Originally Posted by
Mel Dyer
I think you could make the same argument about Supergirl and Batwoman...'specially, Batwoman. For me, it's not the creation of a Mr. Wonder sort that's the crime, here. Prince Jason, as introduced by James Robinson, is a terrible Mr. Wonder, though!
I like that Geoff Johns, after decades of having no Mr. Wonder in the game, not only gave us a Mr. Wonder, but made him very difficult for writers and editors to ignore, the way they have ignored Rama, Champion, Herakles, Mister Genie, Mer-boy, Bird-boy, the Gargareans of Thalarion and the rest. Jason being a blood relation insures that some writer, in lieu of killing him off, will have to tear the DCU apart to erase his existence, ..which might force someone to do what should have been done in the first place: make Jason Work!
I am almost certain that James introduced Hercules's protectorate city, Elexinore, with the idea of Jason replacing him, there, ..after COTGs was over. He certainly gave no indication that he had any interest in installing Diana, there, with Steve and ARGUS, so firmly, at Virginia Shore; so, why bother? Why bother with the time and trouble of creating a proxy Twin Peaks, with no relevance to anything else in the WW comic, that vanishes in the first few issues of his story arc? The intro of Elexinore was clearly a set-up for establishing a fictional city for a superhero, other than her, ..and, with Donna Troy nowhere in sight, that had to be Jason. In Elexinore (maybe, his Greek fishermen, with him), far enough away from Diana or Superman not to be redundant, the right writer would make him a male, blue-collar twist on Wonder Woman...
And that would have been brilliant! BRILLIANT!
Somewhere, in the mire of finishing COTGs, I think James forgot about this or, like Byrne on WW, he simply ran out of time to tell the story he had intended to tell. Instead of retiring Jason to Elexinore to sort out his grief, anger and confusion, after the death of Zeus, James treated us to Jason hanging around ARGUS and Diana's beach-house. He tied Jason's claiming of a superhero uniform to the Dark Gods/Dark Metal crossover event, keeping him in the story long enough to eat up panel-time that should have been dominated by Wonder Woman, ..the sole reason we have any curiosity about Jason in the first place. Had Jason, disappeared for a time and returned to aid Diana, at the end of a protracted battle against Darkseid - one which threatened Greece, his newly established home in Twin peaks and the entire world, ..we may be having a very different conversation, right now.
James would have given us a Mr. Wonder, who might grow into the long tradition of costumed, lieutenant superheroes - Nightwing, Power Girl, Huntress, the Guardian, Steel! With establishing him at Elexinore, he would have given us the reassurance that Jason need not be regarded as a usurper, but, as a welcome addition of gender and culture diversity to the Wonder-mythos. I think that might have been what he'd hoped for, once.
Who knows?
In lieu of bringing Jason back from the so-called Dark Dimension, I still think occasionally allying Diana with a colorfully costumed, male sorcerer isn't the worst thing that could happen to her. Having powers decidedly unlike hers and a history in Sensation Comics, Sargon could carve out a niche, with strategically placed team-ups in good, high-stake stories. I might argue that his ruby, red cloak and golden turban - no Wonder-insignia, anywhere - offer further assurance to Wonder-purists that he's a Mr. Wonder, waiting to run Diana out of her own comic. A colorful, male playmate for Wonder Woman, with magical powers, who drops by to lend a hand ..and disappears, after the action...
That might be fun. A fun WW comic...imagine!
For me, a Mr. Wonder, who does his thing and GOES AWAY, like Batgirl, Steel and Mary Marvel do in their comics, could still be welcome. I don't want him hanging around Virginia City or ARGUS, mucking up the Di-Maggie-Phro character dynamic, ..and NO, I don't think making him LGBT would change my position on that. Prince Jason is exactly where he needs to be, even if his launch had gone more successfully, ..and that is OUT of the WW comic. As enthusiastic, as I am, about the development of a Wonder Woman superhero-family, I want to see great caution taken with re-introducing Jason to it...
If at all.