DC announced on Friday that Gail Simone will be leaving Wonder Woman. As much as we’d like her to stay on the book, she is not Wonder Woman. With the return of the Birds, I suppose she can’t do it all. I was disappointed, but not surprised. Gail’s replacement, announced this morning, will be J. Michael Straczynski. This guy has got some serious writing cred behind him, but in his interview he seemed more stoked about writing Supes than Wondy. Through hell or high water, Wonder Woman will stay on my pull list, but I’m a little worried.
Girls Gone Geek 
I’m so disappointed that it’s not Greg Rucka. But I’m also concerned that JMS is describing Wonder Woman as a female Supes double. I guess we’ll see.
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Barf.
Call me crazy, but Straczynski’s monologue sounds wildly pretentious. See for yourself…
http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/03/08/no-limits-j-michael-straczynski-on-superman-wonder-woman/
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I’m not sure what to think about this, but I’m leaning more towards “not happy, and let me express as such by being cynical”. The whole bit where he pretty much called WW the female version of Superman raised my hackles. Add that to the fact that he’s writing Superman at the same time and bam, you have a clear pathway for him to, subconsciously or not, put Wonder Woman into the “female Superman” position just because he’s got Superman on the brain.
Needless to say, I’m a bit worried, but also somewhat willing to see how he pulls this off.
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If JMS brings his Thor game to WW, it will be awesome. If he brings his Fantastic Four game, it will generate more suck than a black hole.
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Agreed. JMS is one of my favorite writers, but also one of the least consistent. It’s hard to reconcile the writer of B5 and good Amazing Spider-Man stories with those mediocre FF stories (and the whole Gwen Stacey thing).
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Let me state my bonafides right quick. I grew up watching the TV show, and read the occasional comic when I could find it, though I favored the Huntress back-up feature. I followed the Perez revamp for a while, but didn’t become a devotee until I embraced William Messner-Loebs run. I’ve been battered by pretty near every run since, although Rucka was just okay, and I found gave up after Heinberg.
So in summary, as much as I claim to like Wonder Woman, I only ever really enjoyed some Conway, early Perez, and most of Messner-Loebs and Sekowsky.
I read two Simone trades, and though I enjoy most of her work, her Wonder Woman elicited no higher reaction than mild irritation. Simone won’t be missed by me, but I’m looking forward to her writing Huntress again.
I take J. Michael Straczynski with the same trepidation as I do Kurt Busiek. Every now and again, these guys will just knock a ball right out of the park (Supreme Power, Marvels, Astro City.) The rest of the time, they squat out a big fat stanky egg (Amazing Spider-Man, Trinity.) I think Straczynski has the right sensibilities for Wonder Woman, so it’s a crap shoot. I was expecting this to be the rumored entry of Grant Morrison, who has never shown any aptitude with regard to Wonder Woman, so I’m sort of relieved.
As a side note, I regard all hardcore Superman fans with suspicion. It’s a personal prejudice of mine.
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So hard to say…JMS can do great stuff…but it depends on where he decides to go. If he does what he did to Spiderman…ugh. But if he brings the epic he used for B5, WW may be the best she’s been in a while.
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I too wanted Rucka back! :(
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