The G.W.Wilson run in review

[astro@work]

5 out of 10 for me.

While I feel like it did respect the characters (versus throwing out Steve and Etta from day one, like many runs), my biggest complaint is that it lacked excitement.
I've always like GWW's writing, but wish the run had been a little more ambitious.

[Pinsir]

Let's divy this run up by arcs and see;

>> Ares Returns!!?! (#59-62: Extremely generic introduction, though I liked the Aphrodite's introduction there just isn't much of anything interesting here. "Oh, Ares is the villain again, but guess what, he's a good guy now doing bad things, get it?" Also Ares never returns after this arc, so...it's a pretty poor set up.
>> Zoo Crew, Nemisis Returns ?!!?(#63-65): #63 introduces the Zoo crew and its a pretty good issue, but the following two are about Cale and Nemisis and, nothing happens, Nemisis is never brought up again.
>> Giganta RETURNS (#66-68): This is a pretty nice adventure story. Of all the arcs I enjoyed this the most. Though Giganta hints at something at the end and, yeah, that is never going to come to fruition.
>> LOVE (#69-72): This is an okay arc, it has some interesting ideas in it though it does putter about for a bit. At the bare minimum, if you can't make a compelling story, Wonder Woman should just be fighting monsters.
>> Grail...Returns!!!!!! (#73-75): Gail is a character that has been forced upon WW fandom. We don't like her, pretty much no one likes her. Obviously issue #73 is a bright spot though...Wilson didn't write that one...
>> Cheetah Comes Back!!!! (#76-81): This pretty awful, not only does it tie into some stupid event, but the entire arc is an example of artificially increasing the stakes; Kill off supporting character to raise the stakes, break WW's gear to raise the stakes, increase the enemies power to raise the stakes, breaking Trevor and WW apart to increase the drama...When I list all these instances down, it honestly looks comical.


Final Verdict:

All in all, this probably one of the more disappointing Wonder Woman entries. A lot of people entered Wilson's run with high hopes because of her Ms. Marvel success, but maybe her heart just wasn't in this one. In total I like 5 issues, #63, #66-68, #73, but that just isn't a great total and I only like them. I don't think they're great. This run is better than Finch's and Robinson's, but that isn't much of a consolation.

I apparently gave it 1 Star, though that was because I agreed with the description of what a one star entails.

[Agent Z]

I guess 2 and half stars for me.

[Sacred Knight]

I do like Atlantiades. Think they're an interesting character. I'd like to see them continue into the next run but just hopefully with the heightened focus on Diana where it belongs.

[Celgress]

I went with two out of five stars overall - "Poor, Some good moment but too many where I felt let down."

I'll be frank here, her run was a real disappointment for me. I expected much better.

[brettc1]

Meh. The first couple arcs were shaky but showed some promise, that unfortunately seemed less and less likely to materialize as the issues and arcs progressed.

I can't say I;m sorry to see Wilson go at this point. I'm sure she's a talented writer, this just wasn't a good fit for her.



Agreed, though I'd say that while Azzarello got a lot wrong, he at least had some better moments for Diana.
She definitely doesn't come off as weak willed there as she does here. I'd say Wilson is better than Robinson and Finch, but far below Rucka and even Azz in some ways.

Looking at my own score o could easily have given her two stars. But for me this run is as bad as Robinson, only better than Azzarello.

Is it as bad as Finch? I’d have to weigh the vegetative injustice of that verdict. But with 18 votes cast the average is 1.5/5.

But just in looking at that list, what jumps out at me is how poorly Diana has fared in her own book in the last decade. Taking Azzarello out of the equation, of the last five writers to work on the book, three of them have been sub-par efforts for me. I would rate Orlando’s work as the best, and so far he has only written a handful of issues.

Help us, Orlando Kenobi. You’re our only hope.

[Dr. Poison]

One thing that helps it tremendously for me is the artwork, at least when Chiang himself was drawing. Even if I dislike what is going on plot wise (like everything to do with the Amazons), at least the book's style was carrying it.

We couldn't even get that here with the constant rotation of underwhelming artists.

I will admit that Cory Nord's art was some of the worst I've ever seen in Wonder Woman. Merino & Denerick are decent but nothing phenomenal. At least we're getting awesome covers from the Dodsons.

[brettc1]

I will admit that Cory Nord's art was some of the worst I've ever seen in Wonder Woman. Merino & Denerick are decent but nothing phenomenal. At least we're getting awesome covers from the Dodsons.

The covers are another point. Without them boosting sales, the figures for this run fall bellow 30K.

And honestly, I consistently found the Dodsons covers better anyway.

[The Quiet Councilor]

For me, the biggest problem was the art by far. It just felt like an afterthought. The Xermanico issues sing and not just visually. The writing felt stronger and more epic when Xermanico was bringing it to life. I feel like Wilson was definitely shortchanged when it comes to collaboraters, and frankly, Wonder Woman deserves better.

[SiegePerilous02]

I'm glad Cheetah will be in the next arc.
It runs the risk of seriously overusing her, but I need something a little more exciting for her after the disappointments of Wilson and Snyder before she goes on another break. I'd like to see some other villains get some spotlight either during or further into Orlando's run though.

[Celgress]

I liked the 5 or 10 first issues but then it all descend in a spiral to nowhere....

Agreed, the first half was good (especially the first four issues, IMO) then everything just sort of rapidly fell apart.

[Celgress]

Two stars....

....I just felt that, like I felt with Azzarello, Wilson had a story she wanted to tell and just used Diana's book to tell it. Diana was pretty much irrelevant,....

I fell the same way. I suspect Wilson had the story she wanted to tell in mind from the start, unfortunately, it wasn't a Diana story.

[Pinsir]

I'm glad Cheetah will be in the next arc.
It runs the risk of seriously overusing her, but I need something a little more exciting for her after the disappointments of Wilson and Snyder before she goes on another break. I'd like to see some other villains get some spotlight either during or further into Orlando's run though.

I was actually going to say that WW is treading down a path where it feels like her rogues gallery is simply a rotation of Ares, Cheetah, Grail and maybe Cale.

[SiegePerilous02]

I was actually going to say that WW is treading down a path where it feels like her rogues gallery is simply a rotation of Ares, Cheetah, Grail and maybe Cale.

There is unfortunately a trend with WW where it's the same 3-4 rogues that get re-used while everyone else is a new pet character. Ares and Cheetah are typically always there, Circe was the big third for a long while plus Dr. Psycho as the unofficial fourth. Now like you say Cale and Grail have joined the ranks: not an issue for me with the former, but definitely for the latter.

I don't mind Cheetah being used by Orlando (and i hope he uses Cale) because I need a better follow up to Rucka's run than what Wilson offered. But we need a new Dr. Cyber story ASAP, among others.

[Vordan]

At least Circe is wrecking **** over in JL Dark because yeah otherwise the Wondy Rogues haven’t gotten a lot of love. But Orlando looooooves his continuity and he wrote that great Mayfly issue, plus I think he’s said he’s a fan of Minister Blizzard so I expect good things ahead.