New WW Creative Team: Tom King and Daniel Sampere

[Frontier]

Tom King did a Word Balloon interview, dropped tons of new details:

- Reiterated that the first arc is gonna be primarily about Diana (though Nubia is still queen of the Amazons and appears in at least the first issue), but said he plans to get to Nubia, Donna, and Cassie and wants to do a long run where he gets to include the whole Wonderfam. Doesn't want to control them so much that other writers can't do what they want with them

- The series is gonna have 10-page backups about the broader world of WW/the Amazons (some written by King, others not)

- Not a lot of mythological stuff or Themyscira in the run - wants to really have her on Earth interacting with the world like Superman and Batman do. The book is gonna be heavily based in Washington DC

- Asked about whether he's going to show Diana's queerness: "It's tricky but it also isn't, you're just gonna have to read the book." Interesting...

- Asked about Trinity's father: That's part of the mystery and it's possible that she doesn't have a father. Said the run is gonna explore how Trinity "comes to exist" or something sort of pointedly, which kinda hints that it's not gonna be a traditional birth

- Hippolyta is going to be an important part of Trinity's story

- When asked about the clay origin, he basically said as subtly as possible that DC won't let him make a definitive statement but he's pro-clay origin and pushing to make it canon. Also said he considers the Perez run definitive WW canon

- Thinks WW is the best person in the DCU, better than Superman. Talked again about how she's a rebel who's more radical in her beliefs and will take a step beyond just doing the right thing, status quo be damned - has no reservations about breaking the law whereas Superman is a bit more deferential to it. Says in the first issue she makes choices that Superman wouldn't

- Thinks WW has a really good rogues gallery and his favorite villains are Giganta and Circe, but the first arc is gonna have a new villain

- Gave huge praise to Historia (and apparently Kelly Sue and Nicola are gonna be on Word Balloon on Thursday to do a vol. 3 deep dive)

- Thoughts on WW's supporting cast: Likes Steve and Etta but feels like some work needs to be done with them, Steve being in the military is immediately gonna drive conflict between him and Diana. Some people asked about Ferdinand and he laughed and said "we'll see"

- Likes Rucka's Rebirth approach to Cheetah where she's not purely a nemesis, thinks sometimes she and Diana are better allies than enemies which is going to inform how he deals with her in his run

- Diana's gonna talk to animals. And the jet's gonna be there. Did not confirm or deny a Jumpa appearance

It's nice to see he's interested in the Wonder Family (whether he'll write them well is another story), although most writers say that and still do barely anything with them (he's even implying he won't do much with them so as to get in the way of other writers).

Hopefully despite introducing a new villain Kings' interest in her Rogues will mean we actually see them in this.

I'm betting Trinity is going to be another Clay Wonder now.

At the very least it seems like King is going to handle it like Rucka where he doesn't address the Zeus parentage and also that Diana can talk to animals.

I guess we're still getting nominal ally Cheetah instead of pure villain Cheetah for a while longer judging by Kings' statement. Feels like it still has an expiration date though.

People keep saying that Steve and Etta need work and keep reinventing them. Was Steve even still in the military?

[bardkeep]

I saw it last night, thank you very much for the summary.
The truth is that everything Tom King said is correct and what one expects, except for the new villain in the first story arc, but well...
And the other question is linked to something we already know, editorial mandates and their way of curtailing good ideas.

If he's trying to start with a political thriller vibe it makes sense that he'd invent a new villain. I can't think of any WW baddies who could fill that specific niche other than maybe Veronica Cale, and making her go into politics would bring her right back to Diet Lex territory.

Why is DC so hellbent on not confirming an origin for Diana?

We don't have to guess if Superman was rocketed from Krypton as a baby and raised by the Kents.

We don't have to guess that Batmans parents were murdered right in front of him as a child and it sent him on a spiral to become Batman.

But we have to guess if Diana was sculpted from Clay and blessed by the gods or if Hipp slept w/Zeus and gave birth to his child
..

Movie synergy, I'm guessing. The good news is that Tom King is aiming to streamline and he's got pull in Gunn's new DCU, so if he's into the Perez lore hopefully that makes it in.

But it's also very much par for the course. We rarely even know what powers she's gonna have in a given story or whether she's gonna be a diplomat or an angry sword maiden.

I like most of what I read here. I'm a bit confused about his comments about his run not using much mythology yet one of his favorite villains is Circe... I'm glad to read that Giganta is a favorite of his. Hopefully he does something that really drives her home as a credible threat to Wonder Woman.

I think DC's Circe has transcended her ties to Greek myth at this point. He also explained that he likes her because he sort of sees her as "evil Wonder Woman" (which I liked hearing because that's also my take on her).

It also sounds like he's mostly concerned with avoiding the kind of in-the-clouds Mount Olympus type stuff, which doesn't necessarily mean there won't be any myth-adjacent characters.

31:59: "Steve [Orlando] said that Wonder Woman has radical empathy. It's beyond; the world isn't kind of ready for it yet. She fights entirely as a last resort. And she has a vision for peace and love that the other superheroes don't have."

That part.

Love to hear that he's consulting with Steve Orlando. I genuinely think the only big name in comics who understands Diana more than him is Phil Jimenez.

[HotBoy]

If he's trying to start with a political thriller vibe it makes sense that he'd invent a new villain. I can't think of any WW baddies who could fill that specific niche other than maybe Veronica Cale, and making her go into politics would bring her right back to Diet Lex territory.



Movie synergy, I'm guessing. The good news is that Tom King is aiming to streamline and he's got pull in Gunn's new DCU, so if he's into the Perez lore hopefully that makes it in.

But it's also very much par for the course. We rarely even know what powers she's gonna have in a given story or whether she's gonna be a diplomat or an angry sword maiden.



I think DC's Circe has transcended her ties to Greek myth at this point. He also explained that he likes her because he sort of sees her as "evil Wonder Woman" (which I liked hearing because that's also my take on her).

It also sounds like he's mostly concerned with avoiding the kind of in-the-clouds Mount Olympus type stuff, which doesn't necessarily mean there won't be any myth-adjacent characters.



Love to hear that he's consulting with Steve Orlando. I genuinely think the only big name in comics who understands Diana more than him is Phil Jimenez.

I also loved that he said that all of the books he writes have filmic inspirations, and for Wonder Woman, he's been influenced by the 1970s, post-Nixon, paranoia films like The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, etc. That's one of my favorite genres of film (the original The Stepford Wives, in particular).

[Ascended]

DC should be learning from Marvel that synergy isn't always a good thing, especially when they need to break characters so that they look more like their cinematic selves.

DC should have learned that lesson themselves before Marvel was a studio. It's not a secret that synergy does almost nothing for the comics. Few extra trade sales while the film is in theaters, maybe a small spike in floppy sales for opening weekend. Synergy almost never works, and even when it does work it doesn't seem to make enough money to justify the emphasis and effort they put into it.

Tom King did a Word Balloon interview, dropped tons of new details:

Like almost everything I'm seeing here.

Doesn't want to control them so much that other writers can't do what they want with them

Well it's been such a problem in the past. /sarcasm.

The book is gonna be heavily based in Washington DC

Here's hoping King doesn't hold back with the politics/revolutionary stuff he's trying to sell. I really, really want political Diana.

- Asked about Trinity's father: That's part of the mystery

Not feeling this. Don't need a "who's the daddy?" story. However Lizzie came about and whoever did it, I want the story to be about her and how it changes Diana's life, not about the big mystery of where babies come from.

- When asked about the clay origin, he basically said as subtly as possible that DC won't let him make a definitive statement

WTF DC?

Maybe they're afraid their comics will be outlawed in certain states.

she's a rebel who's more radical in her beliefs and will take a step beyond just doing the right thing, status quo be damned - has no reservations about breaking the law whereas Superman is a bit more deferential to it.

One more proof that King doesn't understand Superman. But he's right that Diana will go further than he will, and involve herself in stuff he won't.

- Thoughts on WW's supporting cast: Likes Steve and Etta but feels like some work needs to be done with them, Steve being in the military is immediately gonna drive conflict between him and Diana.

Don't disagree that Steve and Etta need a lot of TLC but King seems more lukewarm than I'd like. If these characters need work, then do it King!

- Diana's gonna talk to animals. And the jet's gonna be there.

Damn straight!

Liking most of what he said. Gonna have my doubts about the run until I see it, but I like a lot of what he's saying.

[Nyssane]

I guess we're still getting nominal ally Cheetah instead of pure villain Cheetah for a while longer judging by Kings' statement. Feels like it still has an expiration date though.

As it should, in my opinion. The character's legacy is that of a villain. I'm trying to remain optimistic that all these Cheetah-as-an-ally stories will lead to a great payoff where she finally takes her place as Diana's archnemesis.

[StarSpangledMan]

31:59: "Steve [Orlando] said that Wonder Woman has radical empathy. It's beyond; the world isn't kind of ready for it yet. She fights entirely as a last resort. And she has a vision for peace and love that the other superheroes don't have."

That part.

How very Star Trek

[VonHammersmark]

I don’t know what it means to have “radical empathy”, it sounds a bit silly…as well as frightening. The way King describes Wonder Woman she seems a bit dangerous actually, I’d be afraid of her...

[Mantis-Ray]

I also loved that he said that all of the books he writes have filmic inspirations, and for Wonder Woman, he's been influenced by the 1970s, post-Nixon, paranoia films like The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, etc. That's one of my favorite genres of film (the original The Stepford Wives, in particular).

I like the genre approach there. Would give a distinct flavor to this run.

I like the news about the back-ups, going more variety is pretty cool since it can offer some world-building especially compared to the Young Diana back-ups of the last run where it was just that and little anything else.

[Gaius]

Listened to the the interview myself now and some quibbles aside, nice to see King’s passion and seeming swinging for the fences on it.

Appreciate King settling Diana in D.C. not my first choice but I’ll take real city with real history over another generic fake city.

I like the genre approach there. Would give a distinct flavor to this run.

I like the news about the back-ups, going more variety is pretty cool since it can offer some world-building especially compared to the Young Diana back-ups of the last run where it was just that and little anything else.

Yeah, I was happy to hear this. I like the Young Diana stuff but some variety would be nice, especially since it’s not like there’s a shortage of “Young Diana” stuff in general.

[Vordan]

I’m very happy that King seems fond of Circe (because he was a Homer buff lmao) since she is my favorite. Given he also seems to want Cheetah as more of a frenemy that means Circe might be the one he builds up as her nemesis. Also great to hear he’s putting a hold on the gods for a while, that needed a rest.

King doesn’t like Psycho though, mind control powers are hard for him. He struggles with how to have the hero fight them. Saying he’ll work on it makes me think he wants to use Psycho but is struggling to find an approach. I’ll be honest, returning to something I said before, I think the only way to really make Psycho into a legit threat is to accept that a virulent misogynist with mind control powers is probably going to use them for rape, same as Marvel’s Purple Man. Psycho using his powers to traffic women and sell them into sexual slavery is the obvious route to take for him, but that would be an intense storyline that may not be best told by a man.

If I had to guess, it's because they're waiting to see what Gunn does for the movie reboot.

Given he and Gunn work closely together I’m surprised he doesn’t just ask Gunn what the plans are. Gunn does like some New 52 stuff so maybe he digs Azz’s run? He liked New 52 Suicide Squad which is why Harley was on his team.

One more proof that King doesn't understand Superman. But he's right that Diana will go further than he will, and involve herself in stuff he won't.

He actually had a great take on Superman in the interview imo, at least in how Diana sees him as being someone who hides extreme rage behind a smile and kind attitude. King’s big take on the difference between the two is that Diana is supposed to be rocking the boat in everything she does whereas Superman will do that in extreme circumstances, but is normally very hesitant for fear of becoming a tyrant. Wonder Woman will be much more aggressively political in his run which sounds good to me!

[BrianWilly]

The silly thing about the comics keeping the Zeus crap to have synergy with the movies is that the movies definitely only kept the Zeus crap in the first place to have synergy with the comics at the time. It's just corporate decision-makers who don't even like WW all that much circling the same drain over and over, and the only thing in the drain is Zeus crap born from the company-wide revamp that's been now widely-considered a cringeworthy failure.

Otherwise, very good things to hear from the interview!...but talk is cheap. I'm less outright terrified today of what King's gonna do on this book than I was yesterday...but...a fraction of infinity is still pretty high lol

[HotBoy]

I like the genre approach there. Would give a distinct flavor to this run.

I like the news about the back-ups, going more variety is pretty cool since it can offer some world-building especially compared to the Young Diana back-ups of the last run where it was just that and little anything else.

Coincidentally, Marston predicted this very response to Wonder Woman from certain people even before she was published.

[Agent Z]

Coincidentally, Marston predicted this very response to Wonder Woman from certain people even before she was published.

Sorry, what response?

[Will Evans]

So no Ares for a good long while.

[Garrac]

DC has two very big problems on representing Wonder Woman: confirm her queerness, and take back the clay origin.

Well, see, Tom King right now is like, the top star, the right eye of the comic industry. He's probaly the still active writer with most power of decision, the guy who can do almost anything to his characters. And now we know he wants to bring those two points to the table.

If we want those two things to happen, there's literally no one on the industry left in a better position than Tom King able to give Diana her clay origin and a saphic relationship.

So, if these two things don't happen during the whole run... we'll know it's imposible and all hope will be lost. Because if Tom King can't do it, no one will.