This is from the solicitation for Avengers & X-Men: Axis #1 and… I find it disheartening. I wasn’t planning to get Axis, because I’m not big on Rick Remender’s writing, but this isn’t really about this comic in particular (and that ‘secret’ may not actually apply to what follows, on second thought, depending on how it’s handled). Original Sin is based around retcon secrets. Infinity was based around retcon secrets. Fear Itself was based around retcon secrets. Secret Invasion was based around (quasi-) retcon secrets. Plus, all of the other stories out there that seem to gain all of their power from revealing retconned secrets. It’s not that these are bad things, it just seems tiresome after a while. Not every event does it — or does it all of the time (Infinity was only partially a retcon, really), but it does happen enough there and in non-event stories that it seems… lazy? Is that the right word? Creatively lazy? Like the only way to gain excitement and interest is to go back and add something to the past rather than something new to the present/future. Like anything else, the retcon is a storytelling tool — it’s one that’s possibly being used too much lately? So, nothing really to do with Axis or… actually, any strong point to be made. Just something I’ve been thinking about for a long while. Something to consider.

Semi-related… Original Sin is a really weird event book. I haven’t read too many tie-ins yet, because the tie-ins haven’t begun in the books I’m already reading to a large extent. But… has anyone been blown away by the retcon reveals yet? Has anything really shocked people and made them take notice? Nothing has hit me too hard yet. And the series itself has been something different altogether… I may wind up writing about it once it’s finished, because it’s just so fucking weird.

(via chadnevett)