History AbortedArc / TheDCU

* ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': Both Drax and Alexis are forgotten about after their debut episodes, though the latter makes a brief cameo on Takron Galtos in "Sundown".

* In ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' the original ComicBook/BoosterGold/Skeets arc involved the duo fixing the time-stream after it had been damaged during the ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis. Several issues into the series, after Skeets had already noticed discrepancies between events as they happened and as they were recorded in the future, the writers decided that this plot was overused and too generic. They switched to a new malevolent threat that intended to manipulate time and reality for its own gain [[spoiler:and this leads to the return of Mr. Mind, who had appeared in the early issues]].

** In a very well-known example, ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman2011'' ended with a ''big'' one. Nereus, the former fiance of Mera (Aquaman's love interest), had tracked down Orm, Aquaman's AntiVillain brother. Orm had apparently come to partly accept the surface world, staying with a human woman and her son during and after the ''Forever Evil'' event. Nereus tells Orm that he had found the lost kingdoms of Atlantis, and that he and Orm should take their rightful place besides them as kings. There's even a "to be continued" down the bottom that says the story will continue in an event crossover with Johns' ''Justice League'' run titled "Rise of the Seven Seas". Yes, it even got a name. Johns would later be forced to limit his comics output to two monthly titles at a time, and that quota was filled without ''Aquaman''. Years later, Johns would say it ''was'' being worked on, and even later would say it was being worked on with then-current ''Aquaman'' writer Dan Abnett, but nothing has come of it. Eventually, the plot point of Orm and his surface family returned in a spin-off, ''Mera: Queen of Atlantis'', although his motivations have changed. He instead decides to return to Atlantis after hearing of [[spoiler:Arthur's supposed death]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}}'': ''ComicBook/{{DeathstrokeRebirth'' saw the new Power Girl, Tanya Spears, enter a coma where her consciousness was transported somewhere else. There, Tanya encounters the original Power Girl, Kara Zor-L/Karen Starr. This seemed like it was leading to ''something'', but it was never followed up on -- Karen returned with the rest of the Justice Society of America in the pages of ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'' with no mention of Tanya, who hasn't been seen since.

* Many of the ongoing arcs pre-''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' became this by default, since that story rebooted the entire multiverse and condensed every parallel world into one Earth. While certain titles like ''Comicbook/{{Batman}}'', ''[[Comicbook/TeenTitans New Teen Titans]]'', ''Comicbook/GreenLantern'' and ''Comicbook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' were allowed to continue with their respective status quos mostly intact (give or take a few {{Retcon}}s), most of the DCU was completely [[ContinuityReboot rebooted]].
* In ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' the original ComicBook/BoosterGold/Skeets arc involved the duo fixing the time-stream after it had been damaged during the Comicbook/InfiniteCrisis. Several issues into the series, after Skeets had already noticed discrepancies between events as they happened and as they were recorded in the future, the writers decided that this plot was overused and too generic. They switched to a new malevolent threat that intended to manipulate time and reality for its own gain [[spoiler:and this leads to the return of Mr. Mind, who had appeared in the early issues]].
* The last ''ComicBook/Aquaman1962'' issue before the first cancellation had Aquagirl warn a citizen away from the Cave of Death, which a narration box promised would be explored in the future. It was promptly forgotten about for the entire Pre-Crisis history. (''ComicBook/Aquaman1994'' finally revealed it was the birthplace of Kordax.)
* In a very well-known example, Geoff Johns' ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'' run ended with a ''big'' one. Nereus, the former fiance of Mera (Aquaman's love interest), had tracked down Orm, Aquaman's AntiVillain brother. Orm had apparently come to partly accept the surface world, staying with a human woman and her son during and after the ''Forever Evil'' event. Nereus tells Orm that he had found the lost kingdoms of Atlantis, and that he and Orm should take their rightful place besides them as kings. There's even a "to be continued" down the bottom that says the story will continue in an event crossover with Johns' ''Justice League'' run titled "Rise of the Seven Seas". Yes, it even got a name. Johns would later be forced to limit his comics output to two monthly titles at a time, and that quota was filled without ''Aquaman''. Years later, Johns would say it ''was'' being worked on, and even later would say it was being worked on with then-current ''Aquaman'' writer Dan Abnett, but nothing has come of it. Eventually, the plot point of Orm and his surface family returned in a spin-off, ''Mera: Queen of Atlantis'', although his motivations have changed. He instead decides to return to Atlantis after hearing of [[spoiler: Arthur's supposed death]].
* The Rebirth ''ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}}'' series saw the new Power Girl, Tanya Spears, enter a coma where her consciousness was transported somewhere else. There, Tanya encounters the original Power Girl, Kara Zor-L/Karen Starr. This seemed like it was leading to ''something'', but it was never followed up on -- Karen returned with the rest of the Justice Society of America in the pages of ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'' with no mention of Tanya, who hasn't been seen since.
* ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil2013''

** In the tail-end of the story, Bruce's "Injustice League" is separated, and he and Comicbook/{{Catwoman}} are on their own. They come across Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth and Catwoman notes that nobody but Diana herself can use it. Bruce says that he ''can'' use it because of some strong connection to Wonder Woman that's unexplained and leaves Catwoman with a ''very'' jealous look on her face. It's likely referring to something that happened in the five year gap between the Justice League's founding and current stories (where Wonder Woman was dating Superman), but it was never addressed again. Catwoman found a ''different'' reason to hate Batman around the same time when she became a crime lord to rebuild Gotham and then Batman "died" and the Wonder Woman incident has never been brought up since, even after Bruce's return and when Catwoman ''met'' Wonder Woman in the lead-up to the Bat/Cat wedding.
* ''ComicBook/{{Hawkman}}'' has the ''Death of Hawkman'' miniseries' conclusion, where Katar Hol dead, Adam Strange falling through time and Despero having survived his battle with Hawkman, having gained the healing powers of Nth Metal, with an ending saying "Not the end. Nowhere near it." This wasn't brought up again. Nth Metal and Hawkman (Carter Hall, not Katar Hol) would be a plot point in ''ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal'' but Despero had nothing to do with that and Adam Strange would later return with no explanation for the time trip.

** In a guest-writer spot, Jerry Ordway, author of ''Power of ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'', seemed to be setting up an ongoing storyline about the Shazam characters; it involved Billy and Mary being depowered (undoing the AudienceAlienatingEra where Billy was the wizard and Mary was evil), the wizard acting irrational, and the introduction of the Rock of Eternity's EvilCounterpart, the Rock of Finality. While Ordway never got the chance to continue this, Eric Wallace's subsequent ''Shazam'' one-shots seemed content to keep things in a holding pattern until he did, while adding other elements such as the return of Blaze. Then ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}} and the ComicBook/New52 happened, and Captain Marvel was one of the characters who got completely reset. Not only is the arc aborted; in current continuity ''none of it happened''.
** An earlier issue of ''JSA'' had Sand having a dream with prophetic messages from dead JSA members. Most of these panned out, referring to the two-part Roulette story, the "Stealing Thunder" storyline, and the ''Comicbook/OurWorldsAtWar'' and ''Comicbook/JokersLastLaugh'' crossover issues. But the original Mr Terrific's warning that Michael Holt would need help when he learnt the truth behind his lost love didn't lead to anything. There was some fan speculation that his late wife would turn out to be the new Crimson Avenger, but she was revealed to be someone else entirely, and then Michael had a vision of Paula in the afterlife and got closure, closing that plot thread completely.
* Early ''ComicBook/New52'' comics were clearly setting the Daemonites up as the BigBad of the line, not just in the ex-Creator/{{Wildstorm}} books but with Superman facing them as well. There was even a suggestion that the Comicbook/DemonKnights had got their name from a mishearing of "Daemonites". Then ''Grifter'' and ''Voodoo'' got cancelled, ''Stormwatch'' got retrobooted and ''then'' cancelled, and with the exception of Midnighter and Apollo, all the Wildstorm elements of Prime Earth went very quiet.
* For readers versed in [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] {{superhero}}es, it is almost obvious that supporting character Mary Kramer from ''ComicBook/StarsAndSTRIPE'' was intended to be the new Merry the Gimmick Girl. She had a similar name (Mary Kramer vs. Merry Creamer), had red hair and was good with technology. She was even seen looking into a box with Merry's costume. This never happened, however, since ''Stars and STRIPE'' was canceled and the Star-Spangled Kid moved to Creator/GeoffJohns' other book, ''[[Comicbook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]]'' (where she eventually became ComicBook/{{Stargirl}}) and Creator/GrantMorrison ended up creating a brand new "Gimmick Girl" homage for the ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiersOfVictory2005'' maxi-series.
** In the other direction, Geoff Johns kept implying that [[ComicBook/SevenSoldiersOfVictory Stripesy's]] biological son (who was screwed over by Courtney stealing the Star Spangled Kid identity from him as well, and his dad openly favored his new step-daughter over his flesh and blood son and was quite neglectful of him in order to play super-hero with Courtney) would become a villain/his half-sister's rival. Sadly, while Stripesy's son would appear in ''Stars and STRIPE'' and ''JSA'', ominously looming over Courtney and reminding her how she ruined his relationship with his father, the plot never culminated into anything.
* The end of Creator/JephLoeb's run on ''ComicBook/SupermanBatman'' saw a SequelHook with ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} talking with Mr. Mxyzptlk about a possible future event involving the two of them. However, between Loeb leaving DC after his son's death and the events of Darkseid's arc in both ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' and ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', as well as Mxy going into a self-imposed exile in the former until ''ComicBook/SupermanReborn'', this never came to pass.
* Franchise/WonderWoman famously quit the ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational Justice League Europe]]'' after just one issue. Keith Giffen has stated that Wondy's editors demanded she be written out of the JLE, as they didn't want her to be "sullied" like the other members of the League (who famously underwent a lot of {{Flanderization}} and then [[NeverLiveItDown Never Lived It Down]]).

* ''Series/LoisAndClark'': Towards the end of an arc, the CorruptCorporateExecutive was defeated and killed, and his (apparently) dumb-blonde trophy wife Mindy was last seen saying that she would be in charge from now on, with an implication that perhaps she had been the prime mover all along. She made one subsequent appearance (again successfully framing someone else for her crimes), and was never mentioned again.

* ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'': Creator/BillyDeeWilliams' [[RaceLift version]] of Harvey Dent, as the role would be recast with Creator/TommyLeeJones in ''Film/BatmanForever''.

* For readers versed in [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] {{superhero}}es, it is almost obvious that supporting character Mary Kramer from ''ComicBook/StarsAndSTRIPE'' was intended to be the new Merry the Gimmick Girl. She had a similar name (Mary Kramer vs. Merry Creamer), had red hair and was good with technology. She was even seen looking into a box with Merry's costume. This never happened, however, since ''Stars and STRIPE'' was canceled and the Star-Spangled Kid moved to Creator/GeoffJohns' other book, ''[[Comicbook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]]'' (where she eventually became ComicBook/{{Stargirl}}) and Creator/GrantMorrison ended up creating a brand new "Gimmick Girl" homage for the Comicbook/SevenSoldiers mini-series.

AbortedArc in this series.