If I have Zubat (no retreat cost) as my Active and retreat him, can I bring him back as Active or do I have to bring up another Benched Pokémon?
When you retreat a Pokémon, you are swapping it (a switch) with another on the bench. So in this case, Zubat goes to the bench, and you bring up a different Pokémon from your bench.
Source: WotC Chat (2000-02-17), WotC Chat (2000-05-11)