DC is still trying to find Wonder Woman?

[Mel Dyer]

While I found his style painfully slow, anticlimactic and wasteful, and hated what he did with the Amazons - except, get RID of them, ..for a while - I very much LIKED Brian Azzarello's run on Wonder Woman. I think it was a GREAT start and highly recommend the trades, BLOOD, GUTS and WAR, to anyone, who wants to read a good WW story. I find it most regrettable and equally wasteful that some editorial power doesn't agree with me enough to insist that Zola and Lord Hermes weren't kept around for the supporting cast; so, I am solidly in agreement with Ms. Simone.

The editorial history of this title is piled up to its neck in wasteful decisions. I hate that, and while I still love Wonder Woman, ..that is why I've put the title down, for the foreseeable future.

[Slim Shady]

I like her way of thinking, "EVERYTHING HAPPENED". If more writers or editorial would look at it like this they would be for the better. Just let it be and write her. She's a great character. Lots of history. Just write her and chill out worrying about changing every little thing. Everyone in America, and tons across the world, knows Superman was born on Krypton and sent to Earth by his parents. Everyone knows young Bruce Wayne witnessed his mom and dad murdered in the streets. Ask about Wonder Woman and you will get different answers and Idk. That's sad.

[Mel Dyer]

How many bold, new directions does this character need, before an editor says, "STOP!"?

At some point, a strong editor is going to have to come in and lay down the law or laws, so to speak. "Wonder Woman's most promising super-villains are A, B and C, and we are going to make a respectable rogues gallery out of them. Wonder Woman's supporting cast is X, Y and Z, and you (Mr. or Ms. Writer) will use them in your stories. Wonder Woman lives here or frequents these places, and, for sake of continuity, you will use them, also. If you can make a story out of all that, we can deal. If you can't, ..vaya con Dios and get out of my office." Comic book editors are enforcers and vigilant protectors of some vision for their comic's progress. They don't let people come in and do any silly thing that you want.

This is part of the job.

If I can give WW editor, Matt Idelson, credit for anything - I've been very, very hard on Matt - it's that he let Brian Azzarello almost completely remake this character into something narratively manageable ..that could be further developed. I just don't want to see that opportunity squandered, ..and I think that is what Gail's 'EVERYTHING HAPPENED' ethic.

[wonder39]

PS megalodoons (or whatever)...stupid. Also the hunter's moon junk...this run was indicative of the whole " must make the origin mine" mentality instead of moving forward with storytelling...

[Slim Shady]

Agreed. And I like Azz's run overall. But it just points out that they can't leave her alone and just let her be herself.
I like how Gail handled Batgirl. People were freaking out, how can she walk, was she ever Oracle, are they wiping out Killing Joke? Gail just rolled with it, everything happened, now Babs is Batgirl and here are some good Batgirl stories for ya. Everything happened now let's move along.

[Airtrap]

If I can give WW editor, Matt Idelson, credit for anything - I've been very, very hard on Matt - it's that he let Brian Azzarello almost completely remake this character into something narratively manageable ..that could be further developed. I just don't want to see that opportunity squandered, ..and I think that is what Gail's 'EVERYTHING HAPPENED' ethic.

Matt Idelson isn't the WW Editor anymore. Since #41 she is in the Superman group under Group Editor: Eddie Berganza and the assoc. Editors are Paul Kaminski and Mike Cotton.

[Darius]

True. I didn't mean to blame Kanigher personally, but more to say the disjunction between Marston's goals (help transform society by teaching girls to be independent of men and and boy to be submissive to women) and DC's goal (just make a comic book that will sell and not be too controversial, while maybe acquiring a veneer or educational respectability) kind of made it inevitable that there would be conflicting visions for the book (maybe even more than for most long-running comics) as it went forward.

Maybe the best thing to now is to see if the lack of one coherent vision can be treated as a strength, in that maybe it leaves each creative team would a little more freedom to contribute its own unique and interesting perspective on the character, with fewer absolute "musts" that have to be honored than we see in the history of some other books. I kind of agree with Simone that it's good to assume that "everything happened"--but I don't think everything has to be acknowledged in every run. Everything's still there in the history of the character and can be revived as needed, but each run should be able to find its own focus, which is likely to involve leaving a lot of old stuff in out as well as putting a lot of old stuff in, along with all the new stuff.

Well, to be fair, Kanigher didn't do WW any favors ... the man was prolific, but WW clearly wasn't his priority.

[Dr. Poison]

Matt Idelson isn't the WW Editor anymore. Since #41 she is in the Superman group under Group Editor: Eddie Berganza and the assoc. Editors are Paul Kaminski and Mike Cotton.

I hope that once the new editorial team gets settled, we see more streamlining for Wonder Woman's personality, abilities, villains, and costume(go w/the JL version please) across all of the in-continuity DCU books that she appears in). I really don't care for the way Idelson handled WW's solo book for the last several years. It almost seemed like there was NO editor on the book for the most part.

[SteveGus]

I hope that once the new editorial team gets settled, we see more streamlining for Wonder Woman's personality, abilities, villains, and costume(go w/the JL version please) across all of the in-continuity DCU books that she appears in). I really don't care for the way Idelson handled WW's solo book for the last several years. It almost seemed like there was NO editor on the book for the most part.

The Azzarello run tried to spoil the utopian elements that make Wonder Woman Wonder Woman. The Daughter of Zeus character is an uninteresting cliche compared to Wonder Woman, and just isn't cut out to fill her shoes. I'm not reading DC again until all the mud flung at the character and her history by Azzarello has been cleaned up and the utopian character of Paradise Island and Amazon society has been restored.

Unfortunately, the Finches seem instead to be digging a deeper hole for the fake Wonder Woman and her world. I doubt that I will ever read DC universe books again at this rate. And unfortunately whatever promise the 'DC You' sales pitch has, it hasn't affected Paradise Island yet.

[SiegePerilous02]

Really, it's the animated cartoons. Batman has had more animated cartoons than any of the other superheroes. That's honestly what I think helps solidify a fan base, because children become fans and they take that into their adulthood.

Wonder Woman needs an animated series more than anything. And a really good one too! Think Batman TAS. That's why everyone loves Batgod now.

The cartoons are a major part of it yeah. But you can't underestimate the Adam West series and the Burton films for contributing to the Gotham cast becoming household names.
But I'm greedy: I want a really good film series and a really good cartoon. Maybe some video games as well. If her other media appearances are successful, and keep the mythos more or less consistent (same origin, same supporting cast, same villains) maybe the comics will be less inclined to reboot her every few years.

[Agent Z]

The cartoons are a major part of it yeah. But you can't underestimate the Adam West series and the Burton films for contributing to the Gotham cast becoming household names.
But I'm greedy: I want a really good film series and a really good cartoon. Maybe some video games as well. If her other media appearances are successful, and keep the mythos more or less consistent (same origin, same supporting cast, same villains) maybe the comics will be less inclined to reboot her every few years.

Good point. Though I'd say the Adama West series is more liked ironically than considered a good contribution to the Batman franchise.

[Tayswift]

Agreed. And I like Azz's run overall. But it just points out that they can't leave her alone and just let her be herself.
I like how Gail handled Batgirl. People were freaking out, how can she walk, was she ever Oracle, are they wiping out Killing Joke? Gail just rolled with it, everything happened, now Babs is Batgirl and here are some good Batgirl stories for ya. Everything happened now let's move along.

well killing joke happened, but Oracle never happened. I stopped reading simone because she was too tied on Barbara past, instead of moving on

I hope that once the new editorial team gets settled, we see more streamlining for Wonder Woman's personality, abilities, villains, and costume(go w/the JL version please) across all of the in-continuity DCU books that she appears in). I really don't care for the way Idelson handled WW's solo book for the last several years. It almost seemed like there was NO editor on the book for the most part.

It's a better another editorial tem, berganza and cotton are two of the wrose editors dc has today

[companion]

The idea of Diana not having a 'version' that DC believes in 100% both makes perfect sense and is incredibly sad. Personally, I think Diana is the most difficult character to write in comics. If you look, for example, at the boards here, you'll see that everyone has a different idea of who Diana is and what direction she should take. Since the very beginning, Diana's been a teacher, leader, super-hero, ambassador (though not officially until Rucka's run, I still think you could count her as an ambassador from Marston's days onward) etc. etc.
Each aspect of her personality (peace-keeper/warrior/teacher, etc) speaks to each of us differently and, unlike Batman and Superman, who are easier to distill in short descriptive sentences, Diana has been a lot of things to a lot of people over the years.
It's sad to me that, over the years, editorially, it feels as if she's been ignored on some level. It's a great thing for the creative freedom of the writers and artists who are allowed to craft stories and a bad thing that she may not have had a unified editorial vision.
Hopefully, one day, Gail's "everything happened" attitude will allow all of us (myself included) to embrace all the aspects and story lines of Diana.