• J. Michael Straczynski, whose stint at DC had been awfully low-key until now, busted out yesterday with the news that he’ll be writing 2/3rds of the DCU’s Holy Trinity. Starting in July, he’ll write both Superman and Wonder Woman. JMS introduced his thoughts on both characters in the above-linked essay. For Superman, it’s pretty much the chance to write a universal icon of hope and strength:
For me, and I suspect for a lot of people, that symbol stands for the belief in our own potentiality, in what we think we can do, and try, and aspire to. I was watching the news recently, and they were showing Palistinian protests, followed by a story on the night life scene in LA, and later on, a live report from London about somethingorother…and in the background of each of those stories there was somebody wearing a Superman t-shirt or cap. It’s universal.
As for Wonder Woman…well, there’s a heritage, but it resembles a Venus flytrap.
As Superman has been for me, so Wonder Woman has been for a lot of women readers, so the chance to dive into that character is something I’m eagerly anticipating. This is a strong, mythic, powerful character who for some time now has been kind of drowning under the weight of her own mythos, so I’m looking forward to paring away some of the layers of debris and undergrowth that have piled up around her in order to get to the core of the character. Coming from the world of TV and film, the first rule you learn is to service the main character more than anything else, so I’ll be writing with an eye firmly fixed on that rule.
• Marvel has rounded off their Avengers revamp with AVENGERS ACADEMY, in which young superheroes will learn how to fight and love. Christos Gage & Mike McKone provide creative services.
• Rob Liefeld is bringing a bunch of his comics to iPhone via comiXology, including the remastered YOUNGBLOOD, and his Biblically themed ARMAGEDDON NOW!. In comments, Liefeld seems to be pretty pragmatic about where things are going.
“I have an iPhone. My wife has an iPhone. My kids have the iTouch – we are constantly downloading apps,” Liefeld said of his draw to taking Shaft, Badrock and the rest of Youngblood to mobile screens. He added that the interface offered by the comiXology app was a selling point for him going exclusive with the service. “With comiXology’s amazing ‘guided views’ the process that they direct the page and guide the eye, I see the pages infused with an all-new energy. The comiXology application adds to the entire experience.”
JMS’s comment re Wonder Woman:
That’s not a tribute to the character. It’s a reworded version of Byrne’s “Back to the basics” approach. The reason all the “debris and undergrowth” are there is that past writers have found the “core of the character” uninteresting, or at least insufficient. How much of that “debris and undergrowth” came from Simone’s stories? That’s not the most constructive way to talk about a star character — or is he being brutally honest?
SRS
“How much of that “debris and undergrowth” came from Simone’s stories?”
Let’s see….talking gorillas, modernized gods floating in and out without much purpose, Genocide, crossover interference from Amazons Attack, the Heinberg and Picoult abortions, and Blackest Night….seems about evenly matched with forced debris from editorial which had to be excised. The problem is that most of this stuff simply took too long to resolve itself, leaving the title character wildly unfocused much of the time.
“That’s not the most constructive way to talk about a star character — or is he being brutally honest?”
Who knows at this point? Perhaps he’s merely being honest…or simply uncertain himself what to do with the character. God knows too many writers always talk a good game about “core of the character” or such other rubbish and eventually wind up burying said character under yet another layer of useless periphery (see current Superman fare).
Maybe it’s just me, but JMS’s diatribe on Wonder Woman is disturbingly easy to read as sexual innuendo.
I think it’s time to just give up on Wonder Woman. She’s a great license for toys, clothing, etc, but I don’t think the direct market audience left is looking to read run of the mill Wonder Woman stories. If someone like Grant Morrison wants to give it a spin and do something new with the IP, cool, but it seems DC would rather continually try to sell something to the market it doesn’t want.
I love JMS work for the most part, and I know it’s beyond late, but he promised to finish The Twelve. I wonder if that’s been permanently shelved.
getting back to basics = bondage ahoy!
Straczynski talked about THE TWELVE last month, and said this:
Posted using Google Chrome. I had the browser installed months ago, but it never worked. Turned out this week that the problem was due to registry errors that System Mechanic missed, but System Mechanic Professional fixed. If I had a Mac, there wouldn’t have been registry errors, I guess.
SRS
not harping on the individual characters, but honestly, I’m pretty sick about hearing of the phrase, ‘holy trinity’ in reference to Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.
I don’t care how they work together, I just want good stories with them involved.
Adam Hughes is currently working on his “All-Star Wonder Woman” series, I believe. We probably won’t see any of it until the work is much farther along, or maybe even completed. But anyway, that’s the WW story that I’m looking forward to.