One of the writers of the above events snapped at fans and told them that "You're going to buy the comics anyway!" Probably true, but it increased their disgust.
Go talk to many diehard fans of DC's Young Justice and they'll tell you that Robin, Superboy and Wonder Girl's personalities weren't completely rewritten, and Bart Allen is still Impulse, and the Secret is still... the Secret. And Slobo was never put into any kind of And I Must Scream situation.
The implication that fans of the team are blind by nostalgia and that they should be more welcoming of the brand new changes to the DCU including implying that people who prefer Tim's relationship with Stephanie Brown over Tim's relationship with Bernard are homophobic despite the fact that their main fanbase are more progressive
The main villain, Mickey Mxyzptlk, a Manchild toxic Straw Fan of the original Young Justice series, clearly intending to act as a representation of the fan base of the original series.
Many Hellblazer fans—including, it's becomingly increasingly clear, several of its writers—reject much of Brian Azzarello's run. Constantine was not removed completely from his usual setting simply because Azzarello couldn't be bothered to research that setting. There were no story arcs largely revolving around Prison Rape, no underground redneck pornography rings, and no sadomasochistic gay revenge fantasies designed simply to shock. And that bit with the dog during Azzarello's run didn't happen, either.
As far as some fans are concerned, Jason Todd is STILL DEAD. End of story. For others, Jason Todd is alive and well and while he has his problems with the Bat-Family, never almost shot his "replacement" for vague reasons.
Due to DC writers' efforts to make the Joker "legally" sane via Grant Morrison, the Batman Confidential series, and Joker: Devil's Advocate, it's easy for fans to assume that any previous origin stories told about the Joker through his own point of view (such as in The Killing Joke) are lies, because he tells the story different every time.
While not officially retconned, the old Legends of the Dark Knight clashes horribly enough with the Batman Confidential series to be considered Elseworlds.
Archie Goodwin, who was editor of Legends of the Dark Knight for a while, liked to interpret the title of the series literally; if it happened early in Batman's career but had technology that came out last week, it was because it was an interpretation of something that did happen. Other times, LotDK depicted alternate futures; for many it was the ideal series, where they could write and publish stories that, if well-liked, were canon, and if everyone hated them it hadn't really happened so there were no worries. Some people just like to disregard everything that's happened in the Batman comics since Grant Morrison's "Batman & Son", or even earlier than that, since Infinite Crisis. This might not be apparent to newer readers (newer, in this case, including people who started reading even as far back as the 90s), but compared to some of the most iconic Batman stories of the past it's like none of the current characters have any resemblance to who they're supposed to be. Some readers hoped that after the constant bombardment of crossovers and crises going on at DC right now ends, they'd just reboot the entire DC Universe... and Be Careful What You Wish For.
A lot of Batman: The Animated Series fans like to deny events from the Harley Quinn comics and the official split-up of Harley and the Joker in Batman #663.
The New 52 origin for Mr. Freeze, that Nora Fries is just some poor frozen woman from the 1940s that Victor has an unhealthy obsession with, is roundly despised for needlessly making him Darker and Edgier and ruining the loved backstory that was ported over from the DCAU. Many fans choose to ignore it and just pretend like Freeze is the same as he's always been. Notably, the story debuted in Batman (2011) annual 1 and has never been spoken of since; in fact, All-Star Batman by one of the writers responsible for the New 52 origin has Bruce state that Nora does love Freeze.
Most Green Arrow and Black Canary fans prefer to ignore the Wedding Special and the following Green Arrow/Black Canary monthly title for a variety of reasons:
Chief among these was the fact that the whole wedding plot was the result of Executive Meddling, as DC was desperate to win back the long-time readers who were leaving Green Arrow in droves. The problem was that the rekindling of the relationship was brought about in record time and many of the fans who were reading Green Arrow didn't like how abrupt the romance was. And even the fans who liked the idea of Ollie and Dinah getting back together hated the execution.
Birds of Prey fans consider the book an extended nightmare sequence for Black Canary in which she's been reduced to being Green Arrow's sidekick... AGAIN. Of course both title characters were forced to play second-fiddle to Batman, who appeared as a special guest in most of the issues written by Judd Winick.
Green Arrow fans hated the book because Judd Winick - building upon Brad Meltzer's Archer's Quest story - took as canon the idea that Oliver Queen was a dead-beat dad who abandoned his son Connor at an early age. Ignoring the fact that this totally ignored the continuity put forth in Connor's original origin story, this story raised (and then ignored) numerous logical questions about how Connor's mother was able to track Ollie down to tell him about her pregnancy to ask for help yet never felt compelled to sue him for back child-support.
Connor Hawke, the second Green Arrow and Oliver Queen's son, was reduced to a shadow of himself, with every single unique aspect of his character (vegetarian, devout Buddhist) removed after a bout of Amnesia. He was last seen heading into Comics Limbo, after telling off his father and rejecting every single value he had.
Mia (Speedy II) left home to hook up with a costumed criminal called Dodger, to the protest of no one in the family.
And, of course, there was the fact that Roy Harper's arm was cut off and Lian was violently crushed to death in Justice League: Cry for Justice, which was part of the restructuring of the Arrow Family after the GA/BC marriage failed so dismally. The Rebirth era managed to temporarily fix all of this, though the fallout from Heroes In Crisis would undo a lot of that good will despite ending on a more hopeful note for Ollie and Dinah.
Some fans of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld INSIST that it was cancelled immediately after its original creators left. Any stories tying Amethyst in to Dr. Fate's Lords of Order or the Legion of Super-Heroes are just the work of crazy fanfic writers who like to cross over everything and just happen to be Running the Asylum. What really happened was, Amethyst returned the youngest Princess Emerald to the Gemworld, sent Carnelian to a Gemworld jail, got over Topaz and let him and Lady Turquoise marry, and returned to Earth. And she was never involved in Crisis on Infinite Earths or anything else that had to do with the DC Universe, either.
The events of Teen Titans Go may or may not be in the same continuity as the show, depending on who you ask.
Fans typically ignore the confirmation that Terra is a princess, though some let it pass because it's a part of her comic backstory. Even more (especially people who ship her with Beast Boy) ignore the implication that she has her memories, but just doesn't want to be a super hero.
Many shippers often ignore Sara and Cyborg's romance because Cyborg/Bumblebee is more popular.
Many fans of the third Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, wish that her Face–Heel Turn stint becomes retconned out of existence. Considering it was made by a writer that did no research on the character whatsoever, that is understandable. This has been partially retconned by saying she was under the influence of drugs, but things like "Why does being on drugs teach you Navajo?" still stick out.
Then came her miniseries, Batgirl: Redemption, in which the same writer derailed her character even further. She was established as a character who loved her father, in spite of him putting her through training from hell, and only ran away after having killed someone and reading the fear in his body language. In this series, it turns out she saw him kill people numerous times before her first kill and has always hated him. Another error, since these things were established very early in her series. Fans basically ignore it.
Selina "Catwoman" Kyle's daughter, Helena. Born during the One Year Later gap, the writers initially dropped hint after hint that Helena was Batman's kid (the biggest being her name: The pre-Crisis Huntress was Helena Wayne). Then, as little Helena was turned into the kidnap magnet all children in the DCU seem to become, we find out that Helena's father was Sam Bradley Jr, newly-introduced son of supporting character Slam Bradley. The Bat-Fandom, by-and-large, rejected this reveal as the Editorially-mandatedAss Pull it was, and firmly believed that once little Helena is (inevitably) re-introduced (Selina gave her up for adoption for her own safety), Bruce Wayne will be revealed as her real father. Of course, along came Flashpoint to render the entire issue moot.note Helena Wayne, daughter of Catwoman & Batman, does indeed exist in the New 52! However, she is from Earth-2, not a baby, and is actually a revamp of the original pre-Crisis Huntress.
This is actually given further weight in the favor of the fans, in that prior to little Helena's birth, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle decided to have a night to themselves, without their masks, eventually leading to them taking their relationship to the next step. Selina and Sam had... not quite as much to suggest he was the father by comparison.
Here's another Selina one: Selina has two possible backstories. Either she's the daughter of an alcoholic Irishman with a Cuban mother who committed suicide, or she's the daughter of Carmine Falcone, an Italian mob boss, who was put up for adoption. The Irish/Cuban backstory is technically canon, but an awful lot of fans greatly prefer the other story, as it removes the needless drama from her backstory. Currently, the Falcone connection has been hinted strongly at again, so hopefully that turns out to be true. Who knows, maybe she really is a Falcone but was taken in by her supposed other parents?
Even more Bat-wanking... for decades there has never been an official origin for The Joker, which fits in with his chaotic nature as he himself says he remembers the past differently each time. So you can imagine the fan outcry when in 2006 DC announced they were giving The Joker an official canonical origin story. You can imagine the further outcry when said story turned out to be terrible, reducing The Joker to a generic mafia hitman named Jack whose war with Batman is sparked when he injures Bruce Wayne's girlfriend, Batman retaliates by disfiguring his face with a Batarang, and after he gets the chemical bath, he goes insane when he sees the Moon Rabbit, so that the first word Joker ever says to Batman is "bunny". Fans loathed it, and many refuse to acknowledge the story's existence. It doesn't help that the heavily stylized art greatly contrasts with Brian Bolland's highly praised work for The Killing Joke, so that many found the newer art unappealing. While DC has never officially retracted the story, all subsequent Joker tales have completely ignored it, and Joker's official profile on DC's website currently gives him no definitive origin.
Yet more Bat-wank. A lot of fans - especially female fans - really hated Frank Miller's new origin (accepted by many later writers) for the post-Crisis Catwoman in Batman: Year One, which had her as a sex worker who saw Batman in action and decided becoming a costumed criminal would be more fun and less degrading. However, at least the same number of fans and, by now, probably more, actually like this backstory as portraying her overcoming a difficult early life.
The infamous climax to the Bat-Wedding in Batman #50 hits another sore spot with fans, with some preferring to skip right ahead to the possible future glimpsed in Tom King's 2017 Batman annual, where Bruce and Selina have ironed out all their problems and have grown old together, and considering it canon.
By the time it ended, Tom King's entire run fell into this for a sizable and vocal portion of the fandom. After the aforementioned Batman #50, the run fell into Too Bleak, Stopped Caring which saw Bruce alienate several members of the Bat-Family, often in an abusive manner, causing him to come off as Unintentionally UnsympatheticDesignated Hero. For many, this apexed either with Bruce nearly beating Jason to death in Red Hood and the Outlaws #25 (which, admittedly, was written by the even more hated Scott Lobdell), or with Batman #71, where Bruce smacked Tim in the face after the boy tried to comfort him over Selina leaving him. King tried to explained the last one away with an Ass Pull of Bruce "communicating" to Tim through the blow, but the writing was so contrived that it fell into this trope almost immediately. Anyway, after those two instances, fans outright disowned this version of Batman and refused to acknowledge the run at all except to bash it.
The events in Teen Titans, wherein which two of the Titans' home support, Wendy & Marvin adopt a "Wonder Dog", contemplate their roles in the team and then are attacked by said Wonder Dog (who was really a demonic thing) which leaves Marvin dead and Wendy in a coma. She has since awaken from said coma, only to discover that she is now paralyzed and is being taken under Oracle's wing. Many people prefer that this had never happened. The Wonder Dog thing, not so much the "Oracle's protege" thing, though Oracle's now gone too.
Bob Ingersoll notes that he believes The Question# 26 didn't happen with the well deserved reason of a hero letting someone guilty of "two counts of aggravated murder" free because it's Christmas.
Many fans of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family try to ignore what's happened to them since Infinite Crisis, given that the Marvels have basically been DC's punching bag since then. The series The Trials of Shazam is an especial sore point for the fans. Basically:
The Marvel Family's ancient and powerful mentor, the wizard Shazam, was apparently Killed Off for Real during a battle with the Spectre to further the plans of the villains of Infinite Crisis.
Captain Marvel was Put on a Bus and made caretaker of the Wizard's power, forcing him to spend virtually all of his time sitting inside of a mountain at the heart of time and space and being unable to really interact with the outside world much at all. This was supposedly to let him deal with mystical threats beyond those of normal superheroes, but when a threat comes along that was intended to literally reshape the nature of magic in the DCU, Cap's involvement was essentially to sit down at a table and chat with some people for one issue and do nothing else.
Captain Marvel Jr. was Brought Down to Normal, then underwent The Hero's Journey in an attempt to make him the new Champion during the aforementioned Trials of Shazam. The problem was the series itself was so poorly written that not even the excellent artwork could save it, making everyone doubt that this will be a true case of a Sidekick Graduations Stick. To make matters worse, the idea of the series was to make Junior, now called Shazam, a hero that only dealt with magical problems. The creator actually said "Why is someone with the powers of the gods stopping robbers?".
Mary Marvel was Brought Down to Normal as well, and was not allowed to go on The Hero's Journey that Captain Marvel Jr. did, and instead wound up seeking out Black Adam, both a Fallen Hero and Evil Counterpart of Captain Marvel. She convinces Adam to give her his power, which gives her a brand new tight black costume complete with super-short skirt. Naturally, superpowers taken from someone evil results in Mary having a Face–Heel Turn as she slowly decides that Evil Feels Good, after using her powers to turn two security guards into statues. Eventually she has a This Is Your Brain on Evil realization, rejects her powers, and goes on another quest to atone, eventually getting her original powers back at slightly reduced levels. Then Darkseid shows up and offers her Black Adam's powers again, but clearly this quest has taught her that evil superpowers are bad, accepting power from evil beings is also bad, and so she'll just punch him in the face, right? Nope, instead she apparently suffers a case of Aesop Amnesia, accepts the power and not only becomes evil of her own free will, but goes all out Drunk on the Dark Side, complete with an even more Stripperiffic outfit. Then Countdown to Final Crisis happened, but unlike most of the stuff that was declared Canon Discontinuity, Mary still had to be evil. She was supposed to be merely possessed by a New God, but had to be reworked after Final Crisis was over. So she's now evil because of Black Adam's Bad Powers, Bad People.
JSA writer Geoff Johns, in an effort to Must Make Amends, started trying to undo the above mess, though the results are still mixed. Captain Marvel was Brought Down to Normal by Black Adam and his resurrected wife Isis, leaving him in his mortal form of 16 year old Billy Batson. Billy went to the JSA for help, and when a big fight erupted, was forced to accept Black Adam's power by way of Mary Marvel and joined The Dark Side against his will. Shazam (the wizard, not Captain Marvel Jr.) got better and promptly depowers EVERYONE, leaving Billy and Mary normal teenagers, but thankfully no longer evil (Mary having a My God, What Have I Done? moment) and turning Adam and Isis into stone statues. Shazam then leaves in a huff, ticked that Billy had failed in his position as the new Wizard, that Mary had become evil and that Captain Marvel Jr. was now going around using Shazam's name and using different powers. So to sum up, Captain Marvel Jr. is the only active Marvel Family member at the moment and he's barely shown anywhere at the moment. Is it any wonder fans like to pretend the last several years never happened?
The 2013 revamp of Captain Marvel (now known as Shazam) following the recent DC reboot finally managed to win people back over, to the point that people are eagerly awaiting an ongoing Shazam! series. Some people are still slightly offput by the fact that Billy is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold instead of a straight Pollyana like he used to be for most of his previous history. Or the fact that the Marvel Family had to be torched & rebuilt from the ground up to be salvaged.
Amazons Attack! is often considered one big example of Fanon Discontinuity, but it gets a special notice for the Supergirl and Wonder Girlsubplot, which involved them siding with the genocidal Amazon invaders and being tricked into taking down Air Force One and leading the President into an ambush. As they never faced any consequences for what certainly amounts to high treason (beyond some mild public displeasure), it seems even DC probably considers this Canon Discontinuity.
Captain Atom fans generally disregard the existence of Countdown: Arena, which turned him into the villain Monarch for no particular reason.
Except that he was originally intended to be the Fallen Hero who became Monarch in the original Armageddon 2001 series. The editorial team chaged their mind at the last minute.
Aquaman fans are widely divided over what is and isn't canon, but the two most likely candidates for being ignored are the Erik Larsen run and the whole "Sword of Aquaman" era.
There is a Silver Age story of The Flash that may be one of the earliest examples of Fanon Discontinuity. It retconned in an origin for the Flash involving some kind of tiny genie named Mopee causing that fateful lightning bolt to strike the Flash. It was not labeled as an imaginary story or dream sequence. It was not official Canon Discontinuity until Crisis on Infinite Earths, but was so loathed by fans and creators it was never mentioned again in canon. Amusingly Mark Waid references this in his retelling of Barry Allen's origin, by having Barry analyzing the hallucinogen monoglycetic peptide enzyme or "mopee" the night he was struck by the lightning.
The two different times that Nightwing was raped, once while catatonic, and another time when Mirage was disguised as Starfire.
Fans also prefer to ignore the out-of-character Retcon in the second Nightwing Annual, where Dick, in a flashback, had slept with a recently crippled Barbara, and then proceeded to give her an invitation to his wedding with Starfire.
Some pretend Dick never underwent his highly illogical Trauma Conga Line.
"Ric Grayson" from Nightwing (Rebirth). An arc that was so hated that the following writer had to explain it away as a gambit from the Court of Owls to finally get Dick as one of their Talons.
Many fans tend to ignore the New 52 (which thankfully for them has been replaced by the 2016 relaunch DC Rebirth, which was not a Continuity Reboot and incorporated elements of the pre-New 52 eranote Most notably the Happily Married pre-New 52 Superman and Lois Lane returning with their son Jon being the new Superboy, Wally West (the red-haired one, not his African American New 52 counterpart) returning with the original Titans reforming, Amanda Waller redesigned back as a fat woman, Ted Kord Back from the Dead, though Barbara Gordon is still Batgirl etc. and becoming more Lighter and Softer than the New 52) for its Darker and Edgier tone and Whichever Characters Our Writers Like Best How the Writers Want Them by declaring that:
Cyborg is not an insanely important member of the League that WE COULD NOT DO WITHOUT!
Dick and Damian aren't being split up from being partners.
The Teen Titans have not been screwed over entirely.
Wally West is still the Flash, not Barry Allen. And he's definitely not a teenage half-black punk with a criminal record (which later became true with DC going the Decomposite Character route)
Some will, however, admit that ditching the costumes that look like they have underwear over leggings (like Superman and Batman) for costumes without that feature is a good thing.
Some think the new look is worse, particularly on Superman, whose revamped costume is jeans, T-shirt with the Kryptonian logo, and cape. However that is only his first costume, in a comic set at least five years before the rest of the new DCU. His real costume is the one seen in Superman and Justice League - you know, the really ugly one.
Harley's Stripperific costume had an extreme backlash. It seems no one likes it, saying that they completely missed the point of her persona and that it doesn't work realistically for an acrobat like her. The costume was just the first and most general one. More specifically, Harley is NOT just the latest in a line of "Harley Quinns" that the Joker creates and kills whenever he gets fed up with them. Also, Harley did NOT kill hundreds of people in cold blood, and For the Evulz, with exploding hand-held video game machines.
Supergirl's costume faced loud backlash for the odd design choices, notably the cut-out knees on the high boots, the strange red patch on the crotch that almost evokes the image of panties but just looks off, and the general armoured look that, like Superman's costume, doesn't really make much sense. Kara wore that costume for five years, but before Supergirl (Rebirth)'s first issue she had replaced it with a version of her classic costume, and everyone acted as she always wore her current outfit.
Supergirl fans refuse to acknowledge the existence of the H'el on Earth crossover and its sequel, wherein was Kara stupidly and easily duped by an obvious villain into furthering his goals.
As far as people who became Supergirl fans from the mid-2000's onward are concerned, Supergirl is Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El, and her increasingly weird and convoluted proxies don't exist. DC ended validating their views by going out of their way to give Post-Flashpoint Supergirl Pre-Crisis Kara's origin, and declaring her heroic sacrifice against the Anti-Monitor is remembered and honoured, as refusing to acknowledge her replacements' existence.
Superman (1939) issue #415: "Supergirl: Bride Of — X?" was hated by everyone, feeling that introducing a never previously mentioned -and creepy-looking- husband which Supergirl had somehow forgotten about, right after her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths, was an extra insult to the character and her fans. No one considers it canon anyway, since it was a time of way out stories as writers were cut loose to write any story they wanted before the reboot.
Amanda Waller is still a fat woman.
Beast Boy and Raven lived happily ever after after finally reconciling in the final pre-flashpoint issues of Teen Titans. After a period where they were first strangers in New 52 and teenage besties in Rebirth, they finally resumed their relationship in Titans Academy
Starfire still has her memory. Which turned out to be true.
Roy Harper is not friends with Jason Todd, retains a good relationship with Ollie, his daughter Lian is alive and definitely does not wear a trucker hat
Well let's just say Stormwatch/The Authority fans were not too pleased with the redesigns... is that a SPIKE? On his CHIN??? Not to mention Stormwatch fans were less than amused to learn that their team's more popular spin off had taken over their comic's name and the few heroes who have shown up in cameos are apparently now evil.
Almost everybody was pissed when Jim Starlin took over the book, used a Negative Space Wedgie to retcon out the old team and reintroduce a new one that was just all over the place.
The small but loyal fandom of the Blue and Gold were starting to accept that Ted Kord was dead and possibly never coming back (but come on; this is comics), but being told Ted was never the Blue Beetle caused an outrage. To a lesser extent, there was Booster's new costume lacking the beloved Shiny Golden Ass.
Wonder Woman was still crafted from clay by her mother Hippolyta and is not the daughter of Zeus. The only thing Zeus did was strike her clay form with lightning to give it life, if that.
Superman still has his adoptive parents alive, and is still Happily Married to Lois Lane. The events of Rebirth fixed the latter, with Clark and Lois reunited, and also given a son, Jon, as well
A good number of Batwoman fans refuse to accept anything from Marc Andreyko's run, which began after the contentious departure of the original creative team and featured such things as the title character undergoing Badass Decay, breaking up with her fiancée, becoming a vampire's sex slave, and fighting enemies in space.
Though DC Rebirth won some back, it lost it with Heroes in Crisis and Year of the Villain which saw the universe return to grimdark edginess and many beloved returns evaporating. Though, Dark Nights: Death Metal ends with an anti-crisis that undoes all changes to DC history, thus meaning that previous continuity is all now back. Naturally, fans are now pretending that the ten years between the Flashpoint and Death Metal storylines never happened, which is made easier by how much the status quo has reset to something that could easily be seen as picking right up from where they left off. About the only exceptions is a few Ensemble Dark HorseBreakout Character types introduced during this time, such as Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz, Wallace West and Avery Ho, Jon Kent/Superboy, etc. The fact these characters can easily fit into the old continuity without changing anything is probably a big reason for that.
There are those who prefer to assume the original Crisis on Infinite Earths never came along to trainwreck all previous DC continuity.
Many fans of the New Gods mythos like to think Death of the New Gods by Jim Starlin did not happen. Starlin pretty much ignores all but the basics of the New Gods except for what he himself wrote. He destroyed Mr. Miracle's personality from what it has always been. He turned The Source into an childish disco ball who lacks the wisdom one would expect and is outsmarted by Darkseid and never behind the Source Wall. And to top it off the final battle between Orion and Darkseid, the two most important New Gods, occurred in another comic.
Heroes in Crisis was tossed out of continuity by the vast majority of DC fans due to its awful depiction of the mentally ill, being another Anyone Can DieCrisis Crossover event a la Identity Crisis, killing off several beloved characters, almost all the characters either being horribly mischaracterized or holding firmly onto the Idiot Ball, and turning Wally West of all characters into a suicidal accidental mass murderer due to an Ass Pull regarding his powers, with issue 9 landing him in jail. To say fans have been unhappy with the series from start to finish is a massive understatement. As of Flash 761, it was retconned as a result of Thawne and the Negative Speed Force manipulating Wally and other Flash family members to behave out of character. Then it was further retconned in the 2021 Flash Annual, which revealed that a burst in the Speed Force, caused by the presence of Savitar, killed the heroes at Sanctuary, and Wally had nothing to do with it. Roy Harper, one of the casualties, is now back from the dead as well. Even further retconned with Flash 792 revealing that all of the Sanctuary casualties were pulled into a point beyond space and time (sans Solstice for some reason)
with the well deserved reason of a hero letting someone guilty of "two counts of aggravated murder" free because it's Christmas.