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Whether heroes or villains, the origin stories of Marvel's most iconic characters haven’t always aged well. It’s no surprise that the company often retcons past events. While retconning is a common practice in the comics industry, Marvel’s retcons have sometimes sparked controversy. That being said, the reasons behind certain retcons can be even more contentious than the retcons themselves.

Decades-old comic books often don’t hold up well under modern scrutiny, so publishers like Marvel make adjustments to fit contemporary perspectives. While completely rewriting a character’s origin can be difficult due to how deeply those backstories are woven into their identity, certain elements can still be modified. For example, Marvel can’t overhaul Wolverine’s entire origin, but they can update details like his mother’s role. Marvel has handled many of its most controversial origins this way, sometimes under even more complicated circumstances.

8 Reed Richards Met Sue Storm When She Was Just 12, and He Was in College

Fantastic Four #291 by John Byrne, P. Craig Russell, Glynis Oliver, John Workman

The Fantastic Four have always had a strange backstory, and it has nothing to do with the space mission that gifted them their powers. The comics had long established in their earliest issues that Reed Richards had met Sue Storm while he was in college and living as a tenant in her aunt's home. What was not specified was the exact age gap between the two. That wouldn't come until Fantastic Four #291, which made it painfully clear that while Reed was in college, Sue was about 12 years old. Thankfully, nothing romantic manifested until they were adults, with Reed taking more of a mentor role for Sue. Still, the borderline grooming aspect made many fans uncomfortable.

John Byrne’s Fantastic Four #4 retconned this years later by increasing Sue’s age during their first meeting, making her at least a legal-age undergraduate heading to college. In many comics, a 10-year age gap between Sue and Reed remains, but both characters are portrayed as being of legal age.

7 Marvel Stripped Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver of Their Mutant Parentage

Uncanny Avengers #4 by Rick Remender, Gerry Duggan, Daniel Acuna, and VC's Clayton Cowles

The parentage of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver has actually been adjusted quite a few times. After the twins made their first appearance, it was established that their father was a much different supervillain, Robert Frank, a.k.a. The Whizzer. Soon enough, it would be reestablished that their father was Magneto, something readers have been far more familiar with. In more recent years, it has been revealed that they’re not actually Max’s biological children, but genetically enhanced orphans experimented upon by The High Evolutionary.

This is so controversial because it effectively destroyed the twins’ mutant heritage. Not only that, but these new origins largely nullify the role that both mutantkind and Magneto have played in their most celebrated storylines, namely House of M. This doesn’t devalue the bond that Magneto still has with Pietro and especially Wanda, but it does feel less impactful without the familial element.

6 Ms. Marvel Goes from Inhuman to Mutant

X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1 by Gerry Duggan, Luciano Vecchio, R.B. Silva, Adam Kubert, Kris Anka, Valerio Schiti, Pepe Larraz, and More

Kamala Khan first entered the Marvel Universe as an Inhuman, with her powers activated by the Terrigen Bomb. However, things quickly changed when she was adapted for the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, where she was reimagined as a mutant instead. This shift created a domino effect, prompting the comics to align with the MCU. To integrate this change into comic continuity, Kamala was initially killed off in Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr.’s The Amazing Spider-Man #26, only to later reappear at the Hellfire Gala.

Marvel writer Cody Ziglar claimed that the decision to kill off Ms. Marvel came directly from Kevin Feige, the godfather of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to align the comics with MCU storylines. However, Marvel has denied these claims.

Since only mutants can access Krakoa’s resurrection pools, Kamala’s lineage was updated to reflect her as an Inhuman-mutant hybrid. The fact that Kamala’s sacrifice takes place in a Spider-Man comic rather than her own comic produced outrage among fans, while retconning her genes to fit in with the MCU created a whole different outcry.

5 Professor X Was in Love With Jean Grey When She Was a Teenager

Uncanny X-Men #3 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Paul Reinman, and Art Simek

The origins of the X-Men's Original Five can be found in the earliest issues, but one aspect that gets overlooked is that everyone was in love with Jean Grey. Her boyfriend, Cyclops, obviously did, but it was a running gag that no one could resist her charms. Most unsettling to modern eyes, though, is the love that was expressed by Charles Xavier. Like in the case of Beast and Angel, hidden feelings were framed as recurring, ing, and sometimes comical lines of dialogue.

When younger readers revisited these lines from Xavier, they became such an obvious issue that Marvel had to address them, specifically in X-Men #53 from the 90s. In that issue, Jean is horrified when Onslaught reveals Xavier's dark secret. Although Charles never acts on it, knowing Jean is a teenager and aware of the power imbalance between teacher and student, it still comes across as deeply unsettling.

4 Xorn's Existence Complicates a Great X-Men Twist

New X-Men 2001 #1 by Grant Morrison, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Hi-Fi Design, Richard Starkings, and Saida Temofonte

The reveal in the "Planet X" arc that New X-Men’s Xorn was actually Magneto in disguise remains one of the X-Men franchise’s most shocking and memorable twists. However, Marvel later made this twist outright confusing. It was originally implied that Xorn was a completely fabricated identity, created solely for the twist. However, Marvel's editorial grew attached to the character and controversially brought him back as a real person. The situation became even more convoluted when Shen Xorn was introduced as the twin brother of Kuan-Yin Xorn, adding another layer of complexity to the narrative.

Matters are made all the more complicated in lieu of the "House of M" storyline, suggesting that Xorn was a duplicate of Magneto, splintered from him as a result of Scarlet Witch's meddling with reality. Xorn's origin story has gotten confusing for both fans and in-universe characters to the point that it's implied that not even Xorn knows his backstory anymore.

3 The Yellow Claw's Powers and Origins Portrayed the Worst Stereotypes

Yellow Claw #1 by Al Feldstein, Joe Maneely, and Stan Goldberg

The cultural anxieties of the 19th century gave rise to the harmful "Yellow Peril" stereotype, which reflected widespread Western paranoia toward people of East and South Asian descent. This fear was often projected through popular media, leading to the creation of several supervillains who embodied and reinforced these xenophobic views. One of Iron Man's strongest villains, The Mandarin, is such an example. While Mandarin's original problematic design has been updated, other characters like the Yellow Claw have not received the same thoughtful updates.

The Yellow Claw, a villain often paired against S.H.I.E.L.D. agents like Nick Fury and Jimmy Woo, represented some of the most harmful stereotypes that came out of the "Yellow Peril" era in American history. His character design relied on offensive imagery, and his origin story involved using elixirs to gain immortality, which caused his skin to turn yellow. The character's portrayal has not aged well, and due to its offensive nature, The Yellow Claw was quietly retired by the 2000s.

2 Psylocke’s Backstory Is a Minefield of Controversy

Uncanny X-Men #255 by Chris Claremont, Marc Silvestri, Dan Green, Glynis Oliver, and Michael Heisler

Thanks in large part to Marvel Rivals, Psylocke has achieved a surge in popularity. However, new fans may be surprised to learn that Marvel is unlikely to highlight her complicated backstory anytime soon. The origins of Psylocke, as attested by many fans, are confusing at best and problematic at worst. It begins when telepath and future Captain Britain, Betsy Braddock, switches bodies with the unsuspecting ninja assassin Kwannon. The swap is orchestrated by the assassin group known as The Hand. Betsy would spend years living in Kwannon’s body, while Kwannon ultimately succumbed to the Legacy Virus and died in Betsy’s.

To summarize, Betsy Braddock, a British white woman, inhabited the body of Kwannon, an Asian woman, for several years. Meanwhile, Kwannon’s mind occupied Betsy’s original body and ultimately died from the Legacy Virus. This storyline didn't sit well with many readers and led to Kwannon’s later resurrection, giving the character another opportunity in the Marvel Universe.

1 Captain America's Best Friend Sam Wilson Was a Pimp

Captain America #117 by Stan Lee, Gene Colan, Joe Sinnott, and Sam Rosen

When Sam Wilson made his Marvel debut as The Falcon, he and Steve Rogers had an instant chemistry for decades to come, leading to Sam adopting Steve's Captain America mantle. It wouldn't be until several issues later that readers would get a peak into Sam's actual origin story, and when they did, they'd learn that Sam spent time in Harlem as a local gangster and pimp named Snap Wilson. Sam's backstory embodied the worst stereotypes about Black people, and Marvel spent significant time trying to rectify this.

Years after the fact, Sam's background as Snap was recontextualized as brainwashing in Sam's mind, which never took place. It now stands in Marvel continuity that Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to disconnect Sam from his actual upbringing to entice him into being a sleeper agent. Marvel may make questionable creative decisions, but at least they know how to undo them.