History ContinuitySnarl / MarvelUniverse

** During the early issues of ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'', Creator/BrianMichaelBendis was so inconsistent with the name the character who'd become known as "Kenny [=McFarlane=]" that his Website/{{Wikipedia}} page has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_McFarlane#Character.27s_name a sub-section dedicated to it]].

** Post-''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'', Harry Osborn somehow still being alive all this time but OutOfFocus is something that Marvel writers never fully explained since doing so would have to get them to explain what happened in ''Revenge of the Green Goblin'' a story arc where Norman tries to torture and gaslight Peter into becoming the Goblin after his revival, an action that was inspired by Harry's death during his exile to Europe and simply doesn't make sense in tone and motivation with Harry somehow still being alive through it all. Writers have simply not alluded to this elephant in the room and merely bypassed it.

** The last few months of ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' included RedSkiesCrossovers with ''Onslaught'' with ''Sensational Spider-Man'', Vol. 1 #8 seeing [[ComicBook/TheCloneSaga then-current Spider-Man Ben Reilly]] get involved with dealing with Sentinels, which ran through ''Amazing Spider-Man'', Vol 1. 415 and ''Spider-Man'', Vol 1. #72), whereas ''Spectacular Spider-Man'', Vol 1. #238 saw Ben chasing the Lizard creature while the invasions of Sentinels was going down. For that matter, the end of ''Spider-Man'' #72 saw Ben and Peter resolve to be part of the final battle against Onslaught, but they are absent in ''Onslaught: Marvel Universe''.

** The last few months of ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' included RedSkiesCrossovers with ''Onslaught'' with ''Sensational Spider-Man'', Vol. 1 #8 seeingm [[ComicBook/TheCloneSaga then-current Spider-Man Ben Reilly]] get involved with dealing with Sentinels, which ran through ''Amazing Spider-Man'', Vol 1. 415 and ''Spider-Man'', Vol 1. #72), whereas ''Spectacular Spider-Man'', Vol 1. #238 saw Ben chasing the Lizard creature while the invasions of Sentinels going down. For that matter, the end of ''Spider-Man'' #72 saw Ben and Peter resolve to be part of the final battle against Onslaught, but are absent in ''Onslaught: Marvel Universe''.

** Thor sports his shirtless "World Engine" look for most of it, switching out to the infamous Mike Deodato-created croptop look in the last issue of his own -- and then switched back to the shirtless look in ''Onslaught: Marvel Universe''. Then again, he was switching between the two looks ''before'' that point (including sporting the croptop one in ''ComicBook/MarvelVersusDC'') before this point. Likewise, the Falcon was sporting an armored look at the time, but in ''Onslaught: Marvel Universe'', he was back in his classic 1970s costume.

** The events of ''Uncanny X-Men'', Vol 1. #335, which saw Moira [=MacTaggert=] and ComicBook/{{Excalibur}} aware of what was going on and that some of the X-Men are on their way to Muir Island, and Wolverine set off on his own to get answers about the origion of Onslaught, are contradicted twice:
*** ''Excalibur'' #100 saw the titular team busy with other matters and Moira was surprised by the X-Men's visit.

*** ''Wolverine'', Vol. 2. #104 sees Wolverine claim that Cyclops and Jean told him to meet with Gateway to get answers about Onslaught's origin. Even ignoring that in the ''Uncanny'' issue, they didn't and the decision for Logan to go off was his own, the ''Uncanny'' issue sees the mission be pointless as it also has the Avengers and remaining X-Men suss it out on their own: [[ComicBook/FatalAttractionsMarvelComics It started with Xavier mindwiping Magneto following the latter ripping out the adamantium from Wolverine]].

** But despite all this, ''Comicbook/XMenTheKrakoanAge'' kind of wants to pretend Wanda's still Magneto's daughter, even though it has to pay lip-service to the status quo being that she's not.

* It's really not an exaggeration to say that ComicBook/KangTheConqueror is more or less the AnthropomorphicPersonification of this trope. The character's concept is simple enough, but unfortunately lends itself to becoming an insane continuity headache the longer the franchise progresses. Kang is a mighty supervillain and, well, conqueror who built a grand empire in the far future and employs TimeTravel to further his schemes, ensure his own existence, and improve his situation. The idea, presumably, was that Kang is a NonLinearCharacter; we see Kang in different identities (Kang, Rama-Tut, Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, Iron Lad, etc.) and at various points in his timeline, always engaging in myriad schemes in AnachronicOrder and then one day it would all be shown from his perspective and make sense. Unfortunately, with the simple realities of comic book storytelling (such as the [[DependingOnTheWriter large number of different writers]]), this ambitious idea quickly collapsed under it's own weight and Kang's timeline became an insane tangled, gnarled mass of [[TemporalParadox paradoxes]], colliding plots (both the [[GambitPileUp in-story kind]] ''and'' the [[ArmedWithCanon out-of-universe kind]]), [[ForWantOfANail timeline splits]], [[AlternateSelf alternate selves]], and general [[TimeyWimeyBall timey-wimey nonsense]]. Now, after so many years and twists and offered explanations, it's become genuinely hard to tell who or what Kang is even supposed to be or is trying to accomplish at any given point in time beyond the basics of "is engaging in TimeTravelForFunAndProfit", and even ''Kang himself'' seems to struggle to keep it all straight in his head. Creator/KurtBusiek made a noble and temporarily-successful effort to untangle the whole mess with ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'', but that was decades ago now and Kang's history has grown since. It's all made infinitely worse by the fact time travel itself functionally doesn't actually exist in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, the long-established lore being that anytime you "time travel", you really just jump to a CloseEnoughTimeline that splits off from your own (e.g., in ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'' a Kitty Pryde from a BadFuture goes "back in time" to prevent said Bad Future and succeeds, but when she returns home nothing has changed; she prevented the Bad Future ''for the 616 timeline'' not her own). This extra complication, naturally, just serves to make Kang's story even more kind-numbingly complex.

* ComicBook/GhostRider might be the most genuine unironic example in Marvel's entire mythos! They retconned and re-retconned and re-''re''-retconned what [[LamePunReaction the hell]] Ghost Riders are and where they came from and what their purpose is so many times that the Ghost Rider comics ''themselves'' started pointing it out and making fun.

** 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.

* 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.

* ''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.

* ... How on Earth is there no ComicBook/GhostRider on this page?! That IP might be the most genuine unironic example in Marvel's entire mythos! They retconned and re-retconned and re-''re''-retconned what [[LamePunReaction the hell]] Ghost Riders are and where they came from and what their purpose is so many times that the Ghost Rider comics ''themselves'' started pointing it out and making fun.

*** When Paul Jenkins wrote the original ''Sentry'' miniseries, he was very aware of all the problems involved in introducing a schizophrenic RealityWarper with a [[FlyingBrick Superman obsession]] and a [[Retconjuration mid-life crisis]] 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 a guy that broken just couldn't resist thinking up new excuses to keep the fantasy going.[[note]] Not anymore than the Bullpen could resist bringing him back about three times too many.[[/note]]

* It's really not an exaggeration to say that ComicBook/KangTheConqueror is more or less the AnthropomorphicPersonification of this trope. The character's concept is simple enough, but unfortunately lends itself to becoming an insane continuity headache the longer the franchise progresses. Kang is a mighty supervillain and, well, conqueror who built a grand empire in the far future and employs TimeTravel to further his schemes, ensure his own existence, and improve his situation. The idea, presumably, was that Kang is a NonLinearCharacter; we see Kang in different identities (Kang, Rama-Tut, Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, Iron Lad, etc.) and at various points in his timeline, always engaging in myriad schemes in AnachronicOrder and then one day it would all be shown from his perspective and make sense. Unfortunately, with the simple realities of comic book storytelling (such as the [[DependingOnTheWriter large number of different writers]]), this ambitious idea quickly collapsed under it's own weight and Kang's timeline became an insane tangled, gnarled mass of [[TemporalParadox paradoxes]], colliding plots (both the [[GambitPileUp in-story kind]] ''and'' the [[ArmedWithCanon out-of-universe kind]]), [[ForWantOfANail timeline splits]], [[AlternateSelf alternate selves]], and general [[TimeyWimeyBall timey-wimey nonsense]]. Now, after so many years and twists and offered explanations, it's become genuinely hard to tell who or what Kang is even supposed to be or is trying to accomplish at any given point in time beyond the basics of "is engaging in TimeTravelForFunAndProfit", and even ''Kang himself'' seems to struggle to keep it all straight in his head. Creator/KurtBusiek made a noble and temporarily-successful effort to untangle the whole mess with ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'', but that was decades ago now and Kang's history has grown since. It's all made infinitely worse by the fact time travel itself functionally doesn't actually exist in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, the long-established lore being that anytime you "time travel", you really just jump to a CloseEnoughTimeline that splits off from your own (e.g., in ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'' a Kitty Pryde from a BadFuture goes "back in time" to prevent said Bad Future and succeeds, but when she returns home nothing has changed; she prevented the Bad Future ''for the 616 timeline'' not her own). This extra complication, naturally, just serves to make Kang's story even more kind-numbingly complex.

*** 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.

** [[ComicBook/Thor2014 Jason Aaron's run]] arguably has this regarding ComicBook/{{Loki}}. On the one hand, Loki is presented as a MommasBoy, working as Frigga's secret double agent to undermine Malaketh's reign and wanting to make her proud. Except, over the course of ''ComicBook/JourneyIntoMysteryGillen'' and ''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'', its ''repeatedly'' shown that Frigga [[AbusiveParents was terrible to Loki]], blackmailing his innocent child into servitude and betraying his teen self to [[TrappedInVillainy trap him into his villainous destiny]]. Which culminated in Loki, reincarnated as the God of Stories, making it clear that he does ''not'' give a damn about what she thinks of him. Furthermore, come Aaron's run (wherein Loki almost ''never'' mentions their new title), Loki acts more or less like a mix between his old (technically-dead) evil self and his MCU counterpart, rather than the BrilliantButLazy DeadpanSnarker with good intentions he'd been recently, or the Chaotic Neutral CloudCuckooLander MetaGuy Brit punk the God of Stories was presented as. Then again, the entire point of Loki becoming the God of Stories was to embrace the mercurial, ever-malleable nature of Marvel godhood and never be beholden to one role again. So whilst Jason Aaron's [[CoolButStupid distinctive style]] ''definitely'' doesn't suit the subtleties of magic and earns him due derision, his [[HandWave trivia-lite]] [[WildCard unpredictable]] hodgepodge approach to Loki made more sense than just treating "God of Stories" as a new list of traits and quirks to box him into over again.[[note]]Seriously people go read Agent of Asgard, it's the most explicit thesis on this ENTIRE Thor section that's ever been published[[/note]]

** [[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/JourneyIntoMysteryGillen'' 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.
*** Then again, the entire point of Loki becoming the God of Stories was to embrace the mercurial, ever-malleable nature of Marvel godhood and never be beholden to one role again. So whilst Jason Aaron's [[CoolButStupid distinctive style]] ''definitely'' doesn't suit the subtleties of magic and earns him due derision, his free-form trivia-lite unpredictable hodgepodge approach to Loki made some sense. "God of Stories" wasn't just a new list of traits and quirks to be boxed in by all over again, it was an ideal.[[note]]Seriously people go read Agent of Asgard, it's the most explicit thesis on this ENTIRE Thor section that's ever been published[[/note]]

* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' has been especially prone to this, originally because different writers simply drew on different myths. Soon enough however, after writers (like Creator/RoyThomas) started contemplating the implications, Marvel Gods were gradually codified as beings literally formed from stories & empowered by belief. This has granted them and their lives a special metaphysical exemption from regular "mortal" time & space, resulting in the current line of thought; "he's a god, and contradictory stories about him can all be true, somehow". [[note]]Ironically, this might make Thor lore immune to Continuity Snarl in the traditional sense.[[/note]] Examples:

* ''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:

** 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.

* 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/TimeRunsOut'' 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).

** During the early issues of ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'', Creator/BrianMichaelBendis was so inconsistent with the name the character who'd become known as "Kenny [=McFarlane=]" that his Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} page has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_McFarlane#Character.27s_name a sub-section dedicated to it]].