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Aborted Arc / The DCU

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The DCU

Aborted Arc in this franchise.
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     Comic Books 

Comic Books

The following have their own pages:

  • Many of the ongoing arcs pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths became this by default, since that story rebooted the entire multiverse and condensed every parallel world into one Earth. While certain titles like Batman, New Teen Titans, Green Lantern and Justice League of America were allowed to continue with their respective status quos mostly intact (give or take a few Retcons), most of the DCU was completely rebooted.
  • In 52 the original Booster Gold/Skeets arc involved the duo fixing the time-stream after it had been damaged during the Infinite Crisis. 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 and this leads to the return of Mr. Mind, who had appeared in the early issues.
  • The last Aquaman (1962) 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. (Aquaman (1994) finally revealed it was the birthplace of Kordax.)
  • In a very well-known example, Geoff Johns' Aquaman run ended with a big one. Nereus, the former fiance of Mera (Aquaman's love interest), had tracked down Orm, Aquaman's Anti-Villain 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 Arthur's supposed death.
  • The Rebirth 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 Doomsday Clock with no mention of Tanya, who hasn't been seen since.
  • Forever Evil (2013)
    • Owlman (an evil alternate universe version of Batman) had displayed an obsession with the mainstream universe's Dick Grayson over the course of the series, as his Dick Grayson had died. Despite the Crime Syndicate basically turning Dick into a bomb, after the bomb is diffused, Owlman goes back for Dick and tells him that he still hopes that the two can be partners. Nothing ever comes of this. Owlman instead played a big role in the Darkseid War storyline, and would end up getting killed by Dr. Manhattan as a lead-in to DC Rebirth. The fact that Rebirth was only conceived about a year and a half after Forever Evil ended makes it obvious Owlman was meant to follow-up on Dick. Regardless, it has never been brought up again, and Dick got another Evil Mentor in the form of Raptor.
    • In the tail-end of the story, Bruce's "Injustice League" is separated, and he and 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.
  • 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 Dark Nights: Metal but Despero had nothing to do with that and Adam Strange would later return with no explanation for the time trip.
  • Justice Society of America:
    • In a guest-writer spot, Jerry Ordway, author of Power of Shazam!, seemed to be setting up an ongoing storyline about the Shazam characters; it involved Billy and Mary being depowered (undoing the Audience-Alienating Era where Billy was the wizard and Mary was evil), the wizard acting irrational, and the introduction of the Rock of Eternity's Evil Counterpart, 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 Flashpoint and the New 52 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 Our Worlds at War and Joker's Last Laugh 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 New 52 comics were clearly setting the Daemonites up as the Big Bad of the line, not just in the ex-WildStorm books but with Superman facing them as well. There was even a suggestion that the Demon Knights 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 Golden Age superheroes, it is almost obvious that supporting character Mary Kramer from Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. 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 Geoff Johns' other book, JSA (where she eventually became Stargirl) and Grant Morrison ended up creating a brand new "Gimmick Girl" homage for the Seven Soldiers of Victory (2005) maxi-series.
    • In the other direction, Geoff Johns kept implying that 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 Jeph Loeb's run on Superman/Batman saw a Sequel Hook with 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 Countdown to Final Crisis and Final Crisis, as well as Mxy going into a self-imposed exile in the former until Superman Reborn, this never came to pass.
  • Wonder Woman famously quit the 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 Never Lived It Down).

     Films 

Films

The following have their own pages:

     Live-Action TV 

Live-Action TV

  • The Flash (2014)
    • In The Stinger of "Power Outage", Thawne takes a blood sample from the dead body of Blackout, musing that his ability to drain The Flash's powers will come in handy. However, this is never brought up again for the rest of the season.
    • Captain Cold slowly forming the Rogues has met an abrupt end since he's been transplanted to Legends of Tomorrow. And now, with his death, it seems this arc will never be completed.
    • After the end of the Gorilla Grodd storyline near the end of season 1 General Eiling tells Barry that he is aware of his Secret Identity and that this isn't the last time he sees him. Despite that Eiling has yet to appear in the Arrowverse since said episode.
    • In Season 3, Mirror Master and the Top were meant to be replacements for Cold's gang but given the lukewarm reception of their debut they haven't been seen since.
    • In Season 3, Savitar says to Jesse Quick that he has plans for her when they meet. This is never addressed or brought up ever again. And with Savitar's death/erasure from existence at the end of the season, it's likely that it will never be addressed again.
  • Gotham
    • Subverted for the Wayne Killer arc; it essentially disappears after the first half of Season 1, but returns in full force midway through Season 2.
    • Also during Season 1, the importance of the Arkham deal goes nowhere. Possibly also averted, since the second half of Season 2 focuses heavily on what the corrupt elements in Gotham are doing with Arkham.
    • Late in Season 1, the corrupt members of Wayne Enterprises seem to have something sinister planned for Bruce, given Reggie Payne's line "Now's the time to make a move on the kid." This may be simply misdirection, since what they have planned seems to be merely Bunderslaw telling Bruce the truth about Wayne Enterprises and how powerless he is to stop it.
      • Then its revealed near the end of Season 3, these arcs are revealed to be connected and resolved for the most part by the end of the season.
    • Lee was revealed to be pregnant in the mid-finale of Season 2, many fans were hoping for baby Barbara (aka the future Batgirl), but sadly the baby was miscarried. Then Barbara and Jim have a one night stand in Season 5 that results in her ending up with a One-Night-Stand Pregnancy, the baby named Barbara Lee Gordon and raised by her mother, father, and step-mother (Lee Thompkins).
    • The fifth season was hit hard by this due to its reduced length. The season 4 finale and season 5 premiere hinted that past characters including Freeze, Firefly, and Scarecrow were going to be among the main threats along with new enemies including Man-Bat. None of these characters ever play a key part beyond a mention and the latter doesn't even appear again after season 4.
  • Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman: Towards the end of an arc, the Corrupt Corporate Executive 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.

     Video Games 

Video Games

  • Batman: Arkham Series
    • Batman: Arkham Asylum has a post-credits scene that changes from playthrough to playthrough, with the hand of either Scarecrow, Bane, or Killer Croc emerging from underwater and grabbing a floating crate of TITAN, a chemical formula that drives story of the first two games. While Scarecrow and Bane end up appearing in the sequels and TITAN is at least somewhat relevant to their plots (Bane tries to collect what little remains of it and Scarecrow's new fear toxin is implied to contain the chemical), Killer Croc not only doesn't do anything with TITAN, he barely appears after this game (chronologically anyways); being relegated to a Guide Dang It! cameo in City, and a non-Big Bad role in a DLC sidequest in Knight.
    • The same game also has a set of collectibles that reveal that Quincy Sharp, the warden of the titular asylum, is haunted by the spirit of the facility's founder Amadeus Arkham. The sequel would drop this idea, and Hand Wave the whole thing as Sharp having been hypnotized by Hugo Strange.
    • In Batman: Arkham City, you can find a positive pregnancy test in the Joker's office, indicating that Harley Quinn is pregnant. In the Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC, you find several negative birth control tests and the test's box has been changed to read "may give false positive". Seems the writers got cold feet and quickly backtracked.
    • In Batman: Arkham Origins, it is revealed that the Joker has taken over Black Mask's gang and taken Black Mask hostage. When you rescue Black Mask, he threatens Batman to stay away from the Joker, claims that the Joker is his kill, and runs off when Batman is ambushed by Copperhead. He never follows through on this threat and is never seen again outside of his "most wanted" mission, which involves destroying drug caches and has nothing to do with the Joker. The closest the Black Mask vs Joker plot gets to resolution is in Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, where both Black Mask and Joker are in prison and Black Mask attempts to destroy all of Blackgate, supposedly just to kill the Joker.

     Western Animation 

Western Animation

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