The best retcon in the history of comic books

If you follow news about comic books, no doubt you've heard about the "Brand New Day" reboot Marvel Comics is performing on Spider-Man. Spidey's beloved Aunt May is in a coma, on the verge of death and, in order to bring her back, the Web Slinger shakes hands with the devil--in the shape of the Mephisto.

Mephisto makes good on his part of the deal, but in the process Peter Parker's life has been reset. He's no longer married to Mary Jane Watson, he's a 20-something bachelor living with his aunt. Essentially everything's back to the way it was back in the Stan Lee-John Romita days or, probably what Marvel is really after, just like it is in the Spider-Man movies.

It all happens in Amazing Spider-Man 545 and there's loads of Web and mainstream media press about it. And, naturally, lots of longtime fans aren't too happy about it.

Me, I don't really care. I haven't read a new Spidey comic in years and years, so I'm not vested in all that continuity that's being wiped out. But I do get frustrated with all the hype and controversy these retcons/reboots generate. I just don't see the point (well, I do see the point of publishers wanting to generate sales with the cheap stunt of arbitrarily changing the status quo from time to time).

Why not just continue working with what you have? Quit playing with the pieces of the past, and tell Spider-Man stories. Don't like some aspect of past continuity? Ignore it. But why bother confusing new and old readers by relentlessly tinkering and finding silly ways to change the past or wipe it out?

These situations always make me think of what I think is the best, most effective, example of comics creators resetting a character and series: That of the 1970s Batman.

After years of campy, silly plots that both inspired and were inspired by the 1960s "Batman" TV series, it was felt Batman should be brought back to basics: Make him a dark avenger of the night again. Dispense with Robin and all the Bat gimmicks. Make Batman a non-powered guy in a costume with nothing to fall back on but his wits.

And, you know what? Writer Frank Robbins and artist Irv Novick made the change in five pages of an in-continuity issue: Batman #127 in 1969 with the story "One Bullet Too Many."

In the first three pages a glum Bruce Wayne and Alfred ship Dick Grayson off to college. Then, once Dick's out the door, Bruce announces "It's time we all started a new way of life! A new way of everything!" He's shutting up the Batcave. He's streamling and getting rid of all the Batgadgets and he's ditching stately Wayne Manor for a pad in the Gotham City, where he'll be in closer thumping distance of criminals.

Blam! "This is the way things are now," the readers are told. And then it's straight into that issue's main plot. No big mini-series or crossover event. No big cosmic event or crisis. No big nothing. Just a clear statement that "we're changing direction now."

The whole thing is a splendid model of how to change the course of a character or series.