Fanon Discontinuity/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

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{{cleanup|The examples need to be sorted into three lists - [[Canon Discontinuity]], [[Fanon Discontinuity]], and [[Negative Continuity]] - then those three lists need to be moved to the matching pages, then this page needs to be deleted.}}

 

[[Discontinuity]] happens a lot in comic books, due to the many different writers that end up making stories for them, but there are just certain things that don't gel with their audiences to be considered canon.

Note 1: If you're going to list the events from a specific run on a certain comic, please list the ''events'' that you are ignoring, not the actual person writing for it, which would being ignoring real life events.

 

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== Canon Discontinuity ==

 

== Fanon Discontinuity ==

 

== Negative Continuity ==

== UNSORTED ==

[[Category:Examples Need Sorting]]

* Many fans rejected the [[Character Derailment]] of Dr. Leslie Thompkins, ultra-pacifist doctor and well-loved member of [[Batman]]'s supporting cast, and decided that she absolutely did not allow a teenage girl to die an agonizing death in order to teach Bruce some sort of lesson about the dangers of vigilantism. It was later [[Canon Discontinuity|retconned out of existence]] with the [[Author's Saving Throw|revelation that Stephanie Brown didn't actually die. Leslie just lied about it and smuggled her out of the country.]]

** Not sure if that really qualifies as an author's saving throw, as it's still pretty far removed from how the character has behaved at any point in time prior to that story arc.

** [[Distaff Counterpart|Mary Marvel]] was [[Brought Down to Normal]] as well, and was not allowed to go on [[Hero's Journey]] that Captain Marvel Jr. did, and instead wound up seeking out [[Black Adam]], both a [[Fallen Hero]] and [[Evil Counterpart]] of Captain Marvel. <s>She convinces Adam to give her [[Black Magic|his power]], which gives her a brand new [[Evil Is Sexy|tight black costume complete with super-short skirt]]. Naturally, superpowers taken from someone evil results in Mary having a [[Face Heel Turn]] as she slowly decides that [[Evil Feels Good]], after using her powers to turn two security guards into statues. Eventually she has a [[This Is Your Brain on Evil]] realization, rejects her powers, and goes on another quest to atone, eventually getting her original powers back at slightly reduced levels. Then Darkseid shows up and offers her Black Adam's powers again, but clearly this quest has taught her that evil superpowers are bad, accepting power from evil beings is also bad, and so she'll just punch him in the face, right? Nope, instead she apparently suffers a case of [[Aesop Amnesia]], accepts the power and not only becomes evil of her own free will, but goes all out [[Drunk on the Dark Side]], complete with an even more [[Stripperiffic]] outfit.</s> ''[[Countdown to Final Crisis]]'' happened, but unlike most of the stuff that was declared [[Canon Discontinuity]], Mary still had to be evil. She was '''supposed''' to be merely possessed by a New God, but had to be reworked after ''Final Crisis'' was over. So she's now evil because of Black Adam's [[Bad Powers, Bad People]]. Some of the worst examples of [[Corrupt the Cutie]] and [[Character Derailment]]. EVER.

** ''JSA'' writer [[Geoff Johns]], in an effort to [[Must Make Amends]], started trying to undo the above mess, though the results are still mixed. Captain Marvel was [[Brought Down to Normal]] by Black Adam and his resurrected wife Isis, leaving him in his mortal form of 16 year old Billy Batson. Billy went to the JSA for help, and when a big fight erupted, was forced to accept Black Adam's power by way of Mary Marvel and joined [[The Dark Side]] against his will. Shazam (the wizard, not Captain Marvel Jr.) [[Unexplained Recovery|got better]] and promptly depowers EVERYONE, leaving Billy and Mary normal teenagers, but thankfully no longer evil (Mary having a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment) and turning Adam and Isis into stone statues. Shazam then leaves in a huff, ticked that Billy had failed in his position as the new Wizard, that Mary had become evil and that Captain Marvel Jr. was now going around using Shazam's name and using different powers. So to sum up, Captain Marvel Jr. is the only active Marvel Family member at the moment and he's barely shown anywhere at the moment. Is it any wonder fans like to pretend the last several years never happened?

* ''[[Amazons Attack]]'' is often considered one big example of [[Fanon Discontinuity]], but it gets a special notice for the Supergirl and Wonder Girl plotline, which involved them siding with the genocidal Amazon invaders, taking down Air Force One, and leading the President into an ambush. As they never faced any consequences for what certainly amounts to high treason (beyond some mild public displeasure), it seems even DC probably considers this [[Canon Discontinuity]].

* [[Captain Atom]] fans generally disregard the existence of ''Countdown: Arena''.

** Well let's just say ''Stormwatch''/''The Authority'' fans were not too pleased with the redesigns... is that a SPIKE? On his CHIN???

 

* The Marvel ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' spawned a ''massive'' [[Dork Age]], what with Robbie Baldwin ditching his Speedball identity to become the [[Wangst]]y Penance because of an explosion that wasn't even his fault, [[Iron Man]] becoming a major-league [[Jerkass]], and Spider-man willingly unmasking himself on national television. Hence, some fans have decided that ''Civil War'' never happened. There ''was'' a fan parody called "I Don't Need Your Civil War," created from leaked pages for some aborted project or other. The reasoning behind the name is a [[Shout-Out]] to Guns N' Roses.

** The assumption of [[Fanon Discontinuity]] has become so prevalent that many Marvelverse fanfic writers don't even bother to add a disclaimer mentioning that the writer is ignoring Civil War in a particular fanfic, as it's pretty much implied.

* Ask [[Spider-Man]] fans who liked the marriage, and they'll tell you that Mary Jane and Peter Parker are still happily married. ''One More Day'' was a rejected idea by [[Running the Asylum|a fan]] who hated the last 30 years of ''Spider-Man''.

** There was a period in the '90s where someone had the [[Wall Banger|bright idea]] to get MJ on a plane and have her [[Killed Off for Real]] when it exploded; after the revenge-and-grief subplot was over and readers were told that she was really, truly dead, Spidey immediately became swingin' single - hanging out with his friends in clubs, having a new roommate, being flirted with by new women. It didn't work. The outcry prompted an [[Author's Saving Throw]], MJ came back, and if the entire storyline happened at all, it was simply that there was a brief scare where she was thought to be dead.

* This whole Totem concept introduced by [[J. Michael Straczynski]], which has been disregarded by many. Spider-Man did not get his powers from a spider-totem; Morlun suffered from a case of [[Mistaken Identity]] in going after Spidey; Spider-Man never died after getting his eye ripped out before coming back from the dead to eat Morlun alive; and he never got any new powers.

* Other products of Spider-Man's [[Dork Age]] that many fans write out of their version of 'canon' include these:

** Hilariously, Doom himself is known to indulge in exactly this sort of historical revisionism. He keeps an official Editor on staff to remove or improve the records of all his embarrassing moments. The above items are probably that Editor's work.

** He was beaten by [[Squirrel Girl]], though. That was written by [[Steve Ditko]]! That's so in continuity!

*** There's a Victor Von Doom who was raised by the Red Skull that was tossed into the Multiverse. It happened in A-Next. He's probably racist.

** A lot of us try and make others wake up and smell the coffee in that DOOM would ''not'' make a [[Deal with the Devil]] in order to go after that ''infernal'' Richards, after what happened to his mother dearest. No matter ''what'' Mark Waid would think.

** Yet two wrongs don't make a right, and the Emma Frost thing doesn't sit too well with some fans either.

** Then again, Jean even dating Scott is [[Fanon Discontinuity]] for the Jean/Logan fans, so there seems to be a line where this goes too far and just makes for messy fanon.

 

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