This is a list of terms in common use in and specific to the rec.arts.comics newsgroups. If an unfamiliar term is not defined here, it may be in common use throughout the net. Consult the documents in news.announce.newusers.
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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 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. 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 also used 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. Reboots are extreme examples of retconning. Retcon is also listed in the New Hacker's Dictionary, with credit given to rac. In the second edition, this is disputed. In the third edition, should there be one, there will likely be a dispute of the dispute...
Original by Paul Estin
as extensively modified by Tom Galloway
as modified by Jonathon Tuttle and Greg Morrow
as maintained by the uberFAQ
consortium
Last change: 24 Sept 96
Greg Morrow morrow@physics.rice.edu