Superman and Wonder Woman Sitting in a Tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
Long the fodder of Elseworlds tales and creepy fan fiction, DC Comics has decided to go ahead with an in-canon, for realsies, kissing and everything relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman. This is the New 52 people, you’re living in it!
But speaking as a longtime comic book reader and occasional curmudgeon, I am absolutely, 100% in favor of this hook-up.
I think new romantic relationships between classic superheroes is a good thing. It’s new, it’s exciting and it’s much better than just resting on the old, classic, long-boring relationships. Superman and Lois Lane? Please. Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson? Been there, done that. Gambit and Rogue? Sayonara, Sugah!
Give me Superman and Wonder Woman. I want to read about Iceman and Kitty Pryde. And, most especially, I want Spider-Man and Captain Marvel!
The absolute worst thing that DC could do instead would be to create a brand new love interest for either Superman or Wonder Woman. Just look at Carlie Cooper in Spider-Man comics. She was created for the sole purpose of eventually becoming Peter Parker’s new girlfriend. Whatever stories the writers tried to give her, like being a police investigator, were just window dressing for her eventual existence as Peter Parker’s girlfriend. There was no drama. No ‘will they/won’t they’ playfulness. When a new female character is created solely for a relationship – or male character, for that matter – it’s just so fun to read.
This, however, will be fun to read. Wonder Woman is not beholden to Superman. She’s not around just to be his girlfriend. She had a lot going on right now. In fact, her comic series is a lot better and much more critically acclaimed than Superman’s title. He’s the one in dire straits here. So I, for one, want to see where this relationship goes. It’s going to debut next week in Justice League #12. I think it has a lot of potential.
What do you guys think? I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments!
Posted on August 23, 2012, in Comics, DC, Superman and tagged Justice League, Wonder Woman. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
Henchman-4-Hire 
I really liked this. Many people are upset because they prefer her with Batman, but it never seemed so right to me (also, I ship Batman and Catwoman lol). In many stories, the dynamics between Superman and Wonder Woman were more natural and subtle, everytime Lois wasn’t around or involved, Diana was the main love interest to Clark… I don’t know, but it has always seemed to me that DC wanted to establish this couple, but they couldn’t because the relashionship between Super and Lois is (in fact, was) very iconic. Not only in Kingdom Come, The Dark Knight Returns II or Action Comics #600, but also one story that Super and WW go to Asgard and stay there fighting for a thousand years…The amount of stories where she shows her feelings , even if in a very subtle way, is quite large.
I just hope, really, that this goes beyond Justice League, it would be very interesting to see it in their solo titles.
That was one issue I didn’t bring up, but the Wonder Woman solo title doesn’t seem like it would fit with this new adjustment. But then I haven’t really felt the Wonder Woman from her solo title is much of anything like the Wonder Woman from Justice League. The guy writing Wonder Woman seems to have this whole new mindset in place for Diana, whereas Geoff Johns is just writing the normal superhero Wonder Woman over in Justice League. But we’ll see. I’m sure DC is going to really get behind this and do everything they can with it, which is entirely the point of such a new idea.
I ship Bats and Cats too ;P And I love the fresh spin they are taking with this pairing of superheroes
What DC has done to the Superman character since the 52s is criminal. I think the re-imagination has been trying to recreate the draw of Batman.
That statement aside and pertaining to this issue I don’t think it works out. Everything Hollywood has shown us has said powercouples don’t work, scientific research has proven that this transitions into the comic worlds as well. (total jackass sarcasm)
I agree about messing up Superman. I was planning to write a post once about the weird things Grant Morrison has done with the character in Action Comics, and I haven’t even been reading the character in Superman. But the post just got long and rambling. DC had this perfect opportunity to re-empower Superman, but they’ve totally blown it! I don’t remember the writer or artist’s name, but he was on the Superman book at the start of the New 52, but he quickly quit and went online talking about just how wonky and insane the editorial offices have become at DC. The writer apparently has very little say in crafting the character. It’s all about what the editors want, or a different editor wants, or what the TV people at Warner Bros. want or what the movie people want. All these different voices trying to create the rebooted Superman have turned him into a sour grape.
The phrase ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ exists for a reason.
damn shame. I had no idea about the whistleblower I will have to hunt that down and do some reading.
Supes has just been too cynical and arrogant IMO. I can handle the costume change, the love interests but don’t mess with the moral of the character.
Batman (entire Gotham line) has been phenomenal writing since the 52s began.
I still think this is some ridiculous DC storyline that is going to conclude soon.
I did a little research, and the departing writer was George Perez. Just Google ‘george perez leaves Superman’ and I think you can find a variety of articles about it. Rob Liefeld also just left DC and has had a lot to say about the crappy work conditions.
And you’re not alone in thinking that about the New 52. My girlfriend is patiently awaiting the day that the old continuity comes back and she can return to reading DC Comics.
Jim Lee left Justice League, and a lot of bloggers think it’s because he’s going to work on an old series DC is planning to relaunch, WildC.A.T.S.. It was him who created this series, exactly 20 years ago.
If you have an A-list artist, you give him an A-list series: WildC.A.T.S. would be a C-list one, so, in a normal situation, Jim Lee working on it is pure nonsense.
But maybe in this case Jim Lee sticked obstinately to this project because he wants to bring his old series back to life, and DC decided to indulge his whim because otherwise their working relationship would have gone really uptight, and it would have ended as soon as possible. Jim Lee on a C-list title is better than Jim Lee on a Marvel title, DC thought.
I hope Jim Lee won’t write WildC.A.T.S.: he’s an awesome penciller and he’s very skilled with creating characters (think about Grifter, for example), but his 90s stories were boring as all hell. Since then he always worked with the most talented writers, so maybe he learned something from them and got better, but I don’t think so: writing well is a talent, not a technique, so you can’t learn it from anybody, no matter how good your teacher is. Good writers are born, not made.
But maybe all this hype about Jim Lee working on WildC.A.T.S. will be proved wrong: perhaps Jim Lee doesn’t want to slip back (especially now that he’s at the top of his career), no matter how fond he is of WildC.A.T.S., and perhaps DC never thought to bring WildC.A.T.S. back to life. Only time will tell.
If Dan Slott was working on this title, Superman and Wonder Woman would never happen on his watch. Just be glad that he’s not working for DC Comics because Superman is one of his favorite comics.
But I like the idea of seeing Peter Parker not being in a committed relationship, post-OMD after MJ broke up with him. It would have been nice to see Peter’s relationship with Betty Brant and Liz Allan get some development during the past 5 years while Mary Jane was on hiatus. This is the angle that I wanted to see. In addition, I wanted to see Peter Parker dating a super heroine like Black Widow, Jeniffer Walters, Jessica Drew, and Betsy Braddock in addition to Carol Danvers on the Pals level respectively because I feel that those types of close friendship would open doors to the types of stories that we have seen in Spider-Man’s world.
It’s too bad that Dan Slott is not interested with developing those types of stories as it doesn’t have to lead to a committed relationship. It would be an interesting alternate to the Black Cat as Spidey’s partner in a story arc. So far, we have only seen Peter Parker and Carol Danvers. It would be nice to see it expand towards the other heroines I have mentioned because if they got to know Peter Parker instead of his Spider-Man ego, they would learn to tolerate him because they would realize that he’s just like them as far as personal experience and character are concerned.
It depends on the writer and how they would approach that relationship. But it would be best to see a relationship potentially grow from a mutual/pals type level into the serious committed option over a long period of time as it has with Mary Jane. Just look at how Peter’s relationship with Black Cat evolved over a long period of time during the latter part of the Pre-OMD era. She began to realize that breaking up with(not to mention betraying) Peter Parker was the worst mistake she ever made.
Spider-Man’s relationship with a heroine could work as long as the writers don’t turn it into a serious relationship as that would restrict the character’s ability to develop his mutual relationship with a few other heroines who might be interested in him. The reason why I felt that heroines like She-Hulk, Black Widow, Silver Sable, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, and Psylocke would work around Spider-Man/Peter Parker is because it gives the Spider-Man writers the opportunity to use one of them as an alternate to the Black Cat. And the six heroines that I have talked about would fit into that role. The difference is that they would know that Spidey is Peter Parker, and that would be the side that attracts their interest respectively. As long as the relationship is not rushed in any way, the readers would come to accept it as it would provide the sorts of stories that we do not see in Spider-Man’s world.