He was on it from the beginning and left about halfway through, I believe. He did all of the Injustice 2 series though.
There is good reason I rank as the worst writer to have worked on Diana. Frank Miller at least has some unintentional comedy whenever he writes her.
Last edited by Gaius; 07-28-2021 at 11:45 AM.
So, with the topic going around, someone posted the "explanation" why Injustice Wonder Woman is evil on Twitter:
I'd heard about the Nazi-Steve thing, but now, actually seeing it...this is so much dumber than I imagined.
Putting aside I'm pretty sure that loophole for the Lasso wouldn't work...putting aside how stupid this makes her look....
If Steve Trevor had been a Nazi or even just a lying bastard, wouldn't that make Diana less likely to support fascist Superman? Like, I could see this incident making her harsher or less trusting, but eagerly encouraging Clark to go full dictator?
Or is it supposed to "ironic" like when creators make Magneto out to be a Nazi even though he's Jewish?
I know people try to excuse Taylor on Injustice because he's working with what Netherrealm Studios gave him, but crap like this...no. As an explanation for why Diana is Superman's Lady Macbeth, this is weak-sauce and just makes her look worse.
And as an aside, I find it really off-putting Diana and the Amazons' appearances are clearly based on how they look in the movie. Just seems like a middle finger to me.
That story came out in 2017 so it's no surprise the one time Taylor tried to get into Diana's head was when he could try to get his garbage comic to ride off the coattails of a massively successful WW product and it's exactly why they all look like their movie counterparts (and have better costumes than one typically sees in the Injustice universe).
But yeah, "it's an alternate universe" has never been a valid argument counter argument that Taylor and his fanboys think it is because he devoted quite a bit of page time and issue after issue of how Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Cyborg, or Captain Marvel got from Point A to Point Z but he just doubled down on the game's characterization when it came to Diana.
Then he wrote DCeased and she was shit there too, so...
Last edited by Gaius; 07-28-2021 at 09:13 PM.
That is literally what I said. It makes no f****** sense for her origin to be “I HATE Nazis, I hate them so much that when my LI turned out to be one I KILLED him. Oh Clark is wanting to go full fascist? Hnnng that’s such a turn on!”. He should’ve just had Diana be an evil person from the start, she just hid it to fit in on the JL.
But Taylor is a hack who had Joker in Injustice Zero Year act like he was somehow “better” than Nazis because he murders indiscriminately. I still have no clue what his point was, that the Nazis were somehow even more than Joker? Despite Joker’s nuking of Metropolis making him a genocidal monster all on his lonesome?
It’s such a stupid franchise and I hate how it’s affecting perceptions of the characters.
For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/
Something I find interesting about Tom Taylor is that, in theory (hypothesis, whatever), he should be able to write a decent Wonder Woman.
I've read a lot of his work.
-He enjoys writing powerful women.
-He enjoys writing heroes who are find alternative, non-violent solutions to defeating their villains (in his X-Men: Red run, Jean Grey literally defeated Cassandra Nova by making her feel empathy for the first time).
-He will reach for the most low-hanging fruit to make a joke. Taylor has no shame for corny joke making. The fact he never made one Disney Princess joke with Diana (who is a princess and can talk to animals) still baffles me....
-And he likes having children interact positively with heroes, and just writing kids in general. (he freaking did it with Cheetah in Unkillables)
-
Wonder Woman should be a character he not only can at least write decently, but one he enjoys writing since she has a lot of traits he likes playing with and decades of corny material I know he would like to have some fun with. But he just seems disinterested...
Someone needs to get him a proper Wonder Woman reading list.
~I just keep swimming through these threads~
He also can't write whatever he wants either. For instance, he would rather use Barbara as Oracle than Batgirl but TPTB at DC wants Babs as Batgirl so that's what he's forced to use in his Nightwing title.
Taylor's rise in star power is completely baffling to me. Everything I've come across seems to be average at best, or complete garbage in the case of WW. And just writing some scenes that people can squee over on tumblr but don't have much substance.
I don't get it. It kind of bums me out that he keeps writing Superman and Wonder Woman but someone like Tim Seeley can't write them as frequently (though at least we're getting Superman vs. Lobo), especially as the few times Seeley has written Diana he showed a better grasp of her than Taylor does. Also if Seeley had the same art team and the creative freedom he wanted on his Nightwing run (as in no forced Bludhaven stuff), it'd absolutely smoke Taylor's output.
Last edited by SiegePerilous02; 07-28-2021 at 06:56 PM.
Well, like you said his style fits very well for the fans on places like Reddit and Twitter where it’s more about sharing panels full of shock value moments, cheap “feels”, and memes. I think a poster here said he’s pretty much a modern day Jeff Loeb in that he writes characters at their most surface level autopilot versions that are digestible to casuals. Bruce the dick, farm boy Superman, etc.
But it’s also no secret being an A lister at DC doesn’t mean they’ll be a good WW writer.
The power of the SuperDick is too strong.
Really though, I think this whole thing is partly because of the dumb fanservice idea that Diana is Clark's second woman or the woman who will never have Clark because of Lois. Think about how many vocal fans of the pair basically say that they should be together because Lois isn't immortal and Clark can last forever with Diana because of their immortality, well Clark's super slow aging process. All the elseworlds and alternate timelines where Clark gets with Diana because Lois dies, either tragically or just old age, Injustice being one of them. I mean heck, in her first cutscene Diana is in a sexy dress trying to get Clark's attention even having the line "I'm not trying to replace her". So, from the start Diana's whole character revolves around being Clark's other woman. Everyone else gets development and some dimensions to them, Diana? not so much.
Zaldrīzes Buzdari Iksos Daor
It's worse than that. WW is often designated as the only one who can bear Clark's children. She's basically a glorified womb from certain writers perspective.
It kind of goes back to writers cribbing from Kingdom Come. A great story but had a very flawed take on Diana. I really wish Mark Waid or someone of Rucka's calibre would revisit that take on WW and address some of the damage it did to the character's reputation and how people see her.
I feel like Kingdom Come definitely made the WW/Supes pairing much worse.
It was ship teased occasionally pre-Crisis and then Perez brought it into his run at times, but neither were as bad as things got post-KC and onto Injustice and the New 52. Or with Frank Miller.