What about retroviruses are backwards?

In the biochemistry of a normal cell such as a human cell, there is DNA in the center, which synthesizes RNA which creates a template for protein synthesis, which is the basis for everything that the cell can do. Most viruses are also composed of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). If virus is composed of RNA (ribonucleic acid), it is in a sense backward, because it starts with RNA, when it is more usual to start with DNA and then proceed to RNA.