New WW Creative Team: Tom King and Daniel Sampere

[Sebastianne]

The WW talk starts around the 38 min. mark:

Well, this interview doesn't make one have much confidence in him.
I've only read two of his books, Heroes in Crisis which I hated; and Strangers Adventures, which I quite liked.
Right now I'm going to read Supergirl: WoT, which I've been really looking forward to for a while.
Sampere seems to me a very good cartoonist, but what about the proportions of the main cover? Diana's head is quite small for that body.
As for the plot, I don't know if I want to read a dramatic drama about the Amazons and an exiled Diana who is seen as an enemy by the whole world. Just repeating it bores me.
But hey, we'll see what this creative team brings us, I hope the best for our favorite heroine.

[Garrac]

Seems like he's done an interview about the new run:

https://youtu.be/WCFHERop9HI

The Wonder Woman part is between minutes 38 and 51!

Interesting bits:

-Um, Tom King says it was Holzherr who approached him like "If you want to write a series regular, you could do with Wonder Woman what you've done with Supergirl."
-He says that he was very impressed when he saw him at George Pérez's funeral say that the work he was most proud of was Wonder Woman because "it was a work that nobody wanted, and it was the most difficult project of my career, and my most successful" and who later accepted
-Says that with Batman he felt like having to honour a great legacy, while acording to him many marvelous people tried with Wonder Woman, but failed at the end. However, he stays the character has had some great highlights, like Marston's run
-Between the things he says he wanted from this series, one is that he wanted to give a gret book for 12 yo girls searching for comics to read
-Also talks a little about the typical stuff
-Yes, this is ongoing, there's no plans for a limit, both Sampere and King want to stay on the series for as long as possible

[Gaius]

Hmm, enthusiasm was appreciated by King in the interview but I can't say I appreciated another use of the oft-troughed lie "WW just doesn't have many good stories to her" that he then immediately disproves his previous statement by listing stuff like "Perez run, WML, Rucka, Chiang, Marston".

The story about video message of Perez at his funeral saying his WW run was his proudest accomplishment is rather touching though.

[Hypo]

That seems a little nitpicky? All his words sum her up and we don't even see the sword/shield in any of the covers

Eh, maybe - if warrior is the first thing that comes to mind for him when someone says WW then I have concerns. If inspiration was first on the list I wouldn't be bothered.

The Wonder Woman part is between minutes 38 and 51!

Interesting bits:

-Um, Tom King says it was Holzherr who approached him like "If you want to write a series regular, you could do with Wonder Woman what you've done with Supergirl."
-He says that he was very impressed when he saw him at George Pérez's funeral say that the work he was most proud of was Wonder Woman because "it was a work that nobody wanted, and it was the most difficult project of my career, and my most successful" and who later accepted
-Says that with Batman he felt like having to honour a great legacy, while acording to him many marvelous people tried with Wonder Woman, but failed at the end. However, he stays the character has had some great highlights, like Marston's run
-Between the things he says he wanted from this series, one is that he wanted to give a gret book for 12 yo girls searching for comics to read
-Also talks a little about the typical stuff
-Yes, this is ongoing, there's no plans for a limit, both Sampere and King want to stay on the series for as long as possible

One thing that does give me some hope is that he and Holzherr have a good relationship and she isn't afraid to say no to him - on his Word Balloon appearance back in February he mentioned how Holzherr and Jamie Rich told him to rewrite an entire issue of Supergirl because it wasn't good enough.

[HestiasHearth]

Oh damn thats a big writer. I mean sure King is controversial no doubt about that, but he is generally an interesting writer so he's definitely something.

Also Daniel Sampere that is awesome, spectacular artist. He did some great stuff on Warworld Rising in Action Comics and for every problem with Dark Crisis, its art was not one of them.

What is controversial about Tom King?

I have to admit that, when I first read the name "Tom King," the face that popped into my head was that of Tom Taylor, which made me go, "Uh oh...the CBR WW fandom is not gonna be happy." But I am not familiar with King. Is he really a big name? What stuff of his could we read to get some of an idea of what he might do with Diana?

[Vordan]

Edit: Glad someone else is willing to summarize interviews besides me. I get King talking about his difficulties with Wondy might be off-putting but he’s said similar stuff about Superman and Supergirl and still did a good job with both imo.

[WonderScott]

I’m optimistic. I’ve enjoyed most of his work and have been ambivalent about a few pieces of his work, so hopefully it’ll be the former for me.

Count me in for wanting some deep cuts and revitalization of some of Diana’s villains - we deserve an amazing Doctor Psycho, Doctor Cyber, Villainy Inc, etc. menacing Diana’s life.

The first story arc made my head jump to the extreme xenophobia and racism exhibited in U.S. culture and other countries’s cultures right. I can see an allegory of that playing out with the Amazons. Wonder Woman has always been “political” (and many other things) in her existence and messages, so it might be a good fit for King if he can stick the landing with superhero stories and adventure that also comment on all sorts of “politicized” issues and dynamics: gender, race, sexuality, etc. - whether real-world or allusion based.

I wonder what scale the reboot will be on? It might be a good time to go back to the clay origin and refresh Steve and Etta. I’d love to see more of Steve in the book and get built up as a super intelligence adventurer in ARGUS, based on King’s experience with spy craft and espionage. I wouldn’t hate Etta becoming Diana’s best friend who gets caught up in her adventures. A Diana, Steve and Etta triangle, where Etta is not part of the military, could provide an interesting dynamic of opinions and comparisons and contrasts.

Regardless, bring on the adventure, action, mysteries, intrigues, romance, heart, soap operatics, etc.!

[Mantis-Ray]

What is controversial about Tom King?

I have to admit that, when I first read the name "Tom King," the face that popped into my head was that of Tom Taylor, which made me go, "Uh oh...the CBR WW fandom is not gonna be happy." But I am not familiar with King. Is he really a big name? What stuff of his could we read to get some of an idea of what he might do with Diana?

He tends to be a darker and edgier writer. His stories tend to be darker in subject matter and makes the characters a lot more morally fallible.

It can vary from how dark from Mister Miracle where Scott Free suffers from depression to full on brutal deconstruction where Adam Strange eventually succumbs to his PTSD and sells out Earth in a desperate attempt to save Rann from being conquered.

[Vordan]

What is controversial about Tom King?

I have to admit that, when I first read the name "Tom King," the face that popped into my head was that of Tom Taylor, which made me go, "Uh oh...the CBR WW fandom is not gonna be happy." But I am not familiar with King. Is he really a big name? What stuff of his could we read to get some of an idea of what he might do with Diana?

Kinda shocked you don’t know who he is, he’s rather infamous. He’s one of the only writers who can get C-Listers to sell well. For WW specifically I recommend Superman: Up in the Sky! and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow are the works he’s done that he name dropped as being similar to what he’s trying to do with WW.

[Nyssane]

Ugh. Terrible choice. Bracing myself for Assarello part two.

Referring to an Amazon as an "Amazonian" is already a worrying sign.

This is kind of how I'm feeling too. I really liked some of Tom King's stuff, but I'm worried that we're going to get yet another straight dude's take on how to make WW "cool".

As a villain fan too, I'm worried we'll get 3+ years of new villains and literally none of her existing ones. Azz left me traumatized.

[bardkeep]

I'm assuming the interview was taken down because he spilled the beans on James Gunn directing Superman: Legacy.

But yeah, there was some stuff that worried me in the interview and some stuff that was reassuring. Like, it was kind of a bummer to hear just all negativity out the gate, with him stating outright that he only did it because no one else wanted to and Holzherr twisted his arm (that's what happens when DC gets the same 5 cishet white guys to write literally everything...). And yeah, the oft-parroted "she's had so many great writers and ideas and they've all been bad...well, except for -insert several great writers/runs here-" is always an eye roll.

But his approach to the character sounds promising. I'm glad to hear he's taking the Up in the Sky/WoT approach where it's just "look how great this character is" rather than taking a navel-gazey approach and/or trying to do a character study, "fix" her, or reinvent the wheel. Really liked the George Perez anecdote and I thought it was very sweet that his stated goal is to just write WW doing awesome stuff that'd make his WW-loving 12-year-old daughter happy.

I've already resigned to the fact that Historia is the only book we'll get in the foreseeable future that really wants to get into what the character means or why she's important. So a run that's just Diana doing a bunch of cool, epic **** sounds pretty good to me.

[HestiasHearth]

Kinda shocked you don’t know who he is, he’s rather infamous. He’s one of the only writers who can get C-Listers to sell well. For WW specifically I recommend Superman: Up in the Sky! and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow are the works he’s done that he name dropped as being similar to what he’s trying to do with WW.

He tends to be a darker and edgier writer. His stories tend to be darker in subject matter and makes the characters a lot more morally fallible.

It can vary from how dark from Mister Miracle where Scott Free suffers from depression to full on brutal deconstruction where Adam Strange eventually succumbs to his PTSD and sells out Earth in a desperate attempt to save Rann from being conquered.

Thank you!!!!

[Frontier]

I totally get why the pitch makes you nervous lol, but again it’s a way to raise the stakes. Cloonrad’s run was low scale, this is trying to make WW feel epic and must read. Could King **** the bed? Totally, he’s done it before with his last big swing at a superhero murder mystery, and if you didn’t like his Supergirl you probably aren’t going to like this. But as someone who does enjoy a lot of King’s work, I think I will enjoy this very much. And if nothing else -

I don't really care about stakes so much as the characterization and tone, which I feel like are the biggest thing I'm concerned about.

Like, yeah, big name writer, big time situation, but considering this is Wonder Woman I don't have the trust that King will be able to deftly manage it without falling back on his usual issues as a writer.

At the very least it should be good on feats and spectacle.

His Superman and Supergirl does have them doing some over the top stuff.

Pretty cool fights like Clark getting into a boxing match with a super strong alien and Kara taking a cannon barrage to the face as she battles a hoard of space pirates who rampaged across the galaxy.

Just for the record though he was also the writer who had her lose to Harley Quinn .

https://twitter.com/TomKingTK/status...27582672461824



Don't love the fact that warrior is the first word used there to describe her legacy.

I guess "rebel" also recognizes she'll be fighting the government on this one.

[Largo161]

https://twitter.com/Sampere_art/stat...34983811276801

OMG!!!!! Way to make me happy on a Friday morning. I'm a sucker for some Carter-nostalgia. LOL

The first story arc made my head jump to the extreme xenophobia and racism exhibited in U.S. culture and other countries’s cultures right. I can see an allegory of that playing out with the Amazons. Wonder Woman has always been “political” (and many other things) in her existence and messages, so it might be a good fit for King if he can stick the landing with superhero stories and adventure that also comment on all sorts of “politicized” issues and dynamics: gender, race, sexuality, etc. - whether real-world or allusion based.

I wonder what scale the reboot will be on? It might be a good time to go back to the clay origin and refresh Steve and Etta. I’d love to see more of Steve in the book and get built up as a super intelligence adventurer in ARGUS, based on King’s experience with spy craft and espionage. I wouldn’t hate Etta becoming Diana’s best friend who gets caught up in her adventures. A Diana, Steve and Etta triangle, where Etta is not part of the military, could provide an interesting dynamic of opinions and comparisons and contrasts.

Agree that this is the perfect time to do something political...you know, what with all the rising fascism in the real world.

The CBR homepage story stressed the word "reboot" but what I'm reading in this thread doesn't exactly imply changes to her origin--much as I'd love to have the clay firmly re-established.

Having said that...I've not read any of King's work, so I'm open to see how it all goes down.

[SiegePerilous02]

Hmm, enthusiasm was appreciated by King in the interview but I can't say I appreciated another use of the oft-troughed lie "WW just doesn't have many good stories to her" that he then immediately disproves his previous statement by listing stuff like "Perez run, WML, Rucka, Chiang, Marston".

The story about video message of Perez at his funeral saying his WW run was his proudest accomplishment is rather touching though.

Tbf, for a character as big and as long lasting as she is, 4 creators being great with her isn't that much. WW fans pretty much are in line with thinking Perez, Marston and Rucka are her best runs, with some lesser appreciation for Jimenez and Simone, but that's it. Stacked against the sheer amount of "meh" and crap that we get otherwise, she really doesn't have many good stories/runs to her name.

Which isn't the characters fault, nor does it mean those great runs don't prove how great she is and should be looked to, but he's not really wrong