History Main / EvolutionaryRetCon

** The XMen costumes have undergone numerous changes when retelling stories set in the early years of the yellow and black outfits. The film ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', for example, retcons those costumes as military flight suits and the yellow is somewhat understated.

*** In the new movie series - which ''isn't'' a {{Reboot}} ([[spoiler:villains from the TrekVerse as we know it ''changed history.'' It's not out of continuity any more than the last two seasons of ''Series/{{Eureka}}.'']]) ''all'' the Romulans we see are smooth-headed. The Klingons keep their forehead ridges, but are now ''bald,'' resulting in a very different feel.

* An inversion occurred with the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels. When he first appeared in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Yoda was created with puppets. In ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', Yoda was created using 100% CGI and [[BrokenBase large portions of the fan base]] revolted, preferring Frank Oz's puppetry.

* Mileena from ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' was given a minor [[http://www.giantbomb.com/images/1300-2741300 redesign]] in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX''. Previously, she had MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily, but they've been downplayed. She was given lips and normalish front teeth while the giant mutant teeth are now on the sides of her mouth, giving her what appears to be a GlaswegianSmile. However, this isn't a technological upgrade, but most likely a designer realizing Mileena's previous mouth would have given her a ''massive'' speech impediment without lips to form half her words.

With leather boots and frizzy hair and lobsters on their heads

->''[[Franchise/StarTrek What's up with these Klingons?]] [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Remember in the day?]]\\
[[HumanAliens They looked like]] [[PlaysGreatEthnics Puerto Ricans]] [[SpaceClothes and they dressed in gold lamé]]\\
[[DarkerAndEdgier But now the look like heavy metal rockers from the dead]]\\
[[SpandexLatexOrLeather With leather boots]] [[AlienHair and frizzy hair]] [[RubberForeheadAliens and lobsters on their heads]]''
-->--{{Music/Voltaire}}, ''The USS Make Shit Up''

* The Klingons in the original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' series were basically [[UnfortunateImplications swarthy]] HumanAliens, but advances in make-up technology allowed them to become one of the best (and most believable) examples of RubberForeheadAliens. This example is notable in that GeneRoddenberry always claimed that the "new" Klingons were how they would have looked back in the 1960s if it had been possible at the time - he considered the new Klingon look to be how the old ones ''always'' did but [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis there just wasn't the budget to show it]]. (The original Trek often didn't have the budget even when it had the means. Why'd the old-school Romulans wear helmets? Easier than making custom pointy ears for everyone - which is also why several Vulcans wore the same helmets in "Amok Time"!) In-universe, the difference didn't exist until attention was called to it in an episode where the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' crew went to the past. Then ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' comes along, with pre-TOS Klingons looking like the "new" ones! Yes, we ''do'' at long last get an explanation. None for Romulans (see below) though.

*** In the new movie series - which ''isn't'' a {{Reboot}} ([[spoiler: villains from the TrekVerse as we know it ''changed history.'' It's not out of continuity any more than the last two seasons of ''Series/{{Eureka}}.'']]) ''all'' the Romulans we see are smooth-headed. The Klingons keep their forehead ridges, but are now ''bald,'' resulting in a very different feel.

** The XMen costumes have undergone numerous changes when retelling stories set in the early years of the yellow and black outfits. The film, ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', for example, retcons those costumes as military flight suits and the yellow is somewhat understated.

* Generally, early characters costumes will be retconned to be more realistic and sensible in favor of the bright colored spandex and cuffed buccaneer-style boots look. Superhero costumes historically appeared to draw inspiration from the form-fitting costumes worn by gymnasts, circus strongmen, and acrobats. While such outfits are sound for strictly athletic purposes, they provide little in the form of body protection. In more modern times, costumes will be more functional and less like costumes. Footwear will be sturdy and made for rough use. The actual reason that comic book characters wore so much spandex is that artists found the human figure easier to draw nude than with clothes. Drawing the nude figure is a basic skill drilled into the artists early on. Drawing clothing and folds in cloth may take much longer to master and render. These points are especially significant since comic book artists often had to produce completed art much faster than they do now. They simply did not have the time or resources to create elaborate highly detailed costumes. Especially when they knew that much of their fine detail would be lost druing image reduction as well as in the cheap printing processes of the time. The reason for the bright colors, of course, was that until recently, comic books were printed in four colors (the CYMK color model). Also, in most cases, black was neccesarily substituted with blue; black would appear too flat in print. SpiderMan's costume, for instance, was originally intended to be red and black, not red and blue.

* Generally, early characters costumes will be retconned to be more realistic and sensible in favor of the bright colored spandex and cuffed buccaneer-style boots look. Superhero costumes historically appeared to draw inspiration from the form-fitting costumes worn by gymnasts, circus strongmen, and acrobats. While such outfits are sound for strictly athletic purposes, they provide little in the form of body protection. In more modern times, costumes will be more functional and less like costumes. Footwear will be sturdy and made for rough use. The actual reason that comic book characters wore so much spandex is due to the fact that artists found the human figure easier to draw nude than with clothes. Drawing the nude figure is a basic skill drilled into the artists early on. Drawing clothing and folds in cloth may take much longer to master and render. These points are especially significant since comic book artists often had to produce completed art much faster than they do now. They simply did not have the time or resources to create elaborate highly detailed costumes. Especially when they knew that much of their fine detail would be lost druing image reduction as well as in the cheap printing processes of the time. The reason for the bright colors, of course, was due to the fact that until recently, comic books were printed in four colors (the CYMK color model). Also, in most cases, black was neccesarily substituted with blue due to the fact that black would appear too flat in print. SpiderMan's costume, for instance, was originally intended to be red and black, not red and blue.

** Throughout the ''Videogame/MetroidPrime'' series, the Space Pirate models vary greatly, gaining a separating lower jaw and going from two to four eyes. Partially justified due to the fact the Pirates are genetically altering their troops (with varying levels of success) to enable them to conquer the galaxy.

** The Cybermen are famous for their repeated redesigns, which are fairly plausible in a species whose whole concept is ruthless self-augmentation. The major shifts are from the original "Tenth Planet" look with visible human body parts to the all-metal appearance of their second story "The Moonbase"; the shift to the "square-headed" silhouette in "The Invasion"; and the "baggy" eighties look from "Earthshock". But practically every story saw some tweaking to the design. The 21st-century series introduced another, even more robot-like look, and there was then a further redesign in the Moffat era to remove the "Cybus" branding that marked the Davies-era Cybermen as alternate-universe.

*** In the new movie series - which ''isn't'' a {{Reboot}} ([[spoiler: villains from the TrekVerse as we know it ''changed history.'' It's not out of continuity any more than the last two seasons of ''Series/{{Eureka}}.'']]) ''all'' the Romulans we see are smooth-headed. The Klingons look completely different from any previous version as well.

** {{Batman}} started as the spandex clad caped crusader. Starting with TheNineties, artists and writers have experimented with making his costume more plausible and sensible given the beatings that Batman takes in the course of his adventures. This evolution ultimately resulted in realizing Batman's outfit as a heavily armored, high tech suit that employs military issue polymers created by Wayne-Tech. Even the cape is now actually functional and allows limited gliding.

** {{Batman}} started as the spandex clad caped crusader. Starting with TheNineties, artists and writers have experimented with making his costume more plausible and sensible given the beatings that Batman takes in the course of his adventures. This evolution ultimately resulted in realizing Batman's outfit as a heavily armored, high tech suit that employs military issue polymers created by Wayne-Tech. Even the cape is now actually functional and allows limited gliding.

* Speaking of ''Return of the King'' adaptations, the glimpses of Legolas (who has been DemotedToExtra) in the Rankin & Bass version of ''WesternAnimation/TheReturnOfTheKing'' reveals an appearance retcon for the Elves compared to their appearance in ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit''.

* The Klingons in the original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' series were basically [[UnfortunateImplications swarthy]] HumanAliens, but advances in make-up technology allowed them to become one of the best (and most believable) examples of RubberForeheadAliens. This example is notable in that GeneRoddenberry always claimed that the "new" Klingons were how they would have looked back in the 1960s if it had been possible at the time - he considered the new Klingon look to be how the old ones ''always'' did but [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis there just wasn't the budget to show it]]. (The original Trek often didn't have the budget even when it had the means. Why'd the old-school Romulans wear helmets? Easier than making custom pointy ears for everyone - which is also why several Vulcans wore the same helmets in "Amok Time"!) In-universe, the difference didn't exist until attention was called to it in an episode where the Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine crew went to the past. Then ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' comes along, with pre-TOS Klingons looking like the "new" ones! Yes, we ''do'' at long last get an explanation. None for Romulans (see below) though.

* ''Deus Ex: Human Revolution'', more than 10 years since the original ''Deus Ex'', has mechanical augmentations that are significantly more advanced and useful than the un-lifelike ones in ''Deus Ex''. The excuse is that this is right before a great collapse which occurs prior to the beginning of ''Deus Ex'' and before the rise of nano augmentations.

->''[[Franchise/StarTrek What's up with these Klingons?]] [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Remember in the day?]]\\

[[AC:Comic Books]]
* Generally, early characters costumes will be retconned to be more realistic and sensible in favor of the bright colored spandex and cuffed buccaneer-style boots look. Superhero costumes historically appeared to draw inspiration from the form-fitting costumes worn by gymnasts, circus strongmen, and acrobats. While such outfits are sound for strictly athletic purposes, they provide little in the form of body protection. In more modern times, costumes will be more functional and less like costumes. Footwear will be sturdy and made for rough use. The actual reason that comic book characters wore so much spandex is due to the fact that artists found the human figure easier to draw nude than with clothes. Drawing the nude figure is a basic skill drilled into the artists early on. Drawing clothing and folds in cloth may take much longer to master and render. These points are especially significant since comic book artists often had to produce completed art much faster than they do now. They simply did not have the time or resources to create elaborate highly detailed costumes. Especially when they knew that much of their fine detail would be lost druing image reduction as well as in the cheap printing processes of the time. The reason for the bright colors, of course, was due to the fact that until recently, comic books were printed in four colors (the CYMK color model). Also, in most cases, black was neccesarily substituted with blue due to the fact that black would appear too flat in print. SpiderMan's costume, for instance, was originally intended to be red and black, not red and blue.
** The XMen costumes have undergone numerous changes when retelling stories set in the early years of the yellow and black outfits. The film, ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', for example, retcons those costumes as military flight suits and the yellow is somewhat understated.
** {{Captain America}}'s original costume was what appeared to be the traditional spandex tights with buccaneer boots. Retcons of his 1940s adventures have reimagined the costume as a more sturdy militaristic outfit with pouches and hard protective headwear in place of a cowl and sensible combat boots in place of red buccaneer boots.
** {{Batman}} started as the spandex clad caped crusader. Starting with TheNineties, artists and writers have experimented with making his costume more plausible and sensible given the beatings that Batman takes in the course of his adventures. This evolution ultimately resulted in realizing Batman's outfit as a heavily armored, high tech suit that employs military issue polymers created by Wayne-Tech. Even the cape is now actually functional and allows limited gliding.

** The Cybermen are famous for their repeated redesigns, which are fairly plausible in a species whose whole concept is ruthless self-augmentation. The major shifts are from the original "Tenth Planet" look with visible human body parts to the all-metal appearance of their second story "The Moonbase"; and the shift to the "square-headed" silhouette in "The Invasion", but practically every story saw some changes to the design. And then there was a further redesign in the 21st-century series.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the original Daleks were clunky and, because they were mounted on tricycles, had difficulty with rough terrain. [[WeaksauceWeakness And stairs? Forget about it.]] [[spoiler: Until their very last appearance, anyway - but they couldn't fire at the same time until the new series.]] CGI allows the new series to feature flying Daleks who are capable of traversing stairs and ''interstellar space'' without trouble. Heck of an upgrade there.
** The Cybermen also became much more menacing looking and ominous.

* Generally, early characters costumes will be retconned to be more realistic and sensible in favor of the bright colored spandex and cuffed buccaneer-style boots look. Superhero costumes historically appeared to draw inspiration from the form-fitting costumes worn by gymnasts, circus strongmen, and acrobats. While such outfits are sound for strictly athletic purposes, they provide little in the form of body protection. In more modern times, costumes will be more functional and less like costumes. Footwear will be sturdy and made for rough use. The actual reason that comic book characters wore so much spandex is due to the fact that artists found the human figure easier to draw nude than with clothes. Drawing the nude figure is a basic skill drilled into the artists early on. Drawing clothing and folds in cloth may take much longer to master and render. These points are especially significant since comic book artists often had to produce completed art much faster than they do now. They simply did not have the time or resources to create elaborate highly detailed costumes. Especially when they knew that much of their fine detail would be lost druing image reduction as well as in the cheap printing processes of the time. The reason for the bright colors, of course, was due to the fact that until recently, comic books were printed in four colors (the CYMK color model). Also, in most cases, black was neccesarily substituted with blue due to the fact that black would appear too flat in print. SpiderMan's costume, for instance, was originally intended to be red and black, not blue and black.

** This possible justification is backed up by the fact that the Khajiit, who otherwise had the same development as the Argonians (with cats instead of lizards) actually ''did'' get a more-or-less official explanation involving physical differences between breeds.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the original Daleks were clunky and, because they were mounted on tricycles, had difficulty with rough terrain. [[WeaksauceWeakness And stairs? Forget about it.]] [[spoiler: Until their very last appearance, anyway.]] CGI allows the new series to feature flying Daleks who are capable of traversing stairs and ''interstellar space'' without trouble. Heck of an upgrade there.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the original Daleks were clunky and, because they were mounted on tricycles, had difficulty with rough terrain. [[WeaksauceWeakness And stairs? Forget about it.]] CGI allows the new series to feature flying Daleks who are capable of traversing stairs and ''interstellar space'' without trouble. Heck of an upgrade there.

** The XMen costumes have undergone numerous changes when retelling stories set in the early years of the yellow and black outfits. The film, XMenFirstClass, for example, retcons those costumes as military flight suits and the yellow is somewhat understated.

* Generally, early characters costumes will be retconned to be more realistic and sensible in favor of the bright colored spandex and cuffed buccaneer-style boots look. Costumes will look more functional and less like costumes. Footwear will be sturdy and made for rough use. The actual reason that comic book characters wore so much spandex is due to the fact that artists found the human figure easier to draw nude than with clothes. Drawing the nude figure is a basic skill drilled into the artists early on. Drawing clothing and folds in cloth may take much longer to master and render. These points are especially significant since comic book artists often had to produce completed art much faster than they do now. They simply did not have the time or resources to create elaborate highly detailed costumes. Especially when they knew that much of their fine detail would be lost druing image reduction as well as in the cheap printing processes of the time. The reason for the bright colors, of course, was due to the fact that until recently, comic books were printed in four colors (the CYMK color model). Also, in most cases, black was neccesarily substituted with blue due to the fact that black would appear too flat in print. SpiderMan's costume, for instance, was originally intended to be red and black, not blue and black.

** The XMen costumes have undergone numerous changes when retelling stories set in the early years of the yellow and black outfits. The film, XMenFirstClass, for example, retcons those costumes as military flight suits and the yellow is somewhat subdued.

** Throughout the ''Videogame/MetroidPrime'' series, the Space Pirate models vary greatly, gaining a separating lower jaw and going from two to four eyes.

*** In the new movie - which ''isn't'' a {{Reboot}} ([[spoiler: villains from the TrekVerse as we know it ''changed history.'' It's not out of continuity any more than the last two seasons of ''Series/{{Eureka}}.'']]) ''all'' the Romulans we see are smooth-headed.