Yet another reason to dislike John Bryne

[seriousfic]

Okay, this one's going to take some explaining. In original continuity, as shown by Jack Kirby, Scott Free and Big Barda do the buddy-movie thing and Scott escapes. This leads into the first issue of Mr. Miracle, with him showing up on Earth, meeting Oberon, etc, and Barda following a few issues later. So, subjectively, a few weeks or months pass before Barda works up the strength to abandon everything she's ever known and follow after Scott.

Skip forward a bit. John Bryne starts writing Fourth World and makes a retcon where Scott comes to Earth in Victorian times, falls in love with another woman (marrying her and staying with her until she dies of old age, WTF?), and then finally meeting Barda in present day. So, hundreds of years.

Now... what's Barda been going all this time? By the end of her Secret Origin, she's completely soured on Darkseid and Anti-Life, to the point of verbally considering going after Scott. And she's a general in Darkseid's armies. So, the pretty inescapable conclusion is that she's been contributing to a war effort she knows is evil, probably killing people she knows are innocent, for decades.

See, this is why you should think before you retcon. The law of unintended consequences always bites you in the ass.