Every time DC wants to use a mind control story with Diana in it, I wanna smack them on the back of the head. There's a good way to include Diana in a mind control story, but they always just resort to making Diana not use the lasso instead... why are writers so afraid of it? Plus is anyone even dying to see a mind control story? I know I'm not...
And I read the "Kryptonian Epic" and Diana being turned into a "more-buff gladiator Wonder Woman with a limited view of Man's world" who is somehow manipulated by Lex Luthor into working for him just sounds...like they want her to be a dumb jock. Maybe it would work out better than that, but really, she doesn't need to be in the story.
Also isn't Barbara a one-time fling of Superman in American Alien? Like...is that gonna play into the story at all? Is the Wonder Woman character going to be connected to Wonder Woman in this story?
Honestly, it's not the shared universe that's the problem. It's how DC treats Diana. Superman and Batman has been controlled by their fans for decades now, probably since the 70s or late-60s at this point. Superman and Batman gets the benefit (and cons) of being the big two and decades of fans controlling them. Diana on other hand, no. Simone, Jimenez, Rucka, are the three fans who actually care about the character to have done WW.
The issue isn't the shared universe, it's the company. DC is horrible at handling the most iconic female comic book character.
Because in Max Landis eyes, Superman's only strength is him being human. He's not fast as the Flash. Not strong as J'onn. Not smart as Batman. Not skilled as Wonder Woman. His only thing that makes him Superman is he's really human.
Not really, it's pretty much a 1 for 1 copy of the Batman and Superman fight in Batman: Hush and no one came away from that fight thinking it wasn't another example of Superman jobbing to Batman, even if Batman used Lois as a hostage and said his arms really hurt after punching Superman with kryptonite fists. You can pretty much always find an out in these fights that prove, "Well Batman really didn't beat Superman."
These fights aren't about raw power, just like the Batman vs Superman fights aren't. If Wonder Woman tricks Superman, she wins, which she does in League of One. Also, the images of League of One clearly show Wonder Woman dominating Superman and the reverse isn't shown to the same extent at all, I just reviewed the fight. There is three panels of Wonder Woman tossing Superman around, but in the text that accompanies it, WW says Superman is stronger so that cancels the imagery? She is also not trying to kill or severely hurt Superman either (the refuse is obviously true). Also, even if you object specifically to the WW vs Superman fight, she still takes out all the other members of the JL too and definitely over powers them.
#InGunnITrust, #ZackSnyderistheBlueprint, #ReleasetheAyerCut
Iconic as his run is, he was never a Wonder Woman fan, originally. He got onto the book to keep her from becoming what happened in the 90s and 00s. Plus, Perez already stated Karen Berger was instrumental to his Wonder Woman. The writers I mentioned were fans already, not later on.
I know this kind of drags away from the point, but in terms of stories, the early 90s and early 2000s were quite generous to Diana (can't deny that the art in the 90s took a nosedive though).
When Perez talked about not liking the ideas DC had for WW relaunch post Crisis, I doubt that those ideas were anything like the eras you mentioned.
Last edited by Agent Z; 06-04-2021 at 05:45 AM.
Well William Messner-Loebs turned Diana into an actual person with a great personality, which I think is the biggest thing missing from the Perez run, while maintaining the idea that Diana wasn't violent, just powerful and determined.
He wrote one of the best Dr Psycho stories in a surreal nightmare he creates for Diana and ended with the twist that this was actually him haunting Vanessa Kapatellis with the thought of being Diana, and Vanessa couldn't sleep at night because she knew he could still be around in her room, even while her mother held her.
He gave Diana dozens of surprising supporting characters including fellow superheroes and heroines along with normal people that Diana came to know intimately. This included a female cosmonaut, a punk private detective, the female Doctor Fate Inza, Circe disguised as Diana's lawyer, Diana's boss at Taco Bell who treated her kindly like a normal employee, even though she was just a normal woman while Diana was a beautiful tall superhero. Virus
And honestly, I think all these characters were far more interesting cases of Diana actually getting to know normal people, unlike Vanessa and Helena (whom the writer still respected enough to give them the spotlight in the beginning of his run, but his stories were a revolving door of characters in the best of ways).
He gave us Diana the Space Pirate, the funny Taco Bell employee (I still love when the whole Justice League comes to visit Diana at her job), the detective searching for a little girl (Wonder Woman 64 is still one of the most gripping endings I've read in stories about missing children). She was both extraordinary and down to earth and did both things in the most genuine way possible.
And I've never read the Eric Luke run but don't people like Devastation? She was introduced in his run. Eric Luke also gave us the only story arc with Dr Poison as the main villain as far as I know, with Pandora Virus.
Last edited by Alpha; 06-04-2021 at 06:58 AM.
And more to the point, I think William Messner-Loebs was a great example of Diana in a shared universe. He used a lot of other heries and villains in great ways. Diana's encounter with the Joker made Diana seems scarier than even him.
Jiminez was also a great example of using characters from a shared universe like Gods of Gotham, but being plagued by editorial decisions. Which proves that a shared universe isn't the problem. Editorial mandates are the problem.