Original Sin and the Wonders of Retconning

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t read Original Sin (or any of the crossovers) do not read.

This past summer, the big Marvel comic book crossover was titled Original Sin. Someone killed The Watcher (a cosmic being who lives on Earth’s moon and observes all that transpires on our planet) and a group of heroes are gathered by Nick Fury to investigate who is the killer. But more than just a murder mystery, the storyline reveals untold secrets about characters in the Marvel Universe. The Watcher has witnessed everything that has ever occurred on Earth and thus he knows not only where all the bodies are buried, but also who buried them and why. The thing about this though is that now there are all these stories about buried secrets between characters that have relationships never before mentioned in the comics.

This is where the wonderful art of retconning comes in. Retconning, for those who are not obsessed comic book fans like myself, is short for the act of Retroactive Continuity.  Basically it means taking the previously established history of a character with a current story. Perhaps some of the most famous retconning of all time was establishing that Wolverine had bone claws. For so long fans had simply assumed that he received his claws whenever he received his metal laced skeleton. It was not until the villain Magneto sucked the adamantium out of Wolverine’s pores that we learned that he does in fact have bone claws. Claws he was born with according to the Origin miniseries.

Original Sin decides to retcon essentially the entire Marvel Universe. Or at least the histories of all the characters who live within it. A secret from nearly every single Marvel character’s past is going to be revealed either in their individual titles or in exclusive mini-series and one shots or in the pages of the Original Sin story itself. Already there have been revelations about the true origins of the Hulk. Terrible mistakes made by Mr. Fantastic and The Human Torch. And nearly everything known about Nick Fury seems to have been false.

While I love exploring deeper layers of my favorite characters, sometimes it seems forced. Example, in the pages of Mighty Avengers we learn that Luke Cage’s father worked with Blade to stop a group of pseudo vampire world conquerors. Why? Because in the pages of Mighty Avengers, Luke Cage and Blade (under the alias Ronin, to hide his identity) are both members. Nothing really comes of this connection between Luke’s dad and Blade other than that they knew each other and the world conquerors are back. But Luke Cage’s dad has nothing to do with stopping them so the story could work completely without any mention of Luke Cage’s father’s prior relationship with Blade.

Similarly, the story of Tony Stark tinkering with the Gamma Bomb that turned Bruce Banner into The Hulk seems like more a response to the movies than a naturally evolving story element. In the big screen The Avengers, actors Robert Downy Jr. and Mark Ruffallo have such excellent on screen chemistry, the desire to make their four color counterparts closer seems to be demanded by the fans. And this secret history between the two characters seems just like a reinforcement of that fact.

However, in the pages of Spider-Man the events of Original Sin seem to have a much more significant affect. Peter Parker learned that the spider that bit him crawled off and bit someone else and this seems to be leading to a complete change of the status quo of the life of the wall crawler. And to me that is the only reason a character should be included in such a widespread crossover. If the events of the story actually affect the story.

Thor is another example of a character who legitimately was affected by the events of Original Sin. His exposure to the Watcher’s eyes caused him to lose faith in himself and thus no longer feel worthy enough to wield Mjolnir. This is, as every comic book fan knows, is why there is soon going to be a new female Thor in the pages of Marvel comics. A direct connection is made between the events of one title and the events of another.

The company wide massive crossover will not be ending in comics any time soon. It is a money making tool that companies have found works very well to attract readers to new titles they might normally avoid. All I as a fan can ask is that the crossovers be planned out so that the events of the story actually have some sort of weight on the characters involved. While Original Sin will probably be brushed under the rug for many characters, as I said, a few will feel the continued affects of this story in the future.