Is DC’s “Retroactive” Changing Continuity?

DC’s Retroactive — The 80s is probably one of the more looked forward to installments of the event, but when the covers cropped up today (you can see them all here, and the covers from the 70s editions here) I noticed something odd about the Superman cover. Namely that nothing on this cover happened in the 80s.

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Misplacing one or two items, I can get, but everything happened either during the 90s (Bane breaking Batman’s back during Knightfall, Hal becoming Parallax in Emerald Twilight) or during the 2000’s (OMAC and Superboy Prime in Infinite Crisis, Desaad in Final Crisis). Also, I’m assuming Wonder Woman in her full battle regalia with a spear is meant to be from Amazons Attack, but it could easily be from Kingdom Come…again, not in the 80s.

So what gives? Are events being moved around to help massage DC Continuity pre-relaunch, moving many events in the past of characters up a decade to accommodate the sliding timescale better? Or was this an actual mistake that no one cared enough to correct? In the massaging continuity camp, it’s worth noting that The Flash book is technically moved up too; though that is the more recognizable Flash III costume, Wally had Barry’s old costumes and never wore the redesigned, shiny costume until the early/mid-90s, and Abra Cadabra’s burn scars happened even later than that.

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Guess we’ll find out soon enough. DC Retroactive — The 70s (with covers that don’t appear to hint at sweeping continuity changes) hits stands in July.