DC changes Wonder Woman's origin- spoilers.

[thunderbolt]

^^^ Yet DC seems intent on breaking up all the married couples, Lois and Clark Barry and Iris, or killing them like Ralph and Sue.

[The Toyroom]

^ Ralph and Sue might not be dead anymore....seems like stuff like "Identity Crisis" and "52" never happened in the reboot...

[madmarva]

It's actually been longer than that...Wonder Woman hasn't really been a part of the "Trinity" in a very long time ...She's been mishandled as far back as "Infinite Crisis" IMO

I don't think there's ever been a Trinity. There's Batman on one level, Superman on a lower level and the rest of the pack in terms of overall sales and marketing. Wonder Woman might lead that pack historically, but Green Lantern is the flavor of the moment right now.

Perhaps in the 50s there was a Trinity when her solo title survived the golden-age. I think DC has mainly kept a Wonder Woman title going all these years, just to keep a Wonder Woman title going as it's half-hearted attempt to draw girls/females as readers.

I actually liked Rucka's run on the character. It's probably my favorite behind Perez's with Byrne's being third. Admittedly, she's not one of my favorite characters, but even with the relaunch I hate to see a core idea go by the wayside.

However, one of the best things Byrne did with Superman, to me, was have the Kents around while Clark was an adult. I know that view is out of favor currently at DC, but I liked the change.

So, maybe DC can make having Zeus for a Dad work with Wonder Woman now. But they'll have to prove it to me.

[The Toyroom]

I actually liked Rucka's run on the character. It's probably my favorite behind Perez's with Byrne's being third.

I thought the Phil Jimenez run was pretty good...although derivative of George Perez (natch)....

[madmarva]

Hey Anthony,

I didn't read a lot of Jimenez's run. I love the guy's art. The creators that directly followed Perez really turned me off the character for a while. All the stuff with Artemis and working at Taco Bell. Bolland's covers were great, though. I'm having difficulty remembering if his run was before or after Byrne's. I think it was before.

DC has tried with Wonder Woman if you look at the talent they've thrown at her during the last 20 years. Just a tough character to work with.

[knight errant00]

I think DC has mainly kept a Wonder Woman title going all these years, just to keep a Wonder Woman title going as it's half-hearted attempt to draw girls/females as readers.

Actually, the way I understand it, it's an attempt to hold on to the rights to the character -- apparently, the contract Marston signed with DC in the 1940s stipulated that should they ever stop publishing a regular Wonder Woman comic book, all rights to the character revert back to his estate. I read that was the real reason for the "all new" de-powered Wonder Woman in the late 60s -- the editors (I want to say Dick Giordano, but I can't recall) wanted to start an Emma Peel/Honey West -style female adventure title, and sales on Wonder Woman were down, but the pesky Marston contract was a concern for holding on to the character licensing and merchandising -- sow they merged the new character idea onto Wonder Woman and ran with that (two birds with one stone, I guess).

[ctc]

>it's an attempt to hold on to the rights to the character

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #1 | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources

Don C.

[Mikey]

Zeus is now her dad.]

Tiny Lister is her dad ? ............

[samurainoir]

Hey Anthony,

I didn't read a lot of Jimenez's run. I love the guy's art. The creators that directly followed Perez really turned me off the character for a while. All the stuff with Artemis and working at Taco Bell. Bolland's covers were great, though. I'm having difficulty remembering if his run was before or after Byrne's. I think it was before.

DC has tried with Wonder Woman if you look at the talent they've thrown at her during the last 20 years. Just a tough character to work with.

William Messner Loeb (creator of Journey) was on WW, following Perez run and stayed through to the Mike Deodato bike shorts/jacket and Artimis stuff. The Bolland covers were the best part. Jill Thompson talks about the days when she was drawing Wonder Woman for the Perez scripts where she was giving away those pages to fans because nobody ever wanted to buy them. A far cry from these days where her Sandman pages goes for thousands.

After Byrne you had Eric Luke I think? Best known for Dark Horse's Ghost... Again the best thing about that run was the Adam Hughes covers... Christopher Priest, BK Vaughn, and Walt Simonson /Jerry Ordway also had short arcs in there somewhere... pre Jiminez?

My favorite run in recent memory was Greg Rucka, who played up the political intrigue and revamped the Greek Gods into something a bit more contemporary... I liked when Athena ascended to the throne of Olympus... Makes perfect sense in the information age. Every laptop is a shrine to her.



.... Essentially this new Wonder Woman origin is Cassie Wonder Girl's... Not sure if she's still the daughter of Zeus, since I'm not following Lobdell and Booth's Teen Titans, but if she was, that would make Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl officially sisters again. Byrne did make WW a Demi God during his run.

[madmarva]

Yeah, Rucka's run was really enjoyable. Liked his take on the gods and Diana as an ambassador. Best since Perez. The guy did a lot of undernoticed work at DC. His and Brubaker's Batman was strong. The theological riffs he did with Nightwing and Flamebird in Adventures of Superman was really some cool stuff, but so many Superman fans were turned off by the fact Supeman wasn't in the book.

I'd almost rather Diana be Hercules' daughter than Zeus'. Herc subdued the Amazons. Ties into actual mythology, but whatever.

Lobdell' Titans really didn't explain Cassie's origins or powers, but he did make her a hot-tempered car thief who hates being called Wonder Girl. The two being half sisters works for me, but with Zeus as her father, Diana's related to all the gods and demi-gods in one way or the other. I do like the Lobedell new take on Superboy. The most interesting thing about the character to me has always been his DNA ties to both Luthor and Superman.

[samurainoir]

^^^
recently, there was a 90's Superboy fan letter from a young Geoff Johns posted on the 'net, scanned from an issue of Superboy. In that letter, Johns suggested that it be revealed that Luthor was the human half of his DNA. Neat stuff.

Not a huge fan of Rucka's Superman stuff either, but Gotham Central was pretty much tops for me. Checkmate had promise, but never really quite lived up to it's potential. His Punisher's currently not a bad read.

[madmarva]

recently, there was a 90's Superboy fan letter from a young Geoff Johns posted on the 'net, scanned from an issue of Superboy. In that letter, Johns suggested that it be revealed that Luthor was the human half of his DNA. Neat stuff.

Yeah, he talked about that at a panel that I attended once, maybe at Chicago several years ago. It was a panel about writing and he used the story as an example of not giving up on ideas.

Keeping the WW rights is an excellent reason to keep publishing the comic despite poor sales and explains how she survived the super-hero downturn of the late 40s.