Just anticipating how we’ll be referring to this run many years in the future. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
The squee-riffic news that Gail Simone has landed the big WW comes shortly on the heels of the equally shocking and less pleasant news that she is leaving Birds of Prey. The unfortunate reality is that there are very few big name women writing superhero comics today, so the number of big time superwomen’s books being written by women is going to be unnaturally constrained. Simone is also writing Atom, Tranquility, and Gen13, so something big like BoP had to go to make room for WW (and given the new writer, I think BoP can handle the loss a lot better than the others). Doesn’t make me any less sad about it. Simone and many fans seem to have a lot of confidence in BoP’s new writer Sean McKeever, which makes me hopeful. Change is always discomforting, but especially so in comics where artistic quality is terribly uneven, editorial decisions highly erratic, and gender balance nonexistent.
Gail Simone on Wonder Woman is one of those ridiculously obvious things that your gut tells you is so right, that you just know it will never happen.
As an aside, isn’t it strange how some of the best Wonder Woman character design can be found on early 80′s merchandise?
It will be a relief to no longer have a revolving door of writers on Wonder Woman and I have hope that she will finally get the attention that Batman and Superman have.
I don’t know much of Gail Simone’s writing other than the positive reaction I’ve read on the ‘net, but I like how Sean McKeever writes the female characters in Spiderman Loves Mary Jane, so I don’t think readers of BoP will be disappointed(though I grant that writing teenagers doesn’t mean you can write women).
Now, if we can just find someone to fix Supergirl…*wink*
“I have hope that she will finally get the attention that Batman and Superman have”
Agreed. This is an important point.
Spiderman Loves Mary Jane is where McKeever’s proven himself, yes. He’s got some big shoes to fill, that’s for sure. I’m rather nervous that he doesn’t actually know the DC universe all that well (Newsarama).
I was a fan of McKeever’s run on Mystique and I definitely hope that he writes BoP more like that than Spiderman Loves Mary Jane, these are grown women after all. But I think it is very sad that there is only one prominent female writer right now. Supergirl is suffering terribly at the moment for the lack of a female writer. I am not saying of course that girls only want to read chick-lit, far from it I love a good JLA showdown as much ad the next gal. I am just thinking that if they truly want to market titles like Wonder Women, Supergirl and Birds of Prey to young female audiences why can’t they find someone who used to be a young female?
i’m so HAPPY that Gail will be writing Wonder Woman! :D
finally, a stable/long term writer for WW.
Wndola:
I originally wrote “only one big name woman writer” but amended that because I thought I had to be exaggerating. Turns I wasn’t so far off when it comes to DC.
I went thru the list of DC comics for this month and found only ONE other woman writing: Jennifer Moore on CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #32. Over at Marvel I found Barb-Lien Cooper (Half Dead), Robin Furth (Dark Tower), Tamora Pierce (White Tiger), Laurell K. Hamilton & Stacie M. Ritchie (Anita Blake). Total Marvel comics (not counting reprints) for April: 74. Total DC comics: 60, plus Vertigo (12) and Wildstorm (14, including 2 which Simone also writes). Isn’t that nuts?! I didn’t look closely at artists, but it’s also pretty grim.
Jennifer Moore – Let’s hope they keep grooming her.
Barb-Lien Cooper – Co-Writing with her husband (better than ghost writing with her husband I suppose)
Tamora Pierce – This is a step in the right direction. She is a writer of novels for younger readers, but she seems to be truly interested in comics writing and best of all Marvel courted her. For all my frustration with how things have been being handled by them lately this was nice to see. Sadly though sales of white tiger have failed to crack the top 100 ranging from a premiere at position 110 to 126 on Issue 2, 134 on issue 3 and 130 on issue 4. We will have to see if they do a trade and how that sells.
Robin Furth (Adaptation of a Novel) – Is adapting Dark Tower because she has been working for Stephen King since 2000… maybe she can be turned but I doubt Marvel would pay her more than King.
Laurell K. Hamilton (Wrote Original Novels) – Is the author of the Anita Blake Novels and has Stacie M. Ritchie adapting for her.
Stacie M. Ritchie (Adaptation of a Novel) – Is doing an adaptation. I wonder how interested she would be in doing other titles.
It’s grim indeed. Now in the indie market there are several. Why they are not being properly courted is probably something I need to do more research on before commenting on, but I find it hard to believe there aren’t more out there.
Good breakdown. I noticed while I was doing this that most of the women are writing adaptations of one sort or another, which is kind of weird. Also, I kept seeing the same male names popping up again and again, including plenty I do not think warrent it.
Fiona Avery is another who seems to be active, at least thru 2005.
Then there’s the women who seem to have disappeared off the superhero comics scene, like Devin Grayson, Barbara Kesel (who was involved in CrossGen in a big way before it imploded), and Louise Simonson (who was writing for ibooks Inc in 2006, and has a one-shot coming out this year for Marvel).
“Now in the indie market there are several. Why they are not being properly courted is probably something I need to do more research on before commenting on, but I find it hard to believe there aren’t more out there.”
I know there are, no doubt about that. Wikipedia has a partial list – but it’s hard to find those names working today (in superhero comics). And speaking of courting the indie market: DC had no problem finding male writers from the indie market for their purportedly female-targeted Minx line. Makes you think, doesn’t it.
Oh I forgot about Barbara Kesel’s Meridian. That was a sweet book and very much a book that appealed to the young female audience. I so miss Crossgen. There was a lot of potential there.