Is Wonder Woman Hard To Write?

[Agent Z]

I saw a similar thread on the Superman boards and since the same charges have leveled at Wonder Woman, I thought I'd make a thread asking people what they felt about this idea. Do you think it's true or do you believe it's just something said by people who have no interest in the character?

For me, while I appreciate the difficulties a writer would have writing Diana, I do think they could be overcome and are not as immense as some say they are. I agree with people not wanting to be weighed down by previous stories, I don't think it's a bad idea to build on important developments from before. I guess there's no real easy answer to this. What do you guys think?

[AmiMizuno]

It must be hard to write Diana because we have many writers who don't know her at all but yet have bad things to say or think they know how to write her. That's my problem many writers literally start from nothing when they go on. I think it would be nice to mention other runs , like a few of the writers did in pre. Than with Azz we have a guy who wrote Diana knowing he didn't have any idea who Diana was but still said her rogue suck and give us a generic villain . Azz can write Diana since it's a reboot but in generally must new 52 people seem to have a better idea such for Jim in JL

[SofNascimento]

No, but I think there are truths behind the "writers don't know what to do with her" statements. Although it might be closer to "writers don't know what they CAN do with her". I mean, she wasn't even allowed to have a sex life in the previous continuity.

[Agent Z]

No, but I think there are truths behind the "writers don't know what to do with her" statements. Although it might be closer to "writers don't know what they CAN do with her". I mean, she wasn't even allowed to have a sex life in the previous continuity.

Um, she did have relationships in the previous continuity (Tom Tressor and Trevor Barnes come to mind). It's just that they never lasted. Then again, neither do most superhero relationships.

[Dr. Hurt]

Is Wonder Woman Hard To Write?

Yes and here's why:

1) She is a female hero, championing for women in a male dominated industry. A pretty immature one at that.

2) She keeps getting reboots and retcons all the time so her book doesnt have a stable cast or general state that fans can jump on to.

3) She doesnt have great supporting cast that resonates with fans the way Gordon, or Alfred, or Lois do. Yeah WW fans like Etta or Trevor, but they're nowhere to be found in the wider DC universe and nobody cares about them. Lois and Alfred appear in many other books besides those of SM and BM respectively, and they often get big roles in events. Lois had a bigger and more important role in Final Crisis than WW did.

4) WW and her whole franchise have not been properly brought up to speed with modern comics the way Johns brought the Flash and GL. WW is stuck in a state between Lynda Carter's cheesy WW and a super serious 80/90ies version, none of which are cool or modern.

5) Most of her villlains suck big time. So did the Flash's i know, but again, Flash got Johns and here we are with Captain freaking Cold of all people being a respectable character and villain.



That's more or less my take on it. If you asked me a year ago what i thought about a superhero team consisting of a raccoon and a tree, i would have said it sucks, but after the GotG movie, i love them. My point is that there's nothing wrong with WW, she just needs better and more stable execution, better handling and proper push from DC (they do push her now but let's not pretend that Johns is writing her properly or that her book with SM isnt just about him), and a good writer who can unify all these disjointed ideas, concepts and reboots and create a unified WW franchise for the new age.

Enough with the constant reboots, bring it all together and create one thing, one vision that will stay put for at least a decade.

[AmiMizuno]

Let's see, Cheetah, Dr.Poison, Clea , and Evilness, Baroness can easily be brought up to date. The best reboot is Perez if we are talking strong but if someone could built that up with all the others and a bit of Azz we can do it and beign back some of Marston's idea that would be great

[Andrew Eldritch]

Is Wonder Woman hard to write? I don't think so.
Are Wonder Woman fans hard to please? Definitely!

[borntohula]

It'll probably help if she gets a couple more "critically recognized." runs (IMO Perez and Azzarello's. Probl. also Morrison's upcoming) that focuses on her core, which is her strong heart. It being both her strength and weakness. A bit like Batman's trauma.

Hopefully someday Wonder Woman will have a collection of stories as rich and varied as Batman's. Everything from her own "Wonder Woman year 1", cosmic Morrison Wonder Woman epic to "The Wonder Woman returns".

[mathew101281]

No they just need to focus on developing her villains and supporting cast. Notice I said developing her supporting cast not giving her yet another new one.

[Typhoeus]

Is Wonder Woman hard to write? I don't think so.
Are Wonder Woman fans hard to please? Definitely!

This! Exactly!

[Agent Z]

Is Wonder Woman hard to write? I don't think so.
Are Wonder Woman fans hard to please? Definitely!

At the risk of sounding whiny, given how massively mishandled she's been by most writers, I don't think you can blame us.

[Darius]

I'm not so sure it's "hard to write her" so much as it's impossible to not agitate her fans. And by fans I also mean the various causes that have embraced what she stands for without necissarily reading the comic. She's a symbol to far more people than just those of us who read the comic. As such I think there is an added pressure on any writer to please a lot of casual fans. This puts a lot more boxes around a creative team and probably makes writing her much more political than characters with less cultural meaning.

[LifeIsILL]

She's the most complex character in DC, I say she is very hard to write.

(of course she's still easier than unknown characters like Deadman, Ragman, Vigiliante, Tumar Re etc..)

[brettc1]

I saw a similar thread on the Superman boards and since the same charges have leveled at Wonder Woman, I thought I'd make a thread asking people what they felt about this idea. Do you think it's true or do you believe it's just something said by people who have no interest in the character?

For me, while I appreciate the difficulties a writer would have writing Diana, I do think they could be overcome and are not as immense as some say they are. I agree with people not wanting to be weighed down by previous stories, I don't think it's a bad idea to build on important developments from before. I guess there's no real easy answer to this. What do you guys think?

It's not hard for me, but I cant speak for others.

[Hawk80]

Is Wonder Woman hard to write when you don't understand her and coundn't care less about her? Yes
Are Wonder Woman fans hard to please with constant reboots and disrespectful portrayals of the character? Yes