Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Patches and retcons (was LSH: New version number wanted)
From: esti@quads.uchicago.edu (Paul A. Estin)
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 17:51:35 GMT
Reply-To: esti@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: U. Michigan Cognitive Psychology

First, a reminder of terms:

retcon = to retroactively change the continuity of a character or title.
        (This term, a r.a.c favorite, was coined by Damian Cugley).
                Originally, the term "retcon" was used only in cases where the
        interpretation of "facts" from earlier stories is changed, but the
        facts themselves are preserved.  For example, Alan Moore took took the
        character Swamp Thing, previously considered to be a man transformed
        into a plant creature, and with minimal changes to facts presented in
        previous stories, wrote Swamp Thing to be a "plant elemental", one of
        a long line of such beings.  Other standard examples would be Alan
        Moore's Miracleman, and the various retcons of Phoenix/Jean Grey in
        X-Men.
                A "patch" was the term used (taken from programmer's jargon)
        to mean an actual change, rather than merely filling in details.
                These days, however, "retcon" is used increasingly to mean
        changes to history as well as to retroactive continuity.  So, to
        "retcon" is to change history, so that something that had existed in
        the continuity of the fictional universe, not ONLY doesn't exist now,
        but in the fictional history, NEVER HAS existed.  This can be true of
        an event, of a character, or whatever.  For example, if Hawkman
        appears in the Justice League, and then years later a writer decides
        that "No, Hawkman just came to Earth, he was *never* in the Justice
        League," that's a retcon.
                Retcon is also listed in the New Hacker's Dictionary, with
        credit given to r.a.c.

In article <geZYDpC00VB904LlsU@andrew.cmu.edu> "michael j pastor iii,
guest of David M. Pahnos" <dp0q+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

>>Garth was actually Proty!" is another example. [of a patch as opposd to
>a retcon]
>
>I beg to differ with you there:  Proty/Garth is definitely a retcon in
>the classic sense:In fact, the parallels between Moore's re-tooling of
>Swamp Thing is very similar( a person not being what we/they thought
>they have been all this time, all previous appearances in tact)

Technically, it was indeed *intended* to be a 'classic' retcon.  The
problem is that the change doesn't jibe with the way the "lightning
rod resurrection scene" was depicted in the original comic (I don't
recall the issue number offhand).  Nor does it synch up well with the
history, characterization, etc., since then.  (I don't want to start
the argument up again; it's just my opinion, and not the main point
I'm trying to make here.)

In other words, at a certain point, a badly-done classic retcon looks
an awful lot like a patch (i.e., facts are changed or ignored).  To be
fair, though, almost *any* retcon fails to meet the precise definition
of a classic retcon.  Even Alan Moore changed *some* facts around when
he took over Swamp Thing, and a lot of the apparently seamless
retconning of Miracleman is due in part to the fact that Moore did
some creative picking, choosing, and rewriting of the old stories.
It's just that Moore did his revisionism well enough that it seems
nit-picky to fault him for his slight changes, so we tend to agree to
give his work the label of a classic retcon.  Much of the criticism of
the Giffen/Bierbaums LSH is concerned with the fact that their retcons
are, well, "patchy"-- not well thought out, and contradicting previous
facts, if only implicitly.  (Another criticism is that their retcons
seem *pointless* and seem to have no purpose other than stamping the
book as *theirs*, but that's getting off of my central point here.)

-----
	You are right.  And, as a totally impartial observer, I'll
pick a fair and equitable weapons form for you all to use.  I think
hand grenades in a locked closet should do the trick...
- vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James)

Paul Andrew Estin, net.Snark, r.a.c Welcome Poster, HoloMuck Chancellor,
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc