One type of narrative that I think of myself as a somewhat expert on is that of the graphic novel, or comic book. Comics have come a long way since the ages in which muscle-bound men in spandex simply flew from one page to the next, doling out punishment on some hapless thug who happened to choose the worst possible time to steal an innocent lady's purse. Though these jumpsuit-clad judges are still alive and kicking (ha ha ha - get it?), the motives for which these men and women take the duty of cleaning up the underworld of their respective cities upon themselves have often been clarified in a more extensive manner. Those heroes who find their respective pasts or events in their stories "worthy" of being expanded upon often have their books graced by talented authors who take time to fill in all the blanks that the reader may think of. The less fortunate, however, find themselves at the mercy of one of the most insidious comic book villains: the retroactive continuity, or "retcon".

For those of you who are not as versed in "comic book lingo" as those who are regular readers, the retcon is when an author takes past events in a tale that were displayed to the reader and effectively rewrites the events in order to suit the needs of the current story line. For example, say Superman fights the Martian King in issue 5 of his comic series, and ends the duel by tossing the King into space, where the reader is lead to believe the Martian King perished. That was a year or two ago, though, and now, in issue 55, it's revealed that the mastermind behind the current thorn in Superman's side, the evil Kartian Ming Company, was founded by none other than the Martian King, who actually did NOT die back in issue 5, and actually ended up landing somewhere in Tennessee. After recovering from his wounds, he decided to go undercover and creates a company in an attempt to supply other bad guys with weapons to defeat Superman with. In essence, retcon means "You're wrong. This is what REALLY happened!", even though you were lead to believe the first outcome all along.

Now, while this all may be a bit much to digest in a quick period of time, a more graceful process of rewriting and rebooting is often welcome by fans of comics which have aspects of its story that possibly date back twenty or thirty years - how else are newcomers to be welcomed into the fold without extensive (and exhaustive) backreading in order to catch up to current events? Or for more loyal readers, would it not be better to simply make all of Batman's past more short and succinct than incredibly and irritatingly confusing? In the comics industry, the powerful retcon tool has become a necessary evil.

However, with great power, comes great... well, you get the idea. While this idea may be accepted in the realm of graphic novels, its usage does not appear to transfer as well into other areas - specifically, comic book based movies. Executives who end up with dud comic films on their hands simply see "retconning" or "rebooting" as their way of saying, "Well, next time, we'll get it right!" - What do you mean "next time"?! If you had done it right in the first place, you would not have had to waste all that money in the first place! To me, the movie "retcon" / "reboot" is being abused by these creators, simply because they did not bother to put more time in effort into their project. Movie retcons and reboots are often confusing and alienating - how is a person expected to understand "Oh, no, this isn't the same Incredible Hulk you saw last time! This is the NEW Incredible Hulk!" unless they're keeping constant tabs on the movie industry and reading about all their follies? It's all a bit frustrating to someone who's both a comic book and comic book movie fan.

Well... that's all for now, dear reader. Check out more next time - same Bat-site, same Bat-blog!