History SeriesContinuityError / ComicBooks

!!!'''Franchise/TheDCU:'''
* Ed Brubaker's run on ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'' reintroduced Holly Robinson, Selina's room-mate and sex-work protegee from ''Batman: Year One'' and ''Her Sister's Keeper'', as her new sidekick. Unfortunately, Holly had previously been killed off, after being given completely different CharacterDevelopment as a mob wife, in a story from the ''Action Comics Weekly'' anthology series. Rather than make any attempt at {{Retcon}}, Brubaker simply acknowledged the error in a short LeaningOnTheFourthWall comedy piece included in the ''Catwoman: Secret Files and Origins'' one-shot. He admitted both in the piece and in interviews that he simply hadn't known about Holly's death, given the relative obscurity of the comic where it happened. The intervening ''ComicBook/ZeroHour'' CosmicRetcon provides an easy in-universe explanation for fans who really want one.
* ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}'': There are a number of these scattered throughout the tie-in issues, mostly fairly minor, but they do stand out to those familiar with the time period in question.
** Captain Marvel is referred to as "Shazam" several times, despite the fact that his name was not changed to Shazam until the ComicBook/{{New 52}}.
** Both pre-Crisis [[Franchise/TheFlash Barry Allen and Jay Garrick]] refer to the Speed Force, something neither of them should have any knowledge of since the concept wasn't created until the post-Crisis Wally West Flash series. Barry's opponent, Tangent Comics Superman, mentions this.
** 90s hook-handed Aquaman is pining for Mera, but the two of them were separated and not on good terms at all during that time period.
** Kyle Rayner's ring talks to him and welcomes him back to the Franchise/GreenLantern Corps, but the Corps did not exist when he first became a GL, and it rarely spoke to him, if ever. He shouldn't know anything about Qward either, having not encountered the Weaponers that early in his career.
** Kyle views Hal and Parallax as two separate entities. This is consistent with the Creator/GeoffJohns retcon that made Parallax a fear entity that possessed Hal, but before the retcon, Hal was Parallax. Note that the fear entity never appears or is referenced, and Hal's sanity while depowered is consistent with the post-Zero Hour zero issue of Green Lantern, so this may not be a continuity error so much as an attempt to remain mostly consistent with the past while keeping the retcon in mind.
** The summary of the events of Emerald Twilight is wrong. Hal didn't kill all the other Green Lanterns. He defeated them and took their rings, but he left them enough power to survive. And indeed, most of them turn up later on during Geoff John's run and are collectively known as the Lost Lanterns. Similarly, Hal didn't kill the Guardians either. They pooled their power and put everything they had into Ganthet, who created a ring for Kyle. Hal absorbed all the power of the central power battery into himself.
** In "Batman and the Outsiders", Commissioner Gordon has red hair. He should have white hair and a white moustache in any pre-ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}} appearance, with the exception of stories like [[ComicBook/BatmanYearOne Year One]] that are set in the past.
** Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} is wearing the wrong costume for her death scenes from ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths. Also, her father Zor-El didn't work on the Phantom Zone projector.
** [[http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2015/04/matrix-called-kara.html Matrix is called Kara by Lex]].
** Superwoman of Earth-3 is referred to as ComicBook/LoisLane by several of her fellow Crime Syndicate members. Pre-Crisis Earth-3 ComicBook/LoisLane was a separate character from Superwoman.
** Pre-Crisis Captain Atom is referred to as Nathaniel Adam -- the name of the Post Crisis Captain Atom -- rather than Allen Adam.
** Parallax focuses his power through a ring when he kills Deimos. Parallax has internalized the power of the Main Power Battery and doesn't use a ring. The tie-in issues depict this correctly, it's just the main series that gets it wrong.
** The ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperheroes'' that battles Earth-4's Charlton heroes seems to be some weird mix of the post-Zero Hour Legion and the pre-Zero Hour temporal duplicates of the original Legion that wore very similar costumes (Batch [=SW6=], who starred in ''Legionnaires''). It includes the characters from ''Legionnaires'' who weren't duplicates of existing characters like Computo and Catspaw, neither of whom appeared in the reboot, but it also includes Timber Wolf and Princess Projectra, neither of whom were in ''Legionnaires'' (their [=SW6=] selves were killed during the Dominator war) and both of whom look like their reboot selves (particularly obvious in Jeckie's case, since it means she's a giant snake). Characters who were dead/radically altered by the end of the reboot aren't, and everyone with different costumes in the two versions is wearing the [=SW6=] version. Except Element Lad, who's wearing his pre-Zero Hour ''adult'' self's costume.
** The status quo of the West family is that of the final issues of Wally's own series. This changed dramatically in ''Flash: Rebirth''. The idea that pre-''Flashpoint'' Gotham was taken before Barry's return (i.e. three years before ''Flashpoint'') doesn't jibe with any of the other stories.
** The beginning of Issue 6 is baffling when it comes to the continuity of the main DCU. You have the Justice League talking to the Justice League United (which formed after ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil''). Okay. Telos, the planet, is being transported into the universe, which has drawn attention of several parties. You have the Oracle being from the Franchise/{{Superman}} books, Nix Uotan from ComicBook/TheMultiversity, and Darkseid taking notice. That's all fine. But you have Jediah Caul and K'rot from the short-lived ''Threshold'' book[[note]]which means this takes place before the finale of said book since Caul ''died'' at the end[[/note]], the Red Lanterns[[note]]which is impossible, since the Corps was slaughtered/depowered shortly after Kara left their ranks; with little time for her to join the JLU '''and''' happen before Atrocities and ''Godhead''[[/note]], and the ''freaking'' Guardians of the Universe[[note]]who are way beyond dead at this point, unless the Templar Guardians decided to take up their robes at this point... whenever this happens[[/note]]. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg And Blue Beetle is there too, still stuck in space apparently.]] It also might have a continuity hiccup with itself, as the Barry Allen that ComicBook/{{Earth 2}} Jay Garrick meets implies he was grabbed after meeting Psycho-Pirate from ''Crisis On Infinite Earths'', which flies in the face of the Barry Allen from his own tie-in, who was taken when he first left the future to say hi to his friends, before he was set on his death course, and was stuck under a dome for a year.
* The ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperheroes'' ''Comicbook/FinalCrisis'' tie-in ''Legion of Three Worlds'' mostly does a good job in keeping track of the Reboot, Threeboot, and Retroboot Legions. However, the flashback to their ForgottenFirstMeeting is meant to show the Legions as they were in their respective early days, and while it gets most of them right, it shows Reboot Brainiac 5 looking the same as he does in the "present"; short hair, Brainiac-logo forehead disks, and a costume with black sides and a purple front. In the early post-Zero Hour years he had shoulder lenghth hair, no disks, and his costume colours were reversed. And the scene also shows Kid Quantum I and Leviathan, who both died before Brainy got his cosmic makeover in ''LSH'' #104.
* The entire existence of ComicBook/WonderGirl resulted from such an error. ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' originated as a team-up of [[KidSidekick the major DC heroes' sidekicks]]. But it was completely forgotten by the writers that Wonder Girl ''wasn't'' Franchise/WonderWoman's sidekick, she was Wonder Woman herself as a teenager. When somebody remembered this fact, the {{retcon}} to explain it gave the Titans' version of Wonder Girl her own identity as Donna Troy and (eventually) [[ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy possibly the most convoluted history of any fictional character, ever]].''
* In ''Comicbook/BrianMichaelBendisSuperman'', Daily Planet reporter Robinson Goode used to work for the Star City Sentinel. Problem - in the post-''Flashpoint'' DCU, there ''is'' no Star City; it was briefly used as a [[PleaseSelectNewCityName new name]] for Seattle in the ''Comicbook/GreenArrowRebirth'' storyline "Rise of Star City", but then it reverted back to being Seattle.
* ''ComicBook/TalesFromTheDarkMultiverse'':
** In the version of ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'', it's stated that the reason things ended in the original story like they did is because Sinestro shared the White Lantern power -- except that's not what happened. What happened in the original story was Nekron ripped it from him and it was Hal who took it and shared it. Likewise, it treats the Black Lantern infection like a typical zombie plague and the members of the Black Lantern Corps as the actual person reanimated when in reality one usually becomes a Black Lantern with an existing member ripping out that person's heart and they're actually a soulless corpse posing as the original, not that person themself reanimated.
** The version of events in the ''ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal'' one-shot shows what'd happen if this went wrong -- only the premise as the normal DC multiverse meeting the Dark Multiverse for the first time -- but it's all the Dark Multiverse. That said, [[spoiler:the ending of ''Metal''[='=]s sequel ''ComicBook/DarkNightsDeathMetal'' turned the DC Multiverse into an Omniverse, so it's possible to reconcile that problem now.]]

!!!'''Franchise/MarvelUniverse:'''
* In an issue of ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'', speedster Northstar is suffering from a disease since Pestilence, that storyarc's bad guy, kissed him. Problem is, said kiss won't happen until the following issue. (Northstar's illness was originally intended to be AIDS, because, you know all gays have AIDS, and you can get it from a kiss on the forehead).
* In Peter David's ''Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards'', the Egyptian Sphinx is briefly possessed and moves around like a living creature. This ignores previous depictions of the Sphinx as the disguised time ship of Kang, who was disguised as Rama-Tut. In an interview, Peter David said he was aware of the previous stories, but chose to focus on his own depiction for the sake of this story.
* The original ''ComicBook/ContestOfChampions'' had its plot resolved by the writer ''forgetting what hero was on what team''! The event had 12 heroes seeking four pieces of an item and the team with the most won. It was down to The Grandmaster's team of [[ComicBook/AlphaFlight Sasquatch]], ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and [[OriginalCharacter Blitzkrieg]] and The Unknown[[spoiler:/Death]]'s team of [[Franchise/XMen Storm]], [[OriginalCharacter Shamrock and Collective Man]]. It's down to Captain America and Shamrock as they find the piece needed. Cap makes the lunge, but Shamrock's luck powers allow her to snatch it for the win for the Grandmaster... but, wasn't it said that Shamrock was part of ''The Unknown''[='s=] team? Yes, the writer ''and'' editorial didn't spot this gaff and allowed it to be completed as is. If not, it would have been a tie.
* ''Comicbook/AvengersDisassembled'':
** ComicBook/DoctorStrange states near the climax that "there is no such thing as chaos magic." The good doctor has ''used'' chaos magic before. Using the terms from the old ''TabletopGame/MarvelSuperHeroes'' RPG, his ArchEnemy has been a chaos magic master for going on forty years now. Kind of impressive for magic which doesn't exist, right? Then when ComicBook/ScarletWitch returned to the team during ''Comicbook/UncannyAvengers'', her abilities ''were explicitly described as "Chaos Magic" once again''.
** For that matter, the story ignores that the ComicBook/ScarletWitch already regained her memories of her children, whereas the story treats it as a recent development as an excuse for her to go crazy.
* When the heroes who were presumed killed by ComicBook/{{Onslaught}} returned at the end of ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn'', ComicBook/SheHulk and ComicBook/TheInhumans were among those who made the jump back to the normal Marvel Universe--despite She-Hulk not fighting Onslaught and Crystal being the only one of the Inhumans who did.
* Creator/StanLee wasn't good at remembering names. In some early issues of ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'' that he wrote, the protagonist Bruce Banner was suddenly called [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2005/11/03/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-23/ "Bob Banner"]]. Lee [[HandWave handwaved]] the error by revealing that his full name is Robert Bruce Banner.
** This one is better remembered than it should be because subsequent Marvel writers, particularly in the editorial DorkAge of the 70s, liked to cite it as a "nobody's perfect" precedent when fan letters called them out on their own heinous continuity errors. Marv Wolfman was probably the worst about this; he pre-emptively invoked it in an editor's note attached to a Dracula comic that he '''knew''' was going to tie the timeline of ''ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula'' into a Gordian Knot.
* Marvel's ''Legion of Monsters'' vol. 2 by Dennis Hopeless and Juan Doe completely depends on continuity errors for its story to work:
** The plot hinges on the fact that ComicBook/{{Morbius}} was supposedly never bitten before; [[spoiler:being bitten by a monster in Monster Metropolis started the spread of the virus that lay dormant in his blood]]. But he ''was'' in fact bitten before, by the vampire Hannibal King, no less.
** In the flashbacks that take place in 1973 Morbius is shown surprised by the existence of pacifist vampires, but by that time he didn't even believe vampires or the supernatural existed at all, thinking they were fictional. The same goes for Dracula, who the flashbacks show he met.
** The 1973 flashbacks make it seem Morbius had been a vampire for several years by that point and had been trying to cure himself for a long time, even though he was only introduced a year and a half before (in October 1971). The only way this can be explained is if Morbius became a vampire somewhere in the '60s, but this only further enhances the problem (see the ''Legion of Monsters'' entry on the ComicBookTime page for more explanation on this).
** Morbius is wrongfully described as "an MD with expertise in supernatural medicine". In a 1986 comic--which takes place later in the continuity--he explicitly says the supernatural remains ''outside'' his area of expertise.
* The ''ComicBook/{{Marvel 1602}}'' "Fantastick Four" sequel miniseries has Shakespeare get inspired by a lady when she yells "And damned be he who first cries 'hold, enow!'", causing him to start looking for a pen, and culminating in her forming a relationship with Shakespeare and writing his plays for him. All well and good as history goes in these comics, given that in the continuity in question continental North America is overrun by dinosaurs, but it does have one minor problem. The line in question had already been written into ''Macbeth'' in-universe. In fact, it was one of the first lines spoken in the series.
* Chelsea Cain's ''{{ComicBook/Mockingbird}}'' retcons the eponymous character's origin to have her obsessively try to get herself powers as a kid, including trying to mimic Spider-Man's spider bite origin. Ignoring the fact that Spider-Man's origins are usually not public knowledge, this goes against the fact that Spider-Man has been established to have only been working as a hero in-universe for 15 years, and thus could only be a known figure when Bobbi was in her mid-teens, at the earliest. In fact, she would be his age or even a couple of years older. It becomes even more complicated when the two are the same age, and even briefly date. This creates a scenario where a child Bobbi is trying to copy a hero that didn't even exist yet.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Peter Parker's middle name has been repeatedly stated as "Benjamin", after his uncle. However, one comic short story co-written by Creator/StanLee himself has Mary Jane call him "Peter Q. Parker". Peter was also Peter ''Palmer'' in at least one early comic.
** ''ComicBook/UntoldTalesOfSpiderMan'': In the final issue of Untold Tales of Spider-Man #25, Liz Allan and Flash Thompson are at Empire State University as part of Midtown High's week-long visit to colleges around the city. It implied that the two of them are still friends and keep in contact even those they will not go to the same college. In Amazing Spider-Man #28, Liz cut Flash and all their other friends out of her life because she was ashamed of the person she was in high school, a ditzy blonde, and plan to move on with her life.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour''
** The very first story arc established Reed and Sue as 21 years old when they first became superheroes. Later issues would inexplicably claim they were no older than 18 at the present.
** [[spoiler:The Maker[=/=]Reed Richards shows to Falcon how he keeps his intellect always a few steps ahead of The Children by elongating his brain]]. That shouldn't be possible or even necessary. To elaborate: in the first run of the series, Sue ran some tests on Reed and found out that his organism was completely mutated; he became a worm-like being with just a core, no organs other than that. And later, Sue's mother remarked that Reed was getting smarter by the minute due his mutation. So [[spoiler:in the span of a thousand years Reed would be evolving his genius naturally, and there would be no brain for him to elongate]]. Perhaps he still retains at least a physical brain of some sort and [[spoiler: the helmet makes the process of becoming getting smarter more efficient and guided rather than random?]]
* In issue #5 of ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'', imagery of the Holocaust is shown alongside Magneto's speech about the genocides and wars humanity has caused, also noting that he lost family to them. On the other hand, issue #26 depicts a flashback with him mentioning his wealthy ''American'' family, with whom he is no longer connected. Then in ''ComicBook/UltimateOrigins'', it's shown that neither applies: Ultimate Magneto is the son of two ''Canadian Weapon X agents'', both of whose deaths he caused, and was a young man in the '80s to boot.
* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': In the first volume, Thor mentions fighting Loki. However, Volume 2 and Ultimate Comics: Thor show that Loki had long been imprisoned in the Room with No Doors and only just escaped in Ultimates 2. This implies that Thor was joking with Nick Fury.
* ''[[ComicBook/XForce Uncanny X-Force]]'' is running right into this.
** The opening page describes Psylocke at age 16, living alone, broke, modeling and nearly going insane when her powers activate. Problem is, Betsy comes from a privileged upbringing, she was an adult charter pilot when her powers began to develop, she wasn't traumatized by them, and oh yeah, ''she wasn't Asian''.
*** This may have been an intentional {{Retcon}} to try to do a CanonDiscontinuity on the awkwardness of Psylocke being one of Marvel's most prominent ethnically Japanese characters when she was originally white and changed ethnicity due to a body swap.
** Later in the issue, ComicBook/{{Storm}} asks Psylocke if she thinks Bishop is capable of killing a little girl. ''Literally the last time the X-Men saw him'', Bishop had murdered a team of Sentinel pilots, thrown the Sentinels at a group of mutant students, and put a bullet in Professor Xavier's head, all to [[MoralEventHorizon murder an infant girl]]. And when that didn't work he seeded the planet with nuclear weapons that are ''still'' set to cause an apocalypse in about fifty years' time. [[SubvertedTrope However]], Psylocke reminds her immediately that he tried to do it before.
* ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'': The Sabretooth that died in ''Wolverine #55'' was a clone, and the real Sabretooth was in hiding. So what was the deal with ''Wolverine Goes to Hell'', where Wolverine beheads Sabretooth's soul and leaves it unable to return to the living?
** Clones of Sabretooth tend to have their HealingFactor go haywire, hence Mr Sinister not cloning Sabretooth along with the rest of the Marauders. Romulus creates several clones of Sabretooth without mentioning this cloning problem, and we don't know how long they can stay alive.
* ''ComicBook/XMen''
** In the final issue of ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'' while performing a reverse of their usual FastballSpecial on Colossus, Wolverine tells him to put down Phoenix for good, to which Colossus thinks that killing "is something I have never done before." However the arc immediately preceding the saga had Colossus be the one to kill Moira [=MacTaggert=]'s insane RealityWarper son Proteus[[note]]Though Proteus later turned out to have survived, both readers and the X-Men themselves had no reason to believe otherwise at the time[[/note]].
** In ''X-Men'' #21, Kwannon, or Revanche, returns in Psylocke's original body, claiming to be the true Elizabeth Braddock, however, Beast and Psylocke refer to her as Revanche before she's introduced herself. Could be handwaved as psychic prescience, but there's no explanation presented in the story.
** In ''Uncanny X-Men'' #178, ''X-Men'' #93, and ''Rogue'' vol 3, flashbacks show Rogue leaving her family and living with Mystique. While living together, Rogue and Mystique make physical contact, implying her powers had not yet manifested. ''X-Men Unlimited'' #4 shows Rogue leaving her family because of her powers activating, sending a boy into a coma, which doesn't explain why she can physically contact Mystique later. In addition, this issue shows the Mississippi River having waterfalls, which are not shown to exist in any other story.
** ''ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}'' reveals the X-traitor message that motivated Bishop to travel to the past was created from Professor Xavier becoming Onslaught, however, the wording of the message is different from the original story in order to make the reveal more plausible.
** ''The Twelve'' revisits the The Twelve storyline introduced in ''ComicBook/XFactor'', but the list of twelve mutants differs from the original story. Possibly handwaved as the Master Mold malfunctioning.
* ''Franchise/XMen'' and ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' claim Mojo and Rachel Summers are unique beings in the multiverse with no alternate counterparts, though there are stories with alternate versions of Mojo and Rachel Summers.