Interview- Tomasi on SM/WW

"I want to stare hard into the heart of both of these characters and their true love and see what that love means to us, the DC Universe and the people of Earth," Tomasi says. "Does it pose a danger or a threat? If two people like that are together and in love, where is the drama in that, and what repercussions does it have?"

Over in Superman/Wonder Woman, though, a mysterious crew of bad guys is ascending upon the world, beginning with the reintroduction of Atomic Skulland Major Disaster. Those two fit into a major scheme that will pique fans' interest, according to Tomasi.

"Something wicked this way comes," he says. "It's really the initial salvo, and we'll see these characters are the shock troops — they're hitting the front line first, and there's a lot bigger stuff behind them."

Although he's getting free reign in terms of supporting villains, it's the two heroes in the title who really brought Tomasi on board: "They're two obviously headstrong characters, physically strong characters and characters who have very strong opinions on how the world should work."

He wants to continue what previous writer Charles Soule started and explore the external and internal forces that push and pull on their relationship. Tomasi feels he can go close to the fire with Superman and Wonder Woman and push their buttons romantically, emotionally and physically, more so than with other characters.

With so many love affairs in movies and TV for inspiration, from Dave and Maddie ofMoonlighting to Nick and Norah of Infinite Playlist fame, "there'll be little bits of all the classic romantic characters coming out probably in some small way through these two big icons," he says.

Their distinctive upbringings — Clark Kent's Midwestern childhood growing up inSmallville, and Diana being raised in a community devoid of men — also will play a large role in their love for each other and conflict between them, not to mention the fact that Wonder Woman is pretty much a god of war now.

That was Tomasi's way in, he says, to really think about where they would be at this point in their lives and how they would deal with the opposite sex and their moral values.

"I don't want to write 22 pages of them staring into each other's eyes with them going, 'Oh, I love you, Supes!' 'I love you, Wonder Woman!' I really want to shake it up," he adds.

"It's not strong love if it's not tested. Anything with two hearts in mind, if they're not put at odds or built through hardships and tough times, I don't think they're real relationships."

Link-http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2014/08/15/peter-tomasi-superman-wonder-woman-comic-book-exclusive/14097389/

I like the tone of Tomasi's interviews, the way he talks about Wonder Woman's upbringing in Themyscira and the influence it must've had on her personality which Soule pretended to touch upon but grossly overlooked, is quite reassuring. At the same time he will not wanna lose the philistine following that Soule and Daniel marshalled

Soule Superman/Wonder Woman fail to utilise Zod and Faora in my opinion. After all during that run Zod and Faora get some popularity from Man of Steel movie. You can't deny that due to that movie, Faora have become well known so Soule should use Faora alot better during his run on Superman/Wonder Woman. Also just suggestion, how awesome it is if Darkseid and Granny Goodness choose Faora as the new leader of Female Furies

@papinacho: BM/WW is even dumber than this. She is not another Leaguer's piece of ass.

Soule and Daniel revealed straight away they would base the relationship around the Twilight Saga, obviously it raised flags. Then they backpedaled because there was a backlash. Initially, Zod and Faora were gonna hurt Wonder Woman and Superman was gonna save "his woman" but upon the release of that solicitation that apparently has been expunged from the internet, people went ballistic so they fixed it. Soule tried many things and failed because he's not as good as people give him credit for

We get that you don't like Soule, the relationship, or the book, but stop making up stuff.

Soules run was great. In my opinion he gave us a much more accurate portrayal of Diana's personality the Azz has done through the majority of his run. I went into the comic thinking a Superman & Wonder Woman relationship was the stupidest thing ever, but he made it believable, and actually made me like them together. He also did great touching on the Amazon culture especially given that he was working with a time when there were no other Amazons. He made her look at lot stronger then she has in the solo book, and by my count she's saved Superman's ass way more times then he's saved her.

It's a shame to see his run being cut short especially with half of it being sucked up by some big crossover event. I just hope Tomasi can do as good of a job as his predecessor did.

No, he gave us her personality in the perspective of being Superman's girlfriend.

Yes they are dating. That inevitably is going to be a big part of the comic no matter what. He still did a fantastic job of writing her. Far better then Azzarello imo. Maybe you just hate the pairing so much that you can't look past it to see the quality of the writing. I'll admit that a lot of the major changes Azz has made to the character, and her backstore have probably tainted my ability to enjoy his run for what it is. Ultimately we are both entitled to our opinions though.

As far as I am concerned, the only really good thing Soule did was to provide the Superman-like feats that some WW fans were baying about as missing from her own book. He couldn't write Apollo as Apollo, he couldn't write Strife as Strife. And so far I haven't seen one instance of him managing Diana either, because she's ended up as somekind of in-between version of Azzarello's Diana and Johns' raging barbarian.

But you are right, I do despise the pairing.

I think it is a testament to how bad Soule was when neither Wonder Woman nor Superman fans thought he wrote either very well.

Superman was a sorry @$$ b!tch in SM/WW.

Yeah it was Daniel but he spoke on behalf of the team and the things he said were obviously ideas they discussed between them. They have to be mindful that Wonder Woman is a an Amazon but the way Soule addressed her foreignness was he had Wonder Woman act clueless

Tomasi will control the trinity... :P

I'm liking his plans! I mean that's the real deal, he wants to test their love. Like where would their romance would lead them to? I'm guessing he's going to make it more bigger than ever.

Yeah the book in general seemed as though it was written by somebody stupid so I have a sneaking suspicion Daniel had some kind of involvement.

This is really the biggest bone I have to pick with this book: Why does this book have to revolve around their romance? Batman/Superman gets along fine without it revolving around the two's friendship (or lack thereof). Same with PG/Huntress in Worlds Finest. So why does a man/woman teamup superhero book have to feature couples? Can't the two genders work together without something like that?

it doesn't, at least not until the basis of their relationship is fully explored. the whole reason the book exists was to explore this particular dynamic, but once it's been covered in full, the book could easily continue as a regular team up book.

any way, as long tomasi doesn't repeat the same mistakes soule did by allowing the book to crossover, and actually explore wonder womans mythos more, i'm game. i love the pairing but even i can attest to some of the shortcomings with the previous team.

not directed at you, but saying most smww shippers can't form coherrent sentences is a bit redundant. shipping in general does that to people. let's not pretend that any other ship is devoid of this.

It doesn't generally mean that the continuation of the comic would revolve around pure romance as in there goes the sweet gestures, the kiss, saving the world from threat then go back cuddling or whatever. I'm pertaining to the hindrance, the drama, the other villains that come in their way of teaming up. What's gonna be like if they break up? Yes, they could work together without them featuring Superman/Wonder Woman as couples but that's where they've been lead to and that's what Tomasi will do. Continue the concept of them being "lovers" but he'll shake it up and put them through the thick and thin.

That is where you are horribly wrong. All of those titels deal with the bonds to two power players play in those books. Hence both names being in the title. How you missed something that obvious shows a very biased and blind sighted view on comic books and story telling.

Nothing in the title Superman/Wonder Woman carries the mandate of the two having to be in a relationship with each other. So perhaps it's just you thats blind.

I said bonds. And since the book of SM/WW exists because of the relationship that pretty much makes your rant about it pointless.

The relationship didn't need to exist in the first place for this book to be on the selves.

^It did because WOnder Woman needs some elevation in her books if she wants to be interesting again, same with Superman. Batman is kicking there asses being one who to this day became the go to hero for dc because he was a mere man and mortal who beat gods, dated goddesses, and stopped primeval death beings. Superman and Wonder Woman being a item is on par with that apparently since both are the the defacto main protagonists of supers amongst men and women.

Again the book exists because the success of the relationship got more attention and so the series with just them was made.

What success? Johns made it appear out of nowhere, it barely had any run time at all before this book was announced. It would have been far better if this book had existed first and then built an actual relationship between them before maturing into a coupling.

while i agree there, it's grown past that IMO. and it will continue to do so under tomasi who plans to test it. as for it being a sucess, i think the fact that it got a book in the first place should disprove the any notion otherwise, or that that book has been recieving good reception both in sales and reviews for the most part albeit with some hiccups via doomed

I wouldn't say so, it's just raced past it and just depended on the readers to imagine the glue that's keeping these two together.

Hopefully he gives the relationship some actual meat to test.

It was a sales gimmick, selling stuff is what they do. As for reviews... depends on who you ask, I see quite a few primarily WW fans who aren't at all pleased it's her that's getting hammered so Superman can swoop in a save the day.

the initial development? yup. the development of maintaining the relationship? nope

agreed

idk, think of how many pairings have a viable enough audience and following to get their own book, not many. and i saw ww saving clark just(see zod and faora) as much so yeah it depends on the reader

I am more thinking about how all the potential team-up books that never get the chance because some accountant won't risk it. You think we could get something like the Green Arrow/Green Lantern book today?

And the Zod/Faora is pretty much Diana's lone shining moment, everything else is Superman. The most recent example I can think of is the Doomed conclusion, Diana beats Mongul amongst others in the Phantom Zone, but that fight apparently wasn't worth depicting other than showing it's conclusion while Superman was off doing something else.

yeah depends on whether or not you've got your rose coloured glasses on.

was it a balanced showing? nope. was ww made a weakling compared to supes? nope. her holding her own against two kryptos at once and beating mongol proves this

well dc seems more open about directions now thanks to harley and babsgirl.

i was pissed about that. she actually beats mongol(don't think pre-52 ww ever did this) and it gets cut short. but then i calm down when i realize that feat is more significant then anything in her own book(no offense to basedazz, he still has a chance to have ww whip FB's ass in hs last issue)

I am not so sure about that considering they got Jimmy and Amanda to do it which is kinda like getting Johns to do anything, it will sell regardless of what it is, but HQ rightly is a good book and I do agree it's that books fault that we now have a new lighter Batgirl and maybe Teen Titans.

I honestly doubt the First Born is just going to get his ass handed to him in a fashion that makes it look easy, Azzarello has spent far too long on this book to just send him off in that fasion. That said, if the First Born survives (which I doubt), seeing him pitted against other characters might be entertaining.

not necessarily easy, just a decisive win for diana against the big bad in her own book is all i ask for. no orion or others butting in please. i too would love to see FB as a recurring rogue, knowing fully well he wont

I recall him mentioning he didn't think she had any really good ones. But I dont honestly believe that would stop him from killing him, he might still be a great bad guy, but he just happened to die before everyone got tired of him (unlike say Doomsday). Wouldn't put it past DC however to bring him back... like they just did with Damian.

Actually I think it would be a bit anti-climatic if FB didn't have to fight off people other than Diana. Going 1on1 is all fine, but thats really Superman's way of doing things, Azzarello has made it Diana's thing to make people work together, even if they normally wouldn't be in the same room as one another.

That said, Orion and several of the others are already KO'ed, so I expect them to remain down till the aftermath.

her being superman tier is exactly why i'm hoping for a 1v1, i understand it's not the way azz does things but he's unintentionally downplaying her ability. and it the final face of between her and FB seems more climatic to me.

Considering you dont know what FB would do to someone like Superman if they got into a fight, I can't really agree with the notion of downplaying anything.

Because they are dating. If they were married there would be no romance

And they could just be collaborating, a revolutionary thought, I know.

giving him an uninterupted 1v1 with someone on par with supes would give me a rough estimate.

The First Born ranks among skyfather-level characters imo, he's the one predestined to slay his father Zeus which he would've done the old fashioned way. Even if he does die, they can always bail him out of Hell

From what he's done already should give you a better than rough estimate.

I'll be reading it. Can't wait!