At the Fandomentals, we’ve been a little disappointed in the recent Wonder Woman run. Back in ye olde days of Wonder Woman, Diana famously lost her powers whenever her bracelets were bound or chained by a man. When so bound, an Amazon became “as powerless as any other woman in the man-ruled world.” While she eventually (and thankfully) lost this weakness as years have gone by, in a meta sense she never really seemed to escape the “woman in a man-ruled world” problem. Even as “Wondy” became DC’s most successful on-screen character yet, she continued to struggle on the comics rack (see our issues with recent Wonder Woman above). But let’s back up and take a look at the long and very male history of Wonder Woman writers.
Since 1941, only four other women have written for the iconic hero. That’s right, for seventy-six years, DC’s star heroine and feminist icon has largely been in the hands of men. Despite the integral part women played in the creation of Wonder Woman, it took ages for a woman to actually write for the hero. Novelist Jodi Picoult was the first woman take up the pen in 2007 for a five-issue run. Legendary writer Gail Simone took over soon after and helped steer Diana through Final Crisis, Blackest Night, and her 600th issue in 2010. It’d be five more years before Meredith Finch, with her husband David on art duties, took over in 2015…just in time for DC to overhaul the whole book. Shea Fontana’s run was even shorter, a five-issue filler run sandwiched between Rucka and Robinson. Those are truly tragic numbers for, bar-none, the highest profile woman in comics. Even recently, as Patty Jenkins takes the hero to new heights on the silver screen, Wonder Woman flounders in the hands of James Robinson (again, see our numerous problems with his run above). However, this fall, DC might finally let Diana break her chains.
In a major coup, it’s been announced that Kamala Khan creator G. Willow Wilson will return to DC to take over writing duties for Wonder Woman this fall. Wonder Woman’s new scribe G. Willow Wilson cut her teeth with Marvel’s “distinguished competition.” Her first titles were under the Vertigo imprint. There, she published her debut, Cairo, and wrote her first ongoing series, Air. She would later move to the flagship brand and write for Superman, The Outsiders, and Vixen. But her next work, with DC’s rivals, would help change the face of comics.
Wilson jumped at the chance to help create a new Ms. Marvel. In 2014, she worked with editor Sana Amanat on crafting the details of a character that was inevitable to cause controversy. That series ended up becoming one of the most successful debuts in modern comics. Willow’s work on Ms. Marvel earned her a Hugo and a Dragon, plus Eisner and Harvey nominations. She would also later create A-Force, Marvel’s first all-female Avengers squad.
Wilson will be joined on the new Wonder Woman book by Cary Nord (Conan, The Unexpected). The two will have to pick up the pieces from James Robinson, who seemed hell-bent on making the book focus on everyone but the title character. The new run, to begin Nov. 14, will be titled “The Just War” and put Diana front-and-center as she battles Ares yet again. As a bonus, Wilson will be on the book as things ramp up for Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman 1984. It seems like finally, finally, Wonder Woman is back in the hands of those with whom she feels most comfortable: women.
