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Marvel has been leading the comic industry in sales for a long time, and they’ve done so by being different from their distinguished competition. Marvel has been telling amazing stories for years, and one of the biggest hallmarks of the Marvel Universe is its continuity. It’s been one long continuing story for the vast majority of its existence without any major reboots.
All of that history can get a little unwieldy, so while there haven’t been any line-wide reboots, there have been a lot of retcons, with some of those retcons being very surprising to readers. Some of them were good, some of them were bad, and some were definitely more shocking than others.
10 One More Day Destroyed A Massive Part Of Spider-Man’s Life
One More Day is one of the most infamous Spider-Man stories of all time. Marvel Editorial wanted to get rid of Spider-Man’s marriage to Mary-Jane and clean up the secret identity mess that stemmed from Civil War, so they had Peter and Mary Jane trade their marriage to Mephisto. While there were rumblings that the marriage was going to end, fans were shocked they did it the way they did.
Taking away Spider-Man’s marriage to Mary Jane changed years of Spider-Man stories and fans have been clamoring for it to be undone for years. Marvel has stuck to their guns with it, which is kind of mystifying.
9 Sins Past Is One Of The Most Bitter Retcons In Spider-Man’s History
Spider-Man and Green Goblin have had a long history, but Marvel decided to make it a lot more bitter with Sins Past. Spider-Man was attacked by two twins who tried to say that he was their father and Gwen Stacy was their mother, but it was revealed that Norman Osborn was the one who actually did the deed. The whole thing left a bad taste in fans’ mouths, as they didn’t want to think that Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn had children together.
Fans weren’t too pleased with it, but unlike One More Day, it was recently retconned out of existence. While that was a good thing, it didn’t change the bad taste it left in readers’ mouths.
8 Making Captain Marvel A Kree Was A Surprise
Captain Marvel is one of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel Universe and has gotten a major push in recent years. Her origin was that she gained powers while working with the original Kree Captain Marvel. Marvel wanted her to be more unique and have her own agency in her origin instead of tying it to a male character, so they went back and made her into a Kree.
It was an interesting choice and tied her more into the Captain Marvel mythos. It also made her less unique in a lot of ways, but Marvel had its reasons.
7 Iron Man Was Retconned To Have Been Kang’s Servant
The ’90s were not a good time for the Avengers, and nowhere was the more evident than Avengers: The Crossing. Beyond all of the ’90s character designs, the story had Iron Man attack the team, and it was revealed that he had been brainwashed by Kang at some point in Avengers’ history. This led to the team going back in time to retrieve a teenage Tony Stark to fight his adult self.
The whole thing was a strange choice, and many fans were not satisfied with it. Heroes Reborn would hit soon after this retcon and completely invalidate it, although it’s arguable whether fans preferred this retcon or Heroes Reborn more.
6 The Reveal That Changeling Had Been Professor X Surprised Early X-Men Fans
In the early days of Marvel, retcons weren’t really all that prevalent, but one of the first ones surprised X-Men fans immensely. Professor X was killed in battle, and fans were shocked and dismayed by the whole thing. Eventually, the character returned, but it wasn’t a resurrection. Instead, it was revealed that Changeling had agreed to pose as Xavier while he figured out how to defeat the Z’Nox invaders.
He had been hiding in a psi-proof room in the basement of the X-Mansion, and it was revealed that Jean knew the entire time. It’s hard to know whether it was the plan all along or if it was in response to fan outrage, but it was one of the first Marvel retcons.
5 Iron Man Kept Thor’s Hair For Experimentation Purposes
Civil War had a lot of surprises, and one of the biggest was the reveal of the Thor clone/cyborg. What was even more surprising was the reveal of how the hybrid came about. It was revealed that Tony had kept Thor’s hair from a hairbrush he had used in Avengers Mansion for experimentation purposes.
In some ways, this made a bit of sense, as Iron Man is a very pragmatic man, but it was a bad look with how he kept the whole thing secret and then used the resulting clone/hybrid to fight his friends, ending in the death of Goliath. Instead of making him seem pragmatic, it played into the story’s central conceit that Stark was a terrible person who would do anything to win.
4 Apocalypse’s Origin Was Changed To Make Him Seem More Altruistic
The X-Men have been through a lot of changes in the Krakoa Era, and one of those was allowing their enemies to join the new mutant nation. One of the most surprising was Apocalypse, who wholeheartedly embraced the concept of the nation, becoming one of its leaders. It was soon revealed that he and Krakoa had history.
Apocalypse and his family had lived on a mutant continent called Okkara until the coming of the demons of Amenth. The resulting battle split the continent into Krakoa and Arrako, with Arrako and most of the mutants going to fight Amenth in Otherworld, leaving Apocalypse behind to create a powerful army for when Amenth returned. This was revealed to be the impetus behind his survival of the fittest mantra but also made his past villainous acts seem out of character.
3 Moira MacTaggert’s Reveal As A Mutant Was A Massive Change
The Krakoa Era began with House Of X/Powers Of X, which threw in a massive retcon that all of the books’ changes stemmed from. Moira MacTaggert, long thought a human, was revealed to be a mutant and had a very interesting power. Every time she died, she came back at the moment of her birth, allowing her multiple attempts to tailor the timeline to her liking.
Her accumulated knowledge and experience changed everything, as it was revealed that she, Xavier, and Magneto had been working together to create a new ending for the mutant race she hadn’t seen before.
2 The Dark Phoenix Retcon Brought Jean Grey Back & Absolved Her Of Responsibility
The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most beloved Marvel stories of all time. Jean Grey’s fall to darkness was poignant and powerful, changing the X-Men forever. Eventually, Marvel decided to bring Jean Grey back, which would have been a hard sell because she had destroyed an entire solar system. They got around that with a retcon.
It was revealed that Jean Grey was never actually the Phoenix. Instead, the Phoenix put her in suspended animation in a cocoon in Jamaica Bay and became her in order to experience human life. This allowed Jean to come back without blame.
1 The Hydra Cap Retcon Is Infamous
Secret Empire is widely regarded as the worst Marvel event of the 21st century, and one of the biggest reasons for that is the Hydra Cap retcon. Revealing that Captain America had been a Hydra agent for his entire career as Cap caused an uproar, and while it could have been an interesting plot point, fans were not into it all.
The build-up was pretty good, but the idea fell short with Secret Empire, as it was long and drawn out. Eventually, it was revealed the original Cap still existed in the Cosmic Cube, and the two fought each other.
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