Dawn Of DC: Tom King & Daniel Sampere Relaunch Wonder Woman

The Dawn Of DC direction continues to slowly unveil the plans in place for the DC Universe as a whole. At the end of January of this year, we got news of new ongoing titles for Titans, Green Lantern, and Cyborg all coming out later this year in May. Now joining these and other titles under the Dawn Of DC banner with new series for Wonder Woman, Flash, Steelworks, and Hawkgirl.

With Dawn Of DC being such a big direction for DC Comics I am going to dig into each of these new titles. To start off I’m tackling Wonder Woman as the series will reach its 800th issue before relaunching with a new creative team.

Wonder Woman is a franchise that DC Comics is always trying to grow to match the output we see from the Batman and Superman franchises. During the Infinite Frontier Era, we saw that done by elevating Hippolyta to become a Justice League member, Nubia becoming Queen of the Amazons, and Yara Flor debuting as Wonder Girl. That was all done to capture the new momentum Wonder Woman received in the aftermath of Diana leading the heroes in saving the DC Universe from Batman Who Laughs at the end of Dark Nights: Death Metal.

In my reviews for Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad’s run on Wonder Woman, I spoke about how there was potential with how they were integrating other mythologies into the franchise. Where that potential went unfortunately lost me. And while the Trial Of The Amazons crossover event did seem to set up the future for the Wonder Woman franchise that turned out to not be the case. By the end of the Infinite Frontier Era Wonder Woman was back to only having one title and no clear direction for where the franchise would go.

Now with Dawn Of DC, we are getting a better picture of that direction. That starts with June seeing the end of Cloonan and Conrad’s run on coming to an end with the milestone issue of Wonder Woman #800. Even though their Wonder Woman run having a two-year run is something that Cloonan and Conrad can be proud of. They got the time to tell the story they wanted and Wonder Woman #800 is a major milestone issue their finale will certainly get a lot of attention.

After that, we will enter a new era for Wonder Woman as the series will be relaunched with a new creative team of writer Tom King and artist Daniel Sampere. Right away that is an A+ creative team. Daniel Sampere is a stellar artist who showed how amazing his artwork is in Dark Crisis On Infinite Earths. There is no doubt this new Wonder Woman ongoing will look amazing.

Tom King has become a divisive name for some DC Comics fans. Admittedly, I was a big fan of most of King’s run on Batman, though didn’t like how it ended with City of Bane and Batman/Catwoman. While I was more mixed on Batman I’m a big all of King’s work such as Vision, Grayson, Mister Miracle, and Strange Adventures. With the history of so many great comic books, I am very excited for King, along with Sampere on art, to be writing the new Wonder Woman series.

That said, it does appear that King and Sampere will only be focusing on Wonder Woman for at least the start of their run. That is based on the solicitation for Wonder Woman #1 that states:

“After a mysterious Amazonian is accused of mass murder, the U.S. Congress passes The Amazon Safety Act, barring all Amazons from American soil. To carry out its new law, the government sets up the Amazon Extradition Entity (AXE) task force to remove those who don’t comply by any means necessary. In her search for the truth behind the killing, Wonder Woman now finds herself an outlaw in the world she once swore to protect.” – DC.com

With Wonder Woman on the run after the U.S. Congress passes The Amazon Safety Act it does sound like Diana is on her own to start off King and Sampere’s run. Given the scope of The Amazon Safety Act, other characters like Cassandra Sansmark, Donna Troy, and Yara Flor could be brought in. Donna Troy specifically could see a direct impact as she is the only other Amazon appearing in an ongoing title, as a lead over in Titans. Depending on how King and Sampere set up their new Wonder Woman run we could see ties with Titans right away.

That all still leaves the question of what this new direction will mean for the Wonder Woman franchise as a whole. Right now only Batman and Superman have multiple titles under their brand. With how much of an investment DC Comics has made in expanding the Wonder Woman franchise it would be a shame if they tossed that to the side. One idea I would like to see DC Comics do is to have a second Wonder Woman title that is an anthology series starring Diana, Donna, Cassie, Yara, Nubia, and other Amazons. An anthology series would be a great way to build momentum for all the characters in the Wonder Woman franchise, with possible spinoffs if successful.

Whatever the case is Wonder Woman’s fresh new start is exciting in September. We can only hope that this is the beginning of bigger plans DC Comics has for the Wonder Woman franchise as a whole.

Source: DC Comics