New WW Creative Team: Tom King and Daniel Sampere

[SiegePerilous02]

Johns has three enduring (so far) ideas that he contributed to the WW mythos: de-aging Steve and creating A.R.G.U.S for him, making Barbara Diana's friend prior to being the Cheetah, and creating Grail.

And the latter two still needed Rucka and King to fine-tune them

[Gaius]

I genuinely don't think Taylor would be good for Wonder Woman. That's not even me holding a grudge for past treatment of Diana. Even putting aside Injustice and DCeased and other Elseworld stuff like Dark Knights of Steel, I get the impression he doesn't quite grasp her as a character.
Allegedly, he's said he's a big fan of the DCAU and that's where a lot of his Wonder Woman comes from, which might the problem. But I just don't think he's good at handling her.

For me, the most damning thing was the story arc he did where Jon Kent meets Injustice Superman and hugs him while giving a toothless speech about "finding a better way."
I get the feeling that is how Taylor thinks a peaceful, diplomatic character acts...and that's not Diana.

But he also seems to be of the mind that Amazons are violent brutes who rely on strength above all else, which--again--is not Diana.

If he was to try Wonder Woman full time, in-continuity, I suspect he'd either lean hard into the "paradox" angle by making a big deal about how she's a WARRIOR who also wants peace...and how that doesn't make sense for some reason. Or she'll be a naive Pollyanna who makes speeches that sound diplomatic and progressive, but accomplish nothing ("You should take the L, Luthor!").

To be honest, even aside from his poor treatment of Diana, I don't think I'm much of a fan of his writing in general. He seems to cater a bit too much to the Tumblr/Twitter crowd with cutesy or "shocking" developments--often unearned and forced--designed to get shared on social media and stir up fans one way or the other.

I'm also not a fan of his This is Serious™ narration during events and stuff liked DCeased. I just find it tedious and off-putting.


As for Johns...

I guarantee if he ever did a WW run (Hera forbid) in the first 20 issues, we would have WW visit the Injustice universe to have her fight Warcrimes Woman to re-hash the fight from the first game (the only non terrible scene with WW in that franchise, and not surprisingly the one he didn't have any involvement with).

[Mantis-Ray]

Something to note is that Taylor is just not a very good villain writer.

Like compare to King where issue 6 is a more impressive showing than any villain has ever in a Taylor comic, or how in 6 issues Sovereign has more presence and contribution to the main story than 40 years of Heartless has in Taylor's Nightwing.

Taylor's too huge a fan of curb-stomping the villain so he wouldn't really be capable of giving a good show to Diana's antags if he just doesn't create his own villains.

[Psy-lock]

Johns and Taylor are both toxic for WW, but I think Johns is a better writer overall. I genuinely don't get why Taylor is so popular. I guess he deserves some praise for putting LGBT characters into his books, but his writing for Jon/Jay was just so boring and sanitized. Though that's a problem with a lot of straight writers writing gay relationships.

[MarquisAsh]

I think I can live without Taylor and John’s.I would much rather Tynion (I think I spelled it right) write Wonder Woman. He’s so creative and actually seem like he does research when he writes a book. I would also wouldn’t mind Duggan either.

[Mantis-Ray]

Johns and Taylor are both toxic for WW, but I think Johns is a better writer overall. I genuinely don't get why Taylor is so popular. I guess he deserves some praise for putting LGBT characters into his books, but his writing for Jon/Jay was just so boring and sanitized. Though that's a problem with a lot of straight writers writing gay relationships.

Some people just like the infantilized writing style because it offers immediate self-gratification in wholesome emotional moments. Its like the webtoon school of writing. Plus it provides content to post on twitter for easy clicks.

Like the Jon/Jay romance is awful but there is a subsect of peoples who do enjoy it because they eat up saccharine sweet romance. Nightwing is completely lacking in interesting storylines, intense conflict, themes, character dynamics, but it manages to get on purely by sweet and wholesome vibes.

For obviously doesn't work on everything. For as successful as his Nightwing is, his Superman run was a total failure with the infamous ending of the Injustice storyline derided on social media for Taylor seriously expecting us to buy Jon trying to "hug the evil away from the fascist" because of how wholesome he tried to make it. Saccharine sugary sweet platitudes doesn't work in this case.

[HestiasHearth]

Johns has three enduring (so far) ideas that he contributed to the WW mythos: de-aging Steve and creating A.R.G.U.S for him, making Barbara Diana's friend prior to being the Cheetah, and creating Grail.

And the latter two still needed Rucka and King to fine-tune them

Do not hate me for this (especially because I totally understand why it is attractive for comic book writers to make villains & superhero friends or former friends), but I have never been sold on the idea of Cheetah and Diana being former friends. I am not opposed to the idea of some of her foes being emotionally linked to her like that, but I would not have made Cheetah (or any of Diana's "Big Three") one of those foes. However, this is not something that keeps me from enjoying the published stories told from that established perspective.

I just feel that Diana's compassionate nature and kind heart is all she needs to feel empathy towards her enemies; it has always been a huge part of WW's appeal. Her distinct, personal sense of restorative, compassionate justice has always informed her character. Regardless of any of her villains having personal relationships with Diana, she will always feel for them, she will always want to reform them. However, I totally get that this is usually a narrative device to convey specific hero/villain dynamics that help raise the emotional stakes.

[Gaius]

Some people just like the infantilized writing style because it offers immediate self-gratification in wholesome emotional moments. Its like the webtoon school of writing. Plus it provides content to post on twitter for easy clicks.

Like the Jon/Jay romance is awful but there is a subsect of peoples who do enjoy it because they eat up saccharine sweet romance. Nightwing is completely lacking in interesting storylines, intense conflict, themes, character dynamics, but it manages to get on purely by sweet and wholesome vibes.

For obviously doesn't work on everything. For as successful as his Nightwing is, his Superman run was a total failure with the infamous ending of the Injustice storyline derided on social media for Taylor seriously expecting us to buy Jon trying to "hug the evil away from the fascist" because of how wholesome he tried to make it. Saccharine sugary sweet platitudes doesn't work in this case.

Yeah, the Dick/Barbara cute couple stuff is far and away the thing I’ve seen most talked about with that run that isn’t just praise for Redondo.

[Skytten]

Do not hate me for this (especially because I totally understand why it is attractive for comic book writers to make villains & superhero friends or former friends), but I have never been sold on the idea of Cheetah and Diana being former friends. I am not opposed to the idea of some of her foes being emotionally linked to her like that, but I would not have made Cheetah (or any of Diana's "Big Three") one of those foes. However, this is not something that keeps me from enjoying the published stories told from that established perspective.

I just feel that Diana's compassionate nature and kind heart is all she needs to feel empathy towards her enemies; it has always been a huge part of WW's appeal. Her distinct, personal sense of restorative, compassionate justice has always informed her character. Regardless of any of her villains having personal relationships with Diana, she will always feel for them, she will always want to reform them. However, I totally get that this is usually a narrative device to convey specific hero/villain dynamics that help raise the emotional stakes.

Johns Cheetah origin might actually be my favourite since it makes Barbara and Diana "friends", but it also kept Barbara's psychopathic post-crisis personality. Now she is just one of many sympathetic villains who is more anti-hero than straight up villain.

[Skytten]

I think Johns had a very good Diana after Forever Evil, I think he got her really well. Would not be my first pick or anything, but I wouldn't complain if he was to write her solo.

[Dr. Poison]

I loved Johns' revamp of the Cheetah in the New 52. She was Priscilla, Debbie, Sebastian/Sabrina, and Barbara all rolled into one, she was quite cunning, and powerful enough to take on the Justice League all by herself. The were-Cheetah bites were a pretty cool addition to her powers.

I also liked Johns' Diana after Forever Evil. I really think his early JL portrayal of her was due in part to Azzarello's set up and advertising his WW book as a "horror title".

[Primal Slayer]

I loved Johns' revamp of the Cheetah in the New 52. She was Priscilla, Debbie, Sebastian/Sabrina, and Barbara all rolled into one, she was quite cunning, and powerful enough to take on the Justice League all by herself. The were-Cheetah bites were a pretty cool addition to her powers.

I also liked Johns' Diana after Forever Evil. I really think his early JL portrayal of her was due in part to Azzarello's set up and advertising his WW book as a "horror title".

I think making her semi immortal and using all those alias would be a great way to go if they don't make Cheetah into a cult.

[The I.A.D.C.]

Do not hate me for this (especially because I totally understand why it is attractive for comic book writers to make villains & superhero friends or former friends), but I have never been sold on the idea of Cheetah and Diana being former friends.

I'm right there with you. I don't think Diana and Cheetah should be former friends at all. Cheetah should be the irredeemable nemesis. I keep going back to how Perez wrote her. She was power-hungry. That's what drove her. Diana got in her way and then it became personal. Even if you go back to Priscilla Rich, she was never friends with Diana. She hated her from the beginning. I love the version of Priscilla that Alex Ross and Jim Krueger did in their "Justice" series.

[Reddead]

Initially 26 sounds just ok, but when you see the list and Batman released three issues and there is quite a few number ones including the start of the Ultimate universe I think it is a very good result.

Yeah. Wonder Woman used to struggle to be on the Top 150 before King's run. It's a great result lol.

Yup years of mismanagement of their characters and massive overfocusing on the Batman line and this is what happens.

Its their own damn fault.

It has always been the case ever since Marvel took the lead in the 70s. Look up sales charts from the 80s and all you will see in the top 50 is NTT and then LOSH and Batman and the Outsiders way below. The rest was all Marvel. In the 90s DC got demoted to third position by Image for a while.

DC has never been at the top of the industry except for when they do something crazy like New 52. And even then that was very short-lived. I don't think the explanation is just "DC pushes Batman more than the rest" (I mean, that's a reason, but my point is that DC has always kinda struggled to sell).

[Dr. Poison]

I think making her semi immortal and using all those alias would be a great way to go if they don't make Cheetah into a cult.

Making Cheetah semi-immortal would be a great way to fix her history now that Diana has been around since 1941(again).