and the subsequent ''Flash'' series) just ignored its retcon, but it's still jarring if you read them back-to-back.
* ''ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman'':
** All of which seem to stem from Morrison's apparent uncertainty of whether or not their run has connections to the wider DC Universe. In ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'', Bruce Wayne's skull is dug up and transformed into a Black Lantern to invoke an emotional response in all of Batman's allies while Dick Grayson is busy attempting to ward off all the undead villains that are attacking Gotham. Meanwhile, in Morrison's run, the Blackest Night is apparently not happening in Gotham ''or'' in London as Grayson had transported Wayne's body (which is kept under Wayne Tower as opposed to the unmarked grave ''all other DC works'' claimed it was buried in) to the latter in an attempt to resurrect Batman using a Lazarus Pit. Also, Morrison went on to reveal that the body of Batman wasn't his real body (it was made fairly evident even at the time that he wasn't dead for real), raising the question of how the League all formed emotional connections to a mindless, insane clone.
** ''Batman'' #700, "Time and the Batman" features Chief O'Hara alongside Commissioner Gordon when they come to the aid of Batman, Robin, and Professor Nichols. The problem? Post-Crisis, the death of Chief O'Hara kicked off the events of ''ComicBook/DarkVictory'', his death being a full year before Dick became Robin.
* ''ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsJLA'':
** Between the events of ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' and the "WorldWarIII" arc, the ComicBook/MartianManhunter officially took a sabbatical from the League because of the events of the former. Creator/MarkMillar, Creator/MarkWaid, and J.M. [=DeMatteis=] were all too wiling to ignore this when they guest wrote, having J'onn still be present (and this ''does'' include the issue Millar guest wrote that had J'onn and Franchise/{{Batman}} [[RealMenWearPink know about]] ''Franchise/SailorMoon''[[note]]and is in fact, the biggest offender as the third Hourman came back in time, who was meant to sub in for J'onn, told them about the events of the upcoming "Crisis Times Five" and J'onn and Bruce were meeting with Superman to discuss this very thing[[/note]].
** It was subjected to this again as Morrison's run ending with the Big Seven heading off to face Dr. Destiny, both an AndTheAdventureContinues ending and as a BookEnd to the fact that ''Justice League: A Midsummer's Nightmare'' helped set-up Morrison's run and featured (an albeit unwilling) Dr. Destiny being confronted by the Big Seven. Waid's run, which included issue 50[[note]]the issue where Batman rejoins the League after being kicked off in the aftermath of ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel''[[/note]], depicted the League's fight with Dr. Destiny in that issue as the first time they've met since ''A Midsummer's Nightmare''.
** The run itself has [[ComicBook/TheSandman the Corinthian's skull]] can be seen in Daniel's chest--despite Morpheus already restoring the creature.

!!Franchise/MarvelUniverse
* The whole deal with the ''Comicbook/XMen'' comics. A lot of it is the KudzuPlot started with Claremont, but a lot of it comes from the loads of {{Ret Con}}s and counter {{Ret Con}}s.
** One example is ComicBook/JeanGrey. Until the late 1990s, it was (relatively) simple. Jean was Jean. Phoenix was (retconned into) a cosmic entity that took her identity, and Madelyne Pryor was her clone. Then those RunningTheAsylum couldn't get that straight, and turned it into this. The Summers' TangledFamilyTree got worse and worse from the 1990s onward.
** During Creator/GrantMorrison's run on the book, the X-Men travelled to China where a mutant named Xorn was held prisoner, released Xorn, and took him in as member of the team. Xorn turned out to be ComicBook/{{Magneto}} in disguise. The degree to which this made sense is debatable (since when does Magneto speak perfect Chinese? Why didn't ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} smell him?) but it was at least easy to follow so far. But then Magneto started doing drugs and herding people into ovens, and when Morrison left the book, the remaining X-Book writers couldn't retcon him as an impostor fast enough. So it was someone pretending to be Magneto pretending to be Xorn. Then it turned out there was ''another'' Xorn, who was the brother of the fake Xorn. There's a reason they don't mention Xorn much these days.
*** How bad has it gotten? When Xorn reappeared on a team of Future X-Men traveling back in time for the Comicbook/BattleOfTheAtom, readers immediately assumed there was a surprise identity to be revealed. And they were absolutely right; this version was [[spoiler:mind-controlled grown-up Teen Jean from the O5 team]].
** Somewhat amusingly, this trope is actually the reason Claremont was kicked off his second run on the title, as EIC Creator/JoeQuesada felt that his utter devotion to every minute detail of continuity made his stories nigh-incomprehensible.
** An example of a Continuity Snarl only ''half'' caused by Claremont is that of Nova Roma and its inhabitants. As originally conceived by Claremont in the pages of ''ComicBook/NewMutants'', Nova Roma was a LostWorld city hidden deep in the Amazon jungle and founded by the immortal VainSorceress Selene during the days of AncientRome. One of its inhabitants, Magma, was established as being of blood relation to Selene (called her granddaughter, though more likely her descendant). But then years after Claremont left the title, new writer Fabian Nicieza came along with {{Retcon}}s that Nova Roma was not actually ancient at all but merely a sham city full of people Selene had brainwashed, and Magma was in fact a British mutant named Allison Crestmere with no blood relationship to Selene. The two camps went back and forth on this after Claremont came back, until the continuity was so utterly wrecked that modern stories featuring Selene or the New Mutants tend to ignore both Nova Roma and poor Magma entirely.
** During Marvel's "Acts of Vengeance" event, Wolverine fought Tiger Shark during his book's current story arc at the time. A few issues after that it showed while the other X-Men were doing at the time, and showed it was during the team's days in Australia. However, in their own book the X-Men team in Austrailia sans Wolverine had disbanded, had their memories wiped, and been scattered across the globe living under new identities long before the "Acts of Vengeance" crossover. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that the X-Men's tie-in issues for the crossover were a key development for Psylocke, as it was during this event where she had had her mind transferred to the body of a Japanese assassin, a body she would stay in for nearly three decades before finally being restored to her original form. So in X-Men after the crossover she had her new body, while in Wolverine's book she still had her original body after the crossover. Whoops.
** During the events of ''Messiah Complex'', it was said that ComicBook/HopeSummers would at some point end up killing millions, resulting in the BadFuture ComicBook/{{Bishop}} came from--which goes against what was already established about Bishop's future, which was ComicBook/ProfessorX ([[SplitPersonality by way of]] ComicBook/{{Onslaught}} [[ComicBook/FatalAttractions after mindwiping]] ComicBook/{{Magneto}}) losing his mind, killing most of the X-Men[[note]]A RedHerring was a survivor called the Witness, who was implied to be an older ComicBook/{{Gambit}}[[/note]], and attacking the world being the cause.
** A particularly funny one, elaborated [[https://mightygodking.com/2011/04/02/marvel-one-year/ here]]: In ''Uncanny X-Men #165'', ComicBook/KittyPryde turns 14. In ''Excalibur #15'', she turns 15. Both were by Chris Claremont, so we can assume this means that the events in between more or less follow WebcomicTime. The problem is, the period between 1983 and 1990 was a ''very'' busy period for Marvel, meaning that if you take the stated dates at face value, you end up with a rather bizarre timeline.
* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' has been prone to this, mostly because different writers draw on different myths. The current line of thought seems to be "he's a god and contradictory stories about him can all be true, somehow". Examples:
** An early "Tales from Asgard" story shows Thor commissioning the creation of Mjolnir personally. Later stories have Odin using Mjolnir well before Thor was ever born.
** Odin's wife was named Fricka or Frigga in early stories, until fairly recently when they decided she was Freyja. Yes, Frigga and Freyja are two distinct mythological figures, but scholars argue they may not always have been, so this wouldn't be ''too'' bad... except Freyja had already been established as separate from Frigga ''in the comics'' hundreds of issues prior [[note]] Plus, the Enchantress had previously been hinted to be Marvel's version of Freyja. Oy. [[/note]]. Not helping matters is that our new "Freyja" looked and acted rather differently from the Frigga we knew, yet the writers insist she's the same character.
** [[ComicBook/Thor2014 Jason Aaron's run]] has had a severe case of this regarding ComicBook/{{Loki}}. Loki is presented as something of a MommasBoy, working as Frigga's secret double agent to undermine Malaketh's reign, while petitioning the new Thor to give them a chance, noting the fact they want to make their mother proud. Except, over the course of ''ComicBook/JourneyIntoMystery'' and ''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'', its ''repeatedly'' shown that Frigga [[AbusiveParents was terrible to Loki]], blackmailing his innocent child self to work as Asgard's secret agent first, then betraying his teen self to [[TrappedInVillainy trap him into his villainous destiny]], which culminated in Loki, after being reincarnated as the God of Stories, makes it clear that he does ''not'' give a damn about what she thinks of him, only his friend Verity and his brother Thor. Come Aaron's run, and its never once mentioned what happened to Verity, Loki almost ''never'' mentions their new title as God of Stories, and personality-wise, Loki acts more or less like a mix between his old evil self (who's been dead and gone for years) and his MCU counterpart, rather than either how they were recently (a BrilliantButLazy DeadpanSnarker with good intentions, haunted by guilt, and a love for modern Midgardian customs), or the God of Stories Loki (a Chaotic Neutral CloudCuckooLander MetaGuy trickster who spoke like a Brit punk). Ultimately, it comes off as if Aaron's not even ''read'' the other books, despite the latter having been going on ''during his run'' and having had crossovers with it.
** A minor but still glaring example comes from the Heroes Return era run by Dan Jurgens and John Romita Jr. This series begins with Thor once more forced to take on mortal flesh by merging with and saving the life of a paramedic named Jake Olsen, who was critically injured during a battle between Thor and the Destroyer. Jake's partner, Demetrius, is seen stealing drugs from the hospital where they work and selling them and his internal narration shows him reacting angrily to the news that Jake is still alive, because he had planned to frame Jake for his own illegal activities. Thor (and Jake) subsequently leave Earth to search for the missing Asgardians, interspersed with scenes on Earth in which the police discover evidence implicating Jake as a thief and drug dealer; one would assume that Demetrius has made his move and framed Jake. When Thor returns several issues later, the cops show up and place Jake under arrest... at which point Demetrius emerges, reveals that he is an undercover detective and states that he has been embedded in the hospital investigating drug thefts for months. The evidence wasn't planted and Jake ''really was'' a criminal. This leads to him going on the run and the entire thing turns out to be an elaborate plot orchestrated by Loki to trick Odin into placing Thor's spirit in the body of an unworthy mortal, with matters complicated further when Jurgens introduces the idea that Jake had (or ''was'') an evil twin called Loren. The issue is resolved and in the next story arc, Demetrius helps Jake to start putting his life back together. Throughout all of this, Jurgens seemed to forget that he had explicitly shown Demetrius to be the real crook back at the start of his run!
* Is Marvel's [[CaptainErsatz Superman equivalent]] ''Comicbook/TheSentry'' a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] hero who erased all knowledge of his existence so an evil being called The Void would not exist? Or is he a superhuman with mental problems who read a comic book and adopted the identity? Is he the results of SuperSerum experiments with The Void being actually a part of his fragmented mind? Who knows?
** No, wait, he's a [[ItMakesSenseInContext drug addict who accidentally drank God to get high.]] No, wait, he's the Angel of Death. No, wait, he's dead now. By the time they'd reached this point, the universal fan reaction basically boiled down to "good riddance".
*** When Paul Jenkins wrote the original ''Sentry'' miniseries, he was very aware of all the problems involved in retconning a Superman-level FlyingBrick with godly reality-warping powers into the Marvel Universe. The series actually explored this theme at some length - and ended in a way that should have pushed the Sentry offstage forever. But the Bullpen just couldn't resist bringing him back about three times too many.
* One of the original reasons for creating the Comicbook/UltimateMarvel universe was to avert this trope by creating a blank slate free from the decades of continuity the main universe had built up. This didn't stop Ultimate Marvel from generating Continuity Snarls of its own.
** One snarl concerns its version of Comicbook/IronMan. The ''ComicBook/UltimateIronMan'' miniseries by Creator/OrsonScottCard, while good on its own, depicted Tony Stark as superhuman born with a healing factor and his brain distributed throughout his entire body. Since the ''Ultimates'' series depicted Tony as the more traditional nonpowered genius in power armor, this caused issues. Another origin story featured in an issue of ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvelTeamUp'' created further problems. Although Creator/BrianMichaelBendis, who wrote the latter story, has suggested that some of ''Ultimate Team-Up'' is [[CanonDiscontinuity dubiously canon]], it remains to be seen how or if the former will be reconciled.
*** The ''Ultimate Iron Man'' miniseries was later retconned to be an [[ShowWithinAShow anime about Tony Stark's life]] that ignores the truth in favour of bizarre sci-fi, though that didn't stop the 'distributed brain' thing from showing up elsewhere.
** In ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' and ''Comicbook/TheUltimates'' the Fantastic Four are referenced and Reed Richards is a notable enough scientist to have a building at ESU named after him, but very early on in ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour'', before the team comes together, there are references to The Ultimates. This is because of a change in plans. Originally, the Fantastic Four we were seeing in ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' and ''The Ultimates'' were going to be adults, while ''Ultimate Fantastic Four'' would take place a decade or so in the rest of the line's past, establishing the FF as the first super heroes and cornerstones of heroic society in the Comicbook/{{Ultimate|Marvel}} Universe. The plan got muddled and changed, but it's very apparent when Sue Storm, 16-ish here, shows up during ''Ultimate Spider-Man'''s "ComicBook/TheCloneSaga" and is clearly in her late 20s/early 30s.
** ''ComicBook/UltimateFF'': While revealing that the Doom who kicked off the events ''[[ComicBook/SupremePower Ultimate Power]]'', ''ComicBook/TheUltimates 3'' and ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'' and died was really Mary Storm, a new one was created: namely Doom calling out for Storm in the last of those events after Magneto's actions resulted in Latveria being frozen and is additionally compounded by [[spoiler:Mary attending her ex-husband Franklin's funeral, which takes place ''after'' the Thing killed the Doom who caused those events.]]
* The Destroyer is a Golden Age Creator/TimelyComics character who got his powers from a SuperSerum. That's about all anyone can agree on about him. For instance, is he named Keen Marlow or Brian Falsworth? If he ''is'' Keen Marlow, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS how do you spell it?]] Keen Marlow, Keene Marlow, or Keene Marlowe? Or is Keen/e a nickname, and his real name is ''Kevin'' Marlow? If he's Brian Falsworth, where did the name Keen Marlow come from? Was it a pseudonym he used while working as a spy? Did he ever go by that name at all? Finally, did he begin his Nazi-punching career before or after ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, and if after, was the serum used to create him based on the one used to create Cap or not? [[TheLongList *Whew!*]]
* ''ComicBook/TheCrossing'', a CrisisCrossover featuring ComicBook/TheAvengers, is such a snarl that even [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] refuses to review it, partly because it's nearly impossible to tell when it begins or ends.[[note]]It has since been released in trade paperback form, a copy of which Linkara's holding front and center in his 2016 opening credits, so it's now under consideration for a future review.[[/note]] Basically, Iron Man turns evil and helps Kang try to take over the world, but who is on whose side changes from issue to issue. Eventually, Kurt Busiek rendered the whole thing moot in ''Avengers Forever'' by stating that the entire thing was Immortus trolling the superhero community so that they'd leave other planets alone, and that almost everyone involved was a Space Phantom. [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain After the Heroes Reborn/Heroes Return debacle, the Crossing was pretty much never brought up again.]]
* Busiek also used ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'' to untangle the very snarled continuity of Comicbook/TheVision. For decades, the Vision's origin story had him being created from the remains of the [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots original Human Torch]]. But after the writers of West Coast Avengers decided to re-introduce the Torch to modern continuity in the late 80s, the Vision's origin was retconned, invalidating a lot of stories and raising a lot of questions about where the Vision ''did'' come from. Enter Busiek, who [[DeusExMachina explained everything]] by having Immortus use a time-altering MacGuffin to change history, so that two contradictory events, the Torch being rebuilt and the Torch not being rebuilt, ''both happened at the same time''. [[YourHeadASplode Neat, huh?]]
* ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled''
** During Busiek's run, some years before, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch remembered their sons without either of them losing their sanity.
** When closing the mansion, Stark mentions that he had stored and taken away all the fancy materials and technology. Still, when the ComicBook/YoungAvengers fought against Kang in the abandoned mansion some months later, they had no problem finding several old weapons of the Avengers.
** And the infamous one -- Doctor Strange tells the Avengers that there's no such thing as "chaos magic," despite having used it himself in his own solo series. This was later explained by Chthon himself, who said that the Sorcerers Supreme and others had tried to limit his power by saying that there was no such thing as chaos magic.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** The symbiotes. First, the ComicBook/{{Venom}} suit was just an alien costume. Then it was retconned into being alive. Then, when the writers wanted to turn it into a villain, it was retconned that the suit made Spider-Man go insane and he had to get rid of it (originally, he was trying to destroy just because it was attaching itself to him, which is a bit harsh for a guy like Spidey). It was later shown that the suits fed off strong hosts as a sort of [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]]. Then it was revealed to feed off negative emotions such as hate and anger. Then they were shown to live in the Negative Zone... no wait, there was a separate planet of them. Oh, and Toxin proved that not all of them are born evil after all. Oh, and ComicBook/{{Carnage}} has had about three symbiotes get destroyed but no one ever remembers those stories. And now the Venom symbiote itself wasn't evil until it latched onto Comicbook/{{Deadpool}}, who tried it before Spider-Man came by and ended up absorbing Deadpool's insanity (at least if you consider ''Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars'' canon).
** Who is the Hobgoblin really? The character was created by writer Creator/RogerStern who strung along the mystery of his identity, dropping clues here and there. According to him, when he created the Hobgoblin he didn't have a set idea on who he was and only shortly into it did he decide it was a character he had introduced in a smaller title called Roderick Kingsley. Then he left and told his plans to his successor Tom Defalco who didn't like the culprit and Stern told him that he had his consent to come up with someone else. Later writers and editors felt that the Hobgoblin mystery was itself compelling and so spun wheels and RedHerring to extend the story forward, until they and readers got bored and frustrated, and finally it was revealed that Hobgoblin was Peter Parker's friend Ned Leeds, who had already been KilledOffForReal when this reveal happened. It is no wonder years later Roger Stern was allowed to return to the subject in a miniseries which was essentially a FixFic in which Stern gave the identity to the person he'd intended all along, and established that Leeds had been brainwashed into acting as a stand-in who was later sacrificed so that the original could retire. It helped that Stern had, in fact, established Hobgoblin's use of impostors during his original run.
** ''ComicBook/SpiderManBlue'': The mini-series has several continuity errors that can be picked up on by avid readers. These include;
*** Robbie Robertson working at the Daily Bugle, despite not being introduced at that point in the original comics.
*** The circumstances of the Green Goblin losing his memory are different.
*** In this comic, Peter comes from a fight with the Rhino to meet Mary Jane Watson and take her to a fight with the Lizard. In the original comic, it was the Rhino he took MJ to meet.
*** The fight with [[LegacyCharacter Blackie Drago, the second Vulture]], is completely different from its original incarnation, taking place in the wrong time and under the wrong circumstances.
*** Furthermore, Drago's fight with the original Vulture was supposed to be over before Spider-Man got there.
*** The original story featured a subplot with Peter spraining his arm, passing out from the pain, and getting captured by the police, which is entirely cut.
*** It was originally Kraven's intention to attack Harry Osborn; he was not confused in his search for Spider-Man by Harry wearing Peter's aftershave.
*** However, these could be theoretically explained by the series' format of Peter narrating the story on audiotape to himself. Perhaps his emotions got his head a little clouded.
* As a consequence of dropping in the middle of several large, running storylines, Marvel's [[Comicbook/MarvelNOW Avengers NOW!]] relaunch has resulted in some major continuity issues. The biggest one involves the plot point about Steve Rogers experiencing rapid aging and passing the ComicBook/CaptainAmerica mantle to [[ComicBook/TheFalcon Sam Wilson]]. This particular plot thread happened to come about at the same time Jonathan Hickman was prepping his big "[[Comicbook/JonathanHickmansAvengers Time Runs Out]]" crossover between ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' and ''ComicBook/NewAvengers'', the main crux of which involves the war between Steve's team (the Avengers) and ComicBook/IronMan's team (ComicBook/TheIlluminati). Despite the fact that "Time Runs Out" explicitly shows a still-young Steve vowing to hunt down Iron Man and his teammates (meaning the conflict definitely began before Steve was aged), other stories like ''Comicbook/{{Axis}}'' show the elderly Steve still working side by side with Iron Man without any animosity between the two (even before Tony was turned evil, by the way).
* Creator/BrianMichaelBendis's work had tended to have some of these--but a pretty big example is the aforementioned ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled''. Another is the first arc of the ''Avengers Assemble'' comic also has some issues: ComicBook/IronMan also says "We barely know anything about Comicbook/{{Thanos}}" -- despite the Avengers fighting him on numerous occasions (including partaking in the fight in ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'' and its sequels) and having extensive files on him, and Thanos debuting in an ''Iron Man'' comic and thus Tony Stark himself was the very first Avenger to do so. Another thing was stating Thanos' goal was "He wants the Earth. He's always wanted the Earth," when in nearly every single prior encounter Thanos has ignored the Earth entirely.
* This can be a problem when a character who was seemingly killed off is later revealed to have actually survived:
** After Comicbook/TheWasp's death in ''Comicbook/SecretInvasion'', [[Comicbook/TheIncredibleHercules Hercules]] ran into her in the Greek afterlife, where she was shown alongside a number of other dead Marvel characters. However, it was later established that she'd ''never'' actually been dead, and that the explosion that seemingly killed her had actually just trapped her in the Microverse.
** In the ''Comicbook/XStatix Presents: Dead Girl'' mini-series, Comicbook/{{Mockingbird}} appeared as a supporting character in the afterlife. The above-mentioned ''Secret Invasion'' later established that the Mockingbird who had died all those years ago was actually just a Skrull impostor who had replaced the real Mockingbird after she'd been kidnapped.
** During Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's ''[[Comicbook/TheMightyThor Thor]]'' run, he had Thor meet the departed spirit of Comicbook/CaptainAmerica, who had recently died at the end of ''Comicbook/CivilWar''. The later ''Captain America Reborn'' mini-series established that the gun Cap had been shot with was actually a special device that merely sent him through time rather than killing him.
** In an issue of ''Comicbook/SensationalSheHulk'', she has a near-death experience where she gets to spend some time in the afterlife (ultimately meeting with her mother), during which she meets up with Comicbook/{{Bucky|Barnes}} in the afterlife mall. This was about a dozen years before the Winter Soldier story established Bucky was never actually dead, but being kept in intermittent cryosleep by the Soviet government. By the way, the Green Goblin (i.e. Norman Osborn) was also there, a few years before he resurfaced in ''Comicbook/TheCloneSaga''.
* The ''ComicBook/SpiderWoman'' named Jessica Drew has at ''least'' three different origins:
** Originally, she was one of the High Evolutionary's experiments in engineering new humanoid species from animal stock; in Jessica's case, she was a spider artificially evolved into a perfectly humanoid form.
** Then she became the daughter of a pair of scientists who was poisoned by the uranium deposits near their lab; her father injected her with a serum made from spider genes in an effort to cure by infusing her with the resistant to radiation possessed by spiders. He then put her in a "genetic accelerator" to enhance the serum's progression, which caused her to A: gain spider-powers, and B: rapidly age until she was a child in the body of a young adult. The "spider evolved into a human" backstory was retconned as a false set of memories implanted in her.
** Another comic, "Spider Woman: Origin", retcons it again, most notably stating that whilst her parents were experimenting on a way to graft useful genes from spiders to humans, Jessica's pregnant mother was zapped with a splicing beam and Jessica was imbued with spider-genes in her mother's womb.

** Between the events of ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' and the "WorldWarIII" arc, the ComicBook/MartianManhunter officially took a sabbatical from the League because of the events of the former. Creator/MarkMillar, Creator/MarkWaid, and J.M. [=DeMatteis=] were all too wiling to ignore this when they guest wrote, having J'onn still be present (and this does include the issue Millar guest wrote that had J'onn and Franchise/{{Batman}} [[RealMenWearPink know about]] ''Franchise/SailorMoon''[[note]]and is in fact, the biggest offender as the third Hourman came back in time, was meant to sub in for J'onn, told them about the events of the upcoming "Crisis Times Five" and J'onn and Bruce were meaning with Superman to discuss this).

** It got worse several years down the line when Creator/JuddWinick {{Jossed}} a fan theory that sprang up to explain away the discrepancy. The idea was that Ollie knew about Connor and tried to do the honorable thing by proposing to Connor's mother but that she had (having always been portrayed as an independent, free-spirited hippie) rejected him because she didn't want to marry only because he felt guilty/didn't want to get tied down. Instead, Winick wrote a flashback scene where Connor's mom approached Ollie and was sarcastically wished good luck in trying to prove the baby was his in court. This scene apparently took place BEFORE the shipwrecking incident which inspired Ollie to become Green Arrow, as he tracks her down once he gets back to civilization and is there to have his photo taken with Connor before he has a fight with Sandra and walks out of her life again.

* Most Creator/{{DC|Comics}} characters (Franchise/{{Superman}}, Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/WonderWoman, Franchise/GreenLantern, Franchise/TheFlash, Comicbook/{{Hawkman}}, etc) were created during in the 1930s and 1940s. At that time, [[CaptainPatriotic a man]] [[WearingAFlagOnYourHead dressed in the American flag]] [[AcceptableTargets taking down Hitler]] was [[DancingBear everything that readers needed]]. World War II ended, the interest in such things died down, and most comic books began to close or to move to other genres. And on a day unlike any other, Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino created a new Flash, unrelated to the old one in everything except the name (and indeed, confirming in his first appearance that [[ShowWithinAShow the old one only existed as an in-universe comic book character]]), and the superhero genre was reborn, followed by similar relaunches of old DC glories. Did you follow up here? Well, one day Fox wanted a cameo appearance of the old Flash, and wrote "Flash of Two Worlds". Flash (Barry Allen) appears by accident in another world, "Earth 2", where the original Flash lives. They meet, save the day, Barry comes back home, and that's it. That's it? Hell, no. The Pandora's box had just been opened. What happens with Superman and Batman, whose titles had never been canceled? Which stories are in Earth 1 and which ones in Earth 2? If Barry knows Jay's secret identity because there are in-universe comics about the Earth 2 characters, what happens with Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne? And why stop it with 2 Earths and not [[ExpendableAlternateUniverse create new ones]]? All this led to DC deeming that the multiverse had become too "convoluted" and torching the whole thing in ''Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', which destroyed all alternate Earths save for the main one, which is not pre-Crisis Earth-1 but a new one that combines the unique and interesting aspects of both (location, characters, backstory, etc). However, it was not followed by a full continuity reboot: some comics were rebooted, and others continued as always, rebooting just specific things they needed. Of course, this leads to several pre and post Crisis things that were equally canon, despite the inconsistencies. Ninety percent of DC's continuity snarls and messed backstories can be traced back to the Crisis and its aftermath.

* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}: Following the post-Crisis reboot of the mid-80s, Aquaman's origin story was changed - where he was originally the son of lighthouse operator Thomas Curry and Atlantean queen Atlanna, his father was now the spirit of the Atlantean wizard Atlan, his name was changed from Orin to Arthur, and he was cast out to die near the surface during a tide for having blonde hair, a sign of the curse of Kordax. He had been reverted to his Silver Age origins circa Final Crisis, by which time he had been killed. Whether this was by continuity changes meant to be addressed or editorial overhaul is unknown, but [[TropesAreTools it did work in favor]] of Arthur and the [[HalfBreedDiscrimination discrimination he faced for being half-human]].

* Most Creator/{{DC|Comics}} characters (Franchise/{{Superman}}, Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/WonderWoman, Franchise/GreenLantern, Franchise/TheFlash, Comicbook/{{Hawkman}}, etc) were created during in the 1930s and 1940s. At that time, [[CaptainPatriotic a man]] [[WearingAFlagOnYourHead dressed in the American flag]] [[AcceptableTargets taking down Hitler]] was [[DancingBear everything that readers needed]]. World War II ended, the interest in such things died down, and most comic books began to close or to move to other genres. And on a day unlike any other, Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino created a new Flash, unrelated to the old one in everything except the name (and indeed, confirming in his first appearance that [[ShowWithinAShow the old one only existed as an in-universe comic book character]]), and the super hero genre was reborn, followed by similar relaunches of old DC glories. Did you follow up here? Well, one day Fox wanted a cameo appearance of the old Flash, and wrote "Flash of Two Worlds". Flash (Barry Allen) appears by accident in another world, "Earth 2", where the original Flash lives. They meet, save the day, Barry comes back home, and that's it. That's it? Hell, no. The Pandora's box had just been opened. What happens with Superman and Batman, whose titles had never been cancelled? Which stories are in Earth 1 and which ones in Earth 2? If Barry knows Jay's secret identity because there are in-universe comics about the Earth 2 characters, what happens with Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne? And why stop it with 2 Earths and not [[ExpendableAlternateUniverse create new ones]]? All this led to DC deeming that the multiverse had become too "convoluted" and torching the whole thing in ''Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', which failed spectacularly to make it less "confusing". Ninety percent of DC's continuity snarls and messed backstories can be traced back to the Crisis and its aftermath.

* The Bat-Family has been rendered a near-complete mess thanks to the "soft reboot" of the Comicbook/{{New 52}}, where the BroadStrokes of previous continuity have been kept in numerous cases until explicitly contradicted. Among the changes are a compressed timeline, where superheroes have only been widely known to the public for five years. The problem is, Batman and company get up to a ''lot'', and the franchise's reliance on sidekicks makes the passage of time a bigger factor than with other heroes, so cramming all of Batman's history into five years seems outrageous at the best of times. A HandWave is attempted by having Batman operate in secret an extra year before the rest of the hero community, but this only helps so much:

* In the first issue of the ''ComicBook/{{New 52}} ComicBook/TeenTitans'', it was stated that Tim Drake kept his history as ComicBook/{{Robin}} and that previous iterations of the team existed, with references also being made to past Titans teams in ''ComicBook/RedHoodAndTheOutlaws''. Come the zero issue of ''Teen Titans'' a year later, and Tim's been retconned to have always been ''Red'' Robin and this is the first team of Teen Titans, with the collected edition of the first Titans arc [[OrwellianEditor outright removing the details that were retconned out]]. And as for the previously mentioned members of the Titans in ''Red Hood'', so far the word is, more or less, that Dick Grayson, Starfire, and Arsenal (and possibly some others) hung around with each other, but never called themselves any team name.

* Speaking of the Flash, there's the West family in the New 52. Initially, Wally West was the thirteen year old nephew of Iris West, son of her brother Rudy West, as he had been pre-Flashpoint. He had a CoolUncle in the form of Daniel West (the Reverse-Flash). However, ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'' featured the return of the ''original'' Wally West, who is established to be the son of Rudy and Mary West as he'd always been, and both Wallys were named after their great grandpa, Wallace. Wally West II (the New 52 Wally) is retconned into being the son of Daniel... except Daniel very clearly established that he's, at oldest, about 24 when then-current stories take place, as he was caught committing a robbery by the Flash on his eighteenth birthday. Meaning he had a son at the age of ''eleven''!

** All of which seem to stem from Morrison's apparent uncertainty of whether or not his run has connections to the wider DC Universe. In ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'', Bruce Wayne's skull is dug up and transformed into a Black Lantern to invoke an emotional response in all of Batman's allies while Dick Grayson is busy attempting to ward off all the undead villains that are attacking Gotham. Meanwhile, in Morrison's run, the Blackest Night is apparently not happening in Gotham ''or'' in London as Grayson had transported Wayne's body (which is kept under Wayne Tower as opposed to the unmarked grave ''all other DC works'' claimed it was buried in) to the latter in an attempt to resurrect Batman using a Lazarus Pit.

** It was subjected to this again as Morrison's run ending with the Big Seven heading off to face Dr. Destiny, both an AndTheAdventureContinues ending and as a BookEnd to the fact that ''Justice League: A Middummer's Nightmare'' helped set-up Morrison's run and featured (an albeit unwilling) Dr. Destiny being confronted by the Big Seven. Waid's run, which included issue 50[[note]]the issue where Batman rejoins the League after being kicked off in the aftermath of ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel''[[/note]], depicted the League's fight with Dr. Destiny in that issue as the first time they've met since ''A Midsummer's Nightmare''.

-->''if you read "The Lightning Saga" in JLA #8-10/JSA #5-6 <6-8.07>, it appears to take place as an unbroken sequence of events. Likewise, if you read ''Amazons Attack'', it appears to take place as an unbroken sequence as well, dominating everyone’s attention for several days. But if you read ''Countdown'', and assume (not unreasonably) that it relates events in at least roughly sequential order, then based on when it chooses to have scenes tying in to these other storylines one would have to conclude that the JLA and JSA teamed up and set out to find the Legionnaires... then put that on hold when Diana got kidnapped and the Amazons attacked DC... then (somehow) put that on hold to get together again for the climax of "Lightning Saga" and Wally West's return (which All-Flash #1 <9.07> tells us corresponds with Bart Allen’s death), and then all headed off to Keystone City for Bart’s funeral... before returning to DC and turning their attention to the Amazons again... and then left that alone again (with no sign of any resolution) and turned to other business like, e.g., going to work at the Daily Planet or spying on Mary Marvel... all before the final scene of "Lightning Saga" in which the Legionnaires leave our era. Oh, and all in the space of about four days. Make sense to you?''

** Between the events of ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' and the "WorldWarIII" arc, the ComicBook/MartianManhunter officially took a sabbatical from the League because of the events of the former. Creator/MarkMillar, Creator/MarkWaid, and J.M. [=DeMatteis=] were all too wiling to ignore this when they guest wrote, having J'onn still be present (and this does include the issue Millar guest wrote that had J'onn and Franchise/{{Batman}} [[RealMenWearPink know about]] ''Franchise/SailorMoon''[[note]]and is in fact, the
biggest offender as the third Hourman came back in time, was meant to sub in for J'onn, told them about the events of the upcoming "Crisis Times Five" and J'onn and Bruce were meaning with Superman to discuss this).

** Between the events of ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' and the "WorldWarIII" arc, the ComicBook/MartianManhunter officially took a sabbatical from the League because of the events of the former. Creator/MarkMillar, Creator/MarkWaid, and J.M. [=DeMatteis=] were all too wiling to ignore this when they guest wrote, having J'onn still be present (and this does include the issue Millar guest wrote that had J'onn and Franchise/{{Batman}} [[RealMenWearPink know about]] ''Franchise/SailorMoon'').