@leakywigs said:
@hawk80 said:
Listening to what people want ruined WW in the first place. I say: let the artist do his art, as long as he conforms to what the character should be.
WW will never sell well. She will struggle as always...
PS - I wouldn't have minded some action too. Years have passed until the last good WW fight...
WW could sell well if they sorted out her story. She has sold well before. When New 52 started, her comic did very well. People were interested until about the 4th issue, where there was a dip.
I´m not saying this take doesn´t sound interesting and I appreciate him taking Marston´s philosophy seriously and exploring it, but this could have been a complimentary piece to WW Earth One. Earth One comics have been very good adventure stories. That is what people expect from the line and this is going to hurt the sales of the comic. And instead of blaming the stupid idea of not having it an action adventure they are going to blame ww instead.
I understand your point, but let me show what I believe will happen, action adventure or not.
Option A - WWEO is good: people praise Morrison.
Option B - WWEO is not so good: people blame WW.
Yes, WW could sell, but she won't. Sales will show occasional peaks, but that's all. Sad but true.
WW might not sell, but the Earth One title will. Just like New 52 was the reason behind the rise in WW sales in the first few weeks.
When Perrez and Rucka rebooted wonder woman, reviews were good and sales remained good, because the people who initially picked up the book were happy. Same with sales on WW animated feature, sales were poor at first, but word of mouth spread leading it to becoming one of their highest grossing titles to date. This is a whole egg before the chicken argument. Does WW sell bad because of the state of her comics, or are the state of her comics the result of WW selling bad i.e. writers are lazier on WW because they don´t know her story the way they know Batman and Superman, because of their popularity. I personally think both camps are wrong. WW sells badly because there is no Wonder Woman. Every arch you go to she´s a different character.
So if someone falls in love with one particular WW story, by the time a next writer comes on that WW has all but vanished and they are forced to get used to a wonder woman they are not so fond of. Every writer therefore comes on to her book with the idea they have to figure out who this schizophrenic character is: culminating in comics runs titled "who is Wonder Woman?".
Here´s the truth, no superhero sells comics, and an action hero protagonist is simply a composite of the world they inhabit and the obstacles they face within it. Most of their characteristics are negative, because mostly what they do is react. My point is, it isn´t heroes that sell books, movies, or comics but rather the obstacles they face, the villains, the disasters, the case they are investigating. Look at Hunger Games, why is a female action hero making so much money, when others haven´t? Because the world she inhabits is compelling. Far more compelling than her as a character herself. Wonder Woman needs compelling supervillains, because they sell books. Batman doesn´t sell books, Joker does. Compare sales of Batman books or graphic novels with Joker in it compared to ones with out.
In comics the challenge that readers most enjoy the hero to face, is supervillains. They specifically like Supervillains, who endure and have multiple versions written of them.
Since Earth One is a popular title, it will sell regardless of whomever the hero is, they write an earth one book about. This was a perfect opportunity to showcase wonder woman´s world, to people who otherwise would never have given her a chance. That opportunity clearly has been squandered and once again, we are focusing squarely on the question "Who is Wonder Woman?" What writers don´t understand is that question is answered most succintly, compellingly and eloquently by her villains and the world she inhabits. In the Superhero genre, this has always been the case. Batman as a character is almost completely defined by Gotham City, the police department who are his main allies in his one man war against crime, and the obsession and insanity of the supervillains who test him. Take away all that and Batman is a rather boring and vapid character. Superman is defined by Metropolis, the great city of the future, by the corruption of it´s wealthy Machevellian laviathen Lex Luthor, his collegues at The daily Planet, the worlds most important newspaper and by the Supervillains from the heavens above who have been corrupted by their power, unlike Superman. In Supermans case Clark Kent is a far more compelling character, to root for than the big blue boyscout. So take Superman´s world away from him and what is he? The Man Of Steel movie answered that question for us, a very uninteresting, and rather detestable character. If anything, considering how lacking the elements have been in Wonder Woman´s story, it is quite remarkable her sales have remained as high as they are. She has not one compelling villain that trully defines her mission, she has NO supporting cast whatsoever (apart from maybe Steve Trevor and Hippolyta), no world, no job, no focus, no nothing. How can people like her, she´s at best a vapìd and vague projection of what writers believe female strength is, mixed with traces of adolescent boy sex fantasies and at worst a sollipsistic cypher endlessly trying to gain form, before being smashed to bits all over again; no popular comic character to my recollection has been deconstructed, dismantled and violated with quite so much gusto over the years as wonder woman.
This comes to my point when people focus too much of a story on the hero, what we come to realise, is the hero is not all that interesting, and then we start to believe that our hero needs changing, but it´s never the hero, it almost always their world that is the problem, because until you give the hero a complete world, we will never be able to define them. Without an obstacle to face that will help define them, a hero´s soul is ripped out from their chest; they need a compelling ying to their yang, or a devastated world they must somehow survive, or a love interest they must acquire despite the heavy obstacles put in the way of blocking them from realising their love.
My point to all this is, Wonder Woman would be better off if people stopped focusing on "her" and started focusing on her world. She´s fine, or she wouldn´t have endured. She´s majorly iconic and the little people know of her they like. But until DC gives her that villain that captures the imagination of the readers, she will always fail to reach her potential. She needs that villain is who when plasted across the cover of her comics, readers recognise and know okay some cool shit is going down. WW Earth One, as a brand, could have sold the world that villain. Just like hopefully her movie will.
Build her world and make it present her with obstacles that will interest comic readers, like great villains, enduring love interests, a colorful cast of supporting players who also have issues, then people will get invested in the character because they are invested in the world. Will she ever sell more than Batman. Probably not. But that is because 75 years, she´s been treated like a secondary citzen in her own universe by DC comics, compared to the big two, but she could sell a hell of a lot more than she is selling now, if they stop reinventing her and her world every single time a new writer comes on. Take what has worked in past and with other popular superheroes and streamline her mythos, so it becomes one identifiable and compelling story.
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