'Bioshock,' which became one of last year's biggest console games, is making the expected move to the big screen with Gore Verbinski on board to direct, according to Variety || The last two seasons of 'Lost' will now be 17 hours each instead of 16 hours to make p for time lost because of the Writers Guild of America strike, says The Hollywood Reporter || Common, a rap artist, has decided to take a turn to acting and has been granted a role on 'Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins,' according to Variety || For the first time, SciFi Channel will rerun episodes of the 1987-94 series 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' joining 'Charmed' and 'Mork & Mindy' on the cable outlet, Variety reports || 'Star Trek: The Experience' may be running out of steam. Cedar Fair, which owns the Las Vegas attraction, says there are no plans to renew its contract with CBS Corp., which could close the event next year, TrekToday reports || 'Bioshock,' which became one of last year's biggest console games, is making the expected move to the big screen with Gore Verbinski on board to direct, according to Variety || The last two seasons of 'Lost' will now be 17 hours each instead of 16 hours to make p for time lost because of the Writers Guild of America strike, says The Hollywood Reporter || Common, a rap artist, has decided to take a turn to acting and has been granted a role on 'Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins,' according to Variety || For the first time, SciFi Channel will rerun episodes of the 1987-94 series 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' joining 'Charmed' and 'Mork & Mindy' on the cable outlet, Variety reports || 'Star Trek: The Experience' may be running out of steam. Cedar Fair, which owns the Las Vegas attraction, says there are no plans to renew its contract with CBS Corp., which could close the event next year, TrekToday reports ||

Prepare To Be Adapted: The Curse Of The Retcon

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By MARX PYLE
Source: SyFy Portal
Mar-04-2008

"It's magic, we don't have to explain it." - J. Michael Straczynski paraphrasing Joe Quesada

ACT I

This time I’m in a bad mood. A recent comic book retcon has put me in said bad mood, so I’m going to cover the good and the bad of retcons on TV and movies, plus comic books (or graphic novels if you want it to sound less embarrassing).

First off, for you geek-tionary challenged, I’ll explain what a retcon is. Retcon stands for "RETroactive CONtinuity" and is the intentional altering of previously established facts in a work of serial fiction.

Now that I know we are all on the same page, let’s talk about what got me on this rant.

For roughly six years, J. Michael Straczynski (creator of “Babylon 5”) had been writing the “Amazing Spider-Man” comic book series. He did a few controversial things, but now his reign has ended. His last story arc was called “One More Day.” In it, a sniper sent by Kingpin shoots Aunt May and she lapses into a coma slowly dying. The intended target was ‘ol spidey, but the bullet hit May instead. You see, a year ago Spider-Man revealed his identity to the public during the whole “Civil War” mega-crossover. That’s where the government forced all superheroes to reveal their identities or get arrested. With his enemies now knowing who Spider-Man really is, Peter Parker’s family became targets.

Spider-Man searches everywhere for a way to save Aunt May until finally he gives in and makes a deal with the devil. No really, he does. The demon Mephisto offers to save Peter’s aunt, but only if he gives up his marriage with Mary Jane. He agrees and now Spider-Man gets a major retcon changing roughly 20 years of history. No longer does everyone know his identity, Peter never married Mary Jane, Harry Osborne lives again, Spider-Man goes from his organic web-slingers (like they are in the movie) back to his mechanical web-slingers and Peter is back to living with his aunt.

OK, first off you need to realize that the co-writer (for "One More Day") and editor of Marvel Comics, Joe Quesada, has been extremely vocal about his dislike of Spider-Man being married. Even though it has been that way for 20 years. Even though Marvel has alternate versions of Spider-Man — sans marriage — in "Ultimate Spider-Man" and "Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man." Grr, Argh … I am so annoyed.

ACT II

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