History VoodooShark / ComicBooks

*** The plot hinges around Sonic being framed for the death of Princess Sally during a mission in Robotropolis, after Sonic apparently cut Sally's rope while she scaled a building, making Sally fall to her death. Though the readers know Sonic is innocent, almost everyone aligned with the Freedom Fighters thinks he's guilty. The reveal of how Robotnik was able to pull it off was explained when Drago revealed to his girlfriend Hershey the Cat that [[EvilAllAlong he had been paid off]] by Robotnik, and had duped Hershey into wearing full body Sonic costume that had a special eyepiece that made her see Sally as [[TheDragon Snively]], meaning Hershey was [[AccidentalMurder responsible for the deed]]. This reveal made little sense. First of all, there's no explanation given for how Drago convinced Hershey to dress up as Robotnik's most hated enemy in his capital city. Furthermore, the suit itself is implied to be lifelike, something Robotnik has never been shown to make before, and the suit is stated to make anyone viewed at it look like Snively, which raises the questions of why she didn't ''hear'' Sally, or why an eyepiece that made everyone look like someone else would ever be invented. Third, the whole thing [[GambitRoulette had several factors that could have gone wrong]], like Hershey being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or seeing the wrong person. Finally, another part of Robotnik's plan involves him replacing King Acorn with a Auto-Automaton, a lifelike robot duplicate which had been an established part of Robotnik's forces, which just begs the question of why Robotnik didn't just make a Sonic Auto-Automaton instead of the Sonic costume.
*** Sonic eventually runs into Dulcy the Dragon, who realizes he's innocent despite Dulcy not being present during the mission in Robotropolis, because [[LivingLieDetector dragons can tell when a person is lying]] and are incapable of lying themselves. Beyond the fact that this ability had [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands never been mentioned in the comic before]], it raises the question of why no one brought this up when she had earlier met with the Freedom Fighters. Dulcy even gives an "AsYouKnow" to Geoffrey and Knuckles about her ability to sense truth, revealing that the Freedom Fighters already know that Dulcy has this power. So if Dulcy's truth-sense could prove whether Sonic was guilty or innocent without fail, how did no one consider that? The Freedom Fighters might have forgotten about Dulcy's power in the heat of the moment, but the idea that no one would so much as suggest it when Dulcy was physically present creates the Voodoo Shark.
*** Robotnik's plan centers around the Ultimate Annihilator, a DoomsdayDevice capable of [[CessationOfExistence utterly erasing a target from existence]]. At the climax of the story, Robotnik fire the weapon on Knothole Village, enraging Sonic and leading to their final battle, after which the weapon is overloaded by earlier sabotage and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard erases the Doctor himself]], with Sonic also getting hit in the blast. However, we are then shown Sonic coming across Knothole, both looking none the worse for wear. Dr. Quack, the Royal Family's physician, then appears and explains that Snively had reprogrammed the Annihilator to target only Robotnik, [[TheStarscream in order to usurp Robotnik's global empire]]. This raises the question of why Snively ''wouldn't'' want to erase the Freedom Fighters, considering he views them as an enemy and would have to defeat them to secure his power.
*** Sally was meant to be KilledOffForReal, but the higher-ups vetoed it. To get around this, Penders would add a scene of Dr. Quack handing off her death certificate to Robotnik, later explaining at the end that Robotnik, having learned of Knothole's location, had kidnapped Quack's family and forced him to pronounce her dead. In reality, she had been in a coma, and Quack had placed her in a healing chamber disguised as a coffin. This raises the question of why Quack, despite being privy to Robotnik's scheme, never told this to anyone else.

*** Also according to Penders, this was the significance of a line in #157 where Eggman calls him "dear Rotor" and Sonic assumes this means Eggman knows something he doesn't. The implication from that is that [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord Eggman is planning to blackmail Rotor with the fact he's gay]], with Eggman getting Rotor ForcedOutOfTheCloset if he doesn't cooperate. But that brings up the question of why Rotor's homosexuality is worthy of being blackmail material in the first place. Simply put, for this blackmail to work, the Freedom Fighters would not only have to be ragingly homophobic to the point that they'd kick out Rotor for being gay -- a big point of contention all by itself -- but they'd also have to be pretty stupid not to see that [[AppleOfDiscord Eggman would be trying to sow chaos in their team]] with this revelation. What's more, Rotor has been a Freedom Fighter for decades at the time of Eggman's threat; this blackmail would thus also be predicated on the fact that, in that length of time, nobody noticed anything that would suggest that Rotor was gay.

** The Sonic Adventure arc had normal, non-mutated humans appear. Naturally, Ken Penders wanted to make a separation between Overlanders (mutant humans) and non-mutant humans. A simple solution would have been to have an invisible difference, like Overlanders having an extra internal organ or a slightly different bone structure or something you wouldn't notice just by casually looking at the two subspecies. Instead, the "explanation" is that Overlanders have FourFingeredHands, whilst normal humans have five. The problem is that the comics had already introduced Overlanders with five fingered hands, like Arial and Athena. Not only that, but Dr. Robotniks new robot body has five fingered hands, despite it being designed by and for an Overlander. This would eventually be made moot during Ian Flynn's era, where all the Overlanders (including Snively) would be redesigned to have five fingered hands.

*** Post-''Rebirth'', Batman reveals that the Joker, if killed, will exude a variation of the Joker Toxin contained in his heart that will immediately turn anyone nearby into a Joker clone. This is the origin of [[ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal The Batman Who Laughs]]. But that explanation has a few problems. How does the Joker have the knowledge to implement a neuro-toxin that powerful into his heart? If the Joker has the ability to create a variant of the Joker Toxin that powerful, why not mass-produce the stuff? Sure, Joker clones would be unpredictable, but Joker isn't about long-term planning. In fact, Joker once waltzed into the Batcave and killed himself, knowing he could corrupt Batman into becoming another Batman Who Laughs, which was only averted by Alfred resuscitating Joker and Batman managing to get a cure in time. Does every other Bat-villain have similar countermeasures like this? And if they don't, what's Batman's excuse with them? Couldn't Batman kill Joker in a manner that doesn't involve going anywhere near him, like poison gas or launching him into space? Plus, the Joker died at the end of ''ComicBook/JokersLastLaugh'', but no toxin activated before he was resuscitated. So what's stopping Batman killing Joker now that it's been revealed that what Bats was so worried about won't happen? Finally, and perhaps most glaringly: ''how does Batman know that?''

*** The plot of the story arc hinges around Sonic being framed for the death of Princess Sally during a mission in Robotropolis, after Sonic apparently cut Sally's rope while she scaled a building, making her fall to her death. Though the readers know Sonic is innocent, almost everyone aligned with the Freedom Fighters thinks he's guilty. The reveal of how Robotnik was able to pull it off was explained when Drago revealed to his girlfriend Hershey the Cat that [[EvilAllAlong he had been paid off]] by Robotnik, and had duped her into wearing full body Sonic costume that had a special eyepiece that made her see Sally as [[TheDragon Snively]], meaning Hershey was [[AccidentalMurder responsible for the deed]]. This reveal made little sense. First of all, there's no explanation given for how Drago convinced Hershey to dress up as Robotnik's most hated enemy in his capital city. Furthermore, the suit itself is implied to be lifelike, something Robotnik has never been shown to make before, and the suit is stated to make anyone viewed at it look like Snively, which raises the questions of why she didn't ''hear'' Sally, or why an eyepiece that made everyone look like someone else would ever be invented. Third, the whole thing [[GambitRoulette had several factors that could have gone wrong]], like Hershey being in the wrong place at the wrong time or seeing the wrong person. Finally, another part of Robotnik's plan involves him replacing King Acorn with a Auto-Automaton, a lifelike robot duplicate which had been an established part of Robotnik's forces, which just begs the question of why Robotnik didn't just make a Sonic Auto-Automaton.
*** Sonic eventually runs into Dulcy the Dragon, who realizes he is innocent despite not actually being present during the mission in Robotropolis, because [[LivingLieDetector dragons can tell when a person is lying]] and are incapable of lying themselves. Beyond the fact that this ability had [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands never been mentioned in the comic before]], it raises the question of why Dulcy didn't bring this up when she had earlier met with the Freedom Fighters. Dulcy even gives an "AsYouKnow" to Geoffrey and Knuckles about her ability to sense truth, implying that the Freedom Fighters already knew that Dulcy had this power. So if even one person could have offered Dulcy's truth-sense to prove whether Sonic was guilty or innocent, how did no one consider using it? The Freedom Fighters might have forgotten about Dulcy's power in the heat of the moment, but the idea that no one would bring this up when Dulcy was physically present creates the Voodoo Shark.

*** Also according to Penders, this was the significance of a bit in #157 where Eggman calls him "dear Rotor" and Sonic assumes this means Eggman knows something he doesn't. The implication from that is that [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord Eggman is planning to blackmail Rotor with the fact he's gay]], with Eggman getting Rotor ForcedOutOfTheCloset if he doesn't cooperate. But that brings up the question of why Rotor's homosexuality is worthy of being blackmail material in the first place. Simply put, why would the Freedom Fighters even care if Rotor was gay? It's not as if Rotor's sexuality in any way affects his ability to be a GadgeteerGenius or otherwise help his allies stop Eggman, especially considering how long Rotor's been a member of the team. And if the Freedom Fighters did care, how did nobody notice that Rotor was attracted to men for decades? And assuming that Eggman goes through with his threat, would the Freedom Fighters really retaliate against Rotor in such a way that it could seriously affect their team strength? Even if they're prejudiced against gay people (a big point of contention in and of itself), wouldn't it at least cross their minds that Eggman was [[AppleOfDiscord trying to sow chaos in the Freedom Fighters]]?

*** Sonic, after escaping from custody, eventually runs into Dulcy the Dragon, who realizes he is innocent, despite not actually being present during the mission in Robotropolis, because [[LivingLieDetector dragons can tell when a person is lying]], and are incapable of lying themselves. This ability had [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands never been mentioned before]], was rarely brought up afterwards, and raises the question of why Dulcy didn't bring this up when she had earlier met with the Freedom Fighters, since she could have offered this power to prove without a doubt that Sonic was innocent and saved everybody the trouble.

** According to Daredevil #197, the process that was performed on Wolverine was done using incomplete notes, hence forcing a need for Wolverine's healing factor to keep him alive, while Bullseye's process was done by the originator of the method, which did it 'properly' and hence Bullseye does not need a healing factor. What keeps this in Voodoo Shark territory is that the process was performed to let Bullseye move again after he suffered a severe spinal injury that paralyzed him, and if they removed the adamantium, HOW DID BULLSEYE SUDDENLY MAGICALLY HEAL HIS BROKEN BACK?

** ''X-Men Blue: Origins'' redefined Nightcrawler and Mystique's connection for a third time. This time, Creator/ChrisClaremont's original plan to make Mystique Kurt's father (via shapeshifting, using aspects of both of Kurt's original fathers, Charles Wagner and Azazel, for some reason) and Destiny his real mother was made canon. And they explained that the previous explanations for Kurt's parentage were false memories, generated by Charles Xavier's burial of the real story[[note]]At their request, as they were forced to abandon Kurt after being outed as mutants, and didn't want to live with the pain of losing him. Mystique asked for her memories to be buried, rather than erased, giving her a chance to recognize her son if she ever encountered him. Xavier warned that suppression rather than removal could cause her mind to generate false memories around the real. This explains the previous explanations of Kurt's paternity.[[/note]]. Even accepting that convoluted retcon, there's still a problem: Destiny is OLD. Old enough to be the namesake and inspiration for Irene Adler in the Literature/SherlockHolmes books (Which would've made her over 100 years old at the time of her first appearance). And she does NOT have Mystique's powers to keep herself young. Even applying Marvel's sliding time scale and barring another major retcon, either Kurt is FAR older than we've been led to believe (and has Mystique's slow aging) or Irene had Kurt when she was somewhere in her 70s. (And that's alongside Xavier apparently knowing the truth the whole time, adding another line item in the controversial [[IDidWhatIHadToDo "Xavier Was a Bastard All Along"]] ledger)

*** The plot of the story arc hinges around Sonic being framed for the death of Princess Sally during a mission in Robotropolis, after Sonic apparently cut Sally's rope while she scaled a building, making her fall to her death. Though the readers know Sonic is innocent, almost everyone aligned with the Freedom Fighters thinks he's guilty. The reveal of how Robotnik was able to pull it off was explained when Drago revealed to his girlfriend Hershey the Cat that [[EvilAllAlong he had been paid off]] by Robotnik, and had duped her into wearing full body Sonic costume that had a special eyepiece that made her see Sally as [[TheDragon Snively]], meaning Hershey was [[AccidentalMurder responsible for the deed]]. This reveal made little sense. First of all, there's no explanation given for how Drago convinced Hershey to dress up as Robotnik's most hated enemy in his capital city. Furthermore, the suit itself is implied to be lifelike, something Robotnik has never been shown to make before, and the suit is stated to make anyone viewed at it look like Snively, which raises the questions of why she didn't ''hear'' Sally, or why an eyepiece that made everyone look like someone else would ever be invented. Third, the whole thing [[GambitRoulette had several factors that could have gone wrong]], like Hershey being in the wrong place at the wrong time or seeing anybody but Sally. Finally, another part of Robotnik's plan involves him replacing King Acorn with a Auto-Automaton, a lifelike robot duplicate which had been an established part of Robotnik's forces, which just begs the question of why Robotnik didn't just make a Sonic Auto-Automaton.
*** Sonic, after escaping from custody, eventually runs into Dulcy the Dragon, who realizes he is innocent because [[LivingLieDetector dragons can tell when a person is lying]], and are incapable of lying themselves. This ability had [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands never been mentioned before]], was rarely brought up afterwards, and raises the question of why Dulcy didn't bring this up when she had earlier met with the Freedom Fighters, since she could have offered this power to prove without a doubt that Sonic was innocent and saved everybody the trouble.

*** Sally was meant to be KilledOffForReal, but the higher-ups vetoed it. To get around this, Penders would add a scene of Quack handing off her death certificate to Robotnik, later explaining at the end that Robotnik, having learned of Knothole's location, had kidnapped Quack's family and forced him to pronounce her dead. In reality, she had been in a coma, and Quack had placed her in a healing chamber disguised as a coffin. This raises the question of why Quack, despite being privy to Robotnik's scheme, never told this to anyone.

** Rotor's WordOfGay reveal would not have impacted his modern-day depiction; he would've only realized he was gay five years prior to the events of ''Mobius: 25 Years Later''. After he was already married to a woman. Ignoring the fact that [[HaveIMentionedIAmGay having Rotor only be gay in the future means nothing to the readers]], having Rotor find out that he's gay so late in life, and during what's implied to be a long and fulfilling marriage, really strains the credibility of this reveal.

*** The plot of the story arc hinges around Sonic being framed for the death of Princess Sally Acorn during a mission in Robotropolis, after a figure resembling Sonic cut Sally's rope while she scaled a building. Though the readers know Sonic is innocent, almost everyone aligned with the Freedom Fighters thinks he's guilty. The reveal of how Robotnik was able to pull it off was explained when Drago, a member of the allied Wolf Pack, revealed to his girlfriend Hershey the Cat that [[EvilAllAlong he had been paid off]] by Robotnik, and had duped her into wearing full body Sonic costume that had a special eyepiece that made her see Sally as [[TheDragon Snively]], meaning Hershey was [[AccidentalMurder responsible for the deed]]. This reveal made little sense. First of all, there's no explanation given for how Drago convinced Hershey to dress up as Robotnik's most hated enemy in his capital city. Furthermore, the suit itself is implied to be lifelike, something Robotnik has never been shown to make before, and the suit is stated to make anyone viewed at it look like Snively, which raised the question of what would have happened if she saw some else, or why she didn't ''hear'' Sally. Third, the whole thing is [[ComplexityAddiction extremely complicated]] with several factors that could have gone wrong, like Hershey being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Finally, another part of Robotnik's plan involves him replacing the King with a Auto-Automaton, a lifelike robot duplicate which had been an established part of Robotnik's forces, which just begs the question of why Robotnik didn't just make a Sonic Auto-Automaton.
*** Sonic, after escaping from custody, eventually runs into Dulcy the Dragon, who realizes he is innocent. To explain how she could know this despite not being part of the mission, she explains that Dragons can not only tell [[LivingLieDetector when a person is lying]], but are incapable of lying themselves, and thus she not only knows that he's telling the truth, but is also able to explain all this to Geoffrey and Knuckles. This ability had [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands never been mentioned before]], was rarely brought up afterwards, and raises the question of why she never brought this up when she had earlier met with the Freedom Fighters, when she could have offered this power to prove without a doubt whether or not Sonic killed Sally.

*** Sally's death was meant to be [[KilledOffForReal permanent]], however highers up, either from Archie or Creator/{{Sega}} themselves, ultimately vetoed it. To get around this, Penders would add a scene of Quack handing off her death certificate to Robotnik, later explaining at the end the Robotnik, having learned of Knothole's location, had kidnapped Quack's family and forced him to pronounce her dead. In reality, she had been in a coma, and Quack had placed her in a healing chamber disguised as a coffin. This raises the question of why Quack, despite being privy to at least part of Robotnik's scheme, never tried to leak it to anyone, especially since it's highly likely that the latter would have just betrayed him in the end anyways.

*** Also according to Penders, this was the significance of a bit in #157 where Eggman calls him "dear Rotor" and Sonic assumes this means Eggman knows something he doesn't. The implication from that is that [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord Eggman is planning to blackmail Rotor with the fact he's gay]], with Eggman getting Rotor ForcedOutOfTheCloset if he doesn't cooperate. But that brings up the question of why Rotor's homosexuality is worthy of being blackmail material in the first place. Sexual orientation of any member of the Freedom Fighters has never been so much as brought up before, but the implication from Eggman's threat is that the Freedom Fighters would be prejudiced enough to have a problem with Rotor being gay. Simply put, why would the Freedom Fighters even care if Rotor is gay in the first place? It's not as if Rotor's sexuality in any way affects his ability to be a GadgeteerGenius or otherwise help his allies stop Eggman, especially considering how long Rotor's been a member of the team. And if the Freedom Fighters did care, why hadn't this been brought up before now? How did nobody notice that Rotor was attracted to men for decades? And assuming that Eggman goes through with his threat, would the Freedom Fighters really retaliate against Rotor in such a way that it could seriously affect their strength? Even if they're prejudiced against gay people (a high point of contention in and of itself), wouldn't it at least cross their minds that Eggman was trying his hand at BreakingTheFellowship?

*** Batman sometimes claims that if he breaks [[ThouShaltNotKill his one rule]], he won't have the willpower to make himself [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope stop]] killing ''all'' criminals. Thing is, Batman ''has'' killed criminals before -- [[Characters/BatmanRasAlGhul Ra's Al-Ghul]] is a madman Bats is willing to kill, but Ra's has the advantage of having access to Lazarus Pits, so he won't stay dead. So does killing Ra's Al-Ghul somehow not count?

*** Commissioner Gordon is occasionally said to be forcing Batman's hand, declaring that if Bats ever kills the Joker, Gordon will consider Batman just as crazy as all of the other supercriminals and bring him down. The Joker is a notorious CopKiller, and it's not like cops themselves never kill anyone. It's even considered a risk of the job, both in-universe and in real life, that police officers might have to kill people in the line of duty. So the idea that Batman wouldn't get a pass on killing the Joker after all the good Batman's done for Gotham and the Gotham PD seems awfully harsh, especially when Gordon is shown to be on good terms with Batman in all other aspects. It also opens the can of worms of why no cop has ever shot the Joker dead -- Gordon and certain people under his command may be knights in shining armor looking to have him arrested come hell or high water, but Gotham is [[ComicBook/GothamCentral canonically]] the second most corrupt police force in America -- no dirty cops ''ever'' had the desire to shoot the Joker, as a contract kill, [[SelfDefenseRuse ironic use of self defense]] or just being pissed off?

*** Post-''Rebirth'', Batman reveals that the Joker, if killed, will exude a variation of the Joker Toxin contained in his heart that will immediately turn anyone nearby into a Joker clone. This is the origin of [[ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal The Batman Who Laughs]]. But that has a few problems. How does the Joker have the knowledge to implement a neuro-toxin that powerful into his heart? If the Joker has the ability to create a variant of the Joker Toxin that powerful, why not mass-produce the stuff? Sure, Joker clones would be unpredictable, but Joker isn't about long-term planning. In fact, he once waltzed into the Batcave and killed himself, knowing he could corrupt Batman into becoming ''another'' Batman Who Laughs, which is only disarmed by Alfred resuscitating him and Batman managing to get a cure in time. Does every other Bat-villain have similar countermeasures, or does Batman only need a reason to not kill the Joker? Couldn't Batman kill Joker in a manner that doesn't involve going anywhere near him, like poison gas or launching him into space? Plus, the Joker died at the end of ''ComicBook/JokersLastLaugh''. He was almost immediately resuscitated, but no toxin activated. And if ''ComicBook/BatmanThreeJokers'' is in canon, presumably only the surviving Joker has the toxin in his heart. So what's stopping Batman killing Joker now that it's been revealed that what Bats was so worried about won't happen? ''ComicBook/TheJokerWar'' was also originally planned to outright kill Joker off when the original storyline was meant to lead into the now aborted ''5G'', but the toxin was not released in this version of the story either, the transition from Bruce Wayne to Jace Fox as the new Batman was instead blamed on Joker breaking Batman's leg. Of course, since ''5G'' was retooled into ''ComicBook/DCFutureState'', the ending of ''Joker War'' was changed to render the whole issue moot. Finally, and perhaps most glaringly: ''how does Batman know any of this?''

** [=EndGame=], a four-book miniseries [[MilestoneCelebration leading up to issue 50]], has become notorious as a mystery whose plot twists and reveals only raised more questions then they answered.
*** The plot of the story arc hinges around Sonic being framed for the death of Princess Sally Acorn during a mission in Robotropolis, after a figure resembling Sonic cut Sally's rope while she scaled a building. Though the readers know Sonic is innocent, almost everyone aligned with the Freedom Fighters thinks he's guilty. The reveal of how Robotnik was able to pull it off was explained when Drago, a member of the allied Wolf Pack, revealed to his girlfriend Hershey the Cat that [[EvilAllAlong he had been paid off]] by Robotnik, and had duped her into wearing full body Sonic costume that had a special eyepiece that made her see Sally as [[TheDragon Snively]],meaning Hershey was [[AccidentalMurder responsible for the deed]]. This reveal made little sense. First of all, there's no explanation for given for how Drago convinced Hershey to dress up as Robotnik's most hated enemy in his capital city. Furthermore, the suit itself is implied to be lifelike, something Robotnik has never been shown to make before, and the suit is stated to make anyone viewed at it look like Snively, which raised the question of what would have happened if she saw some else, or why she didn't ''hear'' Sally. Third, the whole thing is [[ComplexityAddiction extremely complicated]] with several factors that could have gone wrong, like Hershey being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Finally, another part of Robotnik's plan involves him replacing the King with a Auto-Automaton, a lifelike robot duplicate which had been an established part of Robotnik's forces, which just begs the question of why Robotnik couldn't just make a Sonic Auto-Automaton.
*** Sonic, after escaping from custody, eventually runs into Dulcy the Dragon, who realizes he is innocent. To explain how she could know this despite not being part of the mission, she explains that Dragons can not only tell [[LivingLieDetector when a person is lying]], but are incapable of lying themselves, and thus she she he's telling the truth, but is also able to explain this to Geoffrey and Knuckles. This ability had [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands never been mentioned before]], was rarely brought up afterwards, and raises the question of why she's only now bringing this up when she had earlier met with the Freedom Fighters, when she could have offered this power to prove without a doubt whether or not Sonic killed Sally.
*** Robotnik's plan hinges around the Ultimate Annihilator, a weapon capable of [[CessationOfExistence utterly erasing a target from existence]]. At the climax of the story, Robotnik unleashes the weapon on Knothole Village, enraging Sonic and leading to their final battle, after which the weapon is overloaded by earlier sabotage and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard ends the Doctor for good]], with Sonic also getting hit in the blast. However, we are then shown Sonic coming across Knothole, both looking none the worse for wear. Dr. Quack, the Royal Family's physician, then appears and explains that Snively had reprogrammed the Annihilator to target only Robotnik, [[TheStarscream in order to usurp Robotnik''s global empire]]. This raises the question of why Snively ''wouldn't'' want to erase the Freedom Fighters, considering he views them as an enemy and would have to defeat them to secure his power.

** [=EndGame=] has, especially in the years since it's release, become notorious as a mystery whose plot twists and reveals only raised more questions then they answered.
*** The plot of the story arc hinges around Sonic being framed for the death of Princess Sally Acorn during a mission in Robotropolis, after a figure resembling him cut her rope while she scaled a building. Though the readers know Sonic is innocent, almost everyone aligned with the Freedom Fighters thinks he's guilty. The reveal of how Robotnik was able to pull it off was explained when Drago, a member of the allied Wolf Pack, revealed to his girlfriend Hershey the Cat that [[EvilAllAlong he had been paid off]] by Robotnik, and had duped her into wearing full body Sonic costume that had a special eyepiece that made her see Sally as [[TheDragon Snively]],meaning Hershey was [[AccidentalMurder responsible for the deed]]. This was a shocking reveal... that made little sense when actually thought about. First off all, no explanation for given for ''how'' Drago convinced her to dress up as Robotnik's most hated enemy in his capital, thought's it not out of character for him to have forced her to, Hershey appears to have been completely shocked by what happened. Furthermore, the suit itself is implied to be lifelike, something Robotnik has never been shown to make before, and the suit is stated to make anyone viewed at it look like Snively, which raised the question of what would have happened if she saw some else, or why she didn't ''hear'' Sally. Furthermore, the whole thing is [[ComplexityAddiction extremely complicated]], with several factors that could have gone wrong, like Hershey being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Finally, another part of Robotnik's plan involves him replacing the King with a Auto-Automaton, a likelike robot duplicate which had been an established part of Robotnik's forces, which just begs the question of why he couldn't just make a Sonic Auto-Automaton.
*** Sonic, after escaping from custody, eventually runs into Dulcy the Dragon, who realizes he is innocent. To explain how she could know this despite not being part of the mission, she explains that Dragons can not only tell [[LivingLieDetector when a person is lying]], but are incapable of lying themselves, and thus she she he's telling the truth, but is also able to explain this to Geoffrey and Knuckles, who both thought he was guilty. This ability had [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands never been mentioned before]], was rarely brought up since, and raises the question of why she's only now bringing this up when she had earlier met with the Freedom Fighters, when she could have offered it to prove without a doubt whether or not he really killed Sally.

** ''X-Men Blue: Origins'' redefined Nightcrawler and Mystique's connection for a third time. This time, Creator/ChrisClaremont's original plan to make Mystique Kurt's father (via shapeshifting, using aspects of both of Kurt's original fathers, Charles Wagner and Azazel, for some reason) and Destiny his real mother was made canon. And they explained that the previous explanations for Kurt's parentage were false memories, generated by Professor X's burial of the real story[[note]]At their request, as they were forced to abandon Kurt after being outed as mutants, and didn't want to live with the pain of losing him.[[/note]]. Even accepting that convoluted retcon, there's still a problem: Destiny is OLD. Old enough to be the namesake and inspiration for Irene Adler in the Literature/SherlockHolmes books. And she does NOT have Mystique's powers to keep herself young. Even applying Marvel's sliding time scale, either Kurt is FAR older than we've been led to believe (and has Mystique's slow aging) or Irene had Kurt when she was somewhere in her 70s. (And that's alongside Xavier apparently knowing the truth the whole time, adding another line item in the controversial [[IDidWhatIHadToDo "Xavier Was a Bastard All Along"]] ledger)

** ''X-Men Blue: Origins'' retconned Nightcrawler and Mystique's connection for a third time. This time making canon Creator/ChrisClaremont's original plan to make Mystique Kurt's father (via shapeshifting, using aspects of both of Kurt's original fathers, Charles Wagner and Azazel, for some reason) and Destiny his real mother. And they explained that the previous explanations for Kurt's parentage were false memories, generated by Professor X's burial of the real story[[note]]At their request, as they were forced to abandon Kurt after being outed as mutants, and didn't want to live with the pain of losing him.[[/note]]. Even accepting that convoluted retcon, there's still a problem: Destiny is OLD. Old enough to be the namesake and inspiration for Irene Adler in the Literature/SherlockHolmes books. And she does NOT have Mystique's powers to keep herself young. Even applying Marvel's sliding time scale, either Kurt is FAR older than we've been led to believe (and has Mystique's slow aging) or Irene had Kurt when she was somewhere in her 70s. (And that's alongside Xavier apparently knowing the truth the whole time, adding another line item in the controversial [[IDidWhatIHadToDo "Xavier Was a Bastard All Along"]] ledger)

** ''X-Men Blue: Origins'' retconned Nightcrawler and Mystique's connection for a third time. This time making canon Creator/ChrisClaremont's original plan to make Mystique Kurt's father (via shapeshifting, using aspects of both of Kurt's original fathers, Charles Wagner and Azazel, for some reason) and Destiny his real mother. And they explained that the previous explanations for Kurt's parentage were false memories, generated by Professor X's burial of the real story[[note]]At their request, as they were forced to abandon Kurt after being outed as mutants, and didn't want to live with the pain of losing him.[[/note]]. Even accepting that convoluted retcon, there's still a problem: Destiny is OLD. Old enough to be the namesake and inspiration for Irene Adler in the Literature/SherlockHolmes books. And she does NOT have Mystique's powers to keep herself young. Even applying Marvel's sliding time scale, either Kurt is FAR older than we've been led to believe (and has Mystique's slow aging) or Irene had Kurt when she was somewhere in her 70s. (And that's alongside Xavier apparently knowing the truth the whole time, adding another line item in the controversial [["IDidWhatIHadToDo Xavier Was a Bastard All Along"]] ledger)

*** Commissioner Gordon is occasionally said to be forcing Batman's hand, declaring that if Bats ever kills the Joker, Gordon will consider Batman just as crazy as all of the other supercriminals and bring him down. The Joker is a notorious CopKiller, and it's not like cops themselves never kill anyone. It's even considered a risk of the job, both in-universe and in real life, that police officers might have to kill people in the line of duty. So the idea that Batman wouldn't get a pass on killing the Joker after all the good Batman's done for Gotham and the Gotham PD seems awfully harsh, especially when Gordon is shown to be on good terms with Batman in all other aspects. It also opens the can of worms of why no cop has ever shot the Joker dead -- Gordon and certain people under his command may be knights in shining armor looking to have him arrested come hell or high water, but Gotham is [[ComicBook/GothamCentral canonically]] the second most corrupt police force in America -- no dirty cops ''ever'' had the desire to shoot the Joker, as a contract kill or just being pissed off?

*** Commissioner Gordon is occasionally said to be forcing Batman's hand, declaring that if Bats ever kills the Joker, Gordon will consider Batman just as crazy as all of the other supercriminals and bring him down. The Joker is a notorious CopKiller, and it's not like cops themselves never kill anyone. It's even considered a risk of the job, both in-universe and in real life, that police officers might have to kill people in the line of duty. So the idea that Batman wouldn't get a pass on killing the Joker after all the good Batman's done for Gotham and the Gotham PD seems awfully harsh, especially when Gordon is shown to be on good terms with Batman in all other aspects.

*** Robotnik's plan hinges around the Ultimate Annihilator, a weapon capable of [[CeassationOfExistence utterly erasing a target from existence]]. At the climax of the story, Robotnik unleashes the weapon on Knothole Village, enraging Sonic and leading to their final battle, after which the weapon is overloaded by earlier sabotage and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard ends the Doctor for good]], with Sonic also getting hit in the blast. However, we are then shown Sonic coming across Knothole, both looking none the worse for wear. Dr. Quack, the Royal Family's physician, then appears and explains that Snively had reprogrammed the Annihilator to target only Robotnik, [[TheStarscream in order to usurp Robotnik''s global empire]]. This raises the question of why Snively ''wouldn't'' want to erase the Freedom Fighters, considering he views them as an enemy and would have to defeat them to secure his power.

* When talking about WhatCouldHaveBeen with his run on the ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' comic, several of former writer Creator/KenPenders' explanations for the events in "Mobius: 25 Years Later" come off as only creating more plot holes than they fixed.
** Locke's sickness and death was due to cancer he developed from a bad interaction with his self-experimentation to create Knuckles and the Master Emerald. If that's so, why doesn't Knuckles have cancer, even though he resulted from those same experiments?

** Also according to Penders, this was the significance of a bit in #157 where Eggman calls him "dear Rotor" and Sonic assumes this means Eggman knows something he doesn't. The implication from that is that [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord Eggman is planning to blackmail Rotor with the fact he's gay]], with Eggman getting Rotor ForcedOutOfTheCloset if he doesn't cooperate. But that brings up the question of why Rotor's homosexuality is worthy of being blackmail material in the first place. Sexual orientation of any member of the Freedom Fighters has never been so much as brought up before, but the implication from Eggman's threat is that the Freedom Fighters would be prejudiced enough to have a problem with Rotor being gay. Simply put, why would the Freedom Fighters even care if Rotor is gay in the first place? It's not as if Rotor's sexuality in any way affects his ability to be a GadgeteerGenius or otherwise help his allies stop Eggman, especially considering how long Rotor's been a member of the team. And if the Freedom Fighters did care, why hadn't this been brought up before now? How did nobody notice that Rotor was attracted to men for decades? And assuming that Eggman goes through with his threat, would the Freedom Fighters really retaliate against Rotor in such a way that it could seriously affect their strength? Even if they're prejudiced against gay people (a high point of contention in and of itself), wouldn't it at least cross their minds that Eggman was trying his hand at BreakingTheFellowship?
** According to Penders' original idea, "Mobius: 25 Years Later" is supposed to be the "true" future, and the one where Nicole came from, which doesn't really make that much sense. First of all, the story was built around [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong time needing to be fixed to prevent]] TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and Ken's run ended with Sonic going back in time to do just that. No way you can claim it to be the one true future, in that case. Second, unless Past Nicole was destroyed before the story started -- and WordOfGod confirmed she wasn't -- [[MyFutureSelfAndMe both Nicoles should exist at the same time]]. Thus, the two Nicoles should have the info they need to figure out what happened and how to fix it, but the story claims they don't. It was later retconned that Nicole comes from the same AlternateUniverse that Eggman came from, and that the "X Years Later" Zone was a separate one from both of the others.

*** It was established that Sally married Shadow in this universe too. When Shadow is defeated, it's revealed that Sally still loved Sonic, and only married Shadow to try and tame him. How Sally thought marrying Shadow would placate his tyrannical ambition in the slightest is not explained.

** Clone Saga making yet another appearance: two major recurring figures in the arc were Judas Traveller and Scrier, mysterious entities who seemed to be intrigued by Peter's struggles. Both seemed to possess all manner of [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands strange powers]], with Scrier being able to appear almost anywhere and Judas Traveller seemingly being a RealityWarper, and it sparked a lot of general grumbling from the fanbase who felt they didn't fit well in a ''Spider-Man'' story. Consequently, in ''ASM'' #417, they decided to reveal that, in reality, Judas Traveller was just a mutant with illusion-creating powers, and the feats he'd demonstrated beforehand were actually just him messing with people's perceptions, and Scrier was actually just [[CollectiveIdentity a cultlike organization of men who all wore the same uniform]] and could therefore pretend to appear anywhere. The problem is that neither explanation actually jives with how the characters were presented beforehand. For instance, in one earlier comic, Judas Traveller causes Spider-Man to time-travel to a BadFuture to convince Spider-Man to do something, only to call off the scheme when he discovers that his own powers were causing the problems there--if this is an illusion, then this means that Judas Traveller ''intentionally'' made it look like he couldn't control his own power and thwarted his ''own scheme'' for no clear reason. Meanwhile, Scrier is hard to dismiss as just a bunch of ordinary guys with smoke and mirrors when previous comics had shown him ''walking through walls''.

** Captain America was famously frozen near the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII after falling into the Atlantic Ocean, and was found decades later after [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]] accidentally freed his body from a block of ice. This falls under ArtisticLicenseBiology, with the {{handwave}}d explanation that the SuperSerum in Cap's veins prevented him from freezing to death or drowning. John Ney Reiber and Chuck Austen apparently thought this was too unbelievable, and instead came up with a story revealing that Cap never fell into the ocean, and that he'd actually been put into cryogenic stasis by the government after being given FakeMemories from a virtual reality helmet. Rather than being found when the Comicbook/SubMariner came across an Inuit tribe that was worshiping his body, he was instead found when Namor stumbled upon the abandoned lab where his stasis tube was being held. So apparently, the science behind the Super Serum allowing Cap to survive freezing temperatures was too far fetched, but the government having access to the advanced virtual technology required to recreate realistic fake memories in ''1945'' somehow wasn't? It also raises the question of why the government left Cap to rot in a derelict lab somewhere to begin with, when they clearly thought he was a valuable enough asset to warrant being kept alive and frozen in the first place.

* Speaking of the Flash, ''ComicBook/FlashpointDCComics'' revealed that the timeline changes that happened because Barry traveled back in time to save his mother were the result of the Speed Force causing timeline ripples. However, some readers noted that Nora's death at the hands of Thawne was ''already'' a timeline change, and no timeline ripples occurred then.

*** Post-''Rebirth'', Batman reveals that the Joker, if killed, will exude a variation of the Joker Toxin contained in his heart that will immediately turn anyone nearby into a Joker clone. This is the origin of [[ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal The Batman Who Laughs]]. But that has a few problems. How does the Joker have the knowledge to implement a neuro-toxin that powerful into his heart? If the Joker has the ability to create a variant of the Joker Toxin that powerful, why not mass-produce the stuff? Sure, Joker clones would be unpredictable, but Joker isn't about long-term planning. In fact, he once waltzed into the Batcave and killed himself, knowing he could corrupt Batman into becoming ''another'' Batman Who Laughs, which is only disarmed by Alfred resuscitating him and Batman managing to get a cure in time. Does every other Bat-villain have similar countermeasures, or does Batman only need a reason to not kill the Joker? Couldn't Batman kill Joker in a manner that doesn't involve going anywhere near him, like poison gas or launching him into space? Plus, the Joker died at the end of ''ComicBook/JokersLastLaugh''. He was almost immediately resuscitated, but no toxin activated. And if ''ComicBook/BatmanThreeJokers'' is in canon, presumably only the surviving Joker has the toxin in his heart. So what's stopping Batman killing Joker now that it's been revealed that what Bats was so worried about won't happen? ''ComicBook/JokerWar'' was also originally planned to outright kill Joker off when the original storyline was meant to lead into the now aborted ''5G'', but the toxin was not released in this version of the story either, the transition from Bruce Wayne to Jace Fox as the new Batman was instead blamed on Joker breaking Batman's leg, of course, since ''5G'' was retooled into ''ComicBook/FutureState'', the ending of ''Joker War'' was changed to render the whole issue moot. Finally, and perhaps most glaringly: ''how does Batman know any of this?''

*** Post-''Rebirth'', Batman reveals that the Joker, if killed, will exude a variation of the Joker Toxin contained in his heart that will immediately turn anyone nearby into a Joker clone. This is the origin of [[ComicBook/DarkNightsMetal The Batman Who Laughs]]. But that has a few problems. How does the Joker have the knowledge to implement a neuro-toxin that powerful into his heart? If the Joker has the ability to create a variant of the Joker Toxin that powerful, why not mass-produce the stuff? Sure, Joker clones would be unpredictable, but Joker isn't about long-term planning. In fact, he once waltzed into the Batcave and killed himself, knowing he could corrupt Batman into becoming ''another'' Batman Who Laughs. Does every other Bat-villain have similar countermeasures, or does Batman only need a reason to not kill the Joker? Couldn't Batman kill Joker in a manner that doesn't involve going anywhere near him, like poison gas or launching him into space? Plus, the Joker died at the end of ''ComicBook/JokersLastLaugh''. He was almost immediately resuscitated, but no toxin activated. And if ''ComicBook/BatmanThreeJokers'' is in canon, presumably only the surviving Joker has the toxin in his heart. So what's stopping Batman killing Joker now that it's been revealed that what Bats was so worried about won't happen? Finally, and perhaps most glaringly: ''how does Batman know any of this?''

** Also according to Penders, this was the significance of a bit in #157 where Eggman calls him "dear Rotor" and Sonic assumes this means Eggman knows something he doesn't. The implication from that is that Eggman is planning to blackmail Rotor with the fact he's gay, with Eggman outing Rotor if he doesn't cooperate. But that brings up the question of why Rotor's homosexuality is worthy of being blackmail material. The implication is that the Freedom Fighters are homophobic, or at least would have enough of a problem with Rotor being gay that it would seriously affect their relationship with him. Either way, it raises questions of why the Freedom Fighters would potentially expel Rotor for being gay, much less why they would care enough that it's worthy of Eggman blackmailing him with it.

** Also according to Penders, this was the significance of a bit in #157 where Eggman calls him "dear Rotor" and Sonic assumes this means Eggman knows something he doesn't. The implication from that is that Eggman is planning to blackmail Rotor with the fact he's gay, but that brings up the question of why Rotor's homosexuality is worthy of being blackmail material. The implication is that the Freedom Fighters are homophobic, or at least would have enough of a problem with Rotor being gay that it would seriously affect their relationship with him. Either way, it carries some UnfortunateImplications.
** According to Penders' original idea: ''M:25YL'' is supposed to be the "true" future, and the one where Nicole came from, which doesn't really make that much sense. First of all, the story was built around [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong time needing to be fixed to prevent]] TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and Ken's run ended with Sonic going back in time to do just that. No way you can claim it to be the one true future, in that case. Second, unless Past Nicole was destroyed before the story started -- and WordOfGod confirmed she wasn't -- [[MyFutureSelfAndMe both Nicoles should exist at the same time]]. Thus, the two Nicoles should have the info they need to figure out what happened and how to fix it, but the story claims they don't. It was later retconned that Nicole comes from the same AlternateUniverse that Eggman came from, and that the "X Years Later" Zone was a separate one from both of the others.

* The leadup to DC's ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' revealed that the [[DiedHappilyEverAfter pocket paradise]] which Alexander Luthor had created for himself, Franchise/{{Superman}}-2 and [[Characters/SupermanSuperboyPrime Superboy-Prime]] at the end of ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' [[CerebusRetcon was actually more of a]] PhantomZone, sealed off from the rest of reality by [[MagicalSecurityCam a crystal wall which showed all the DCU's events in real time]]. The crisis proper started when Superboy-Prime, disgusted by [[ComicBook/IdentityCrisis recent events]], punched the wall in frustration, shattering it and freeing himself and the others to try creating a MergedReality, [[WellIntentionedExtremist whether it wanted remaking or not]]. This would have worked eminently well as an allegorical image, but WordOfGod stated that ''the wall was an actual physical representation of the DCU's timeline'', and used the damage caused by Superboy's punch as a catch-all {{handwave}} to explain away some of the event's less explainable facts, most notably [[BackFromTheDead "dead Robin" Jason Todd suddenly waking up]] [[BuriedAlive in his grave]] and Maxwell Lord's completely-out-of-nowhere FaceHeelTurn. The fans were neither convinced nor amused, and [[MemeticMutation "SUPERBOY PUNCHED TIME!"]] became something of a rallying cry. Since then, the editorial staff seems to have realized its mistake, and has been at pains to re-retcon some of it. For example, lines from the ''Batman & Robin'' title strongly suggest that Todd's body was actually rejuvenated in a Lazarus Pit, which makes for a far more palatable explanation. The single comic book issue devoted to explaining this stated that Jason Todd's mind was rejuvenated by a Lazarus Pit... ''after'' Superboy-Prime punched him back to life. Later stories seem to have quietly dropped the Superboy part, and this was helped by ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'' setting a strong precedent for the Lazarus Pit explanation that [[RetCanon it was made canon]] later.

*** Adamantimu being super heavy is another thing that cameout of nowhere. It used to be that one of the reasons they used it was because it was super light. One comic has Wolverine going through a metal detector and the secruity stopping him for having EIGHT pounds of metal hidden somewhere on him.

*** A justification for the above that's often given is to excuse the plates as being made of a fancy sci-fi material that's "light and flexible" to eliminate the problems with moving. However, if this is the case, there's no reason for this fictional material to even need to be plated; as demonstrated with ComicBook/BlackPanther, who wears skin-tight Vibranium fabric that absorbs outside kinetic force, if you're going to go the route of creating a fictional, fantastical material for your armour to be both bullet proof ''and'' easy to move in, there's no reason to not just make it look like fabric.