My thoughts on the Wonder Woman reboot with JMS
Boy ... haven't written on my blog since January.
Ok, here is the deal. I love Wondy. I have loved everything about her for a long time.
Yet, I like this look, I like this direction and I think it is desperately needed. As someone who writes for and about comics, the writing has been on the wall for Wondy for a while now.
I loved Gail's writing, I love every artist she worked with on Wondy. But honestly, for almost a decade Wonder Woman has been losing readers. Whether *you* liked the story is not the point. The point is, DC saw themselves losing almost 1000 readers a month, consistently. From the height where Gail Simone came on, the book gradually lost the fan base. The fans, for whatever reason, just weren't connecting with the best the book has been in a long time. What does that say?
This change is not about long time comic fans. This is not about fanboi's who will sit at the shop and tell you the entire history of the character and how John Byrne's interpretation was better than this, and George Perez's art was better than that. This is a move by a company, and an industry, to try to capture a tiny bit of the marketplace currently *owned* by manga. They want new, young, female fans of Wonder Woman. For the last 10 years, in the midst of mismanagement of the property, poor editorial direction, awful launches, and a number of other factors, there was fantastic stories that simply didn't sell. Their icon - their defining female image for the company - couldn't maintain a consistent readership for over a DECADE. When you consider that, and the number of other titles that have managed to change and grow in that time (despite a general drop in comic reading audiences) - that is pretty sad.
Honestly - DC is looking at 23% marketshare at the moment. They are behind the combined weight of Indy books now, and way behind Marvel. They *must* try something - anything - to find new fans. The reboots of longtime characters back to their roots are perhaps the only thing left to try. After two Crises, neither of which managed to get the universe to a point where readers could jump on, so they are rebooting their franchises one at a time. Green Lantern was first and was a success, then the Flash (which had not one, but two false starts), now Bruce Wayne, Diana, Green Arrow and soon Hawkman, the Atom and Martian Manhunter - they are trying to give new readers a chance to get into their characters and actual evolve them the way Marvel has done with their stock of characters.
Interestingly, on the note of the costume and how much people hate it, you can search for the information about the release of Thor and the first comic image that was released. Everyone decried it as a crime against nature and comics. And a large number compared it to the 1990s with overly detailed figures.
Guess which one is going to be in the new movie? Guess which one is now the mainstay in the universe?
That's right ... the one that came in under JMS's run.
I honestly hope this works, wherever Wondy ends up in the end. This franchise is at the point where I'm seriously worried that Diana will not have a regular book and not be around for my daughter to read when she grows up. Given his history, even with his missteps, I'm willing to give JMS a chance to show me a new Wonder Woman after all of this time.
Ok, here is the deal. I love Wondy. I have loved everything about her for a long time.
Yet, I like this look, I like this direction and I think it is desperately needed. As someone who writes for and about comics, the writing has been on the wall for Wondy for a while now.
I loved Gail's writing, I love every artist she worked with on Wondy. But honestly, for almost a decade Wonder Woman has been losing readers. Whether *you* liked the story is not the point. The point is, DC saw themselves losing almost 1000 readers a month, consistently. From the height where Gail Simone came on, the book gradually lost the fan base. The fans, for whatever reason, just weren't connecting with the best the book has been in a long time. What does that say?
This change is not about long time comic fans. This is not about fanboi's who will sit at the shop and tell you the entire history of the character and how John Byrne's interpretation was better than this, and George Perez's art was better than that. This is a move by a company, and an industry, to try to capture a tiny bit of the marketplace currently *owned* by manga. They want new, young, female fans of Wonder Woman. For the last 10 years, in the midst of mismanagement of the property, poor editorial direction, awful launches, and a number of other factors, there was fantastic stories that simply didn't sell. Their icon - their defining female image for the company - couldn't maintain a consistent readership for over a DECADE. When you consider that, and the number of other titles that have managed to change and grow in that time (despite a general drop in comic reading audiences) - that is pretty sad.
Honestly - DC is looking at 23% marketshare at the moment. They are behind the combined weight of Indy books now, and way behind Marvel. They *must* try something - anything - to find new fans. The reboots of longtime characters back to their roots are perhaps the only thing left to try. After two Crises, neither of which managed to get the universe to a point where readers could jump on, so they are rebooting their franchises one at a time. Green Lantern was first and was a success, then the Flash (which had not one, but two false starts), now Bruce Wayne, Diana, Green Arrow and soon Hawkman, the Atom and Martian Manhunter - they are trying to give new readers a chance to get into their characters and actual evolve them the way Marvel has done with their stock of characters.
Interestingly, on the note of the costume and how much people hate it, you can search for the information about the release of Thor and the first comic image that was released. Everyone decried it as a crime against nature and comics. And a large number compared it to the 1990s with overly detailed figures.
Guess which one is going to be in the new movie? Guess which one is now the mainstay in the universe?
That's right ... the one that came in under JMS's run.
I honestly hope this works, wherever Wondy ends up in the end. This franchise is at the point where I'm seriously worried that Diana will not have a regular book and not be around for my daughter to read when she grows up. Given his history, even with his missteps, I'm willing to give JMS a chance to show me a new Wonder Woman after all of this time.